Joy and Pain - by Damien M Sojoyner

About the Book

"Joy and Pain provides an intimate look into the manner in which the carceral state makes Black life precarious. Framing the carceral state as extending beyond the physical walls of a prison and into the daily lived experiences of Black life, the book focuses on housing, education, health care, the nonprofit sector, and juvenile detention facilities. However, Black existence is not defined only by precarity, and thus the book also describes the social visions of Black life that are immersed in radical freedom"--

Book Synopsis

A poignant account of how the carceral state shapes daily life for young Black people--and how Black Americans resist, find joy, and cultivate new visions for the future.

At the Southern California Library--a community organization and an archive of radical and progressive movements--the author meets a young man, Marley. In telling Marley's story, Damien M. Sojoyner depicts the overwhelming nature of Black precarity in the twenty-first century through the lenses of housing, education, health care, social services, and juvenile detention. But Black life is not defined by precarity; it embraces social visions of radical freedom that allow the pursuit of a life of joy beyond systems of oppression.

Structured as a "record collection" of five "albums," this innovative book relates Marley's personal encounters with everyday aspects of the carceral state through an ethnographic A side and offers deeper context through an anthropological and archival B side. In Joy and Pain, Marley's experiences at the intersection of history and the contemporary political moment invite us to imagine more expansive futures.

From the Back Cover

"Damien M. Sojoyner's Joy and Pain is a powerfully creative project that maps and indicts the everyday injustices of carcerality, demonstrates humanity's resilience and capacity to resist, and illuminates new forms of abolitionist praxis. His brilliance as a scholar and commitment as a scholar-activist shine through in this must-read book."--Barbara Ransby, John D. MacArthur Chair and Professor of Black Studies and Gender and Women's Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago

"Joy and Pain provides a much-needed offering in the conversation about carcerality. The mixture of ethnography, archival research, analysis of the present and of the 1960s and 1970s, and the specific (yet deep) read of regional politics makes the book a standout. The love Sojoyner and narrator Marley have for Los Angeles is powerful and acts as an exciting guide for the reader."--Bianca C. Williams, author of The Pursuit of Happiness: Black Women, Diasporic Dreams, and the Politics of Emotional Transnationalism

"Sojoyner's approach deprovincializes the socially liquidating power of incarceration. Joy and Pain examines carceral state violence as a far-reaching, permeating flow of relationships that affects nearly every aspect of Black life in Los Angeles. Sojoyner meshes a tradition of Black ethnography and radical and experimental archival study to create a riveting scholarly narrative."--Dylan Rodríguez, author of White Reconstruction: Domestic Warfare and the Logics of Genocide

Review Quotes

"Joy and Pain is a book whose message, dynamic depictions, and political intervention will be appreciated for its clarity and conviction by anyone interested in unpacking the fictions that create and sustain social inequality and the multilayered truths that challenge it."
-- "Social Forces"

"A work of narrative storytelling, careful historical detail, and [an] homage to a community library that holds together many threads of hope within a system of destruction."-- "Journal of African American History"

"A creative, intimate ethnography centering on Marley, a charismatic and smart teen but reluctant protagonist. . . . The result is a gripping, up-close portrait of how the carceral state in LA makes Black life so precarious. . . . This innovative, intimate book examines Marley's joy and pain as he encounters a web of precarity created by housing, education, health care, and social services. Summing Up: Highly recommended."-- "CHOICE"

"Lively discussions of Black musicians including Ice Cube and Kendrick Lamar pepper the narrative, as do deep dives into the tactics and strategies of advocacy groups such as the Black Panther Party and the California Housing and Action Network. Progressive activists will savor this in-depth portrait of the struggle for justice."-- "Publishers Weekly"

About the Author

Damien M. Sojoyner is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of First Strike: Educational Enclosures in Black Los Angeles.