In celebration of Black Heritage Month—the Center is inviting Black LGBTQIA+ community members to share photos, stories, experiences, memories, writing, poetry, bodies of work, or art that depicts "Black Queer Joy", which we'll feature on our social media channels! We're excited to celebrate, recognize, and amplify Black Queer Joy in all its forms—past, present, and future. We also want to acknowledge and honor the founder of the Black Queer Joy movement, Dalila Ali Rajah, who is shining a light on Black, Queer, and POC joy worldwide. In Dalila's words, "Being joyful and being seen as joyful and living happy lives by itself is a revolution. For hundreds of years, cultural oppression and systemic racism has perpetuated the idea that Black joy cannot be long-lasting. If we don't see images, how can we build up a tolerance for joy?"
This community-rooted storytelling campaign will kickoff in February and run through 2022, so please continue to share your stories with us all year-round!
To participate, please tell us more about your story through this form, and submit a video/photo/illustration/piece of writing to our communications manager, Miguel Bagsit, at
miguelb@sfcenter.org. You can also tag us using @sflgbtcenter for a chance to be featured.