Willie Jennings joins Miroslav Volf to discuss the definition of joy as an act of resistance against despair, the counterintuitive nature of cultivating joy in the midst of suffering, the commercialization of joy in Western culture, joy segregated by racism and slavery, how Jesus expands and corrects our understanding of joy. a piece on the power of the garden at Rikers Island. $j("#connectPrompt").show(); 7. Like Romeo, Juliet sees love as a kind of freedom, "boundless" and "infinite.". Willie Jennings is Associate Professor of Systematic Theology, Africana Studies, and Religious Studies at Yale University; he is an ordained Baptist minister and is author of The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race,Acts: A Commentary, The Revolution of the Intimate, and most recently, After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging. ALLI is a paid 10-week teen leadership intensive where 25 youth are trained in artistry, social justice, and organizing. The power of celebrations goes beyond the energy they create. I do say you can go back upstairs and get another ticket, but I also give them all the food thats left at the end! $22. Release Calendar Top 250 Movies Most Popular Movies Browse Movies by Genre Top Box Office Showtimes & Tickets Movie News India Movie Spotlight. Bono asked, anticipating one reaction. What dictators know is that joy has a propulsive force, and that anything that gathers and channels that energy threatens to upend the rigid control of a population. As Cara Page says in an interview with Adrienne Maree Brown, If were not imagining where were going, then it will constantly just be pushing back outside from inside of cages, as opposed to imagining whats happening outside of cages. Hope is a form of emotional vision that stokes our motivation and fans the flames of change. The album was a huge critical & commercial success, peaking in the UK Albums Chart at No. What would that space look like for you? We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day. As I said, there is the kinds of spaces constituted by practices of joy, like in music, as I call it "sonic space." Lewis. I see the outcome of their efforts now that Im older. I am printing this post in order to keep the many good points at hand. Thanks so much for your thoughtful feedback. Joy is the serious business of Heaven. The world has enough anger and fear to last for seventy lifetimes. Justice is denied. Singer Joe summarizes: "This album is an attempt to be . $j("#facebookRegPrompt").hide(); They moved the needle forward by challenging stereotypes in a very aggressive and sometimes shocking manner, forcing important gender issues to the forefront while demanding equality in how women were seen and treated. We're grateful that you're listening. Seeing her and PARCES gives me hope for Colombias future. But isn't difficulty, suffering, hardshiparen't these necessary conditions for joy to even take place? Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. Joy, and celebrations in particular, focus our attention on our commonalities, not our differences. It is a parade of naivety, of a warm embrace, it is Young Thug's dress. They cannot take it." Lauren Oliver, Delirium tags: courage , love , resistance , strength 1065 likes Like There's also the Black Joy movement, sprouted alongside Black Lives Matter, which celebrates the happiness,. We'd invite you to bring that same joy in supporting this work. And so the question becomes for me: can there be a form of joy that helps to constitute identity that happens in the in-between, in the gathering of different peoples? Released 31 August 2018 on Partisan. As I like to say, Christians, we are geographically adrift. Black Joy as an Act of Resistance Erica Lasan (Photo: Robert Carter) Erica Lasan BS'09 (Metro) Joy Strategist By Kenna Caprio Erica Lasan, BS'09 (Metro), deals in joy. The only problem in your life is your mind's resistance to life as it unfolds. Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkF_G-RF66MUK punk outfit IDLES returns with an album that improves on the brutal and politically charged style the b. People who refuse to stop believing. At that moment, I witnessed the joy of a community that, even in mourning, knew that it had access to one of the most powerful tools of resistance to a system of state sponsored violence and oppression that seeks to crush the joyful spirits of vibrant communities like these. And we know thatand my own experience in churches is that that's often what happens, a kind of infection of joy. Two . Continue to get inspired by watching the movie Hidden Figures which features brilliant women like Dorothy Vaughn who used mathematical formulas to launch John Glenn into space. It takes something for joy to be brought forth, and I love that youre standing from this viewpoint. These experiences of synchrony create a physiological experience of community, one that can be profoundly unconscious. Black joy is also important for representation. Wells and Zora Neal Hurston. Every person and every community must grieve and resist in a way and at a pace that is right and healthy for them. Bitch Media Editor-in-Chief Evette Dionne put it best in a recent Instagram post: "Joy is a revolutionary force. In a world full of turmoil, remember that joy is an act of resistance! - Psalm 30:5. Miroslav Volf: How does one find the kind of strengths? The more dehumanizing the circumstances, the more we need these markers of our humanity. Marsha was a performer and activist who dedicated herself to supporting the most vulnerable LGBTQ New Yorkers with clothes, food and resources. Joy is an act of resistance. Its almost a platitude in the Trump