It can be hard to describe nostalgia, but you can’t miss it when you have it. The feeling can be summed up as a sentimental longing for the past. A journey back in time to our “happy place” — whether real or imagined.

But the past, for many African Americans doesn’t bring about good feelings. Much of it is dark and traumatic, with Black lives largely narrated through stories of slavery and oppression. So, how about creating an archive of Black historical pleasure instead, to help deal with that troubling past?

Reset discusses Afro-Nostalgia: Feeling Good in Contemporary Black Culture with author Badia Ahad-Legardy.

GUEST: Badia Ahad-Legardy, author and associate professor of English at Loyola University Chicago