By Shelby Daniel

In a society where social media connects us to every part of the world, outlets like Instagram, Twitter and Tumblr provide platforms for artists to share their work with the world. Rupi Kaur, a Canadian poet and illustrator of Indian descent, has reached worldwide stardom through sharing her work on her Instagram. The poet is famous for her clear and succinct poems, accompanied by her simple illustrations.

Rupi Kaur was born in Punjab, India and lived there for her early life. At the age of four, she and her family moved to Canada where Kaur continues to live today. She received her degree in rhetoric studies at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. Kaur attributes her passion for writing and illustration to her mother, who encouraged her to paint and write as a young girl.

In 2014, Rupi Kaur self-published her first collection of poems, “milk and honey,” launching her to stardom. The book remained a New York Times’ best seller for a full year. This year, the poet is set to release her second collection, “the sun and her flowers,” which has been anxiously awaited by fans.

The author, poet and illustrator also experiments with photography. In 2015, Kaur uploaded a photo of herself laying in bed wearing pajamas stained with period blood to her Instagram. The image was removed twice by Instagram for violating its community standards. “I wasn’t being provocative,” Kaur said. Outraged, the writer turned to Tumblr to detail her disappointment with the social media platform for sexualizing the bodily function and treating menstruation as a taboo.

This controversy introduced Kaur to the public eye, attracting more attention to her work and gaining her Instagram followers. Kaur has also created seven photo essays, which can be viewed on her official website, www.rupikaur.com.

Kaur’s poems concentrate on themes of love, heartbreak, abuse and empowerment. The author is a staunch feminist, which is reflected in her work. Her poems encourage women to find strength and beauty in their femininity. Kaur writes about sexual and emotional abuse to “challenge the narrative” of sexual repression and the culture of over-sexualization of women.

The poet also writes about her Punjabi roots and her experiences as an immigrant. Kaur practices Sikhism and brings in elements of her religion and culture into her work. Milk and honey, also the title of her first book, is used as a method of healing in Punjabi culture. In several of her poems, she describes revisiting her home in India, and her life as an Indian woman living in the west.

The format of Kaur’s poetry is simple, clear and short. The poet uses no punctuation, with the exception of the period, and only writes in lowercase letters. Kaur’s poetry is easy to read, contributing to her widespread success by appealing to a large audience. The formatting of her poetry is well suited to Instagram, allowing people to easily access her work from the app.

There have been claims that Kaur plagiarized material from Nayyirah Waheed, another successful modern poet. Waheed published “Salt,” a collection of poems, in 2013 in addition to the poetry and prose she posts on her Tumblr. Kaur and Waheed’s work contain many similarities, with parallels between their formatting and style of writing. Waheed reached out to Kaur, concerned by this fact, but Kaur denied any similarities and chose to remain quiet on the subject.

Critics of the poet have condemned Kaur’s poetry as formulaic and shallow, asserting that her metaphors and symbolism are obvious. Memes have appeared on Twitter satirizing Kaur’s poetry by imitating her sober tone. However, regardless of her critics, Kaur maintains a wide fan-following. With 1.7 million followers on Instagram, and having sold over a million copies worldwide of “milk and honey,” Rupi Kaur remains one of the most popular figures in the modern contemporary poetry world.

Instagram is transforming the way people are exposed to art. Many artists, like Rupi Kaur, establish themselves through social media platforms. The question is: as technology continues to evolve, will artists be forced to adapt and alter their work to better conform to the constraints of social media?