era, visible across Instagram on embroidered banners and fine calligraphy, on t-shirts and tote bags. I would say something similar, but I would probably read it in this way. For me, the work of an organization like Publicolor, which paints neglected New York City schools with vibrant colors, restores abundance to a place where this false scarcity has been imposed. Happy to read and share the best inspirational Joy As An Act Of Resistance quotes, sayings and quotations on Wise Famous Quotes. Hope is an elusive yet vital ingredient for activism. It's a parade of my Grandfather's wit, it is all the shit haircuts I've ever had. Miroslav Volf: I'm here with Willie Jennings, a very good friend of mine. Funded by the John Templeton foundation, gathering a diverse group of scholars and practitioners, including theologians, philosophers, pastors, psychologists, the project sought to restore joy to the center of Christian reflection, and what it means to live a good life, a life worthy of our humanity. Take, for example, The Singing Revolution: a four-year series of protests involving mass singing demonstrations that swept across Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia between 1987 and 1991, eventually leading to their independence. In 1915, Dr. Carter Godwin Woodson, Alexander L. Jackson, William B. Hartgrove, George Cleveland Hall, and James E. Stamps told their story and changed the world by founding what has become Black History Month. According to the survey, which was released in 2019, only five percent of authors are Black; four percent are literary agents; one percent comprise editorial; and less than 5 percent . Joy is an Act of Resistance Chapter Leadership Brief 2.10.2023. That is, especially in the face of a brutal and oppressive empire, the power to have joy is the power to resist. At EL Education's 2022 National Conference: A World of Good, Sydney joined school counselor Dominique Sawyer and fellow SAC members Stephanie Kacou and Marissa Barnwell for a panel . "For Black folks, joy and resistance aren't really that separate," Waheed tells me over Zoom. Coming back to Audre Lorde: The sharing of joy, whether physical, emotional, psychic, or intellectual, forms a bridge between the sharers which can be the basis for understanding much of what is not shared between them, and lessens the threat of their difference. Joy, and celebrations in particular, focus our attention on our commonalities, not our differences. A genuine leader will never exploit your emotions or your pocketbook. People who refuse to stop believing. For in that moment, he truly was. No doubt you won't find many people who regularly think about their lives in this very moment and associate joy. "Resistance is the secret of joy." Alice Walker 20. And not every church I've been is a space of joy. Whatever that is, go find your joy. This week, we're featuring a conversation between Miroslav and Willie James Jennings, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology and africana Studies at Yale Divinity School. This inexplicable power to dance in the midst of mourning is not to be smugly dismissed, as has many suggest, as some sort of slave religion or momentary hyper-spiritualized pie in the sky delusion. But the most celebratory of all animals are our closest relatives, the chimpanzees. So depriving a group of people of joy, whether through an outright ban, or the denigration or shaming of their sources of pleasure, or through economic means, is a method of dehumanization. . It wouldn't be easy to find her, now. Studies show, for example, that feeling joyful can mitigate something called the own-race face bias, where people tend to recognize differences in faces of their own race while failing to distinguish faces of other races from one another. Last week I attended a dinner party inspired by Marsha P. (P for pay-it-no-mind) Johnson, who ignited the Stonewall Rebellion. Nurtured by centuries of spiritual practices both in Africa and here in America, this a bold and prophetic act of resistance and defiance of a demonic force that seeks to kill you and to snuff out your joy. And lastly, joy provides a glimpse of a better future that keeps us motivated to work toward it. When asked about her experience of being an Asian American woman . It's a parade of laughing at the funeral, of listening to the bastards, of phlegm on the mirror. We are a people that has born witness to and embodied the miraculous ability to dance on the head of the enemy of our souls and press on to create a future that we do not yet see, and to do it with defiant joy. 5. Joy as an Act of Resistance is the 2nd album by British rock band Idles. It's the parade . And there's something very powerful about a womb of joy that nurtures and helps constitute identity. After all, struggles for justice are often also struggles for the acknowledgement of an oppressed groups full humanity. PTKF2158-5. As I stood amid a sea of mostly young black faces at New Revelation Baptist, I found myself seeking my own new revelation by asking hard questions about what has become a dangerously mundane ritual around young black bodies. Hallelujah. Black History Month, the creation and celebration of it, is such a cause and proof that a powerful story can change the world! But if you can give, if you're truly passionate about supporting podcasting that's all about pursuing really living lives that are worthy of our humanity, then consider a gift to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture. Visit faith.yale.edu/give. Im sorry that this post left you sad! We can be fluid, flexible when we have to be. Folk or traditional music is typically condemned, such as in