As part of the college’s fall 2020 virtual student engagement initiative, Hierald Osorto, executive director for student equity and belonging and director for religious and spiritual life, will host a conversation with Valarie Kaur, a Sikh racial justice activist, civil rights lawyer, award-winning filmmaker and educator.
The talk will take place on Oct. 20 at 7 p.m., and will focus on how individuals can labor for the world they want.
“Two weeks before the election, we need to equip our community with revolutionary love —love that changes the world beyond the ballot box,” Osorto said. “There is no one better to explore this skillset with us than Valarie Kaur. In an age of pandemic and protests, we can choose to huddle in our separate camps and wait for a return of 'normalcy,' or we can risk transforming ourselves and our community. IC students are ready to risk, and I believe Valarie can show us the way forward.”
Kaur is the founder of the Revolutionary Love Project, which aims to use love as a force for justice and social change. Based at the University of Southern California’s Office of Religious Life, the project produces media, conferences and mass mobilizations that enable people to practice the “ethic of love.”
The author of the book “See No Stranger: A Manifesto of Revolutionary Love,” Kaur’s 2017 TED talk, “3 Lessons of Revolutionary Love in a Time of Rage” has been viewed more than three million times.
The virtual student engagement initiative is being put together by the Ithaca College Office of Student Affairs and Campus Life (SACL).