SNATAM KAUR INTERFAITH PRAYER PT.2.
SNATAM
KAUR INTERFAITH PRAYER PT.2.
Snatam Kaur Khalsa (
Punjabi: ਸਨਾਤਮ ਕੌਰ ਖਾਲਸਾ, born
1972 in
Trinidad, Colorado), is an
American singer and songwriter. She lives in
Española, New Mexico. Kaur performs
Indian devotional music, kirtan, and tours the world as a
peace activist. The name "Kaur", meaning "princess", is shared by all female Sikhs.
Her family moved to
California when Snatam was two, living in
Long Beach and
Sacramento. When Snatam was six, the family went to
India where her mother studied kirtan. Snatam lived on a ranch near
Bolinas, California until
8th grade and then moved to
Mill Valley in
1986. During her childhood, she played kirtan with her mother in Sikh temples and at Sikh religious ceremonies. She attended
Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley. While at
Tam High, she played violin in the school orchestra and began songwriting.
Bob Weir of the
Grateful Dead coached Kaur and her classmates before they performed her song Saving the
Earth at an Earth Day concert in
San Francisco on April 22,
1990.[citation needed]
Snatam was also active in social and environmental causes while in high school, serving as president of the social action club known as, "Students for
Justice," in her senior year. The club started a campus recycling program and organized environmental awareness programs. The club also led the effort to change the school mascot and sports team names from the
Indians to the
Red Tailed Hawk in
1989 and 1990 due to a speech given at the school by
Sacheen Littlefeather.[citation needed]
After graduating from Tam, Snatam attended
Mills College in
Oakland, California, receiving a bachelors degree in biochemistry. She then returned to India to study Kirtan under her mother's teacher,
Bhai Hari Singh. In
1997, Kaur began a career as a food technologist with
Peace Cereals in
Eugene, Oregon
In
2000, Kaur signed with
Spirit Voyage Records—the founder of which,
Guru Ganesha Singh, became her manager and guitarist. Her professional collaboration also includes
New Age music producer
Thomas Barquee.
Titles of Kaur's CD's include:
Prem,
Shanti,
Grace,
Anand, and
Liberation's
Door.
On her official web site she states, "
Music is essential in my personal practice.
It's the core spiritual practice of Sikhs." Many of the words are in
Gurumukhi, the sacred language of the Sikhs. "I play the harmonium, guitar and violin, but my main instrument is my voice. It's the way I communicate with my
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