I'm Irenosen Okojie, I'm an author. In my humble opinion,
black joy should be embedded within the fabric of our culture
and shouldn’t just be temporary or fleeting.
So black joy is expanding the notion of what black artistry is
and it's contributing to the culture,
it's shaping what conversations we have.
It's being completely free and unencumbered in terms of ideas
and having absolute agency.
And I think being your most authentic self,
because sometimes it can be difficult
operating within the Western structure
in terms of how we express ourselves as artists
and how we celebrate our culture.
If I were to give concrete examples of what black joy means to me,
I would say it's reading a June Jordan poem,
it's watching a Barry Jenkins film,
it's listening to a Fela Kuti record on a hot day,
it's looking at an image of a Basquiat exhibition.
All of these things represent black artistry and black innovation
and the complete freedom and joy that I think is important as an artist.
There's so much happening that signifies black joy at the moment.
We're seeing our stories filter into the mainstream
and finally this idea of whose story is valuable
is coming to the forefront.
And black stories are taking precedence,
not only coming to the forefront but shaping cultural narratives
and having a really huge impact.
So, if we look at for example Black Panther, I would say that
that's a huge cultural moment in terms of black joy
and just the ripple effect it had globally.
It shattered every preconceived notion or myth
about whether black stories are valuable,
whether they translate into the mainstream,
whether they're too niche or audiences will go and see them.
Here we have a film about an imagined African kingdom
that celebrates black innovation and black culture and authenticity,
but told using an Afrofuturist aesthetic, and it just made people
sit up and take notice.
I think the issue for me is that very much what's happened
a lot of the time and for a long time is black trauma
has been something that's been at the forefront, so problematic areas
like knife crime, and what that does in the long term
I think is that it creates a warped sense of what black culture is.
So we don’t see enough of black achievement and black celebration,
what you get is this idea of a community being majorly problematic
and there are problems in any community.
So now more than ever with these stories coming out,
it's just a great counter because it shows that's not all we are.
I think our cultural gatekeepers need to be more open minded,
need to feed themselves more and read more and listen more
and create spaces to talk to people from those communities
and from the black community in particular.
And I think that will shape and change things.
So, it's just about being more open,
being more empathetic, listening and thinking about not just
seeing yourself reflected, but other audiences.
So if you're somebody in a position of power, say for example
you’re a commissioning editor or a producer, look around you.
Who's at the table? What do they look like? If they all just look like you,
then that's an issue.
Thinking really imaginatively and creatively and wanting to be
very, very experimental in terms of how I approach what I do.
So again to counter some of the negative ideas or stories around
black culture, so thinking about celebrating what we've achieved.
So for example, my debut novel, part of it was set in the Benin Kingdom,
and my family are from Benin, so it was about reclaiming a lost heritage,
a kind of lost legacy,
and how fantastic it was to know about this kingdom,
to know about the level of art and history, we need to think more
imaginatively about what the fullness of blackness is and that
it's complicated and nuanced and really interesting
and to mind that and present that to the forefront.
Thanks for watching! :)
Don’t forget to subscribe and click the bell to receive notifications for new videos.
See you again soon.