July 2025’s edition of Scope Screenings in Ballard featured Besa Gordon and Darryl Foto’s collaboration “Black Joy.” This project brought together Gordon’s beautiful narration and a moving poem by Foto, celebrating and exploring the essence of Black joy across the Pacific Northwest. 

Foto’s empowering words and compelling delivery became an anthem for 2025, airing locally at Scope Screenings, nationally on FOX SOUL, and universally through the heart of Seattle’s Black community. Foto and Gordon’s collaboration cemented itself as a beacon of light through the darkness, and a piece of art that is definitively and unapologetically Black.

Between Gordon and Foto, the duo encapsulated deeply personal interpretations of Black joy from the community’s artists, leaders, pillars, and business owners. They found that Black joy is not merely the absence of struggle, but a deliberate act of building and sustaining community. Black joy is rooted in connection, smiling and nodding at sisters and brothers on the street, and turning fans into friends over a meal. Black joy is medicinal, healing generational wounds and breathing a breath of fresh air in a world struggling to grieve. It is tied to building generational wealth, seeing Black representation, and celebrating life, love, and living.

What does Black joy mean to you?

The final Scope Screenings of 2025 is happening on Dec. 30 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at LANGSTON, 104 17th Ave S, Seattle. Get your tickets at lexscopefilms.com/scopescreenings.