What comes to mind when you think about joy? And can there be joy in protest and refusal? Someone who’s been asking and trying to answer questions about this is Akwugo Emejulu. She’s been investigating the relationship between Black feminist joy, ambivalence and futures, asking how Black feminists are remixing political media, meanings and messages to co-create manifestos for change.

Akwugo has also been mapping the grassroots organising and activism of women of colour for more than 15 years, and in this episode shares her insights about the role of joy and other emotions in understanding society and social change.

Plus: Akwugo introduces us to the work of bell hooks, including her take on Beyoncé’s album “Lemonade”, and gives her pop culture recommendation for some Japanese anime, much to Alexis’ delight!

Guest: Akwugo Emejulu
Hosts: Rosie Hancock, Alexis Hieu Truong
Executive Producer: Alice Bloch
Guest Producer: Chris Garrington
Sound Engineer: David Crackles
Music: Joe Gardner
Artwork: Erin Aniker

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Episode Resources

Rosie, Alexis and Akwugo recommended

• The works of psychologist Rollo May and poet Toi Derricotte
• The anime TV series Orb: On the Movements of the Earth and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

By Akwugo Emejulu

• Fugitive Feminism
• To Exist is to Resist: Black Feminism in Europe (co-edited with Francesca Sobande)
• Minority Women and Austerity: Survival and Resistance in France and Britain (co-authored with Leah Bassel)
• The Black Feminism Remix Lab: on Black feminist joy, ambivalence and futures (co-authored with Francesca Sobande) 
• Refusing politics as usual: mapping women of colour’s radical praxis in London and Amsterdam (co-authored with Inez van der Scheer)
• The politics of exhaustion (co-authored with Leah Bassel)

From The Sociological Review

• The lonely activist: On being haunted – Akwugo Emejulu, Leah Bassel
• Dissonant intimacies: Coloniality and the failures of South–South collaboration – Srila Roy

Further resources

• “Feminist Theory: From Margin To Center” – bell hooks
• “Feeling Race: Theorizing the Racial Economy of Emotions” – Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
• “The (Un)Managed Heart: Racial Contours of Emotion Work in Gendered Occupations” – Adia Harvey Wingfield
• “Emotion Work, Feeling Rules, and Social Structure” – Arlie Russell Hochschild

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