THIS WEEK’S MUSE
RUPI KAUR, #INSTAPOET
Rupi Kaur is a Canadian poet, who rose to literary fame through social media platforms. She is the most well-known proponent of Instapoetry and is now selling books in rock-star proportions.
Kaur was born in Punjab, India, in 1992, moving with her family into the South Asian community of Brampton, Ontario, when she was three years old. As a child, she witnessed or experienced domestic violence, sexual abuse, and racism.
Growing up, this led her to develop what she describes as a “constant survival mode,” and it’s through this filter her need to write developed. “I wanted to find a voice,” she said, “because I had been voiceless for so long.”
Since 2013, she has shared her poetry online, publishing it through key social media platforms. As a result, she is now widely considered to be leading the rise of Instapoetry.
This emerging poetic style typically consists of short, direct lines of verse focusing on brevity and authenticity around themes of social justice such as immigration, domestic violence, sexual assault, love, culture, feminism, gun violence, war, racism, and LGBTQ rights. They are created to fit social media feeds easily accessible through smartphone applications.
Kaur’s work is presented exclusively in lowercase and uses only the period for punctuation – a style that promotes the “equality of letters.” Her poems often conclude with a final italicized line that identifies an intended audience or articulates a key theme – a “trademark move, similar to a social media hashtag.
Her poems are often excerpts from a much longer spoken-word work, publishing “the part that really [makes] my stomach turn.”
Supporters of Instapoetry argue that it fundamentally connects to the audiences they are trying to reach. According to Kaur, her success has “democratized poetry and literature in general,” feeling that her working class and racial background wouldn’t allow her to be published otherwise.
Writer and critic Erica Wagner sees Kaur’s influence in what she called the “biggest overall shift [in reading habits] we’ve seen in the past decade.” Kaur has instigated, Wagner argues, a greater focus on poetry by booksellers, American adults and young people.
The rise of poetry sales in Canada and the United Kingdom has been largely attributed to Kaur and other Instapoets, with teenagers and millennials the principal buyers. Kaur’s Milk & Honey has sold over 2.5m copies alone since 2017.
Critics and literary commentators are divided about this new style of writing. Some say its speed of creation and instant global dissemination is not “in keeping” with the typically long creative process behind traditional poetry.
Others say this is simply an example of the evolution of poetry, changing due to external pressures—in this case social media—and is not different from past changes, provoked by other pressures [like the typewriter, paperbacks, or world war].
Kaur’s star continues to rise, as does Instapoetry. To traditionalists, it may seem strange or contrived, but it is giving a new generation a voice and it is encouraging creative expression.
HAPPENING
Four Thursdays, from April 6. 1–3pm
AWAKENING YOUR CHAKRAS
With Nancy Lord
Develop a trust in your intuition through meditation.
Member: $112, Non-member: $128