In this moment when so many of us are stiff with fear, rigid with rage, and locked into our positions, we at DS4SI suggest considering something counterintuitive. When it feels like we can’t think and we can’t move, we suggest that “can’t think” and “can’t move” are in fact deeply connected. In this moment, instead of the binaries offered to us, we believe we need a range of motion.

We believe that aesthetic justice is essential to the project of life. Even as we fight for our rights to affordable housing, quality education, livable wages, etc., we want to center our right to experience being moved–the shift in affective and emotional registers which bring exhilaration, joy, tears, and connection. We believe the fight for aesthetic justice is a fight for our lives and a fight for a life worth living.

Folding chair earrings, Black Aquaman, memes for days—Black people are celebrating the immediate, fubu-style justice meted out in the “Montgomery Brawl.” As Black twitter and insta get busy doing transformative, hilarious, and brilliant culture work, DS4SI co-founder Kenneth Bailey takes a minute to acknowledge the catharsis of Black joy.