Emma Watson Interviews Rupi Kauf

 

        For Kauf, poetry allows the expression of emotions and not everybody uses it as a tool to heal and Emma uses it as part of her life. Kaur always posts her poems on her Instagram, they get many feedback from her followers but she has the self-awareness to not let netizens’ opinions change her writing style. Writing for Kaur is like a romantic relationship; it’s a spiritual connection when she feels closest to herself and she wouldn’t 3^rd party into her life.

       Self-discipline takes a long time; not allowing people’s opinions into her creative space, because she believes that’s the key of originality. For some people, it is okay to get criticized, but for her, she believes the poem is about her experience, not theirs. Furthermore, she does not deny that at the bottom level, people's opinions also affected her writing.

       In her early 20s, she was a very naïve person about the internet, she never uploaded/published on the internet because she was afraid. Then she had a school project where she must upload photos. In the beginning, she was happy with many good responses from many of her friends but when she got comments out of her circle she felt anxious, but she tried to accept it. From that time she realized this tool would be big someday.

       Before she published her book she asked for some advice from her professor about her purpose of life, and dreams, then professor suggested that she should try many things like journals, anthologies, and magazines. For her writing is louder and sexier beyond the mic that her pick-up. Before she published her book people thought it would be the worst decision but turn out to be the best.

      Fun fact: when she published her book she had no conversation with her family because, at the beginning of her writing, she didn’t get good responses; for her parents, it’s wasting time. But surprisingly when she got back home and showed her book and told that the book got many good responses from her audience to her family she got a complete 180 good responses; shifted.

       Rupi Kauf is from an immigrant family she always expected to be a doctor or lawyer. She feels her strength from her father because back then her family was refugees. Kaur came to Canada at the age of 3,5 years she remembers when she was a child she was involved in protests in Toronto and that the kind of spirit his father is empowered. Kauf grew up part of the local activist group as well as the youth group. She had a moment where her self-esteem was low and times when her self-esteem was boosted because of the success of her book Milk and Honey. She realized the feeling of life is not always the same and it would always happen in a cycle. She found the key to making life easier which is self-love, self-love is the consistent thing that she always wants to work.

       Kauf inspired artists like Sharon Olds; who wrote poems about what like to be a woman, Amrita Sher-Gil, and Amal Clooney who believed everyone could be everything they wanted. She doesn’t have specific music she listens to, she listens to music like Frank Ocean, Adele, Beyonce, and Lauryn Hill. Fun fact, she listens to them to boost her mood to write some topics.

     She likes to write in a quiet place; home. She usually writes by 2 technics write by hand and computer. Every day she practices free writing by hand without the intention behind and for her, writing keeps her muscles always active and if she stops the process she loses it all. Being an artist or person in the creative industry sometimes makes her feel isolated but she realizes it's important to know that she’s not alone and to let her fear go, she always tries to write not for her products but simply to active her motoric to writing even for her its bad stuff, she believes it could lead her to closer to good stuffs; practices makes perfect. 

Source: