Dear Friends,
In two weeks, we will mark the 20 year anniversary of 9/11. Each year I reflect on this day with a heavy heart. For the thousands we lost in the attacks. And the millions we have lost to hate violence, state violence, and wars since 9/11. In the wake of the horror in Afghanistan, it is even more urgent to ask: How do we reckon with our actions — and reimagine our future?
I am proud to announce our new learning hub page about the impact of 9/11 on people of color. It features stories from Sikh Americans and other BIPOC communities that my team and I have collected in the last twenty years. Watch the film. Read the book. Bring this to your campus & community.
Explore our 9/11 Learning Hub now.
The hub features our award-winning documentary film DIVIDED WE FALL and book SEE NO STRANGER. Both are essential resources for understanding the impact of 9/11 on Sikhs and other people of color. Twenty years later, we are re-releasing the film, along with a dialogue & screening guide. And if you are an educator, we have created educator’s guides for both the film and the book you can use in your classrooms. All available for free.
It’s time to see with new eyes. It’s time to understand how our nation’s actions since 9/11 have failed to make our world safer. And so let us show up to this 9/11 anniversary differently. With revolutionary love as our compass, I invite you to use our learning hub to reckon, heal, and repair.
Imagine with me: What would the world look like 20 years from now if we chose policies and actions that affirm human dignity above all, if we chose to see no stranger?
Let’s find out.
In Chardi Kala — even in darkness, ever-rising joy,
Valarie
P.S. Please share this message with the educators in your life!
#1 DIVIDED WE FALL
The go-to film on hate crimes. in the aftermath of 9/11.
Watch the 20 year anniversary re-release for free.
In the wake of 9/11, a college student sets out across the country, camera in hand, to document stories of hate violence on people of color, especially Sikh Americans. Galvanized by the murder of Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh father and family friend, Valarie Kaur captures stories that were not on the evening news. From the still-shocked streets of Ground Zero to the desert towns of the American west, her journey confronts the forces unleashed in a time of national crisis–racism and religion, fear and forgiveness. Kaur’s film chronicling her journey, DIVIDED WE FALL (2006) with director Sharat Raju, toured in 200 U.S. cities, won a dozen international awards, and became known as the go-to documentary on post-9/11 hate crimes.Now on the 20 year anniversary, we re-release the film for free, available to anyone, along with dialogue and educational guides. Watch to learn the untold story of the impact of 9/11.
Download the Educators’ Guide for the film.
Host a screening and dialogue in your community.
A must-read to understand the decades-long impact of 9/11 on people of color.
SEE NO STRANGER is a personal and communal chronicle of the last twenty years through the eyes of a renowned Sikh activist. Valarie Kaur takes readers through her own riveting journey — as a Sikh girl growing up in California farmland finding her place in the world; as a young adult galvanized by the murders of Sikhs after 9/11; as a law student fighting injustices in American prisons and on Guantanamo Bay; as an activist working with communities recovering from xenophobic attacks; and as a woman trying to heal from her own experiences with sexual assault and police violence. Drawing from the wisdom of sages, scientists, and activists, Kaur reclaims love as an active, public, and revolutionary force that creates new possibilities for ourselves, our communities, and our world.
Download our new Educator’s Guide to teach the book
on the 9/11 anniversary.
#3 The TED Talk
Fifteen years after Balbir Singh Sodhi was murdered in a hate crime after 9/11, his brother Rana Sodhi calls the murderer in prison — and they begin a process of reconciliation. Hear the story in Valarie Kaur’s spellbinding TED Talk (3 million+ views). Through a journey that spans the birthing room to sites of bloodshed, Kaur teaches how to be brave with our grief, harness our rage, and reimagine a world where we leave no one behind.