{"id":75013,"date":"2022-01-31T18:05:58","date_gmt":"2022-01-31T12:35:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/lewis-giggetts-new-book-argues-black-joy-is-resistance\/"},"modified":"2022-01-31T18:07:02","modified_gmt":"2022-01-31T12:37:02","slug":"lewis-giggettss-new-book-argues-black-joy-can-be-resistance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/lewis-giggettss-new-book-argues-black-joy-can-be-resistance\/","title":{"rendered":"Lewis-Giggetts&#8217;s new book argues Black joy can be resistance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div>\n<aside class=\"gnt_em gnt_em__fp gnt_em_vp__tp gnt_em__el\" aria-label=\"Video - Yara Shahidi talks the return of 'grown-ish,' the ending of 'black-ish'\"><\/aside>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Self-care has become a trendy topic. On social media, users love sharing posts about meditation, yoga, and balancing chakras. Before the athletic superstars <a href=\"\/story\/sports\/columnist\/nancy-armour\/2021\/12\/30\/simone-biles-and-naomi-osaka-mental-health-2021-and-beyond\/9043690002\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-t-l=\":b|e|inline click|${u}\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Simone Biles &#038; Naomi Osaka<\/a>Self-care was preferred over working in their respective fields. Women fought for autonomy and reproductive rights, and fought for self-care. Self-care has become more mainstream. However, it should not be overlooked.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">In her new book \u201cBlack Joy: Stories of Resistance, Resilience and Restoration\u201d (Gallery Books, 288 pp., \u2605\u2605\u2605 out of four, out Tuesday), Tracey Michae\u2019l Lewis-Giggetts delivers a collection of ebullient essays showing how self-care\u00a0and joy\u00a0play\u00a0out in the day-to-day lives of Black people.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Lewis-Giggetts demonstrates how Black joy functions as a hidden tool within the practice of Black resistance. Black Power also promoted self-care as a key theme. In addition to its survival programs, which focused on nutrition, clothing\u00a0and health care, party members and leaders\u00a0Ericka Huggins and Angela Davis practiced yoga and meditation during their incarceration.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\"><strong class=\"gnt_ar_b_al\">They want to ban &#8216;Maus.<\/strong><a href=\"\/story\/entertainment\/books\/2021\/09\/27\/banned-books-week-the-bluest-eye-harry-potter-1984-handmaids-tale-goosebumps-golden-compass\/5758877001\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-t-l=\":b|e|inline click|${u}\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">It and these 30 other challenging books are reasons to read it<\/a><\/p>\n<figure class=\"gnt_em gnt_em_img gnt_em_img__inset\"><img class=\"gnt_em_img_i\" style=\"height:463px\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Lewis-Giggetts-new-book-argues-Black-joy-is-resistance.jpeg\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"&quot;Black Joy: Stories of Resistance, Resilience, and Restoration,&quot; by Tracey Michae\u2019l Lewis-Giggetts.\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Media outlets focused on footage and stories of protestors looting and fighting during the Black Lives Matter demonstrations of 2020. As Lewis-Giggetts\u00a0shows in \u201cBlack Joy,&#8221; running parallel to the pain and desperation associated with police violence were acts of pleasure and love. Between marches, protestors danced and sang. Men proposed to their girlfriends, and some couples even had weddings in the middle of BLM protests. \u201cThe engagements and weddings that happened in the middle of marches were too often considered anecdotal for some but were actually intentional acts of defiance,\u201d Lewis-Giggetts writes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside aria-label=\"advertisement\" class=\"gnt_m gnt_x gnt_x__lbl gnt_x__al\"><\/aside>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Blacks have been treated with dehumanization for many generations. By choosing joy\u00a0and acts of love \u2013 such as engagements and marriages during protests \u2013 in the face of trauma and turbulent times, Blacks are exercising their humanity. When Biles and Osaka prioritize their mental health over entertaining America, they were biting back at perceived stereotypes of Black self-worth and giving flesh to all of the enslaved men, women\u00a0and children who were forced to entertain slaveowners on Sundays and holidays. People will not feel joy if they are subject to police violence and inequity. Black joy will not change laws, but it is one of many ways to challenge authority.