Last year, Starr Dunigan asked me to share a recent moment of Black joy. I told her about being on the dancefloor in Detroit with my sisters – loved, safe and happy.

But I could have just as easily spoken to her about my granny’s funeral. Late summer, in a 100-year-old Black church in the country. Sharing a pew with my sisters, my mother and my little niece. The glowing, tender voice of the Black woman singing “The Angels in Heaven Done Signed My Name.” A moment that promised that even in grief and darkness, there is always something more for us to reach toward.

Starr is the founder of Black Joy, where, as she would say, we tell stories that “center and celebrate Blackness,” stories that “energize you through liberative joy.” But we’re more than just a happy headline on a bleak news day. We seek out that something more for our readers to reach toward.

Through our web articles, social media and twice-a-week newsletter, our writers and producers are chatting with Black folks doing interesting things – a daddy-daughters skate crew, the mom behind those Black Santa mugs, the workshop founder bringing Black American writers to Senegal.

We bring our audience with us as we explore Black arts and craft communities – Black collagers, African American quilters, Black manga creators.

And we also ask and answer questions around caretaking, cultivating and protecting your Black Joy – how to battle the winter blues, what you need to do now to be a good ancestor later, where we can be safe outdoors.

And remind our readers that Black joy has always been a tool of resistance and the work we do is rooted in a deep legacy of movements and thinkers – the Black Arts Movement, the women and queer folk of the Civil Rights Movement, Black and Jewish icons.

Ready for more Black Joy? You can follow us on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok, find our articles over at Reckon.News and have Black Joy delivered straight to your inbox every Monday and Friday by signing up for our newsletter.