A Garden of Black Joy: Global Poetry from the Edges of Liberation and Living

A Garden of Black Joy's anthology of poems, interviews, and essays spotlight black joy not only as a resource of abundance, but as a mode of self-defense. Poets from Berlin to Kiambu, Antwerp, London, and beyond provide a sketch of what black joy means in this moment and how to make use of it in the name of the future.

Featuring poets such as Julian Randall, Quintin Collins, Tara Betts, and Donte Collins, this collection invites voyages to new worlds and new languages to combat constraints and say yes to possibility. A Garden of Black Joy says insurrection starts with seeds, suggestions, and sweetness. With what is gathered here, we begin at a point of departure to grow another future through the literary arts.

This collection is a project of Black Table Arts, an emerging arts organization that conjures other worlds through black art by connecting communities and cultivating volume in black life. Located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Black Table Arts puts black joy on legs and walks it into the living room of the future. It grows community through public programming such as the Black Lines Matter writing classroom at the Loft Literary Center and the Because Black Life Conference.