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Kleaver Cruz

Biography

Kleaver Cruz

Kleaver Cruz is a Black, queer, Dominican-American writer and educator from New York City. Cruz is the creator of The Black Joy Project, a digital and real-world affirmation that Black Joy is resistance. The Black Joy Project has been featured in British Vogue, Vibe.com, the Huffington Post, and various other publications in print and online. Cruz is a member of We Are All Dominican, a U.S.-based, grassroots collective that works in solidarity with movements led by Dominicans of Haitian descent fighting for inclusion and citizenship rights in the Dominican Republic. Cruz is also an alum of the Voices of Our Nations Arts (VONA) Foundation’s Emerging Writers Non-Fiction Workshop and the Kenyon Review Writers Fiction Workshop.

Kleaver Cruz

Books by Kleaver Cruz

The Black Joy Project: A Literary and Visual Love Letter to How We Thrive
by Kleaver Cruz - Essays, Nonfiction, Social Sciences

Black Joy is everywhere. From the bustling streets of Lagos to hip-hop blasting through apartment windows in the Bronx. From the wide-open coastal desert of Namibia to the lush slopes of Jamaica’s Blue Mountains. From the thriving tradition of Candomblé in Bahia to the innovative and trendsetting styles of Soweto, and beyond, Black Joy is present in every place that Black people exist. Now, at last, is a one-of-a-kind celebration of this truth and a life-giving testament to one of the most essential forces that fuels Black life. International in the scale, fist-raising in the prose, and full of gorgeous works by dozens of acclaimed artists, THE BLACK JOY PROJECT does what no other book has ever done. In words and art, it puts joy on the same track as protest and resistance...because that is how life is actually lived.