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In the documentary What Happened, Miss Simone? (Kelly & Garbus, 2015), there is a scene in which Nina Simone is sitting in a café wearing an oversized hat, her stunning flawless black skin is glowing, and her eyes speak to the soul of every Black child about the role of an artist and what art should reflect. She passionately and without hesitation tells the interviewer: "An artist's duty, as far as I'm concerned, is to reflect the times." Simone's words intend to push artists to create art that challenges the world to see humanity, to see justice and injustice, to convey the complexities of being human. Her words should also push educators and researchers who create antiracist language arts pedagogy not just to reflect Black folx pain and trauma, but also to center Black joy.
With good reason, antiracist language arts pedagogy is focused on dismantling the racism that is deeply ingrained in the field of language arts (Baker-Bell, 2013, 2020; Turner & Ives, 2013). However, we argue that antiracist language arts pedagogy is incomplete without Black joy. Centering Black joy within antiracist pedagogies allows Black people to be more than their struggles and setbacks, and to see Black folx creativity, imagination, healing, and ingenuity as a vital part of antiracism (Love, 2019). Black joy is the radical imagination of collective memories of resistance, trauma, survival, love, and...