Black Joy
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28 Days of Black Joy: The Art of Chuck Styles
It all started over the past year when like many of us, I made a very hard turn into damn near exclusively buying clothing pieces by and for Black people. While I’ve always been very much into F.U.B.U. as a philosophy (while oddly never buying an actual FUBU apparel) my Buy Black meter hit an…
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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. We’re near the end of Black History Month, but you know we’re poppin’ 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 Renée 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
“Bwown Natalie, Mommy!” In the limited repertoire of language I possessed at 2 years old—mostly comprised of pint-sized commands—my 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 colors—even if I couldn’t 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 “Cheekie.” They still do. It all started during the AOL chat room days and I was a huge fan of Mr. Cheeks’ “Lights, Camera, Action!” 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 Akil’s 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, I’m 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 you’ve 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 aren’t 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 where’d 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 there’s 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 that’s real. But through my life experiences—and recent conversations with scholar André 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, y’all. While, yes, the platform does have a litany of issues and controversies, it’s 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…