Julie, why do you insist on linking people's opinion of Rupi Kaur with the fact that she is a woman of color? I think people here are equal opportunity mockers of bad poets who succeed. There's no reason to doubt or assign unworthy motives to people who find her poetry to be atrocious and therefore find her fame and financial success to be somewhat bizarre. The idea that only prejudice or bigotry could explain a negative reaction to Rupi Kaur conveniently overlooks the fact that her poems really do stink.
Having said that, I do object to anyone mocking or attacking Rupi on a personal level. As far as I know or can tell, she's a perfectly nice person who shares my interest in writing poems. We are, in effect, colleagues. If writing bad poems were a crime, they'd put bars around most MFA programs. But apart from the faux pas of having many admirers, I'm not sure what other charges people are leveling against her.
It seems to me that she is not poaching readers from "real" poetry but attracting an audience of people who had never read any poetry before and were not likely to do so in the future. If that's true, she is a wonderful influence. Surely there are people who enjoy Rupi who will then move on to other poets, or develop an interest in writing their own poetry. And surely the success of her paid readings might encourage coffee shops and libraries and small theaters to consider staging poetry events of their own, events at which poets more acceptable to the Sphere population may be performing.
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