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Kaur Life Virtual Retreat – 2020

Thank you to everyone who attended & helped make retreat possible!

It was an absolute pleasure and joy learning with y’all! Thank you for helping make this dream a reality. We are so moved and humbled by your willingness to share your experiences. We feel so blessed and lucky that the Divine Order bought us all together for this brief moment in time to connect with Guru Ji.  

Check out the content that came out the retreat:

Session 1 – Holistic Wellness from a Gurmat Perspective

Session 2 – Unlearning Internalized Patriarchy & Misogyny

Session 3 : Gurbani Vichar – Developing a Personal Connection with Guru Sahib

Learn How to Plan Your Own Retreat


This August, Kaur Life hosted a virtual Kaurs retreat. Our hope was to spark conversations and thought, provide resources and inspiration, and fill a need for sangat during this time of isolation.

The Kaur Life virtual retreat was a space to create, connect, and cultivate a Kaur sangat that is conscious of worldly barriers, but is not limited by them. Discussions ranged from developing a holistic health practice to tackling the various forms of patriarchal violence (internally and externally) to help us learn and grow on the path towards Gurmat-based liberation.

If you have always craved a Sikh space that is actively working to address gender-based violence, make Sikhi accessible for anyone who identifies as a Kaur, and connecting Kaurs across the globe to better take care of our bodies, minds, and hearts so they can bloom, this space is for you.

What

Kaur Life Virtual Retreat

When

August 8 & 9, 2020

Where

Online

Who

For anyone who identifies as a Kaur.

All ages are welcome! Regardless of your age, we encourage you to attend.  We’re excited to have diverse group of Kaurs come together for learning and conversation.

While our average readership is 25-35 years old, we are not placing an age range on the retreat to make it both accessible and available to all Kaurs who likely have had little to no experiences with Kaur-specific spaces and events.

We aim to make the space as inclusive as possible in the following ways: avoiding US-centric framing of the Sikh community, not recreating the gender-binary through our discussions of Kaur identity, and not censoring the discussion on these important topics so as to not recreate the taboos around them. As such, any guardians who might have concerns about younger Kaurs engaging with these topics prior to their readiness to facilitate such conversations should exercise their own discretion about registering them.

Cost

To make the retreat accessible to everyone, we do not have a registration fee. However we would greatly appreciate any donation you are able to make according to your means. Funds will primarily be used to support technical needs of the retreat and speaker honorariums. As Kaur Life is a 501(c)3 non-profit, you will be provided with a tax-deductible receipt.  Please make donations through the Dasvnadh Network.

Sessions

Session 1: Holistic Wellness from a Gurmat Perspective

Guest Speakers: Jaspreet Kaur, navkiran “navi” kaur, Rapinder Kaur, & Sangeeta Kaur

The objective of this session is to: develop more awareness & knowledge amongst Sikhs who experience menstruation; understand its potential hormonal impacts on mood/mental health; discuss potential solutions & responses that are rooted in Gurbaani; and provide inform on preventive and holistic wellness plans (physical, nutritional, mental, etc.) that can be instituted in an accessible way (with regards to ability, financial status, etc.).

Watch the Panel Recording

Article: Our Gurus Referenced Period & Menstruation

Session 2: Unlearning Internalized Patriarchy & Misogyny:

Guest Speakers: Gurleen Kaur, Jasmin Kaur, & Mallika Kaur

The objective of this session is to: deconstruct how internalized misogyny manifests as low self esteem/confidence, which can put women in a situation where they are more willing to tolerate abusive or unhealthy behaviors and also engage in bashing of other women; discuss the root of these behaviors; and discuss how recognizing our “Divine Origin” will root us in that eternal Truth that can eliminate the root cause of internalized misogyny.

Session 3 : Gurbani Vichar – Developing a Personal Connection with Guru Sahib

Guest Speakers: Balpreet Kaur, Japman Kaur, &  Ramandeep “Rimmy” Kaur

The objective of this workshop is to assist participants in connecting with a Shabad on a personal level; to ground our conversations in Gurbani; and have interesting discussions about what Shabad themes look like in Sikh history, rehat, Gurmat, and contemporary issues.

Guest Speakers

Head over here to check out our guest speaker bios!

Registration

Registration is full!

Registration will be first-come, first-serve. The first 100 people to sign up will secure a spot. Anyone who registers after the slots are filled will be placed on a wait-list. Please, only sign up if you are able to attend the retreat in its entirety and be present for all of the sessions.

July 8: Registration Opens

7:00 am PDT /9:00 am CDT /10:00 am EDT/3:00 pm London/7:30 pm Amritsar

July 13: Registration Closes

7:00 am PDT /9:00 am CDT /10:00 am EDT/3:00 pm London/7:30 pm Amritsar

Questions?

You can reach out to us at Hello@KaurLife.org

Planning Team

Harleen Kaur, Kaur Life Board Member

Harleen Kaur is a community organizer, educator, and scholar. A Sociology PhD candidate at UCLA, she studies the intersection of racialization, collective trauma, and nationalism through the story of the Sikh diaspora and our quest for belonging. Her passion project is utilizing Sikhi’s radical notions of humanity as a driver for higher community consciousness rooted in an intersectional, anti-oppression framework. Much of Harleen’s inspiration, voice, and vision was cultivated during her year as a Bonderman Fellow, when she backpacked solo through fifteen countries to better develop a global framework for liberation and sovereignty.

Isha Kaur, Board Member

Isha Kaur is passionate about mentoring the next generation of Sikhs, and has organized and attended multiple Sikh camps and workshops in Chicago, New York, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio. She founded and regularly organizes Camp Sadh Sangat in San Antonio and is a lead facilitator for Camp Sikh Virsa in Chicago. Through these various camps and workshops, Kaur has engaged youth ages 7 and older on tough topics that are important to the Sikh Panth, including topics on kesh, taking Amrit, gender roles, seva, among many others.

Kaur has also fostered a successful career as a marketing consultant in Austin, TX. She currently works at Anaconda, Inc. and is also developing her own marketing firm, Kaur Consulting Group. She tries to leverage her voice to be an activist in her professional space as much as possible by being head of the Diversity & Inclusion committee, taking part in events with Austin Justice Coalition, and more. 

Lakhpreet Kaur, Founder & Editor-in-Chief of Kaur Life

Lakhpreet Kaur is the founder and editor-in-chief for Kaur Life.  Kaur grew up going to Camp Sikh Virsa and several other camps around North America. It was here, along with stories and conversations with her parents, that she learned about Sikhi. Kaur earned a BA in Political Sciences at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and her MA in International Environmental Policy at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, and did a year of post-graduate studies at American University studying international relations. Kaur is also a freelance writer & photographer and has been published on NBC News, Ms. Magazine, Huffington Post, and other online journals.