Nazi Germany, which targeted Jewish music. Maybe they didn't intend it, but it did. But to become free, you have to be acutely aware of being a slave., You see, the point is that the strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone., Pain is a relatively objective, physical phenomenon; suffering is our psychological resistance to what happens. It's a robust act of resistance against despair. Not enjoyment. Get 'JOY AS AN ACT OF RESISTANCE' - https://idles.lnk.to/joy Thank you! It's the idea that in order to be a good woman, you have to be self-sacrificing. I think there are artists, musicians, painters, and others who have shown that there's possibilities of living in being sustained by a form of joy that is not homogeneous, that is fully captured inside, if you willan expanding world of different people being brought together inside the sheer love of the music, for example. We cry out for justice. Kathleen Hanna, like Marian, suffered from sexual abuse at a young age and used the stage to not only wrestle with her pain, but also to establish the riotgrrl movement. History month and why rewriting history to exclude the African American's place in it is so perfidious, its founder said it best, "If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the . And to push it even further, some of them just didnt care about educating men or changing their minds. In Trinidad, the British banned drumming. We relive the same ritual again, and again, and again. It counters and contrasts with the rigidity and control of oppressive structures in a non-violent way. Round your celebration out by listening to your favorite R&B, Rock, or Country song knowing that those genres were derived from the melodious sounds of Jazz. What's killing your joy? Welcome back. Joy is not necessarily the absence of suffering, it is the presence of God. Barbara Ehrenreich notes that in South Africa among the Namaquas, it was said that someone who converted to Christianity had given up dancing.. Ive been thinking about these questions for a long time, and I believe there are at least six ways that joy can sustain activism. By Crystal Fields-Sam But in context where that isn't fully, hasn't fully taken hold, the people's work of creating joy is there. These women have shown me what strength, determination, compassion and accountability look like and taught me to not take no s**t from anybody (lol)! How to reclaim freedom from all kinds of bullshit. I never saw anyone take so much crap due to her love for and commitment to women and girls as Kathleen. And it creates a very different way of thinking about joy. Whether its the transcendent joy of sacred ritual or the simple joy of cultivating a garden, the pursuit of joy amid great struggle is a way to tend our humanity when it is most threatened. No. He provides a perfectly painted picture that shows the pain, joy, and triumph of resistance. "The path of least resistance is what makes rivers run crooked." - Elbert Hubbard. Miroslav Volf: And in some ways you've got this space for joy, but you can constitute in it also a space of joy. Miroslav Volf: What is joy for you as a theologian, as a church men, as a black man? Join our email list for theological and cultural commentary, educational resources, and more. She resisted violence and oppression by asserting her existence and that of those around her. John Keats Your success and happiness lies in you. And what we have to understand is it's precisely that kind of geographic dimension that we have to think about, if in fact we want to think beyond segregated joy. Sometimes people in the coffee shop offer to help me out, even though I tell them they dont have to, but when they do help I say to them, Hey, on fried chicken day, I got you.. Willie Jennings: Well, practically you have to have people who you've heard sing those songs in strange lands. They are killed. And so we must risk delight. And we must know that to do so is not a distraction from resistance, but one of its greatest sources of power. How does one forge the weapon of joy in the midst of suffering, oppression? She lives in my native and beloved city of Bogot, Colombia, where she divides her time between teaching and working for an amazing nonprofit, PARCES. Check out our joy as an act of resistance selection for the very best in unique or custom, handmade pieces from our t-shirts shops. "Go find your joy. I get to have all that no matter how ugly things look. But another way that joy can support activism is that it disarms. The less you think about your oppression, the more your tolerance for it grows. It is a part of the empire of advertisement that they do the work, the creative work, of presenting to you what is joyful and what can become part of the reality of how you create enjoyment and pleasure. They work tirelessly to defend the rights and safety of sex workers in downtown Bogot and the broader LGBTQAI community who suffer not only from social stigma but also police brutality. The collective representation of Black people in the industry is abysmal, as evidenced by multicultural children's publisher Lee & Low's baseline survey. But, the reality of it is that I have been in spaces of joy in hospital rooms, gathered with a family and a loved one who's passing on, but there are rituals of remembrance going on, grief processes being begun, and in the midst of that, incredible joyjoy connected to sorrow. Thank you! if (this.auth.status === "not_authorized") { We rely on the generosity of individuals like you to make our work possible. Willie Jennings: It's brought to us. Miroslav Volf: I don't know whether I'm maybe romanticizing things, but it seemed to me that from what I