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside aria-label=\"advertisement\" class=\"gnt_m gnt_x gnt_x__lbl gnt_x__al\"><\/aside>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">In his\u00a0supremely informative book \u201cThe Body Keeps the Score,\u201dBessel van der Kolk explains why traumatizing emotions can get trapped within the body and throw off the nervous systems. Meditation, breathing\u00a0and movement are strategies that can release trauma and restore the nervous system back to its normal state.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\"><strong class=\"gnt_ar_b_al\">More:<\/strong><a href=\"\/story\/entertainment\/books\/2022\/01\/07\/toni-morrison-recitatif-short-story-publish-book\/9136684002\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-t-l=\":b|e|inline click|${u}\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Rare Toni Morrison short story &#8220;Recitatif&#8221; to be published in a book with an intro by Zadie Smith<\/a><\/p>\n<aside class=\"gnt_em gnt_em_anc\" id=\"gnt_atomsnc\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-method=\"loadAnc\" aria-label=\"Newsletter signup form\"><\/aside>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">In \u201cBlack Joy,\u201dLewis-Giggetts portrays a wonderful picture of Blacks dancing passionately and lustily to the beats of shadowy hole in-wall clubs. She also writes of how Black grandmothers, mothers\u00a0and aunties rock back and forth while moaning sweet nothings during Sunday church service. Lewis-Giggetts even shares a narrative of how, as a little girl, she would stand naked in front of\u00a0the mirror mouthing her favorite Mary J. Blige songs, or mimicking the off-kilter flow of E-40. Lewis-Giggetts explains how her joyful, carefree performances made it feel like she was one with the universe.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">This type of body movement, along with meditation, yoga\u00a0and deep breathing, releases the trauma that is trapped inside the body, helping to return the nervous system back to its original state. \u201cThe way the mothers of the church would sway to a beat provided by the shoes and wooden canes, it\u2019s like they knew,\u201dLewis-Giggetts \u201cThey didn\u2019t have the fancy language, the academic jargon for it. They didn\u2019t do any research on somatic experiencing and how moving the body in certain ways can help alter how trauma functions in the body or move it out entirely. They just had the song, and the meditation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Lewis-Giggetts\u2019 new tome adds a square to the quilt of Black radical imagination, posing the question: What type of world do Blacks imagine? \u201cBlack Joy is a poetic and fun reminder that Blacks are obligated to be gentle to themselves. Lewis-Giggetts argues, like the social media posts about self care, that acknowledging joy in everyday life is an act to resist. You just have to look for it.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"gnt_em gnt_em__lp gnt_em_gl gnt_em__el\" href=\"\/picture-gallery\/entertainment\/books\/2020\/08\/20\/100-black-novelists-you-should-read-abi-dare-zora-neale-hurston\/3299705001\/\" data-t-l=\":l|l|c|view gallery:inline promo\" aria-label=\"View Gallery - 100 Black novelists and fiction writers you should read, from Abi Dar\u00e9 to Zora Neale Hurston\" data-g-r=\"nav_mo\" data-g-tn=\"pgcss\" data-g-mtn=\"pg3299705001\" data-g-moh=\"hpgm\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-expanded=\"false\" onmousedown=\"event.stopPropagation()\" onmouseup=\"event.stopPropagation()\" data-c-id=\"3299705001\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"gnt_em_gl_i\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Lewis-Giggetts-new-book-argues-Black-joy-is-resistance.jpg\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" width=\"660\" height=\"372\" title=\"\"><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Self-care has become a trendy topic. On social media, users love sharing posts about meditation, yoga, and balancing chakras. Before the athletic superstars Simone Biles &#038; Naomi OsakaSelf-care was preferred over working in their respective fields. Women fought for autonomy and reproductive rights, and fought for self-care. Self-care has become more mainstream. However, it should [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":75014,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101,3,105,106],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Lewis-Giggetts-new-book-argues-Black-joy-is-resistance.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75013"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}