In honor of Black History month, my February column in Planning Magazine highlights a number of recent films that celebrate Black lives, with an emphasis on stories of Black joy.

With these [more diverse] voices comes a much more complex range of characters, emotions, lives, settings, perspectives, and stories for the cinema, extending far beyond the pat narratives of the past — which even when sympathetic, all too often cast Black lives as being limited to the subjects of oppression, especially in the urban context.

As Imani Perry, professor of African American studies at Princeton University, wrote in the article “Racism Is Terrible. Blackness Is Not” last summer: “The injustice is inescapable. So yes, I want the world to recognize our suffering. But I do not want pity from a single soul. Sin and shame are found in neither my body nor my identity. Blackness is an immense and defiant joy.”

This profound yet simple notion is spreading and reframing the way mainstream film captures the experience of being Black in America…. With special attention to stories that explore the interaction of people, places, and planning, here are a few that planners can add to their streaming queue, this month and always.

See Planning Magazine for the full article.