In a June 2020 Washington Post perspective piece, Tracey Michae’l Lewis-Giggetts writes about a powerful moment in her everyday life when she and her 8-year-old daughter got caught in a rainstorm. In the midst of and despite all that 2020 was, and what Black life is every day, Lewis-Giggetts’s daughter burst into a goofy dance. Lewis-Giggett soon followed, then they both burst into uncontrollable laughter.
Lewis-Giggetts contemplates what that burst of joy really meant. She writes that it was more than just a release from pandemic stress and casual racism. That joy was “a necessary form of resistance because it clearly punches the lights out of the pervasive dehumanization we encounter every day,” and it “illuminated just how powerful and healing black joy can be for black people.”
Lewis-Giggetts has expanded that powerful vignette into a full-length book about Black joy. The picks below include that title and others that highlight the joy, comfort, love, creativity and other positive experiences that are integral parts of the full humanity of Black lives.
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A collection of creative works ranging from essays to photographs to poems that examine Black identities now and in the future are presented in art-exhibition catalog style. You can also check out this title as eBook on OverDrive/Libby or as eAudio on OverDrive/Libby.
Examines the importance of joy preservation in Black lives as acts of self-healing and resistance.
This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on OverDrive/Libby.
A collection of pop culture essays that mix social criticism with the ravings of true pop culture nerds.
What could be worse than having the opening day of your ice cream shop foiled by a snowstorm? Finding the dead body of someone with connections to your family right outside. Can Bronwyn clear her family’s name while keeping their business afloat? You can also check out this title as eBook on OverDrive/Libby, as eAudio on OverDrive/Libby or as eAudio on Hoopla.
A coming-of-age story told by 10-year-old Kentatta Bernice after her world is turned upside-down by her arrival at her grandfather’s house for the summer after her father’s death.
Torn between finding an answer to her aunties’ title question and finding herself after the surprise of being laid off from her banking job, Nigerian British Yinka starts volunteering at a homeless shelter and starts coming into her own.