The Museum of Black Joy Foundation was established in 2023 to support the mission of The Museum of Black Joy--to cultivate, celebrate, commemorate and circulate stories that center Black Joy.

We believe that Black joy is a revolutionary practice and process.

We believe that Black joy is how spirit, grace and gratitude are activated for transformation.

We believe that Black joy is one of the most creative resources throughout the global human experience.

We believe that Black joy is an ancestral birthright,

a non-violent act of resistance

and a generous and generative "emergent strategy," through which we rise.

Because we believe these things, we work to acknowledge, uplift and document non-traumatic Black life in Philadelphia and beyond. Our goal is to envision, facilitate and ensure an opulent Black future rooted in joy.

In addition to our grassroots archive, we are a responsive, mobile exhibition space; a creative-collective working with local artists to promote joy through culturally specific, visual and experiential engagements; and a global partner, supporting creatives, memory workers and culture-bearers from John's Island, SC to Soweto, South Africa.

Though our mission is specific, it is not exclusive. We are all beneficiaries of the art and culture that continues to emerge from the Black imagination as it embodies rituals of survival in both good and bad times.

In the spirit of the Kenyan tradition of Harambee--meaning we all pull together--we graciously receive and purposefully appoint each dollar raised during our first community fundraiser.

With Joy,

Andrea Walls/ Founder

Museum of Black Joy Community Fundraiser

"We only have what we give." Isabel Allende