During the antebellum period, slave owners weaponized southern Black joy to argue for enslavement, propagating images of “happy darkies.” In contrast, abolitionists wielded sorrow by emphasizing racial oppression. Both arguments were so effective that a political uneasiness on the subject still lingers. In The Politics of Black Joy, Lindsey Stewart wades into these uncomfortable waters by analyzing Zora Neale Hurston’s uses of the concept of Black southern joy. Stewart develops Hurston’s contributions to political theory and philosophy of race by introducing the politics of joy as a refusal of neo-abolitionism, a political tradition that reduces southern Black life to tragedy or social death. To develop the politics of joy, Stewart draws upon Zora Neale Hurston’s essays, Beyoncé’s Lemonade, and figures across several disciplines including Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. Du Bois, Toni Morrison, Angela Davis, Saidiya Hartman, Imani Perry, Eddie Glaude, and Audra Simpson. The politics of joy offers insights that are crucial for forming needed new paths in our current moment. For those interested in examining popular conceptions of Black political agency at the intersection of geography, gender, class, and Black spirituality, The Politics of Black Joy is essential reading.

"When writer, Tracey M. Lewis-Giggetts wrote a piece for The Washington Post, "My daughter reminded me that black joy is a form of resistance" she had no idea just how much or how widely it would resonate with parents across America. As a Professor of English and Race Studies, and a writer whose work focuses on the intersection of race, trauma and healing, she knew that Black joy is truly a weapon of resistance, a tool for resilience. In the outpouring for more on the subject, Tracey saw there was a need for something longer than a thousand words on the subject"--

“Wilderson’s thinking teaches us to believe in the miraculous even as we decry the brutalities out of which miracles emerge”—Fred Moten Praised as “a trenchant, funny, and unsparing work of memoir and philosophy” (Aaron Robertson,?Literary Hub), Frank B. Wilderson’s Afropessimism arrived at a moment when protests against police brutality once again swept the nation. Presenting an argument we can no longer ignore, Wilderson insists that we must view Blackness through the lens of perpetual slavery. Radical in conception, remarkably poignant, and with soaring flights of memoir, Afropessimism reverberates with wisdom and painful clarity in the fractured world we inhabit.“Wilderson’s ambitious book offers its readers two great gifts. First, it strives mightily to make its pessimistic vision plausible. . . . Second, the book depicts a remarkable life, lived with daring and sincerity.”—Paul C. Taylor, Washington Post

As early as the eighteenth century, white Americans and Europeans believed that people of African descent could not experience nostalgia. As a result, black lives have been predominately narrated through historical scenes of slavery and oppression. This phenomenon created a missing archive of romantic historical memories. Badia Ahad-Legardy mines literature, visual culture, performance, and culinary arts to form an archive of black historical joy for use by the African-descended. Her analysis reveals how contemporary black artists find more than trauma and subjugation within the historical past. Drawing on contemporary African American culture and recent psychological studies, she reveals nostalgia’s capacity to produce positive emotions. Afro-nostalgia emerges as an expression of black romantic recollection that creates and inspires good feelings even within our darkest moments. Original and provocative, Afro-Nostalgia offers black historical pleasure as a remedy to contend with the disillusionment of the present and the traumas of the past.

Many scholars have long charged Zora Neale Hurston of naiveté when of racism, romanticism of region, and valorization of the folk. While black feminists have rescued Hurston via her gender and sexual politics (black love is political), they have done so largely by divorcing her thoughts on race from this position. However, this dissertation revives Hurston's position on black liberation politics by introducing the concept called "the politics of joy," which recovers the interplay of race, gender, class, region, and religion in Hurston's critique of contemporary black leadership. Development of this concept is a contribution to black feminism, intersectionality studies, African American and Africana philosophy, and social political philosophy through its implications on concepts of race, gender, sexuality, class, and agency. To develop this concept, this dissertation will draw upon a range of historical figures (W.E.B. Du Bois, Anna Julia Cooper, Richard Wright, John Dewey); a significant portion of the corpus of Hurston's work (letters, memoirs, essays, and folklore material); black feminist thinkers and contemporary philosophers (Audre Lorde, Patricia Hill Collins, Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, Cornel West, Angela Davis, Eddie Glaude, Saba Mahmood, Michel Foucault); and cultural work (past and current) done on hoodoo/Voodoo ( Kamelaah Martin, Katrina Hazzard-Buzzard, Jeffery Anderson). Through an analysis of Hurston's folklore material on religion, this dissertation will demonstrate how black liberation politics is often classed gendered, classed, and regionalized. With hoodoo/Voodoo material as a case study, this dissertation will show that concepts of agency need to be expanded beyond the register of resistance: for there are practices which cultivate resistance but cannot be read as simply resistance. Moreover, this dissertation will show that joy is political in two senses. Not only does representation of joy (i.e. folklore) in black life reveal intra-group tensions, but it also, in a deeper sense, addresses a dimension of black liberation that resistance cannot.

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER San Francisco Chronicle’s 10 Books to Pick * HelloGiggles’ 10 Books to Pick Up for a Better 2021 * PopSugar’s 23 Exciting New Books * Book Riot’s 12 Essential Books About Black Identity and History * Harper’s Bazaar’s 60+ Books You Need to Read in 2021 “A clear, powerful, direct, wise, and extremely helpful treatise on how to combat and heal from the ubiquitous violence of white supremacy” (Elizabeth Gilbert, New York Times bestselling author) from thought leader, racial justice educator, and acclaimed spiritual activist Rachel Ricketts. Do Better is a revolutionary offering that addresses racial justice from a comprehensive, intersectional, and spirit-based perspective. This actionable guidebook illustrates how to engage in the heart-centered and mindfulness-based practices that will help us all fight white supremacy from the inside out, in our personal lives and communities alike. It is a loving and assertive call to do the deep—and often uncomfortable—inner work that precipitates much-needed external and global change. Filled with carefully curated soulcare activities—such as guided meditations and transformative breathwork—“Do Better answers prayers that many have prayed. Do Better offers a bold possibility for change and healing. Do Better offers a deeply sacred choice that we must all make at such a time as this” (Iyanla Vanzant, New York Times bestselling author).

DIVFrom a highly respected thinker on race, gender, and American politics, a new consideration of black women and how distorted stereotypes affect their political beliefs/div