Living Joy Through Community Repair: A Conversation Rooted in Acts of Reparation
When we brought folks together to screen the film, Acts of Reparations, we knew that we were going to experience more than a documentary and create a space to reflect on how we live out our values surrounding care, ownership, and truth in our everyday lives. This conversation was one that we had over the course of months. Suffice it to say, it did not happen in just one evening. Much of our programming and the level of thought put into it was the result of how deeply members of our Collective resonated with the repair apparent through the film from its conception. Those who had the opportunity to watch the film and sit with it can attest to the fact that this conversation is a continuation of a much longer story of joy.
The film stirred something real throughout the room. It allowed us to recall that reparations are not a checklist, and neither is it a one-time acknowledgement to address like a grant cycle. It is a relationship, and one that needs to be cultivated through how we pay attention to the joyful moments in our lives. These relationships ask us to return, again and again, to the work of repair, especially when it is uncomfortable and when the stakes feel personal to ourselves, our loved ones, and our community.
In our Collective, that repair work is already underway. It lives in the quiet moments that happen when someone comes around to offer their support. Or in the honest moments when a committed partner speaks an uncomfortable truth, when silence may have been easier. As a whole, we saw that film as a mirror, reflecting the kinds of practices that are already embedded within our community culture: Embedding joy into our work as we honor the leaders who walked in this work before us.
A Partnership Rooted in Practice
One of the most meaningful aspects of this event was us co-hosting it with our friends from the Radical Optimist Collective. We know that our connection within this space is more than collaborative, but deeply aligned in similar values and services. Their commitment to restorative frameworks is felt in how they move, how they hold space, and how they continue to model care as both a value and a tool.
Jill Lum, who has continuously shown up to amplify the messaging of the film, does not show up for the work simply because it is popular. She shows up because she understands that community healing is long-term labor. Joy is not a performance for her; it is her ideology. It is this energy that makes sustaining this work possible, even when it’s rooted in grief, complexity, and ancestral memory. The joy that Jill exudes in her commitment to furthering this work and standing in support to sustain those who are directly impacted by this film. We are reminded that joy is not just the absence of struggle. It is the clarity that can emerge through it as our leaders model what it means to trust the slow pace of building something real and tangible. Our leadership is formative and is crafted from the level of care that is put into creating something transformative to bring members of our community joy.
It is not enough to just talk about Joy. Build with it
At the heart of this gathering were the people in the room. The film and the post-screening conversation gave rise to courage and grace. Courage to be willing to show up with questions and grace to sit with discomfort and let stories land before reacting.
The language of reparation often gets stuck in institutional frameworks. But what we are learning and what we are committed to is that our joy goes deeper than possibly imagined. Our work as a community is made real when we create the conditions for people to be seen, to feel safe enough to be honest, and to be supported when they choose to be vulnerable.
We don’t host events to fill calendars. We host because our community needs rhythm and ritual. Because it matters who’s in the room. Because joy isn’t something we chase. It’s something we make space for, together.
To everyone who joined us: thank you for leaning in. For choosing presence over performance. For helping us shape a culture where joy and justice are not opposing forces, but companions in the long work of liberation.