have observed growing up, but also when I have traveled, that I find more joy in the midst of oppression in almost paradoxical way, than I find in plenty. Resistance creates suffering. faith.yale.edu/media/joy-and-the-act-of-resistance-against-despair. Its one thing to be able to envision a better future, but its another to have a momentary flash of it course through our bodies. I love you. Weve seen how joy restores, unifies, and propels. Christopher McCandless It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge. But fundamentally, that is built uponand I never want to draw too sharp a distinction between other kinds of spaces and that geographic spacewe really should start to attend to where do we find joy, where do we find joy. Cal State Fullerton African American studies professor Mei-Ling Malone explains: "Black joy is an act of resistance. Rated #20 in the best albums of 2018, and #2063 of all time album.. In context where your energies have to be focused on survival, it doesn't leave a lot of energy for overt forms of complaint. And like an old cassette tape, the world presses stop, rewind, and play. She poured her heart out on stage, she demanded that the men stand back so that women could literally and metaphorically come forward as she very bluntly called out misogyny. In the current national climate, it is more crucial than ever that we resist and repel the misogynist forces arrayed against us, and that we unconditionally stand with the women and LGBTQI people who are put at risk under the dangerous policies of the current administration. Joy as an Act of Resistance (and who, pray tell, can resist a title like that?) It is one the things that makes us truly human. Henri Nouwen" 3. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. We're passionate about making this work consistently accessible to people who are genuinely concerned about the viability of faith in a world racked with division, contested views about what it means to be human, and what it means to live life well. Lorde uses the word erotic, meaning a form of deep, sensual (not necessarily sexual) pleasure, but I think you could easily use the word joy if it makes more sense to you: Recognizing the power of the erotic within our lives can give us the energy to pursue genuine change within our world, rather than merely settling for a shift of characters in the same weary drama., Ive talked a lot about the joy of communal celebration, but we can also find it in nature. }); I loved your book, and this post really lifted my spirits. What would be great is if we start to think more intentionally about how such spaces are constituted and how might such spaces, the constitution of such spaces be a fundamental part for those of us who are Christian in our discipleship. "Secondary choices are always subordinate to a primary choice. Protest is when I say I refuse to go along with this anymore. Audre Lorde wrote eloquently about how caring for oneself is an act of resistance. Events may create physical pain, but they do not in themselves create suffering. Joy is an act of resistance: how to reclaim your identity and find your voice - Anil Sebastian - Change Makers Podcast Joining Michael Hayman today is Anil Sebastian, the artist, musician and creative director of specialist sonic branding agency DLMDD. So, simply put, joy can be considered resistance because its a form of energy for change, as Lorde puts it. When thinking about how you can celebrate African American History month this month and throughout the year, remember that poet Toi Derricotte said, "Joy is an act of resistance." She is a badass! When psychologists study people engaged in communal singing, dance, or other rhythmic forms of entertainment, they find that we become connected on a physical level. Research shows that small bursts of positive emotion can help reset the bodys physical responses to stress, so that people can continue to fight from a place of wellbeing and strength. It is mind-boggling to them that Black people can still find peace. As a Christian pastor, I could not help sense that I was bearing witness to the embodiment of Isaiahs prophecy that you have turned my mourning into dancing, my sorrow into joy. How on earth is anyone to find solace in the midst of such overwhelming grief? I want our guests to know that I love them and appreciate them. They rolled the windows down, and turned the music all the way up to play one of Dariuss favorite songs. Willie Jennings: I like singing a song in a strange land. Their mission is to protect and support the dignity of marginalized individuals and communities. Miroslav Volf: They're slightly drunk, in any case. (44.15) All of the Handmaids at this posting (Glen's) are called Ofglen (of Glen). - C.S. People who love in a world without walls, people who love into hate, into refusal, against hope, and without fear. If you're new here, please hop onto my email list so I can send you weekly emails full of GIFs (and also podcasts, articles, and generally amusing cheerleading for . Joy is the story of the title character, who rose to become founder and matriarch of a powerful family business dynasty. It could not have lasted for any more than two minutes. There IS hope!! Joy is an act of resistance. They could see that people were attracted to the notion that joy is resistance, and the joy itself is powerful. Even though looking back now I have some mixed feelings on the group, at the time they did provide a new type of role model to young women and paved a path for other women in the industry by not fitting into the existing generic mold. Joy is an act of defiance." *** Many of the songs, Bono said, are like letters addressed