A New Series from the California Humanities to Transmute Grief into World-Building Through Joy
At a time of so much uncertainty, it can be tempting to operate solely in grief, to be in a state of constant reaction, and to slip into despair. But what if we center joy instead? Not a shallow joy that avoids the truth of the moment, but one grounded in community. A joy that emerges from grief, that remembers and imagines possibilities.
This is the spirit behind the launch of the Collective Joy Project, an invitation to explore new ideas, formats, and ways of being in community through public humanities. This project is a seed, planted with care and intention, as we move through a period of deep transformation at a time when the humanities are needed the most.
What is the Collective Joy Project?
The Collective Joy Project is a two-part online conversation series exploring the larger question: What do the humanities teach us about joy, grief, healing, and the futures we’re building together?
Each month, we’ll gather in two digital spaces:
- In a Live Conversation (Instagram Live) on the Second Tuesday of each Month. This space is a 30-minute public conversation with a guest artist, scholar, or cultural worker reflecting on the theme of the month through the lens of their lived experience and humanities-based practice.
- In a Facilitated Dialogue (Zoom) on the Second Thursday of each Month. This space is a 60-minute community dialogue inviting deeper reflection and connection with Californians who care about culture, healing, and imagination.
The first Live Conversation will be held on Tuesday, June 10, from 12:30-1:00 p.m. on Instagram, followed by the Facilitated Dialogue on Thursday, June 12, from 12:30-1:30 p.m. on Zoom (you can sign up here). June’s theme will be Grief as a Pathway to Joy: What do the humanities teach us about grief, healing, and joy?
We’ll discuss ancestral and everyday practices such as storytelling, art, and cultural practices that turn loss into possibility. So, if you’ve been carrying heavy news, big feelings, or feeling uncertain about the future, this space is for you to find healing in all the ways that shared stories and connection offer us.
Katherine Bahena-Benitez is our first guest to join us live on Instagram, a playwright and multidisciplinary artist whose works bridge healing, ritual, and cultural memory through performance.
Why Joy? Why Now?
Leading with joy—especially in the face of uncertainty—is not escapism; it is strategy. It is a refusal to let extraction, scarcity, and despair be the only authors of our future.
Joy is one of our oldest technologies. It lives in storytelling, in music, in the way we gather around food, and in how we grieve and remember. It is a wellspring of possibility. The humanities offer fertile ground to root this joy, inviting us to ask what it means to be human, how we live together, and what we choose to carry forward.
As an organization, we are grappling with the reality of pausing our grantmaking programs following the termination of our federal funding. At the same time, we are imagining new ways to advance the humanities in California and to stay in relationship with the communities that have long looked to us for support and to serve communities that we have not reached. The Collective Joy Project is one step in that direction—reimagining how we can continue to be of service. Through this series, we aim to uplift the humanities as tools for healing, reflection, and cultural memory; to cultivate welcoming and accessible spaces for Californians to connect across different cultures; and to model dialogue rooted in care and curiosity. We hope these conversations inspire creative, civic, and community-rooted action—and above all, affirm that joy, even when born from grief, is a vital practice for building the world we dream of.
Join Us!
This series is open to all. Whether you’re new to the California Humanities or have been in a relationship with us for years, we invite you to show up as you are—with your joy, your grief, your stories, your questions. There is space for you here.
Follow us on Instagram for the Live Conversation sessions and sign up for our newsletter to receive Zoom links and reminders for the Facilitated Dialogues.
We believe in our California community. We believe that grief is a possibility. Together, let’s explore how joy can be a compass, a connector, and a collective practice for reimagining our futures.
