I think that's pretty cool,' she told AFP. connecting and telling me how we're not alone in our experiences of anxiety and depression. And there's over 2,000 people in the audience. 'Last night, I did a show in Chicago, talking about mental health and abuse and surviving all of that. Thousands flock to her spoken word performances, also buying up her books and memorabilia such as t-shirts and temporary tattoos.

'I'm trying to write something that encapsulates my feelings on it, but it's just so infuriating that I haven't been able to really create the piece that I want.'įrom her breakout collection 'Milk and Honey' to her second book 'The Sun and Her Flowers,' Kaur has sold more than 10 million copies, and her works have been translated into more than 40 languages. Wade being overturned angered me to a whole different level,' she said of the landmark 1973 US Supreme Court ruling on abortion rights now under review. 'My poetry is a response to what's happening in my world,' she explains. Proud of her roots, she regrets that there 'aren't enough women of colour represented in publishing and media.' But she does find inspiration in the news itself. The eldest of four children, the 'quiet, shy' teenager found her voice through poetry, which allowed her to 'be as loud as I wanted.'Īdmiring the poems of Lebanese-American bard Khalil Gibran, Kaur writes about her own experiences in the first person, without capitals, in a nod to her mother tongue, Punjabi. And that has always been a thread in my work,' she said. 'I grew up going to protests and talking about revolution and human rights at our dinner table. We're stepping into this territory where we're banning culture and expression.'īorn in northeast India, Kaur immigrated to Canada at age four with her Sikh parents and grew up in a suburb of Toronto.

She sees the ban as a refusal to contemplate 'sexual assault and violence experienced by a young woman.'

'It breaks my heart that parents and lawmakers are attempting to ban this book,' she said in an interview withĪFP following a stage show in Ottawa, where she presented her latest book 'Home Body' to a mostly-female audience. But her no-holds barred approach is not to everyone's liking - and pressure groups in several US states, including Texas and Oregon, have banned or are seeking to ban her first book, 'Milk and Honey,' from schools and libraries.

Rupi kuar poems