Poet Rupi Kaur sat down with Girls Write Now Founder Maya Nussbaum for a conversation about milk and honey‘s 10th Anniversary.
New York, NY – October 1, 2024
Celebrating the 10th anniversary of her debut poetry and prose collection, milk and honey, New York Times bestselling poet, author, and Girls Write Now champion Rupi Kaur held a one-night-only public poetry writing workshop that included readings and conversation at the New York Public Library. Girls Write Now Founder and Executive Director Maya Nussbaum facilitated an intimate conversation with Kaur after the workshop.
Kaur has been a vital member of our community since self-publishing her first book, speaking at our Found Workshop in 2016, and inviting mentees to hear her perform when she returned to in NYC in 2018.
Reflecting on that experience, one mentee attendee said:
For me, poetry runs in my blood as it did in my ancestors’. Kaur spoke and I promise the insides of my body were jumping. Standing there in her gorgeous gold flowy outfit, glowing! Kaur lit up the entire hall not only by her appearance but by her words. I’ve read ‘the sun and her flowers’ multiple times, I’ve read ‘milk and honey’ a couple of times and I fell. In. love. As one who is always looking for answers, who is in search of inspiration for writing, seeing Rupi was like a fairytale.
Kaur recently provided the blurb for our anniversary release, Girls Write Now On The Art Of The Craft: A Guidebook To Collaborative Storytelling (HarperOne, 2024), which was gifted to all 300 attendees at the NYPL event. Read below:
I don’t think we can wait for inspiration to strike. I think that we are more powerful than that. We all have magic within us and it’s always there for us to tap into. I have so much love for Girls Write Now for creating a space where you feel empowered to chase whatever in the world you want to chase, because I truly believe and know that it’s yours.
Kaur also penned the dedication to Taking Our Place in History: The Girls Write Now 2020 Anthology:
you tell me to quiet down cause
my opinions make me less beautiful
but i was not made with a fire in my belly
so i could be put out
i was not made with a lightness on my tongue
so i could be easy to swallow
i was made heavy
half blade and half silk
difficult to forget
and not easy for the mind to follow
If you’re interested in attending more inspiring writing events like this one, join the Girls Write Now Collaboratory!
