Rupi Kaur: Using Poetry to Illuminate Women's Stories

A Voice Through Poetry  

Rupi kaur photographed for editions charleston

Rupi Kaur is an Indian-Canadian poet, illustrator, photographer, and author. Her body of work includes fourteen books, all poetry collections. Among her most well-known titles are Milk and Honey, The Sun and Her Flowers, and Homebody. She began to rise to prominence in 2009 when she started performing her poetry and sharing it on Instagram. Audiences quickly connected with her work, drawn to the raw, passionate, and honest way she expresses emotion and personal experiences. 

Early Life and Family Challenges

Born into a Sikh family on October 4, 1992 in Punjab, India, Rupi Kaur immigrated to Canada with her family when she was around three and a half years old. Her family faced many financial instabilities and she grew up living with her parents and three younger siblings in a one-bedroom basement flat, where they all slept in the same bed. Eventually, the family settled down in Brampton, Ontario, where her father worked as a truck driver. Later, when her father moved to Japan, he would write Punjabi poetry to Kaur’s mother. Kaur’s relationship with her parents, particularly her mother, was often tense, and consisted of many extensive arguments over trivial matters. As a young girl, Kaur often felt self-conscious about her identity and felt embarrassed by her mother’s Punjabi accent. Her mother’s cultural values also created distance between them, particularly around the subject of menstruation, which made Kaur feel even more isolated during her formative years. Throughout Kaur’s childhood, she witnessed relatives and friends experience domestic violence or sexual abuse, and saw her parents face racism on numerous occasions. Growing up in this environment, Kaur described living much of her early life in “constant survival mode.” These experiences would later become central themes in her poetry collections.

Education and Discovering Her Voice 

 When Rupi Kaur first enrolled in kindergarten, she did not know a word of English. However, by the third grade, thanks to a dedicated teacher, she had learned to read and write, and she quickly fell in love with books. Like many passionate readers, she describes the relief of finding a book that made her feel understood as truly life-changing. Kaur attended Turner Fenton Secondary School in Brampton, Ontario, where she started an education in creative writing and poetry. During this time, she started to share her writing anonymously, and used the pseudonym Kaur, which is the surname given to all Sikh women to promote equality and eliminate the caste system in India. This was an empowering choice that reflects Kaur’s strong advocacy for women. After graduating from high school, she got her degree at the University of Waterloo and majored in rhetoric and professional writing. 

Rise to Fame: Milk and Honey

Rupi kaur photograph for personal site

At the age of eighteen, Rupi Kaur wrote and self-published her first book of poems titled Milk and Honey on Createspace on November 4, 2014. The book has since sold more than 10,000 copies. Interestingly, Kaur originally wrote the poems solely for herself and had no intention of publishing them. In March 2015, she sought to challenge societal menstrual taboos and the objectification of women through a university photography project, and posted a collection of photographs to Instagram with menstrual blood stains on her clothing and bed sheets. The internet did not respond kindly to these images, and Kaur faced online harassment. Instagram removed the post for violating the site’s terms of service, without giving her prior notice. She viewed the censorship as misogynistic and “an attack on my humanity”, which only reinforced her commitment to addressing the issues she planned to confront. Instagram apologized for the removal and brought back her post with the images. Her response to the act went viral on the internet, and she quickly gained a significant amount of followers, and brought widespread attention to her poetry. 

Poetic Style and Impact 

Rupi Kaur writes poetry that is real and unapologetic, fearlessly exploring topics related to women’s bodies and experiences. Although some readers feel uncomfortable with the mature content and illustrations in her books, this never stopped Kaur from continuing to write and publish. Her work serves as a powerful reminder that women’s experiences are often overlooked, and her books give a voice to those stories in a way that is both intimate and transformative.

Empowering Voices 

Through her poetry and advocacy for women everywhere, Rupi Kaur has created a powerful platform for sharing experiences and emotions that women are often told to hide or keep private. Her work and strong voice continues to inspire readers around the world, proving that art can be both deeply personal and widely relatable. 

Areen Adi is a passionate Canadian writer, driven by creativity, curiosity, and a love for crafting stories. She is currently enrolled in the Professional Writing program at Algonquin College, where she is strengthening her writing skills. Areen enjoys creative writing, focusing mainly on short stories and poetry, and hopes to one day publish her own book of poems. Some of her favourite things include sitting by the water, hanging out with her cat Kira, reading on her trusty kindle that never leaves her book bag, and sipping on addicting iced coffees. For Areen, the perfect day is a walk by the river with an iced coffee in one hand and an e-book in the other.