TRICIA HERSEY on Rest as Resistance /185
Photo of Tricia Hersey in a yellow gown napping on a bench in an urban landscape over rows of cotton; Credit: Charlie Watts.
With a historical analysis of slavery and plantation labor, this week’s episode prompts us, at this critical time, to consider what is stolen from those among us who cannot rest under white supremacy and capitalism.
While this conversation took place in April of 2020, as we release this episode amidst the powerful uprising in the aftermath of the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Tony McDade, we want to make clear that for those of us who are white - this is not time to rest.
White privilege means that we will never understand the collective, ancestral, and embodied exhaustion that the Black community and communities of color experience on the regular, and are experiencing right now. So, now is the time to leverage our privilege to dismantle the toxic systems we unconsciously uphold, to ally ourselves with those on the frontlines, who need rest the most.
Tricia Hersey is a Chicago native living in Atlanta with over 20 years of experience collaborating with communities as a performance artist, theater maker, spiritual director, and community organizer. She is the founder of The Nap Ministry, an organization that examines rest as a form of resistance by curating safe spaces for the community to rest via Collective Napping Experiences, immersive workshops and performance art installations. Her research interests include black liberation theology, womanism, somatics, and cultural trauma. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Public Health from Eastern Illinois University and a Master of Divinity from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University.
“To not rest is really being violent towards your body, to align yourself with a system that says your body doesn’t belong to you, keep working, you are simply a tool for our production…”
Photo of Tricia Hersey by Charlie Watts
In this incredibly rich offering, we speak with Tricia on the myths of grind culture, rest as resistance, and reclaiming our imaginative power through sleep. Capitalism and white supremacy have tricked us into believing that our self-worth is tied to our productivity. Tricia shares with us the revolutionary power of rest.
🎵 Music by Seba Kaapstad, Real J Wallace, and Beautiful Chorus
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You can find more of Tricia’s work & writings on her website and through The Nap Ministry.
Recommendations
Womanist Theological Ethics: A Reader, Edited by Katie Geneva Cannon, Emilie M. Townes, and Angela D. Sims. Westminster John Knox Press, 2011.
Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? Martin Luther King, Jr. Beacon Press, 2010.
Episode References
James Cone & black liberation theology
The womanist tradition & black feminism
Afrofuturism texts
“Nobody's free until everybody's free.” –Fannie Loui Hamer
“The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” –Audre Lorde
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For The Wild is a slow media organization dedicated to land-based protection, co-liberation, and intersectional storytelling. We are rooted in a paradigm shift away from human supremacy, endless growth, and consumerism. As we dream towards a world of grounded justice and reciprocity, our work highlights impactful stories and deeply-felt meaning making as balms for these times.