joy the ZINE
A publication and occasional events dedicated to strengthening our capacity for joyful resistance. Our work is about building community and supporting young people in developing skills and tools that bring them happiness while addressing the world’s hurting places.
A project to uplift, amplify, celebrate, inspire, and create movement. We can’t change the world alone; every action is needed; AND the heaviness of the work must be lightened.
Why joy?
Of course joy sounds like a good thing, something we want, but it often feels out of reach. Unlike happiness, which comes to us from outside sources — a good party, a new dress, a great vacation — joy is a choice. It’s the proverbial inside job.
And it by necessity, it lives in tandem with grief.
We have so much of the latter in our world. Many of us are paralyzed by it, even if we don’t entirely recognize it. We believe that if we fight back against the forces causing grief we’ll be subsumed by anger, or we’ll need to do things that we’re not comfortable doing.
So we stay a bit numb.
When we grow food and repair our clothes, when we show up as our true selves, when we walk slowly and notice the seasons, when we gift our time and skills to others … all of these are joyful acts that help us move beyond despair and invite the world to join us!
Spring 2024 - The care issue Arrives
The second issue of JOY delves into care as a circular form of joyful resistance and features 10 people caring for other humans, animals, and plants. From editor Jennifer New’s introduction:
“Receiving tender care is a right of all living beings. Sometimes we forget that giving tender care is also a right—a soul-enhancing privilege. Those who don’t provide care to others may dodge some of the sorrows involved in accompanying living creatures through illness, pain, or setbacks, but they also miss the joy.”