This is going around again and I wanted to add something re: Instagram, which has been on my mind recently. Iām really wary of using the termĀ āTumblr poetryā because poetry on this platform is quite diverse and includes many wonderful communities. I do think thereās a difference, however, between collective Tumblr poetry, andĀ āInstagram poetry.ā I call it this not because itās unique to that platform - itās present here on Tumblr as well as Facebook and Twitter, and often operates because itās cross-platform - and donāt mean to homogenize Instagram poetry either, but to point at this idea of āinstant poetry.ā
The idea I get from āInstagram poetryā is taking sometimes simple, sometimes more complex emotions, stripping them of personal context - e.g. narrative about oneās life - making an observation about those emotions, and turning it into a graphic. Emotions that are extremely relatable about, say, bad relationships or wanderlust, become an aesthetic. Theyāre super palatable and easily digested but donāt require much artistry or authenticity from the artist; that they make sense no matter who you are allows them to gain traction.
What concerns me with Insta poetry is that it isnāt insulated. Itās great that people connect to this writing, and that there are happy suppliers of this content. There is strategic art that goes into it, surely. And again, Iām not here to comment on what anyone enjoys, but this content does lack artistry. It lacks personality. It often has nothing to do with a poetās life.
Rupi does this well. Most of her poems are very generalized comments on diaspora, relationships, misogyny, growth. This is Fine (when not plagiarized). But, in combination with what I discuss in my original post, her poetry feels like something thatās just supposed to be consumed, not engaged with. I often wonder what an interviewer could reasonably ask her about her process - artistic process, emotional process. And this process of consumption very much relates to the process of tokenization, which turns the oppressed body into an aesthetic to fill a quota.
I donāt think itās totally wrong to interrogate artistry. I do believe most things areĀ āartā but quality isnāt 100% objective. Itās not. Especially when an artist dominates a market and plagiarizes from Black artists. I talk about this hereĀ (mobile only, sorry) - that when we discuss things like resources, narrative, and struggle, artistry is absolutely relevant and we canāt disregard it and hide behind attitudes that artistic quality is purely subjective and thus cannot be reasonably critiqued.
So going back to my original post - where is the narrative? How does her work relate to what ISNāT seen as easily consumed: work made by Black and Indigenous artists, LGBTQ artists, disabled artists, poor artists, artists who donāt put diaspora & war in easy terms, artists who donāt frame trauma as neatly? Where is the restitution for so many struggling, extremely skilled poets whose words are too many, too complex, too DIFFICULT? Where are their 1.5 million followers and second book deals and stuffed shelves in Barnes & Noble? Where is the money for them to eat? Where are their reparations as they write from historical trauma? What happens to those poets who cannot everĀ be consumable under market capitalism and white supremacy, because of who they are and how their art resists white supremacist capitalism?
And so my feelings arenāt just about Rupiās personal decisions - but of course do in part concern them - but the way art has become so sterile, inauthentic, and exploitative.
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