Black Joy
Black Joy
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You Get Some Black Joy! And You Get Some Black Joy! Everybody Black Gets Some Black Joy! Love, The Root
Black joy is unmatched. Weâre near the end of Black History Month, but you know weâre poppinâ the other 11 months of the year, too. So, a joyful trio of The Root staff members Danielle Belton (editor-in-chief), Michael Harriot (senior writer) and I, Tonja RenĂ©e Stidhum (staff entertainment writer) decided to spread some joy to…
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28 Days of Black Joy: To the Unforgettable Natalie Cole…With an Everlasting Love
âBwown Natalie, Mommy!â In the limited repertoire of language I possessed at 2 years oldâmostly comprised of pint-sized commandsâmy mother claims this was the most frequent refrain as she buckled me into the backseat of her Buick back in 1977. Like many children that age, I already knew my colorsâeven if I couldnât properly pronounce…
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28 Days of Black Joy: Nicknames That Cancel Out the Need for Government Names
They used to call me âCheekie.â They still do. It all started during the AOL chat room days and I was a huge fan of Mr. Cheeksâ âLights, Camera, Action!â Since I had always been known for my pinchable cheeks (on my face most of my life and…um, the other ones blossomed during my pre-teen…
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28 Days of Black Joy: Black Sisterhood
Mara Brock Akilâs iconic Girlfriends came back into our lives via Netflix last year, but though binge-watching the series (and many others) helped me make it through the mess that was 2020, my real life posse of Black women was even more integral. As I write this, Iâm sitting in a cabin in the far…
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28 Days of Black Joy: Video Games Are a Wonderful Thing
I could never take naps as a kid. Nap time was really just me quietly playing with my toy Batmobile (the Batman Forever one, because I know you were asking) while my mom tried to catch some sleep between work and school. This allergy to rest would inadvertently lead a 4-year-old me to encountering Sonic…
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28 Days Of Black Joy: Connecting Mind, Body and Spirit Through Yoga
If youâve followed me for any length of time, you know that I love yoga. I am especially a fan of vinyasa yoga, an aerobic style of yoga that works your core, shoulder and hip joints in ways many of us arenât used to moving. I do it at least three or four times a…
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28 Days of Black Joy: Candy Ladies
What happens to an auntie deferred? Does she dry upLike a pound cake in the sun?Or open an establishmentthat sells bootleg honeybuns?Does she attend every usher board meeting?or cover her furnitureWith plastic sheeting? Does she sit on the porchand learn how to knit.And whereâd she get those bomb-ass peppermints? As a founding member of Auntiefa,…
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28 Days of Black Joy: Experiencing Black Joy Together
Does Black joy exist if thereâs no one to share it with? I imagine that one could make the argument that Black joy could be an individual act, pointing to the joy that one feels within self, and thatâs real. But through my life experiencesâand recent conversations with scholar AndrĂ© Brock and founder of The…
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28 Days of Joy: Shoutout to the Black YouTubers Who Stay Bringing the Joy
YouTube is a wonderful thing, yâall. While, yes, the platform does have a litany of issues and controversies, itâs still one of the coolest hubs of creativity on the internet. While the pandemic has caused a disruptive effect in just about all forms of entertainment, YouTubers have more or less kept trucking along. While YouTube…
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28 Days of Black Joy: Going Down South to 'Infinite' Cousins
Like many a child of the Great Migration, all my extended family actually lived nowhere near me. My mother âescapedâ Arkansas for Iowa right after graduating from Philander Smith College in Little Rock to become a school teacher, but Iowa was too cold, too white, and too far from her ancestral home, so she moved…