At Small Sum, we talk a lot about seeing people, really seeing them. From the minute a worker walks into our office, we work hard to ensure everyone feels welcomed, heard, and seen. We see not just their circumstance, but who they are as a person. Valarie Kaur puts this work into words in her book See No Stranger, where she shares her journey and how she discovered the power within the act of love.
That’s why we’re launching the Small Sums Book Club, and our first pick is See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love by Valarie Kaur.
Valarie Kaur is a civil rights leader, lawyer, award-winning filmmaker, and founder of the Revolutionary Love Project. She grew up in a Punjabi Sikh farming community in California, and her life's work has been shaped by love, grief, and a fierce refusal to give up on people. Her question, "Is this the darkness of the tomb, or the darkness of the womb?" went viral after the 2026 election and became a rallying call for people fighting for change.
Her book asks something of its readers. It asks you to look at someone who seems different than you, in different circumstances, with a different story, and a different life. And say: You are a part of me I do not yet know.
" You don't need to know people in order to grieve with them. You grieve with them in order to know them."
That idea sits right at the heart of everything we do at Small Sums. Work boots, bus passes, and job training matter. But so does the posture we bring to every interaction, the choice to stay curious, to listen, to not make assumptions about someone's story before they've had a chance to tell it.
We think this book will give us a shared language for that and a model to implement not just in our professional lives but in our everyday lives. And we can't wait to talk through it with you.
To sign up for our book club and receive updates, click here!
You can learn more about the Revolutionary Love Project by clicking here. Watch the video below to to hear Valarie's message to the Small Sums communtiy!
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