Thu, Jul 23
|Zoom
Valarie Kaur See No Stranger: A Memoir & Manifesto of Revolutionary Love
At once an urgent manifesto and a dramatic memoir of awakening, this is the story of revolutionary love. Valarie will be in conversation with Rev. Michael-Ray Mathews, Deputy Director for Faith in Action, about faith, love and justice.
Date, Time & Location
Jul 23, 2020, 6:00 PM
Zoom
About the Event
“The future is dark. But is this the darkness of the tomb – or the darkness of the womb? We are a nation waiting to be born, and this is our great transition." Valarie Kaur, 9 November 2016, @The National Moral Revival Watch Night Service (Watch here)
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Buy your copy of Valarie's book now from Collected Works
How do we labor for the world we want when the labor feels endless? Valarie Kaur – renowned Sikh activist, filmmaker, and civil rights lawyer – declares that revolutionary love is the call of our time, a radical, joyful practice that extends in three directions: to others, to our opponents, and to ourselves. It enjoins us to see no stranger but instead look at others and say: You are a part of me I do not yet know. Starting from that place of wonder, the world begins to change: It is a practice that can transform a relationship, a community, a culture, even a nation.
Kaur takes readers through her own riveting journey – as a brown girl growing up in California farmland finding her place in the world; as a young adult galvanized by the murders of Sikhs after 9/11; as a law student fighting injustices in American prisons and on Guantanamo Bay; as an activist working with communities recovering from xenophobic attacks; and as a woman trying to heal from her own experiences with sexual assault and police violence. Drawing from the wisdom of sages, scientists, and activists, Kaur reclaims love as an active, public, and revolutionary force that creates new possibilities for ourselves, our communities, and our world.
SEE NO STRANGER is a practical guide to changing the world, a synthesis of wisdom, a chronicle of personal and communal history – all joined together by a story of awakening. Revolutionary love is medicine for our times. It just might be our best chance for our collective future.
About the Author:
Valarie Kaur is a seasoned civil rights activist and celebrated prophetic voice “at the forefront of progressive change” (Center for American Progress). Valarie burst into American consciousness in the wake of the 2016 election when her Watch Night Service address went viral with 30+ million views worldwide. Her question “Is this the darkness of the tomb – or the darkness of the womb?” reframed the political moment and became a mantra for people fighting for change. Valarie now leads the Revolutionary Love Project to reclaim love as a force for justice in America. As a lawyer, filmmaker, and innovator, she has won policy change on multiple fronts – hate crimes, racial profiling, immigration detention, solitary confinement, Internet freedom, and more. She founded Groundswell Movement, Faithful Internet, and the Yale Visual Law Project to inspire and equip new generations of advocates. Valarie has been a regular TV commentator on MSNBC and contributor to CNN, NPR, PBS, the Hill, Huffington Post, and the Washington Post. A daughter of Sikh farmers in California’s heartland, Valarie earned degrees at Stanford University, Harvard Divinity School, and Yale Law School.
About Rev. Michael Ray Mathews
Michael-Ray Mathews brings over 30 years of leadership experience – as a senior pastor, grassroots leader, psalmist and community organizer – to his work as Deputy Director for Faith in Action (formerly PICO National Network). He is the host of the Prophetic Resistance Podcast, where he engages multi-faith leaders in conversations about cultivating communities of belonging and sacred resistance to injustice. Rev. Mathews is president of the Alliance of Baptists, a progressive movement for justice and healing, and co-editor of Trouble the Waters: A Christian Resource for the Work of Racial Justice. A visiting professor of public theology at American Baptist Seminary of the West in Berkeley, he is also a senior fellow at Auburn Seminary in New York. Michael-Ray is co-founder of and public theologian-in-residence with Sympara, a multifaith/interspiritual community of practice, repurposing spiritual assets for the common good.