露比·考尔

Rupi Kaur

生卒: 1992 年 10 月 4 日
出生地: 旁遮普邦
国籍 / 所属: 加拿大
身份: 作家、诗人、插画家、代书、素描家
代表作: The Sun and Her Flowers、Milk and Honey
宗教: 锡克教
就读: 滑铁卢大学、Turner Fenton Secondary School
领域: 诗歌、illustration、行为艺术作品、creative and professional writing
简述: Canadian poet

Rupi Kaur (Punjabi: ਰੂਪੀ ਕੌਰ; born 4 October 1992) is an Indian-Canadian poet, illustrator, photographer, and author. Born in Punjab, India, Kaur immigrated to Canada at a young age with her family. She began performing poetry in 2009 and rose to fame on Instagram, eventually becoming a popular poet through her three collections of poetry.

In March 2015, Kaur posted a series of photographs to Instagram depicting herself with menstrual blood stains on her clothing and bedsheets. The photographs were taken as part of a visual rhetoric course at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Instagram removed the images, in response to which Kaur wrote a viral critique of the company's actions. As a result of the incident, Kaur's poetry gained more traction and her initially self-published debut poetry collection, Milk and Honey (2014), was reprinted by Andrews McMeel Publishing to widespread commercial success. Considered to be at the forefront of the "Instapoetry" style, Kaur's work is simplistic in language and explores South Asian identity, immigration, and femininity. Her childhood and personal life serve as sources of inspiration. Line drawings accompany her poetry with stark subject matter.

After the success of Milk and Honey, Kaur describes struggling throughout the creation of her second collection, The Sun and Her Flowers (2017). Her third collection, Home Body (2020), is influenced by a desire to feel less pressure for commercial success and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kaur has a large social media following, particularly on Instagram. Since its release in 2014, her collection Milk and Honey has sold over 11 million copies and has been translated into 43 languages.……

详细介绍

Early life

Kaur was born into a Sikh family in Punjab, India, on 4 October 1992. At age three, she immigrated to Canada with her parents. Her father had left and was not present for Kaur's birth. Due to financial instability, he would send back supplies suitable for Kaur and her upbringing. She lived with her parents and three younger siblings in a one-bedroom basement flat, where they slept in the same bed. Her family eventually settled in Brampton, Ontario, alongside a large South Asian diaspora community, while Kaur's father worked as a truck driver.

Education

Kaur attended Turner Fenton Secondary School in Brampton, Ontario, Canada, where she began to explore creative writing and poetry. After high school, she pursued a degree at the University of Waterloo, majoring in rhetoric and professional writing. She taught creative-writing classes for high school and college students. When studying poetry, she said that she would "agonize over each and every word."

Career

Early work (2009–2013)

Kaur first began performing poetry in 2009. Although she found spoken-word poetry "really natural", describing her first show as "Like a damn hug", she'd fidget with the paper above her face, leaving before audiences clapped due to her anxiety. Her poetry at first received a lukewarm reception, having been told that she was too aggressive for certain venues or made some people uncomfortable. "So many people around me early on thought it was absolutely ridiculous".……

Milk and Honey (2014–2016)

At first submitted her poetry to literary anthologies, magazines and journals, to little success.……

Artistry and influences

Since Gurmukhi script has no concept of separate lower and upper case, her work is written exclusively in lowercase, using only the period as a form of punctuation; Kaur writes this way to honour the Punjabi language, her first language that she can speak and read, but limited to write in. She said that she enjoys the equality of letters and that the style reflects her worldview. The experience of learning English upon moving to Canada and studying poetry has influenced her writing style, subsequently tailoring her work to be accessible, particularly by readers learning English.……

Reception and impact

The most popular of the "Instapoets", and dubbed the "Oprah of her generation," Chiara Giovanni of Buzzfeed News noted that Kaur's celebrity – which has led her peer Kazim Ali to call her perhaps the most famous poet of all time – is "more akin to that of a pop star like [Ariana] Grande than a traditional poet", crediting the accessibility of her poetry for her fame.……

Online reception

Her series of menstrual photographs elicited a very mixed reception. She received death threats, which led to emotional numbness and a subsequent distancing from social media.……

Politics

During the 2020–2021 Indian farmers' protest, Kaur supported Punjabi farmers in their plight, citing that for "Sikhs, dissent against oppression is nothing new". November 2023, Kaur declined an invitation to attend a Diwali celebration hosted by US Vice President Kamala Harris in the White House, citing the Biden administration's continued support of Israel and its bombardment of Gaza, which she called "the collective punishment of a trapped civilian population".