Abundant joy and overwhelming optimism aren’t phrases often found in today’s headlines, nor are they freely available or expressed openly in people’s public actions and private conversations.
The 2025 Black Joy Parade on Feb. 23 rights that wrong by offering unlimited displays of exuberant joy and profound optimism—with a parade and festival from 12:30-7pm. The admission-free event is presented by the Black Joy Parade’s volunteer-run nonprofit organization and partner, Black Infant Health. Essential financial and service support comes from sponsors including the City of Oakland, the business community, donations or grants from individuals, social clubs, vendors and other sources.
Approximately 400 volunteers form the annual festival-day workforce and are what co-founder Amber Lester says in an interview create a timeless and constantly evolving “through thread.”
“We cannot do this without community engagement, input and backing,” Lester says. “New folks come to Oakland, people return, the power shifts, ebbs and flows. Without the community, the City of Oakland, the volunteers on the Black Joy Parade team and the hundreds of people who volunteer … it just does not happen without the community.”
Lester arrived in Oakland in 2008, after attending graduate school in San Francisco. With education and career experience in program management, learning and development in the tech sector, she took a job as a high school counselor in Berkeley. Visiting a friend who lived near Lake Merritt, she was struck by the sunshine, the sense of a vibrant Black community and the welcoming atmosphere of the Adams Point neighborhood, where she now lives.
“I knew Oakland was where I needed to be,” she says.
This year’s parade, as in prior years, celebrates Black artists, individuals, and organizations and the vital roles they play in Oakland’s rich history, art, culture, politics, commerce and social activism.
“The community this year is searching for more they can contribute,” Lester says. “I don’t speak for everyone in the Black community, but often we feel hamstrung by administrations, politics, finances and so many other things that don’t allow us to be seen or heard.
“We have a disparate range of schools, nonprofits, the ‘Divine Nine’ Black sororities and fraternities, corporate organizations and the individuals who participate,” she adds, “and we have tons of vendors who don’t just sell their goods, but are looking to get their information out.”
Lester says that people wanting to be recognized and their messages heard through participation in the parade requires something both literal and figurative from “the viewers.”
“There’s actually seeing, acknowledging a human being standing in front of me, whose feelings are important,” Lester says. “Oftentimes, Black people are overlooked. I can’t tell you how many times someone has stepped in front of me in line, or skipped over me to talk to someone else. I wonder, am I actually visible? The figurative is being recognized for what you’re doing, who you’re doing it for.
“Organizations may feel seen by the number of people who sign up for the mailing list, take a pamphlet or make a donation,” she continues. “Sometimes it’s just learning a person’s name. When I worked at small schools, learning every person’s name during week one was my goal. These things recognize we all exist in this space together.”
Which leads to insights as to how this event—reliant on an all-volunteer team, grants, sponsorships, individual donations and the crucial partnership with Black Infant Health—survives and thrives.
“This will be Black Infant Health’s third year,” Lester says. “We are so appreciative of their sponsorship and our mutual goal of supporting Oakland’s Black children, families and communities. They believe that in the Black community we may be more vulnerable (if we are unseen), which aligns with our mission.”
Lester says other partnerships are invaluable, especially when it comes to what they call activation spaces and providing not just financial contributions, but “people power.” One large corporation supports Lil Joy, a craft and activity space for kids, by sending 15 people to help make sure the children are safe and have fun.
Another met the team’s search for someone to support a “Crown Your Joy” activation where people used faux flowers and other materials to create headpieces to wear during the parade. A large medical health provider sponsored activities such as yoga, prayer leadership, tea sampling and other wellness-related features in a third space.
“An activation we started in 2021, a year when due to Covid we had no parade, was ‘Icons Among Us,’” Lester says. “It was partly due to young people getting praised on social media, and there were people fighting for equity and Black joy. We wanted to honor them and make sure they were recognized before they’re gone.
“Often we do memorials, but we said, ‘Let’s highlight them now, in ways they’ve never been acknowledged,’” she continues. “Comcast has supported it from the beginning. The first year, we made and filled beautiful, giant closet-size gift boxes for them. We’ve made videos shared online. We showcase these amazing people the Friday before the parade, and we do panels and performances.”
Last year, one icon spoke at the pre-parade gathering about how the award re-sparked her joy and purpose at a time when she felt overwhelming discouragement. “It was moving and intensely rewarding to hear her story,” Lester says.
People honored as icons, artists in Artist Lift Off, whose artwork was made more visible with a commission to apply it to a series of bags, posters and other items, participate in the parade. Joining the 200-plus Black-owned vendors and the Black Joy Choir, headline performing artists appear on two stages throughout the festival day.
Asked about programs or activations the team hopes to add or expand, Lester points not only to like-minded organizational partnering, such as an event on Feb. 21 at Oakstop to celebrate the launch of the Black Women’s Basketball Museum, but also to increased outreach to communities and organizations that might feel left out of the loop.
“We want to engage with the new and returning political leaders in the city, and grassroots people new and established,” Lester says. “Some people set up outside of the parade footprint. They pop up, want to participate, but don’t feel connected to the core. But this is everyone’s parade. We want them to come to us, re-engage with them and draw in new folks.”
Ever practical, honest and full of joy, Lester says, “We want the community to come, be safe, be seen. There’s still a lot of work to do.”
For information, visit blackjoyparade.org.
