‘Rest Is Power’ Is A Stunning Expression Of Black People Reclaiming Their Peace

By Sage Howard, Huffington Post

We were forced into a value system based on our labor. It’s time to disrupt that trauma.

When I was growing up, the adults who raised me demonstrated that the right to rest was explicitly reserved for the dead. As I got older, I realized this was not just how my extremely hard-working parents ran their household, but a rigid mindset for so many of us in the Black community.

This is why entering a space that intentionally encouraged me to seek physical and emotional rest felt like a hug. When I visited the “Rest Is Power” exhibit currently on display at New York University, I was invited to reimagine what rest looks like for Black people — and to consider making more space for it in my own life.

The visuals excavated memories of lying on the floor in my great-grandmother’s bedroom as a child, experiencing the type of serenity and security that rarely surface for me as an adult. These reflections that bubbled up also made me question whether I could somehow access that type of peace today. I wondered, is the deprivation I experience all because of a broken system — or am I actually contributing to it?

The show, which features photography, paintings and new media from artists such as Kennedi Carter and Chris Friday, is part of an evolving movement made popular a few years ago by theologist and activist Tricia Hersey, who founded the aptly named Nap Ministry. Her published manifesto “Rest Is Resistance” is a critical literary work that reframed Black people’s relationship with rest as an act of political resistance.

“Rest Is Power” will run from September 7, 2023 – October 22, 2023.

For more Resistance art, explore our own exhibit on leaders of the movement.

Back to Breaking News.