Cover image by lovepisodes
Author: Shavone Charles

Black people don't just deserve to be alive — we also deserve to be happy. We deserve to celebrate and be celebrated for the spectrum of our experiences and stories -- there is joy and resilience beyond our trauma. Now more than ever, we need the world to see, celebrate and archive Black Joy.

Today, we’re honored and excited to unveil #BlackJoyMatters, a VSCO series and summer-long initiative celebrating Black joy and the diaspora of Black stories through the lens of Black creatives. With #BlackJoyMatters, we’re continuing VSCO’s long-standing commitment to unapologetically amplify and support Black voices and Black creators.

Starting this week, you’ll see a series of community efforts and in-app experiences that spotlight and amplify a more holistic view of modern Black existence, centered around Black joy.

We are kicking off #BlackJoyMatters with a global call to action, urging online communities to create, capture and share their interpretations of Black Joy to social media through posting art, first-person videos and/or photos across every social platform using the hashtag #BlackJoyMatters. Throughout the summer, we will spotlight the submitted imagery and art across our social channels and within the VSCO app.

We’re debuting a new carousel in the Discover section of our app curating Black joy stories from our global VSCO community.

Throughout the summer, #BlackJoyMatters will spotlight a series of collaborators and multidisciplinary Black creatives across the media, technology and creative industries, and partnering with various brands and editorial partners to share these stories of joy.

We hope you’ll join us in celebrating Black Joy and the brilliance of Black Stories from around the world.