Stepping back and taking in the Womens Marches around the world has almost been overwhelming. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email. To be able to choose our joy and experience it, this is the freedom so many are fighting for. I have no earthly idea how it happened. For women, this has meant a suppression of the erotic as a considered source of power and information within our lives. The denigration of feminine forms of joy, such as romance novels and films, fashion and home decor, is another manifestation of this insidious form of repression. Something went wrong while submitting the form. This year the theme is resistance. This is the joy of resistance. We danced like Darius was right there with us. Thank you, Martha. Thats right, dancing. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. 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. "But eventually you will find you return to your original behavior and attitudes. Clad in black plastic bags that blend into the cityscape, the consequences of our disposable culture become almost invisible. 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. And joy in that regard is a work that can become a state that can become a way of life. I can only imagine it must have been extraordinary to hear him speak. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. And we'll be back with more next week. 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. In 1915, a soldier named Gotthold von Rohden described a trench adorned with Howitzer cartridge cases that had been used as pots to hold snowdrops. 3. And how do we nurture hope? We cry out for justice. Maya Angelou is a very good inspiration, especially for African American women, saying that she could rise above nations. Now that feels a bit closer to home in this era, a desire for something long ago, far away, about to be. The name "Ofglen" says nothing about who this woman really is; her only identity is as the Commander's property. What happens when somebody walks into a space marked by joy? Nature, whether the wild forest or a manicured garden, has the power to soothe anxiety, reduce rumination, and restore the ability to focus. Released on Partisan Records 31/08/18 1 X LP, includes digital download card Joy As An Act Of Resistance is a parade. They are killed. But what does it mean when you're at some place where the world's trash comes to you and out of that trash, you have to do something. There is that space. Dancing was similarly reviled, and all types of celebration found themselves in the crosshairs of European colonists setting out to spread Christianity and civilization around the world. Bitch Media Editor-in-Chief Evette Dionne put it best in a recent Instagram post: "Joy is a revolutionary force. Joy is a sign of vibrant life, of thriving. I am not suggesting here that joy will always be present in times of mourning. One of the ways it does this is by affirming our humanity. Ethologists have observed chimpanzees celebrating the arrival of a caretaker delivering a bunch of blackberry vines, a favored food, to their enclosure. We've been taught that silence would . True pleasure is more restorative than simply vegging out in front of the TV. 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. But here I'm wondering: if there is not a Christological intervention that the life of Jesus draws us toward, that brings an invitationthat the very form of joy and pleasure and contentment and comfort that you imagine in the enclosed space can actually be something far richer, far more beautiful, far more pleasurable in this new space, in which your joy is constituted with some of the very people who you imagine are a part of your despair, not a part of your joyor those who you imagine their joy that is absolutely in what they find enjoyable is absolutely foreign to what I would. 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. The ones that your heart recognizes in the light & in the dark. 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. 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. We must have the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of this world." They could see that people were attracted to the notion that joy is resistance, and the joy itself is powerful. We rely on the generosity of individuals like you to make our work possible. 119. Singer Joe summarizes: "This album is an attempt to be . Societal change always involves a lot of pain as those with privilege and power often refuse to listen or take responsibility for the suffering theyve caused. Maybe they didn't intend it, but it did. Essentially, hope is the belief that tomorrow can be better than today. Stop. Photo by Maria Baranova. To this point, Brown says, Part of the reason so few of us have a healthy relationship with pleasure is because a small minority of our species hoards the excess of resources, creating a false scarcity and then trying to sell us joy, sell us back to ourselves.. It's the idea that in order to be a good woman, you have to be self-sacrificing. My mother, and three sisters: Jean Cooper, Zwazzi Sowo and Lillian Mark! Miroslav Volf: Thank you very much, Professor Jennings. As you can probably tell, now I don't spend much time in barbershops anymore, but back in the day when I used to spend time in barbershopsbarbershops and beauty shops are really interesting, especially in black communities, because they can be in ways that are, as I like to say, profound realities of indirection and they can be spaces of incredible joy. Thanks so much for your thoughtful feedback. I would say something similar, but I would probably read it in this way. 5. A genuine leader will never exploit your emotions or your pocketbook. Defined as the refusal to accept or comply with something, this year's theme of resistance can apply to so much..too much. 7. Now I do want to take seriously the way in which a community finds joy and creates joy and creates patterns of pleasure that are imagined to only exist in integrity when the outside others are kept out. And so what we have neglected is that joy is fundamentally tied to space. She resisted violence and oppression by asserting her existence and that of those around her. Chair IDEA Committee
The theologian Willie James Jennings said it better than we can: "I look at joy as an act of resistance against despair and its forces all the forces of despair." He said that in 2014, long . How does one forge the weapon of joy in the midst of suffering, oppression? It makes me feel good to give back, not saying no every time. New Submission. One of the challenges of activism is that the fights are long, the progress often slow, and the effort required thankless and grueling. Chimps are extremely hierarchical, so whats notable about these celebrations is that they disrupt the typical hierarchy, prompting a more egalitarian mode of behavior. And I think this is one of the problems theologically in talking about joy that we don't put it on the ground sufficiently, to grasp the way in which joy is always embedded in the flows of community logics, the cultural logics of particular communities. Amid the devastating stresses of a prison so inhumane its being closed, These gardens help repair the damage that people have been through, both in prison and in their earlier lives. says landscape architect Amy Lindemuth They are quiet places to be alone with your thoughts away from the cacophony and stress of the prison environment.. 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. The Joyspotters Guide is a free resource that shares my favorite tips for finding more joy, everywhere you go! Every person and every community must grieve and resist in a way and at a pace that is right and healthy for them. And then the second thing you have to have is a willingness to want to hold on to Life, even when there is very little that makes sense in life. And here I'm not thinking primarily about African-American or African diaspora communities, but I'm thinking about the way in which multiple communities, their joy is inside of a hard segregation. But contemporary hits are just as suspect; the Soviet Union, for example, censored songs by artists as varied as AC/DC, Tina Turner, and Julio Iglesias. Joy takes something that might be threatening to people, such as difference or otherness, and makes it less so. Part of HuffPost Black Voices. $j("#connectPrompt").show(); "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. 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. And when the horse drawn carriage with the bullet riddled body of her slain son passed by, someone from the family in the slowly driven car behind the carriage once again did something that I did not expect. What's killing your joy? Other soldiers wrote home requesting flower seeds to plant. Choir singers heart rates synchronize; musicians playing the same riff have brain waves that line up. I dont know what she meant when she said that, but I know for me it means that I still get to have my joy, my laughter, my sassiness, my thinking, my love of people. 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. We know the ritual all too well. Above all, the new album posits "joy as an act of defiance," Bono said. One to watch out for. 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 look at joy as an act of resistance against despair and its forces. 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