What are your favorite songs about (or that inspire) joy or celebration?

Alexander Hardy
getsomejoy
Published in
4 min readMay 25, 2022
“The Sugar Shack” by Ernie Barnes

One of the questions we ask on our traveling Community Literary Therapy Wall is “What does joy mean to you? How does it look, feel, sound, taste?” and I’m always impressed by the vivid descriptions people use to describe joy as a multi-sensory experience.

“Homemade gumbo in my slow cooker,” one person told us at the Black Joy Parade.

“Joy is an Inner Peace and feels like warmed Shea Butter poured all over my Body! It sounds like Nancy Wilson and taste like eating French Fries all Day!” from GetSomeJoy Ambassador Nubia Ptah on Instagram.

“It tastes like red onions and scallion cream cheese on a Beauty’s bagel. Pure enjoyment,” from our Literary Therapy Check-Ins at LavaMaeX pop-up care village in Downtown Oakland.

What songs channel that feeling?

We’ve asked community members during GetSomeJoy’s mental health check-ins on Twitter Spaces, Literary Therapy workshops, and across Janet Jackson’s Internet:

What songs come to mind when you think about joy? What are some of your favorite songs about, that inspire, or are connected to joy and celebration?

We cast a wide net and didn’t put any parameters on our requests.

These could be party songs...

(“Electric Boogie” by Marcia Griffiths)

…or praise james…

(“Revolution” by Kirk Franklin)

…hunching soundtracks…

or odes to any person, place, thing, situation, or occasion.

Because there’s no one way to find your joy.

We got all kinds of gems in return. Here is our our crowdsourced May 2022 GetSomeJoy Playlist.

What songs would you add to the list?

A few things to moisturize your spirit:

  • First, the best magic trick you’ll ever see in your life.
  • Last night, I checked in with visual artist Ameirah Neal, featured artist for GetSomeJoy’s June Art Therapy series. Ameirah shared about her life and creative journey, how her art supports her mental and emotional wellness, her upcoming exhibits and big picture plans.

With cameos by Darby Davis and Ianne Fields Stewart.

Watch our GetSomeJoy check-in here.

Learn more about tonight’s Spiritual Wellness Check-In with Hakim Pitts here.

The series is for anyone seeking to explore spirituality through an “African diasporic, BlackQueer Trans, Disability Justice lens and framework” within a safe, supportive, resourceful community.

Hakim describes the check-ins as a “mid-week community space to be seen, to be heard, and to revive your spirit.”

And Hakim clarifies, “I pray and cuss a lot. This may be a spiritual experience, but it’s not church.”

Get info and register here.

Until next time…

Connect with GetSomeJoy elsewhere to keep the party going:

GetSomeJoy.com | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn

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Alexander Hardy
getsomejoy

Grits-powered writer, home chef, & mental health warrior. Founder: GetSomeJoy + The War on Spiritual Ashiness. getsomejoy.com + thealexanderhardy.com