About Compositions of Black Joy

Compositions of Black Joy:  A Visual Chronicle of the Philadelphia Juneteenth Festival (2015-2022) is the companion book to the 2023 photography exhibit entitled Documenting the Philadelphia Juneteenth Festival in Germantown: A Visual Chronicle of Community, Resilience and Freedom that was on view at the Germantown Historical Society through the end of February 2025.  Co-organized by the Johnson House Historic Site and Historic Germantown, the exhibit featured nearly 80 color photographs by Tieshka Smith and ephemera from the Johnson House that chronicled the growth and evolution of the Festival from 2015 to 2022.  

Available in both a limited-edition hardcover and expanded paperback edition, Compositions of Black Joy is a celebration of Black families, culture, commerce and history.  It captures the ways in which the Festival amplifies the voices and efforts of everyday people, activists and politicians working on behalf of Black lives.  The book reflects the joy, resilience, historical significance, pride and the enduring vitality of Germantown, a northwest Philadelphia community and its connection to a powerful legacy of freedom, liberation and self-sufficiency that reaches back to the signing of the 1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery,  177 years before 1865, when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas learned of their freedom, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.  

The book features photographs from the exhibit along with archival photos of early- to mid-20th century Juneteenth, Emancipation and Freedom Day celebrations in Texas, Virginia and Philadelphia. Photos and maps of Germantown along with photos of the Johnson House Historic Site are also featured to underscore the historical significance and importance of both to the ongoing quest for Black liberation.