Milk and Honey
by Rupi Kaur
Milk and Honey CRP.docx.pdfKaur defines her book as the “blood sweat tears of twenty-one years / this is my heart in your hands.” Through an exploration of the hurting, the loving, the breaking, and the healing, this collection of poetry and art takes readers “through a journey of the most bitter moments in life / and finds sweetness in them.” Kaur’s perspectives on femininity, culture, love, trauma, loss, and healing resonate with diverse audiences.
Rupi Kaur moved to Canada when she was four years old from Punjab, India, eventually settling in Brampton. She is an artist who expresses herself and her passions through diverse forms of media, including photography, art, poetry, performance, and prose. She has shared her unique vision and art around the world, and her book is a New York Time’s best seller.
Curriculum Connections
Reading for Meaning (Making Inferences): List several words used in specific poems that suggest meaning that is implied or alluded to. What context is suggested through the poem’s choice of what words are and are not included.
Developing and Organizing Content (Generating and Developing Ideas): Brainstorm ideas for your own series of poems, broken down into four important sections in your life. Consider 3-4 poems for each section.
Speaking to Communicate (Vocal Strategies): Students record dramatic reading of the poems, stressing how different tones, emotions, and pauses should be used, especially for the poems in the different sections.
Creating Media Texts (Purpose and Audience): Produce a series of different social media posts, presenting the book to an audience of your peers, and convincing them to read it. How would the posts change if the audience changed?
Essential Questions
- How do people’s identities as part of a cultural group help define who they are and how they interact with the world around them? How can people challenge the internal and external expectations placed on them because of their participation, or perceived participation, in a group?
- How can relationships be a source of pain and heartache, but also joy and sweetness? How are relationships with friends, families, partners, and lovers different?
- How are perceptions of beauty defined by media and society? How do different genders define ideal beauty for themselves and for others, and how do people feel when they don’t live up to these standards?
- After tragedy, loss, or hurting occurs, how do people find the strength and the will to cope? How can people move on and heal in the face of overwhelming loss and pain?
Key Quotations
the hurting
you pinned
my legs to
the ground
with your feet
and demanded
i stand up (25)
the loving
i am learning
how to love him
by loving myself (55)
the breaking
i don’t know why
i split myself open
for others knowing
sewing myself up
hurts this much
afterwards (125)
the healing
if you were born with
the weakness to fall
you were born with
the strength to rise (156)
Trigger Warnings
“The purpose of trigger warnings is not to cause students to avoid traumatic content, but to prepare them for it, and in extreme circumstances to provide alternate modes of learning”
-Eleanor Lockhart
- Rape and sexual assault are discussed several times, including sexual assault by family members, e.g. page 36.
- There are poems and images about sexuality, sexual pleasure, masturbation, e.g. page 55.
- Alcohol abuse and alcoholic parents are mentioned, e.g. page 39
Trauma Informed Practice A Coffey 2017.docx.pdfText to Self Connections
- Students could explore, through journaling or blogging, the ways in which their perception of beauty is based on race, ethnicity, family values, etc. How do popular media constructs of beauty differ from their own lived reality?
- Students could bring in samples of different media that demonstrate ways in which beauty is viewed differently in different cultures (e.g. promotional advertisements from around the world).
- Students could reflect on traumatic events in their own lives or families and potential sources of healing.
Text to Text Connections
'salt.' by Nayyirah Waheed. A similar collection of short, evocative poetry
The Sun is Also a Star, by Nicola Yoon. This novel explores a relationship between two American teenagers, one of Korean ancestry and one Jamaican ancestry. Issues around racial identity, perceptions of beauty, and teenage sexuality are explored
“Unpretty” song by TLC. The song raises questions about our perceptions of beauty and how we can hurt others through our expectations. The video references breast augmentation and weight loss.
The Sneetches, by Dr. Seuss. Children’s book about issues related to discrimination, perceptions of beauty, and bullying. Fairly obvious satire, but the connections work well.
Text to World Connections
Rupikaur.com Website: An excellent collection of poetry, photos, videos produced by Rupi Kaur, including a TED talk “Taking My Body Back”; a song “milk and honey”; an interview about the book. Includes links to her social media accounts. Rupi Kaur has been available for speaking engagements in Peel in the past.
Sexual Violence Against Women in Canada: An issue brief produced by the Canadian government giving context and history to the issue of sexual violence. The report is at a high reading level, but it contains numerous statistics, links, definitions.
Strategies from Mini Lessons from Literature Circles
“Think Aloud” page 55. Model the thought process that a reader could go through when reading each poem. Have students complete the activity individually and in small groups.
“Response Logs” page 80. Students may value the chance to respond privately in writing first because of the sensitive nature of some of the poems.