One Night In London With Rupi Kaur

Hi guys!

If you haven’t realised already, I’m a big poetry fan. I’m all for the Insta Poetry movement and love how poetry has modernised with time. There are many poets like this out there that I adore, one of my absolute favourites being Rupi Kaur. I love her work for many reasons – mainly because she is a beautiful writer and her work is extremely relatable. She’s one of those women you wish you were friends with, and to be honest, I feel like I know her. Sadly, I don’t, but I was lucky enough to see her perform recently, which I will go onto talk about now. She’s got that sassy, girl power edge, and I really admire that about her. She owns her experiences and makes art out of them, and I think that’s why her work is so powerful. She really has pulled me through some hard times, and there’s always a poem for the way I’m feeling.

I have always said if she comes to Europe I would go, no matter what country she goes to. On an average afternoon some months ago, I scrolled through Instagram to see Rupi post: “one night in london.” That was it, I was going to London. I asked my sister to come along with me because even though she wasn’t overly familiar with her work, I knew she would enjoy it. We decided to make a little holiday out of it and my brother ended up coming to London with us too. I think I will talk more about London in general in another post. After a bit of drama to get tickets because my computer freaked out, my sister managed to get them and oh, the excitement. 

We arrived at the Gillian Lynne Theatre and joined the queue. Something I really loved was being absorbed in that atmosphere. I was surrounded by people with similar interests and could hear people discussing how much they admire her. Before going in, I bought a signed copy of her book, milk and honey. It was a hardback copy which I didn’t have yet, so it was lovely to finish off my collection of her books. We bought a glass of wine and then sat down and waited for the show to start.

Now this is a regular occurrence for me but still a bit morto, as soon as she started speaking, my eyes started welling up. I’ve done that at Taylor Swift concerts before too, I think the emotion builds up and explodes! haha It’s hard to describe the way Rupi performs if you haven’t ever heard her, but it’s with such raw emotion and power. You know she knows and believes in her work because she’s felt it and lived through it. I think this might be why she inspires me, because I do the same with my own work. She added background music to some of her poems and images flickered on the back screen, so it really was a performance.

About half-way through my sister was laughing and said: “Oh my god, her life sounds like yours!” this was in response to her talking about poems she writes when she’s been hurt and men then tend to avoid getting close incase they become a target. Yep, welcome to my life! haha She read so many of my favourites from both her books, so I really soaked up every minute. I really can’t wait for her to release the next book (she said she has started that, wooo!) To be honest, I spent a lot of the show laughing because she was really humorous and down to earth. Basically, she’s slaying the game.

She performed for quite a long time and I was sad as it came to an end, mainly because I knew this might be the last time I’d see her. Although hopefully she will do a European tour sometime too. Luckily I got plenty of videos which I have already been playing over and over again. I’m honestly still in shock that I got to see her, she’s such a huge idol of mine. I love to see women who are shaking things up and using their voice because it helps inspire so many other women who are listening. I’d love to think my own work impacts some people the way her work impacts me. It really makes you think, gives you someone to relate to, and it definitely gets that fire in your belly roaring. I left feeling super inspired and empowered, ready to write some of my best work yet.

If you’re not familiar with her work, check out her Instagram page, or her books – milk and honey, and the sun and her flowers. It’s very hard to choose a favourite poem because I adore so many, but selfish is one I go back to, over and over again. It’s just beautiful. I think it will always give me goosebumps.

What an amazing night! I will never forget it. Another one off the bucket list!

Always chase the moments that make your soul feel alive.

Love, 

Fe xx

Share Post

Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin

FREE DELIVERY THROUGHOUT IRELAND