to specific recipients: his family, his friends, the audience, America. Stories are told, jokes are told, people walk in, comments are made, and without you being spoken to directly, you've been spoken to. Every year African American History month has a new theme. The whole idea of oppression is to keep people down. Absolutely that. Stop. You have to have conditions set up where those people who have learned how to ride the winds of chaos can say to you, "Come on, let me show you how to do that." "I write for those women who do not speak, for those who do not have a voice because they were so terrified, because we are taught to respect fear more than ourselves. Joy as an Act of Resistance., an Album by Idles. I think for me this topic brings a mingling of sadness and hope, so perhaps that carried through into the post. Reclaiming those sources of joy is a way to refuse to be dehumanized, to reassert our vitality. Founded by Ingrid Fetell Lee, we celebrate the power to create a happier, healthier world through design. This talk will give viewers a bird's eye view into what it means to be Black, millennial, and socially conscious. Joy takes something that might be threatening to people, such as difference or otherness, and makes it less so. This is the joy of resistance. It was released in August 2018 and recorded throughout 2017-18. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words., Where there is power, there is resistance., It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end., People get used to anything. How does one cultivate joy? Albert Einstein A thing of beauty is a joy forever: its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness. People who refuse to come to earth. When Im in the coffee house [GLIDEs dining room reserved for families, the elderly and the physically disabled] and people are sitting there still hungry, I dont rush them out or ask them to leave. She resisted violence and oppression by asserting her existence and that of those around her. At one level, it is tied to real spaces and places. If someone puts their hands on you make sure they never put their hands on anybody else again., We live in capitalism. And we did. Now that feels a bit closer to home in this era, a desire for something long ago, far away, about to be. Things arent perfect, but these bold women are responsible for a lot of change in thought around girls and women what they are capable of, their value, their position, etc. Miroslav Volf: Thank you very much, Professor Jennings. He is the author of the Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race, as well as his most recent book After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging.Jennings' joy is not for the faint of heart, the fair-weather friend, or a life of ease. Eugene H. Peterson We are two abysses - a well staring at the sky. They have always looked out for the marginalized and supported them in how to equalize themselves and not victimize themselves. In the Gospel of John, Jesus explains that the very point and the purpose of his teachings on love and keeping his commands are "so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.". Shocked that the man would trade something so essential to his survival, Wiesel asked him, Hanukkah in Auschwitz? And the man replied, Especially in Auschwitz.. I am not suggesting here that joy will always be present in times of mourning. My pleasure. This is not what they imagined. Watching a pride parade, teeming with people dressed in all shades of ROY G BIV, the line between protest and party blurs, and its hard to sit on the sidelines in judgment. Author Cheryl Strayed writes in her book Wild about how her mother made a choice everyday to find peace, even when things were difficult. But when you see mounds of hot pink trash bags piled on a curb, it offers a striking, yet not aggressive, reminder to be less wasteful. Now, obviously we're talking beyond a kind of cultural tourism or kind of theological tourism. Resistance is when I put an end to what I don't like. Celebratory joy creates unity on an emotional and a physical level, and a unified populace is harder to dominate. Some of the containers holding the archives were dug up from . ("Joy of the Sabbath") and founded by historian Emanuel Ringelblum (1900-44). Miroslav Volf: You've spoken about kind of segregated joy, joy that's part of a particular identity inherited, forged in adversity, and in your particular case, as a legacy of slavery. I could not help but hear Nehemiah encourage his people to rebuild by saying that the joy of the Lord is your strength when they were being oppressed by a brutal and ruthless power. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. I also like, as I love to say, I'm making productive use of pain and suffering in the absurd, not in order to take them lightly, but to take them very seriously, but not to make them gods. It's almost like joy is this plant that is more easily springs in adversity than it does in a kind of plenty and posh kind of life that breeds more indifference. Thank you so much for the kind words, Helen! Well, as the organist played and the choir sang, Jesus is My Help, she was dancing. Genres: Post-Punk, Post-Hardcore. Every morning, you wake up, and your mind tells you it's too early, and your body tells you you're a little too sore, but you've got to look deep within yourself and know what you want and what you're striving for." You can build walls all the way to the sky and I will find a way to fly above them. And there are many of us out there, more than you think. Celebrations function in much the same way in human life. If you need to flag this entry as abusive. //
