Posts made in 2012

No matter who you are, or what your beliefs, no one can deny the tender stirrings each of us feels every single time we hear Nat King Cole Sing “The Christmas Song: Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire.”  It’s not just the song, or even the words.It is the spirit embodied by that melodious and unmistakable voice which moves us all; regardless of our backgrounds, experience, class or race, music indeed ‘levels’ the playing field because it is a language that everyone can understand.  Like prayer, whether performed by kneeling, bowing or standing, with hands clasped together, or palms facing upward, whether they are said in silence, whispered, spoken or sung they communicate the same sense of devotion and faith.  Those that engage in worship may do so in...

Please see event listings for details.

Honored to be featured guest speaker along with Dr. Wade Nobles and Dr. Leonard Jeffries at the Education Summit in October.

Joy is a keynote speaker at the Courageous Conversations Summit 2012 happening today!

The Odd Woman and the Dragon Fly Two very distinctly different yet moving things happened to me today, I was on my way back home and to avoid the freeway traffic, I took the streets. It was a wise decision. The streets were clear for the most part, the sun was going down, and I enjoyed the cool breeze flowing in from the windows as I drove. There were about two cars in front of me so I slowed down slightly and suddenly to my right was a woman that looked to be middle aged with a weathered face as red as a beet glaring at me. She seemed enraged and extended her middle finger in my window followed by the profane word that defined her gesture. I was startled but un-moved by her behavior as it was quite clear even, in the brief moment of passing her, that she was not...

Honest and direct conversations about race are long overdue.  For some the conversation is new and challenging and for others it is an everyday fact of life, both necessary and on-going.  Our history is filled with men and women that have advanced the discussion about race, racism and structural inequalities.  They have been ex-slaves and ex-slave owners, they have been poor and wealthy, educated and illiterate, all having advanced the conversation in their own way and suffered the consequences for broaching the topic. Today those of us able to see through the sterile manufactured “diversity” misled populace, have begun to challenge the conventional thinking regarding institutional racism and its attendant destructiveness.  Glenn Singleton has addressed...

Wednesday, August 22, 2012 The Atlanta Cyclorama & Civil War Museum 800 Cherokee Avenue SE Atlanta, GA For more information, please see go to this site: http://atlantablackstar.com/2012/08/22/atlanta-cyclorama-presents-slavery-the-civil-war-and-african-american-mental-health-video/

            Join Dr. Joy in San Jose Friday June 15th.

My Son recently showed me a video of Tupac Shakur as a hologram performing on stage with Snoop Dogg.  The concert was happening at a place where Tupac had never performed and clearly at a time when he was no longer alive.  It is amazing what technology can do.  However, I will offer a cautionary note. I remember when Bo Derek, the star of the movie “10”, was credited with creating “corn row” braiding. I remember another time when, in a documentary on the history and origins of Jazz Music, Wynton Marsalis, finding it difficult to maintain his composure, identified a white musician who claimed  that he originated jazz. We are living in a time when the distortions of truth abound and, perhaps more alarming, the distortions of our human reality.  We...

          It was 2002 and I was living in Portland, Oregon. The Phone rang and it was Mr. Gil Noble asking if I would appear on his show. I was apprehensive because I didn’t trust media to tell the truth and they often used Black people to create a ‘circus’ around issues important to our community. I had no idea who I was talking to. Little did I know where that moment would take me… and us! However great he was in life, now he is even greater and more free to tell it “like it is”. I hope we continue to listen….I...