We are so honored and excited to have an amazing line-up of guest speakers sharing their thoughts with us at this year’s Kaur Life Virtual Retreat.
Session 1: Holistic Wellness from a Gurmat Perspective
Jaspreet Kaur
Juspreet Kaur (she/her) is a holistic nutritionist and Natural Family Planning teacher. She has facilitated workshops across the U.K. on well-being for non-white women, menstruation, fertility, and DIY skin care products (as radical self care). Her debut EBook “Deeper Than Beauty” showcases her go-to DIY skin care recipes, along with stripped-back tips on how to care for your skin in an affordable way.
Website: www.kaurhealth.co.uk | Twitter: @KaurHealth | Instagram: @KaurHealth
navkiran “navi” kaur
navkiran “navi” kaur (she/they) is an abolitionist, healer, artist, astrologer, and self-proclaimed nerd. Currently, they work full time at Code2040 as a program associate where they have the honor to work with Black and Latinx computer science students and empowers them with the tools & knowledge for racial equity organizing. Before COVID-19, navi managed and participated in providing doula services for pregnant incarcerated folks. navi has a b.a. in Black studies from UC Santa Barbara and their long term goals include providing first response mental health care, life coaching, and nurturing a farm with loved ones. In their free time, navi enjoys making things with their hands, taking care of their cat & plants, re-reading Harry Potter for the millionth time, and eating.
Website: www.nvknkr.com | Twitter: @nvknkr | Instagram: @nvknkr
Rapinder Kaur
Rapinder Kaur (she/her) is a Registered Psychotherapist, Art Therapist, public speaker, facilitator, clinical supervisor, board member, and founder of Art as Therapy, a community based therapy practice. She has worked with children, teens, adults and parents for 23 years and is passionate about supporting her clients to tap into their innate creativity, believing they have what it takes to manage and overcome even the most difficult of life’s challenges. She also supports organizations with system change work by offering diversity, equity and cultural humility workshops and training.
Website: www.artastherapy.ca/| Twitter: @art_as_therapy | Instagram: @rapinderkaur5
Sangeeta Kaur
Sangeeta Kaur (she/her) has been a Sikh educator for over 20 years through various Sikh camps and retreats. She began teaching at summer camps as a teenager and through the years has expanded her involvement to include strategic planning and organization of various Sikh youth education events. Sangeeta went to college at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where she majored in biology and had a concentration in philosophy. She then went on to medical school at Albany Medical College. Doing her residency training in obstetrics and gynecology, she had a focus on under-served communities. She is currently an associate professor at Oakland University-William Beaumont School of Medicine, is the Section Chief for the generalist OB/GYN division and practices at Beaumont Health-Royal Oak.
Website: www.sikhyouthalliance.org| Twitter: @kurbaani | Instagram: @rkaursangeeta
Session 2: Unlearning Internalized Patriarchy & Misogyny
Gurleen Kaur
Gurleen Kaur (she/her) is a sexual violence prevention educator at MIT. She is a lover of people and the Sikh diaspora. She has hopes and visions of Sikh communities being more open about sex, dating, and relationships. Her work on violence prevention centers on minimizing shame, secrecy, and taboo around these topics. In her spare time, she has recently organized 2 Queer Sikh Meet Ups. Follow her @greengurleen on IG in order to learn more about her events for queer folks and allies.
Instagram: @greengurleen
Jasmin Kaur
Jasmin Kaur (she/her) is a writer, illustrator and poet living on unceded Sto:lo territory. Her writing, which explores themes of feminism, womanhood, social justice and love, acts as a means of healing. As a poet and creative writing facilitator, she has toured across North America, the UK and Australia to connect with youth through the power of artistic expression. Her debut poetry and prose collection, When You Ask Me Where I’m Going (2019), is available with HarperTeen in North America and with Penguin Random House in the Indian Subcontient. Her sophomore novel, If I Tell You The Truth, releases with HarperTeen in Winter 2021.
Website: www.jasminkaur.com| Twitter: @jusmunkaur | Instagram: @jusmun
Mallika Kaur
Mallika Kaur (she/her) is a lawyer and author who focuses on international human rights with particular attention to gender and minority issues. She is the author of “Faith, Gender, and Activism in the Punjab Conflict: The Wheat Fields Still Whisper,” highlighting Punjab’s hazardous human rights movement. Kaur has worked with victim-survivors of gendered violence since 2003, including as an attorney, emergency room crisis counselor, and an expert witness on domestic violence. She is the co-founder and Board Chair of the community-based nonprofit, Sikh Family Center, focused on promoting healthy and violence-free families across the U.S.
Website: punjabconflict.org | Twitter: @mallikakaur
Session 3: Gurbani Vichar – Developing a Personal Connection with Guru Sahib
Balpreet Kaur
Balpreet Kaur (she/her) is an educator, activist, and organizational psychologist with a passion for social impact, research and all things that prompt a deeper reflection on the complexities of life. She’s a firm believer that the world is held up by compassion and courage. Because of this, Balpreet has worked and volunteered extensively with nonprofit organizations across various sectors, including health care, humanitarian aid, and housing to create strategies that increase organizations’ capacity to be better, think better, and, ultimately, do better.
A lifelong learner, she graduated with a master’s of science in applied psychology from the University of Southern California as well as two bachelor’s degrees in international development and neuroscience from the Ohio State University. You may find her teaching, translating texts, learning languages, knitting, baking, watching psychological thrillers, or reading any and every book that strikes her brain cells.
Twitter: @balihaaree | Instagram: @balihaaree
Japman Kaur
Japman Kaur (she/her) has a passion for leading community work and projects, especially involving youth with organizations like Sikh Youth Alliance of North America (SYANA). She co-produced the documentary, “Pingalwara: In Letter & Spirit”. She has been actively attending and organizing Sikh Gurmat camps and retreats for the majority of her life and hopes to continue staying involved in Panthic projects. Japman Kaur is a Program Coordinator at McGill University. She loves to bake, try new recipes and genuinely appreciates a good nap.
Twitter: @chakvee | Instagram: @chakvee
Ramandeep “Rimmy” Kaur
Ramandeep (she/her) is an extroverted introvert who loves panjabi cooking, keertan and community building. She loves meeting new people, diving deep into learning new things, and bringing people together. In the daytime she puts these skills to use as the global product trainer at a tech startup in the bay; on nights and weekends she’s out making new best friends with strangers she meets in other countries at a local pizza spot.
Instagram: @rimmykayy
Retreat Organizers – Kaur Life Board Members
Harleen Kaur
Harleen Kaur (she/her) 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.
Website: www.kaurharleen.com
Isha Kaur
Isha Kaur (she/her) 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.
Twitter: @ikaur319 | Instagram: @adventurepupgrimm & @ishakaur319
Lakhpreet Kaur
Lakhpreet Kaur (she/her) is the founder and editor-in-chief for Kaur Life. Lakhpreet 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. Lakhpreet 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. Lakhpreet is also a freelance writer & photographer and has been published on NBC News, Ms. Magazine, Huffington Post, and other online journals.
Lakhpreet’s personal purpose is to help create a more just, compassionate, sustainable, and creative world, specifically through healing the environment, advocating for Sikh rights, and promoting women’s empowerment while embracing beauty and humor.
Website: www.lakhpreet.com | Instagram: @lakhpreetphoto