Did you have some fun this weekend, Reader?

When I'm overwhelmed, fun is usually the first thing to go. What helps is to embrace spontaneity, and I happen to love that. When my friend Sonia Piscayanti had to do social work as part of her job as a lecturer at Undiksha University in North Bali, she invited me to come to one of the Indigenous villages in Bali.

I hesitated because of all the things on my to-do list, but I soon realized it was an opportunity to visit the Bali Aga with a group of academics. I met the founder of the Indigenous school and heard about the efforts to preserve their culture. It instantly gave me motivation to continue working on my projects.

It's a wrap

One of the projects is the Leading for Transformation course, of which the first cohort just finished last week. I could not have been more proud of the five women participating from Malaysia, Romania, India, Uganda, and France. They learned from and engaged with five interesting guest speakers. When asked if they would recommend the course to a colleague, one of them wrote on the feedback form:

The second cohort will be announced in this newsletter. Stay tuned.

Sanne

DEEP DIVE

The politics of pleasure

A percussionist apparently wore a Palestinian keffiyeh during the opening ceremony of the FIFA World Cup in the United States. And Elyanna, a 24-year-old Palestinian-Chilean singer born in Nazareth, took the stage for the opening ceremony in Toronto, wearing a keffiyeh-style cloth around her hip.

Two joyful examples of protest, by two performers who had the time of their lives. It shows that joy can be a political act.

And then there is New York, where the new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist born in Uganda, has been governing with what can only be described as contagious joy. When the World Cup came to his city, he negotiated directly with FIFA and secured 1,000 tickets at $50 each for New York residents, the cheapest tickets in the entire tournament, and the only affordable-ticket program negotiated by any host region's government for 2026. Each winner got a free bus ride to the stadium, too.

Lessons from Mamdani

Dutch media critic Madeleijn van den Nieuwenhuizen shared on her social media that the Dutch socialist party PRO invited her to talk about Mamdani's success, and what politicians can learn from it. She shared a short analysis on her Instagram:

Regarding his World Cup tickets deal, she writes:

Van den Nieuwenhuizen points out that by doing this, Mamdani shines a light on the sports criminals serving a financial elite, and he does it in a joyful manner that people really benefit from, instead of being just preachy.

Joy is identity

During the civil rights movement in the US, freedom songs were part of the struggle. Singing together in the face of violence meant that not everything could be taken away. In Brazil, carnival comes partly from enslaved people who wanted to create a space for themselves. During the Holocaust, prisoners created poetry readings and theatrical performances. After the 2021 military coup in Myanmar, art, music, and creativity became part of the resistance. Musicians wrote anti-coup songs and protesters used poetry to maintain a collective identity. Even in Palestine, people are still dancing the dabkeh, the traditional dance, to hold on to their identity under Israeli occupation.

The Black feminist writer and activist Adrienne Maree Brown has written extensively about what she calls "pleasure activism": the idea that joy, pleasure, and connection are necessary ingredients for social change. She argues that movements become unsustainable when they are built only on sacrifice and urgency. Change requires people who can stay in the struggle for years without burning out.

Action vs reaction

I'm currently writing a book with my friend Sonia Piscayanti, a Balinese writer and lecturer, about our friendship. During this process, I realize that Sonia's work is about joy, too. She wraps heavy messages about domestic violence and the burden of Balinese women in a metaphorical format, in theater or poetry. It is partly out of necessity because a direct way of communicating will be less successful. But since I spent time with Sonia's community in Bali, I also see the joy involved. There is always music and food around, and despite the busy schedules, there is always time for ngobrol, a casual conversation.

Theater invites people into a shared experience. It is also more of an action than a reaction; you choose to make something with a group of people, on your own terms.

In activist and media spaces, we spend a lot of time on what's wrong and what needs to change. It is necessary, but it can also drain you easily. It is one of the reasons why I'm a strong advocate for the thorough method of Solutions Journalism, even though I do not think the term covers what it is. Instead of just focusing on problems, the method looks at the approach to the problem and how people are trying to solve it, successfully or unsuccessfully.

It asks for a mindset shift to not just practice problem-focused journalism but also to integrate a solutions approach. Just as in friendships, you do not need to spend equal time with the people who give energy and the ones who take it. Both can be real relationships, but in order to stay sane, you also need to protect your time and space.

Focusing on the constructive part of your work makes it more joyful, and joy does not ignore suffering. Joy helps people to act together instead of merely reacting to what is wrong. It gives agency, which I personally also prefer over "hope."

Opportunities

• Egab calls for stories from journalists in the Global Majority. You can pitch them and get your work published in international media outlets. They are actively looking for original, nuanced stories that resonate with a global audience, from arts and culture, human impact stories, inflation and livelihoods, climate and environment, to breaking news, conflict, and beyond. Start here.
• HERA - the global non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to protecting the health, income, and dignity of women on the frontlines of extreme heat - is looking for a social media associate. A remote, U.S.-based position.
• Free Press Unlimited is looking for a Project Officer - Safety of Journalists (temporary position). Starting date: as soon as possible. Check their website.
• Apply to the train-the-trainers program of the Solutions Journalism Network in Brazil. Information in Portuguese.
• Apply for The Kari Howard Fund for Narrative Journalism. Applicants may be a print journalist or a print journalist leading a multi-media team. Projects reported and published in English anywhere in the world are eligible. Average grants are around $5,000. Apply here.

See you next week!

Sanne