Our Vision
The Revolutionary Love Project imagines a world where no one is outside our circle of care. We are building a movement to make love the foundation of who we are–and what we do.
Founded by visionary civil rights leader and prophetic voice, Valarie Kaur, the Revolutionary Love Project inspires and equips people to build beloved community, centered on the ethic of love. We teach core practices of Revolutionary Love, backed by research and infused with ancestral wisdom. We produce educational tools, training courses, artwork, films, music, and mass mobilizations to empower citizens from all walks of life to harness love as a force for justice. Together, we teach how to “see no stranger,” be brave with grief, harness rage, listen across differences, reimagine our institutions, and fight for shared humanity.
Why Now?
We believe that the root of the social, political, and economic crises of our time is disconnection–from the earth, from each other, and from ourselves.
We hear Dr. King’s call for a “revolution of values.” We believe the love ethic is essential to birthing a healthy, multi-racial democracy and sustainable planet. It is time for a shift in culture and consciousness–a way of seeing and being that leaves no one outside our circle of care. A revolution of the heart. Revolutionary Love is the call of our times.
Our Mission
We create tools to put love into action in any setting. Using our tools:
- Educators can bring Revolutionary Love into the classroom to their students.
- Communities can gather together for reflection and celebration.
- Families can practice Revolutionary Love in their homes.
- Individuals can feel inspired and equipped to embody Revolutionary Love in their lives.
Our Values
- We lead with love, truth and integrity.
- We commit to justice and equity for all harmed on the basis of race, religion, status, ability, gender, orientation, ability, caste or class.
- We reimagine institutions that serve us all.
- We work toward liberation so all people are free to pursue a flourishing life.
- We return with humility to a sense of wonder for one another and the earth.
- We believe in regeneration and creating ways to sustain life for generations.
- We affirm the humanity and dignity of every person and create institutions that do so.
- We embrace joy as our birthright and create spaces to rise up, sing, dance, and otherwise celebrate the gift of being alive.
Our Team
VALARIE KAUR
Executive Director & Founder
Valarie Kaur is a civil rights leader, lawyer, award-winning filmmaker, educator, and founder of the Revolutionary Love Project. Valarie became an activist when a Sikh father and family friend was the first person murdered in hate violence in the aftermath of 9/11. For two decades, in his memory, Valarie has led visionary campaigns to tell untold stories and change policy on issues ranging from hate crimes to digital freedom. Her work ignited a national movement to reclaim love as a force for justice. Today, the Revolutionary Love Project is seeding networked communities of practice across the country to build the beloved community. A daughter of Punjabi Sikh farmers in California, Valarie lifts up her vision for America in her acclaimed TED Talk and #1 LA Times Bestseller See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love. In Fall 2022, the White House honored Valarie at in the first-ever Uniters Ceremony, naming her as one of 16 leaders whose work is healing America.
HARINI PADMANABAN
Director of Programs
Harini Padmanaban is the Director of Programs at The Revolutionary Love Project where she oversees execution of the organization’s strategic vision. She is passionate about finding innovative ways to impact change at a community level by addressing sociopolitical, environmental and behavioral factors that affect health and well-being. Before joining The Revolutionary Love Project, she was an ORISE Fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the Division of Adolescent and School Health, where her work focused on identifying best practices to strategically address health inequities for youth around the country. Harini received her Doctor of Medicine from St. George’s University School of Medicine and her Master of Public Health with a focus in Health Promotion Research and Practice, from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. She is also a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES).
DR. MELISSA CANLAS
Director of Education
Melissa Ann Canlas is Assistant Professor in International and Multicultural Education at the University of San Francisco (USF). Her work focuses on Ethnic Studies, issues of educational equity, critical leadership, critical pedagogies, and human rights, particularly for immigrant and refugees and students of color. She has over fifteen years of work as an educator, and her work experience includes teaching a wide variety of Ethnic Studies and Asian American Studies classes at the undergraduate level, and serving as the director of APALU (Asian Pacific American Leaders United), a social justice leadership development program at City College of San Francisco. Dr. Canlas’s experience also includes working with middle and high school students through federally funded TRIO programs, teaching and serving as a mentor teacher with Pin@y Educational Partnerships (PEP), and building collaborative partnerships between community organizations and educational programs in San Francisco. In addition to teaching with IME, Dr. Canlas teaches undergraduate courses with USF’s Critical Diversity Studies program and the Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good.
NICOLE MARIE
Early Childhood Pedagogista
Nicole Marie spent fifteen of her twenty years in early childhood education at Evergreen Community School, a progressive social constructivist preschool in Santa Monica, where she served as a pedagogista and mentor teacher. She was a founding member and a mentor teacher for the PILAGlobal, a hub for discourse in early childhood that builds educational spaces for young children displaced by poverty worldwide. In 2016 she was the lead writer for Patagonia’s award-nominated book Family Business: Innovative On-Site Child Care Since 1983. Her work has taken her into educational spaces all over the country and world. Nicole is also currently pursuing a Masters at Harvard Divinity School
Our History
Highlights from the Swelling Revolution
- 250+ million people reached through in-person and virtual mobilization events: the People’s Inauguration, the Solidarity Vigil, the Learning Hub, and our 9/11 Anniversary Campaign.
