Black Joy is Justice: Reflections from Our Black History Month Panel
- Anurika Onyenso
- Apr 21
- 4 min read
Black joy is not a distraction from justice. It is justice.
That was the heartbeat of Canada Confesses’ Black History Month panel this year. What began as a conversation quickly became something deeper. A space to reflect, to laugh, to name hard truths, and to imagine something softer, fuller and more human for ourselves and for each other.
Held in recognition of this year’s theme, “30 Years of Black History Month: Honouring Black Brilliance Across Generations - From Nation Builders to Tomorrow’s Visionaries,” the panel brought together voices across disciplines. Together, we explored what it means to center joy, rest, creativity and community in both our lives and our movements.
Setting the Space
The session opened with a welcome and land acknowledgement, grounding the conversation in a shared responsibility to honour Indigenous sovereignty and the ongoing realities of colonization. Participants were also guided through community agreements and accessible ways to engage, including live captions and chat-based participation.
We then moved into a somatic grounding practice led by Tolu Faromika, inviting participants to arrive not just intellectually, but physically and emotionally. It was a simple but powerful shift from how many of us are used to engaging in conversations about justice.
Early on, Tolu gently challenged a belief many of us carry without question:
“We don’t need rest. Rest is often seen as laziness.”
That statement landed deeply. It named something structural, not personal, and created an opening for participants to question what they have been taught about productivity, worth, and care.
From there, the conversation unfolded with care and intention, guided by moderator Anurika Onyenso, who held space for both reflection and openness. Participants were invited to engage not just with ideas, but with their own lived experiences, where comfortable.
Meet the Voices
Tolu Faromika, a clinical psychology PhD student at York University and host of The BrainCore Podcast, grounded the conversation in mental health, embodiment and storytelling. Her reflections consistently returned to the need to unlearn urgency and reconnect with the body.
Jean Bruce Koua (JB), Co-Founder and COO of Elev Homes and one of Alberta’s Top 30 Under 30, spoke about agency and intentionality. Drawing from his experience as a former international student who navigated housing insecurity, he emphasized the importance of building joy, even in uncertain conditions:
“You can create your own joy. Joy makes you hopeful about the future.”
Priscilla Ojomu, Executive Director of the Connecting the Dots Diversity & Inclusion Council and Co-founder of Canada Confesses, brought a thoughtful lens on advocacy, identity, and cultural expression. She reflected on how storytelling shapes what we believe is possible:
“It’s important to acknowledge our histories, but also how we frame them through language, expression, and even music.”
Moderating the discussion, Anurika Onyenso, Events Lead at Canada Confesses and Operations Lead at the Pembina Institute, wove together themes of equity and community impact, ensuring the conversation remained both grounded and expansive.
Black Joy and Justice in Practice
One of the most powerful threads throughout the conversation was a simple but often overlooked truth:
Black history is more than struggle.
When narratives center only hardship, they erase the fullness of Black life. The laughter, the creativity, the culture and mundane moments that made survival possible in the first place.
Panelists reflected on how systems often condition us to associate worth with struggle. The idea that everything meaningful must come from hardship. That rest is something to earn. That joy is something to justify.
But that framing is incomplete.
As the panel emphasized, we are in a position to rewrite that story for future generations. One that includes not only resilience, but also joy.
Justice is not only about reducing harm; it is also about creating conditions where Black people can live fully. Laugh freely. Rest deeply. Create without explanation.
And, if our systems do not make space for that, then they are not fully working.
Priscilla spoke to this through the lens of everyday life, including humour as a coping mechanism:
“Sometimes we’re navigating adversity, and still choosing to laugh. That matters.”
That choice is not small. It is sustaining. It is a refusal to be defined only by struggle.
Learnings from Community and Elders
There was a deep recognition of how much we inherit from those who came before us.
Panelists spoke about the ways elders model a “both and” approach to life. Holding hard truths while still making space for joy, laughter, and connection.
These lessons show up in everyday practices. Shared meals. Music. Storytelling. Gathering.
JB reflected on this idea of intentionality:
“Joy is something you can build. It’s not always something you wait for.”
These are not just traditions. They are forms of care. They remind us that joy is not always spontaneous. Sometimes it is practiced. Sometimes it is protected.
What We Carry Forward
As the conversation moved toward closing, participants were invited to reflect on what they want younger generations to feel entitled to.
The responses were clear:
Rest that does not need to be earned.
Joy that is not policed or minimized.
Creativity that does not need to justify itself.
The freedom to be fully expressive.
Together, these reflections point toward a future where Black youth are supported in their fullness, not shaped by limitation.
Connecting to Confessions on Native Land
This conversation is made possible through the Confessions on Native Land project.
At its core, the project is about storytelling, truth-telling and healing. It asks us to reflect on our relationships to land, identity, and community.
But before we can share those stories outward, we need space to reconnect inward.
This panel offered that. It created room for people to reflect not just on systems, but on themselves. On what they carry. On what they need. On what it means to feel whole.
Joy becomes part of that story. Not as something secondary, but as something central.
Closing Reflection
Black History Month often asks us to remember. This panel asked us to feel.
To feel joy as something we are owed.
To feel rest as something we deserve.
To feel possibility beyond survival.
Because justice is not only about what we fight against. It is also about what we are building toward.
And that future must make room for Black people to live, laugh, rest and create freely.
Not someday. But now.
If this gathering spoke to you, we’d love to have you in the next one.
Explore upcoming Restoration Circles, panels, and workshops designed for care, connection, and collective reflection.
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