Joy in Texts 

Seeking Joy in Texts

“To truly be free, we must choose beyond simply surviving adversity, we must dare to create lives of sustained optimal well-being and joy.” (hooks, 2021)

“Joy is fun and celebratory, yet it is not only about having fun and celebrating in schools and classrooms (although that is important). It is also the embodiment of, learning of, and practice of love of self and humanity, and care for and help for humanity and the earth. Joy encompasses happiness/smiles, truth, beauty, art, wonder, personal fulfillment, and solutions to social problems of the world.” (Muhammad, 2023,  p. 70)

What do we mean by Joy ?

As we continue to grow our novel database, FSLdisrupt is moving toward joy. We are daring to move beyond inadvertently or intentionally oppressing when exploring stories of racialized people’s oppression.  Too often, when we teach about racialized people, we speak only about their oppression and trauma. At FSLdisrupt, we seek to include books that centre racialized people and their joy. 

Drawing on the works of Gholdy Muhmmad and bell hooks, we know that joy is more than simply happiness; it is a positive, sustained, elevated state of being. Joy includes presenting the lived realities of racialized people, including their love, freedom, creativity, liberation, play, laughter, imaginings, and justice. 

In this way, activism is intertwined with joy. Activism can mean working to counter and eradicate oppressive thoughts, systems, and actions. Activism can be transforming how we view ourselves and those around us, it can mean protesting, or raising awareness. It is multifaceted, but above all, we view activism as bringing (back) joy. Joy and activism have a reciprocal relationship.

We welcome you to share books you would recommend that prioritize racialized people’s joy.

Joy Selection Criteria :

• Centring joy, happiness, love, laughter, play.

• Texts are more optimistic than pessimistic - there are avenues for hope.

• Can have elements of sadness and trauma, but must center justice, freedom, liberation, and/or activism.

• Showing who racialized people can become (windows of possibilities).

• Reflecting current realities (mirrors of realities).