A Year of Black Joy: 52 Black Voices Share Their Life Passions

by Jamia Wilson, Jade Orlando (Illustrations)

An uplifting and empowering illustrated anthology of joyful contributions from 52 contemporary Black voices, including chess grandmaster Maurice Ashley, scientist Dr. Raven the Science Maven, and award-winning author Patrice Lawrence.

 

Curated by award-winning author Jamia Wilson, A Year of Black Joy celebrates the joy, talent, and contributions of 52 Black people from around the world. By sharing the many layers and dimensions of Black life and contributions that exist outside of trauma, readers of all backgrounds will be empowered to share their joy too. Each contributor is an expert in their own field, and the book covers a multitude of topics, from astrology and astronomy to beekeeping and baking.

 

The collection includes an entry for every week of the year, and each contribution is tied to a particular season, event, or celebration. An illustrated, nonfiction component to each entry—such as a guide to healing plants or a tour of the night sky—lets readers dive further into the activity. Presented in a beautiful hardcover format and featuring stunning full-color illustrations from Jade Orlando, AYear of Black Joy is a book to be treasured for years to come.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography

112 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 10, 2023

About the author

Jamia is a feminist activist, writer, and speaker. She joined Random House as vice president and executive editor in 2021. As the former director of the Feminist Press at the City University of New York and the former VP of programs at the Women’s Media Center, Jamia has been a leading voice on women’s rights issues for over a decade. Her work has appeared in numerous outlets, including the New York Times, the Today Show, CNN, Elle, BBC, Rookie, Refinery 29, Glamour, Teen Vogue, and The Washington Post. She is the author of Young, Gifted, and Black, the introduction and oral history in Together We Rise: Behind the Scenes at the Protest Heard Around the World, Step Into Your Power: 23 Lessons on How to Live Your Best Life, Big Ideas for Young Thinkers, ABC's of AOC, and the co-author of Roadmap for Revolutionaries: Resistance, Advocacy, and Activism for All.

Reviews

[Baby Muffin · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing

This book was extremely informative. Learning about talented black people with passions always makes me happy. It’s a perfect book for kids to read with parents, but also for adults like me.

[Barbara Band · Rating 5 out of 5]

52 Black people talking about what brings them joy and sharing hints, tips, poems and more. The scope of this book is amazing - from chefs to life coaches, illustrators to politicians, architects to oceanographers. It's aimed at 7 - 9 years but older children would find it interesting (as well as many adults) and, although it's not been published as such, it would make a great introduction to the exploration of careers.

[Gail DiVico · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book for all ages. All the shared stories were about different different careers and professions. Also included were some pages of crafts with instructions which were interesting. The illustrations were wonderful as is the continuing message about following your dreams and heart's desire. Highly recommend this one.

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

With illustrations that uplift the heart and bios of amazing people, this book was an utter joy to read. I learned about so many incredible Black activists, artists, scientists, cooks, and more. I loved the wide range of fields represented in this book. What a treasure.

[Abby · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED everything about this book, the wonderful mini-perspectives from folks around the word (more UK than US), the opportunities to learn about so many subjects (had never thought of forecasting the weather before as related to joy!), the page borders, even the tactile feel of the covers!

[Angel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The pages??? Beautiful. The people chosen??? Varied, gorgeously illustrated. The topics??? Up to date and SOCIALLY PROGRESSIVE. The pacing??? Perfect, one for every week of the year. I will be gifting this to every black child in my immediate vicinity.

Each page shows a real-life person of colour, their profession/story and some insight/inspiration/activity for kids to engage with. I think the balance of explanation vs encouragement to think for yourself is brilliant.

The topics have great variety and are thoroughly up to date. They not only cover the expected, like authors and artists, but self care, gardening, social media and sciences. Activism, travel, sports, women in STEM, disability rep. I think ANY child would benefit from this exposure to history, culture and self-expression.

I felt so much joy seeing the representation and successes of modern black people. I almost had a little cry, I'll be honest.

[Ashley : bostieslovebooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the format of this which featured two pages for each of the 52 Black people included — the first, a description of what their passion is/what brings them joy and the second, a related nonfiction piece. There’s an entry for each week of the year, themed with points on the calendar such as International Dog Day, Classical Music Month, and Mindfulness Day. The expansive variety of backgrounds and professions represented was great. With engaging illustrations and accessible writing geared toward younger readers, this book was a joy to read! I could see this being used in a classroom setting to not only promote reading Black voices but also as a template for students to write/create about their own passions.