#PopsugarReadingChallenge Book 11: Black Joy Unbound

 Popsugar Reading Challenge category: A book about a person of color experiencing joy and not trauma.
Black Joy Unbound: An Anthology, edited by Stephanie Andrea Allen and Lauren Cherelle.

This book's premise overlaps with This Is the Honey, edited by Kwame Alexander. But while This Is the Honey is strictly poetry, Black Joy Unbound includes fiction and essays as well. It's a short but warm, fun and moving book.

All the authors were new to me. The joys discussed range from the big stuff ("Joy Delayed," a short story by Penny Mickelbury about two lesbians finding love in their later years) to more transient pleasures ("Subway Therapist," an essay by Merlee Miller about a dancer brining joy to NYC subway riders).

In Regina YC Garcia's poem "TO: Whom It May Concern RE: Black Joy," she attempts to define what makes Black joy unique:




While yet another layer of joy plants the seeds 
     of the knowledge
     that there are golden pieces of Black gifting,
     of Black strength, even of Black
     prophecy that cannot be removed from
     Black existence.
That is that Black joy -
     knowing that even in derision, there is provision
     in this joy that secrets us
     and the gifts that save us
This joy that reminds us that
     trouble don't last always
     weeping endures for a night
     joy comes in the morning light

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