The Joy Box is a neighborhood-rooted exchange and an invitation to build collective memories of joy.
Standing 4’ tall, 3’x3’ wide, made of custom cut panels and laid with vibrant vinyl, the JoyBox sits on a sidewalk corner as a beacon of colorful disruption. Here, a neighbor can find something inside the box that brings them joy and leave something behind that might spark joy in another. Our collective joy forms portals. When my joy is bound to yours, and yours to mine, we begin to shift our gaze above the horizon of survival, toward imaginative futures where Black, Queer, Indigenous, Disabled people thrive.
The overall goal of this project is to experiment with joy as a tool in collective resilience. The Joy Box is intended to spark a culture of reciprocity amongst neighbors in a way that feels good. As individuals accept the Joy Box’s invitation to embody joy, transient rote patterns are disrupted. From there, connections are made in a joyspace through immediate interactions and the slow-momentum of continued exchange through the seasons. As our social fabric is woven here, tethered by a powerful gravity of joy, we are able to lay the foundation for collective capacity.