Tuesday night the Saint Mary’s Little Theater hosted the “Revolutionary Love” tour with author, lawyer and civil rights activist activist Valarie Kaur. Accompanied by musicians Sonny Singh, Nirinjan Kaur Khalsa-Baker and Qais Essar, the onstage group of four performed traditional songs and story telling from the Sikh religion. According to the tour's website, it aims to “energize hearts, build community bonds, and ignite courageous action rooted in love.”
Facilitating the event was religious studies professor Molly Gower, who invited Kaur and her team to visit the College. Tour coordinator Anusha Mehar explained her call to join the tour.
“This ‘call’ is not just now, it is a call across cultures, across timelines in our shared collective histories. We are witnessing genocidal campaigns, political policies and practices enacted by leaders that are valuing power over people and racial disparity across the nation,” she said.
Kaur presented the Sikh value of unity and argued the desire for ”revolutionary” love was intrinsic to human beings.
The audience was invited to share in the sign of respect of covering their heads and removing their shoes during the presentation when Sikh wisdom was being shared.
During the event, Kaur retold the story of the origin of the Sikh religion, the life stories of Guru Nanak and Guru Hargobind Sahib. She concluded with the story of Hargobind Sahib's escape from imprisonment with 52 others, each holding onto a tassel on his cloak.
Throughout the storytellings, the musicians played a reimagined form of various Sikh prayers, with Singh performing vocals.
Before the event, Singh explained the core principles of the Sikh community.
“In the Sikh community, the spiritual and the political are intimately linked. And so if we consider ourselves spiritual people, if we consider devotion and oneness important to us, regardless of our faiths, then fighting for justice and liberation is one of the ways that we have to worship, right? Because if that divine light is in everyone then it's our responsibility to stand up for all people,” he said.
Using this foundation, Kaur and her team developed a “compass of love“ which encourages users to implement ”see no stranger,” ”tend the wound” and ”breath and push” into their daily lives and the way they interact with others. The compass was introduced and explained to the audience after the storytellings.
“We must care for others the way we care for ourselves. We’re interdependent. We are an ecosystem, and we can’t do it alone,” she said.
Kaur highlighted her latest book titled Sage Warrior as well as the accompanying album by Singh with the same name, which explores the traditional tales of Sikh history through the perspective of the female characters.
After Kaur and her peers finished their performance and lecture, the audience was invited to read an account of a revolutionary love experience from a former audience member. In turn, audience members filled out their own account of experiencing the revolutionary love for future tour attendees in upcoming cities. Finally, Kaur left goers with one last sentiment: “Do your part.”
Valarie Kaur and her team will be continuing their tour across the country with their next stop being in Chicago Oct. 9 and their final stop taking place in New Orleans Oct. 27.
