Beechy Peace, Justice and Reconciliation Lecture: Valarie Kaur with Qais Essar

Valarie Kaur, renowned civil rights leader, lawyer and filmmaker, will deliver the annual Beechy Peace, Justice and Reconciliation Lecture, part of Goshen College’s lecture series, with support from the Kraus Lectureship in Religion. Kaur is the founder of the Revolutionary Love Project, where she leads a movement to reclaim love as a force for justice.

Kaur became an activist when a Sikh American father, Balbir Singh Sodhi, was murdered in hate in the aftermath of 9/11. For twenty-five years, Kaur has led visionary campaigns to tell untold stories – at the sites of mass shootings, inside America’s supermax prisons, in the wake of hate violence, and at detention camps from Tijuana to Guantanamo – winning policy change on issues ranging from hate crimes to solitary confinement. The communities she served taught her an essential ingredient to birthing a healthy future: love. In 2021, she led the People’s Inauguration, inspiring millions of Americans to renew their role in building a healthy, multiracial democracy.

Today, the Revolutionary Love Project equips people with powerful tools to harness the love ethic for courageous action. In 2022, Valarie was honored at the White House in the first-ever Uniters Ceremony, recognizing her as a visionary leader whose work is healing America. In 2024, Valarie led the Revolutionary Love Bus Tour, a healing odyssey to 45+ cities across the United States, igniting one message:“Revolutionary Love is the call of our times.”

Valarie earned degrees at Stanford University, Harvard Divinity School, and Yale Law School, and holds several honorary doctorates. She has created groundbreaking initiatives at the intersection of spirituality, storytelling, and social justice, including Groundswell Movement, Faithful Internet, and the Yale Visual Law Project. She speaks widely and has been a regular TV commentator on MSNBC and contributor to CNN, NPR, PBS, the Hill, and the Washington Post.

Valarie’s vision is deeply inspired by her Sikh faith. A daughter of Punjabi farmers, Valarie grew up on the farmlands of California, where her family has lived for more than a century. Her grandfather gave her Sikh wisdom through stories and songs that showed the way of the sant-sipahi, sage-warrior. The sage loves; the warrior fights — it is a path of revolutionary love.

Qais Essar, who will be featured in the lecture, is an acclaimed Afghan-American composer, instrumentalist and producer. Renowned for his mastery of the rabab — the national instrument of Afghanistan — Essar blends traditional Afghan and Indian classical music with contemporary genres, crafting a unique fusion that bridges ancient and modern sounds.