Book review of Rest Is Resistance by Tricia Hersey

Founder of the Nap Ministry Tricia Hersey has created a startling, beneficiant new work in Rest Is Resistance. Grounding her debut ebook in Black liberation theology, abolitionist traditions and Afrofuturism, Hersey gives a blueprint for rejecting the calls for of fashionable capitalism in favor of our collective well being and social progress.

Hersey delineates American society as one in disaster. Through analysis and private anecdotes, she demonstrates how our tradition has systematically prioritized the era of wealth above our well being, happiness and stability—and subsequently romanticized this dysfunction as “grind culture” or “hustle culture.” For Hersey, embracing relaxation is an inherent rebuke of a violent system constructed on coerced labor and white supremacy. It is an intentional opt-out of an ideology that calls for the labor of Black girls whereas deriding us as lazy. She can also be fast to denounce the fashionable wellness business that has commodified and individualized self-care as one thing that may be packaged and bought (candles, shakes, crystals, and many others.).

As half of this rejection of “shallow wellness work,” Hersey does extra than simply clarify the issues of fashionable capitalism; she additionally gives sensible strategies of resistance via a spread of resting practices. Hersey argues that prayer, daydreams, sleep and intense laughter are usually not simply gratifying however sacred balms. But on the forefront of this work is the understanding that these non secular practices transcend the person. According to Hersey, cultivating relaxation honors the labor of our ancestors and guarantees a greater world for our descendants.

Hersey’s prose is exquisitely stunning, dripping with lyrical grace and knowledge that make her background as a poet and scholar apparent. Audre Lorde, Octavia Butler and bell hooks are named inspirations for her craft, and their work echoes all through Hersey’s pondering. “I don’t want a seat at the table of the oppressor,” Hersey writes as she desires of a greater future for us all. “I want a blanket and pillow down by the ocean.” Rest Is Resistance is a ebook to learn and reread with a pen in hand and pad beside you; one which you will see that your self wanting to present to associates, co-workers and strangers.