Black Public Joy

From one of North America’s most influential public space experts comes a powerful treatise celebrating Black people’s audacious, complex, and universally embraced public joy expressions.

How much safety, belonging and delight do you feel when you walk through a park? Hang out in a coffee shop? Ride the subway to work? Explore a new neighbourhood? Now, how much do you know about how history, urban planning, culture and even your personal upbringing impact those feelings, and overall access, to public joy? For well over a decade, Jay Pitter has been thinking about public space and the ways it can be designed to not only contribute to social equity but also inspire joy for everyone. Her award-winning work helping cities navigate complex issues such as reimagining Confederate monument sites, the creation of cultural districts and the adoption of gender-responsive street design compels her to ask: “How can I ignite public joy?”

Pitter acknowledges egregious place-based violations faced by her community—historical and contemporary—while unapologetically bending the book’s narrative arc toward public joy. Declaring that Black public joy is so powerful that even the auction block could not extinguish it, Pitter guides the reader through an under-explored placemaking journey. In addition to unearthing historical rituals, the book builds on the current groundswell of Black-led initiatives highlighting hiking, dining, cycling, and frolicking punctuated by hashtags such as #BlackJoy and #BlackOutdoors. Pitter draws upon her practice expertise and research, delving more deeply to situate these moments and online conversations within the phenomenon that is Black public joy. 

Along the way, she introduces us to beloved colleagues creating public joy in their communities, and also reveals vulnerable personal stories as ground for the book’s narrative. Black Public Joy’s themes—our collective desire for safely taking up space, feeling belonging, and freeing ourselves from fears of judgement—are universal. Pitter’s work calls on all of us to become better stewards of each other’s public joy, as well as to claim our own.