- 115+ worldwide headlines from CNN to NBC, NPR to the AP, PBS to People Magazine.
- Tens of thousands of people have downloaded our learning materials and taken our courses.
- 250+ partner organizations and visionary leaders support and amplify our movement, including Rev. William Barber II, Rev. Traci Blackmon, Tara Brach, Rabbi Sharon Brous, adrienne maree brown, Sister Simone Campbell, Shepherd Fairey, America Ferrera, Ani di Franco, Van Jones, Eboo Patel, Melissa Harris-Perry, Alicia Keys, Rev. Jacqui Lewis, Rev. Michael-Ray Matthews, Brian McLaren, Rev. Otis Moss III, Parker Palmer, Priya Parker, Ai-jen Poo, Layla Saad, Baratunde Thurston, V (formerly Eve Ensler), Allie Young, and others.
- #1 LA Times Bestseller awarded to SEE NO STRANGER
Frequently Asked Questions
Love is a form of sweet labor: fierce, bloody, imperfect, and life-giving—a choice we make over and over again. Love as labor can be taught, modeled, and practiced. This labor engages all our emotions. Joy is the gift of love. Grief is the price of love. Anger protects that which is loved. And when we think we have reached our limit, wonder is the act that returns us to love.
“Revolutionary love” is the choice to labor for others, for our opponents, and for ourselves in order to transform the world around us. It begins with wonder: You are a part of me I do not yet know. It is not a formal code or prescription but an orientation to life that is personal and political, sustained by joy. Loving only ourselves is escapism; loving only our opponents is self-loathing; loving only others is ineffective. All three practices together make love revolutionary, and revolutionary love can only be practiced in community.
Revolutionary Love materials are for anyone interested in practicing revolutionary love for personal and political transformation.
The Revolutionary Love educator’s guide was designed for educators in the U.S. context, but it can be adapted into other contexts as well. It offers a roadmap to teaching, learning, and practicing revolutionary love in classrooms and communities. The lessons are designed to be accessible to a broad audience, starting with high school students.
Revolutionary Love materials can be used free of charge. We created these resources for everyone, everywhere! You can also sign up for free for our monthly newsletter which will contain reflection prompts, guided practices, and many other useful tips for practicing revolutionary love in your life.
We offer our guides for educators on a sliding scale (pay what you can), beginning at $0. We recommend a donation of $90 for this labor, led by women. We welcome anything you are able to offer to support our work.
We encourage you to use the learning hub in a way that works best for you. We do have some suggestions, though!
- Work with one practice from the revolutionary love compass on a weekly or monthly basis for a deep dive into what you need. You can also use the hub to supplement the course developed by Valarie Kaur, 10 Days to Activate Revolutionary Love.
- Lead your own SEE NO STRANGER book group with the questions and practices contained in the reader’s guide.
- Bring revolutionary love into your classroom or community with a workshop or coursework grounded in the rich lessons and practices from the educator’s guide. We encourage all participants (educators and students) to read SEE NO STRANGER, but we also designed these lessons to be accessible to those who have yet not read Kaur’s full text.
We invite individuals and groups to use all our materials on the Revolutionary Love website within boundaries. For more information, see what is permitted and what is not permitted in the tabs below.
We invite you to use our compass, educator’s guide, and other materials from this website both internally and publicly. You can use it within your organizations, community groups, classrooms, schools, campuses, conferences, and more. You must include the following attribution: The Revolutionary Love Project, RevolutionaryLove.org. All rights reserved.
You can also share and post the revolutionary love compass and materials on social media, within emails and newsletters, and on resource lists with the original link to this learning hub, with the following attribution: The Revolutionary Love Project, RevolutionaryLove.org. All rights reserved.
You can use the Revolutionary Love Educator’s Guide in classrooms, campuses, individual learning groups, community organizations, and other spaces of learning. You are permitted to adapt the Educator’s Guide to meet the needs of your students and communities so long as you maintain the fidelity of the revolutionary love framework and practices. The use of Educator’s Guide must include the following attribution: Canlas, Melissa (2020). See No Stranger: Educator’s Guide. Revolutionary Love Project.
You can use the Revolutionary Love Early Childhood Educator’s Guide in classrooms, individual learning groups, community organizations, and other spaces of learning. You are permitted to adapt the Early Childhood Educator’s Guide to meet the needs of your students and communities so long as you maintain the fidelity of the revolutionary love framework and practices. The use of Educator’s Guide must include the following attribution: Marie, Nicole (2024). An Early Childhood Educator’s Guide to Revolutionary Love. Revolutionary Love Project.
No commercial use is permitted. The framework, compass, or educator’s guide or derivations of its content can never be used to accrue money for yourself or your organization, ie., charging people or asking for donations in a session that includes the framework; or making and selling products based on materials from the Revolutionary Love Project. If you would like to discuss the possibility of partnering or training for you or your organization, please contact us.
Each of us has a role to play in healing, reimagining, and rebuilding our nation. To seed a pocket of revolutionary love means to put the framework to practice right where you are in the way that only you can. Bring revolutionary love into your neighborhood, your place of worship, your industry, your school district, your yoga studio, your home. Practice it with the people you live, work, and commune with each day. Revolutions happen not only in grand moments in public view but also in the spaces where people are coming together to inhabit a new way of being. We birth the beloved community by becoming the beloved community.
