Rest Is Resistance (Life Kit Interview w/ Tricia Hersey)

Host: Shereen Marisol Meraji (also produced episodes on mindfulness, heritage language study, etc.).
Guest: Tricia Hersey “The Nap Bishop.”
- Founder (2016) of The Nap Ministry—uses performance art, social media, photography, a hotline, and now a book (“Rest Is Resistance”) to champion rest as healing.
- Background: long-time artist, community organizer, divinity-school graduate, public-health undergraduate.
Tricia’s father: union organizer, Pentecostal preacher, activist ⇒ primary ancestor & inspiration.

Host admits chronic tiredness and difficulty saying “no,” rooted in immigrant upbringing (Puerto Rican mother, Iranian father).
Guest grew up hearing, “Work 10× harder because you’re Black.”
Both identify toxic programming → productivity = worth.
First healing step: awareness & naming the conditioning.

Tricia begins a 3-year program; syllabus demanded ≈ $1000$ words/week for ONE class (she was taking six).
Concurrent stressors: Black Lives Matter trauma, sudden family deaths, severe financial strain, no car (bus commute), 6-year-old son, two jobs, mandatory internship.
Physical symptoms: migraines, weight fluctuation, mal-nutrition.

Told professors: “I’ll attend for credit; you may not get the work.”
Strategic napping everywhere on campus + at home; stopped 2 – 3 AM study marathons.
Results: grades ↑, mood ↑, health ↑—demonstrated rest’s restorative power.

Concept: “Collective Napping Experiences.” Strangers invited to nap publicly.
Large turnout; participants awoke crying—evidence of widespread exhaustion & need for communal rest.
Evolved into ongoing community and Instagram presence.

Studied plantation labor archives in Georgia: linked rest to reparations & generational racial trauma.
Explored somatics (mind–body connection) and dream spaces for reparative justice.

Rest = Resistance: disrupts & pushes back against white supremacy and capitalism.
Bodies = Sites of Liberation: wherever the body is, liberation/rest is possible.
Naps = Portals: facilitate imagination, invention, and healing.
Dream Space Stolen: reclaim it through intentional rest.

Resistance isn’t singular: includes micro-disruptions—e.g.
- Intentionally going “off the clock” for $10$ minutes.
- Historical slow-downs in cotton fields.
- Modern “quiet quitting.”
Grind culture frames bodies as machines; rest re-asserts human divinity.

Process is slow & grace-filled; expect guilt/shame → treat as evidence of brainwashing.
Tools/Practices:
- Yoga, meditation, breath-work, hot baths.
- Nature walks, birding.
- Listening to the body (somatic awareness).
Goal: separate self-worth from output.

CDC labels sleep deprivation a public-health crisis.
Links to top chronic diseases: high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes.
During sleep:
- Organs regenerate.
- Brain immersed in chemicals that process trauma & consolidate memory ⇒ boosts creativity.
Sustained exhaustion = immunological harm & shortened life expectancy.

Permission to nap without guilt; no requirement to “earn” a nap via productivity.
Emphasize leisure/vacations untied to work metrics.

Slow, pleasurable movement not centered on labor or competition:
- Ballet & somatic dance (Tricia’s graduate-school example).
- Walking, gardening, bird-watching.
Un-monetized hobbies: example—Tricia’s sister crochets blankets only for meditation & gifting, refuses to sell.

Social media = connection and capitalist addiction machine (endless scroll & buying).
Tricia’s protocol:
- Phone OFF (not just Do Not Disturb) at 8 PM, stored in a drawer.
- Offline “detox” periods scheduled weekly.

“Rest days” blocked out—no email, no work.
Pre-COVID: daily 1 – 3 PM rest block.
Father’s model: woke 2 hrs early to read newspapers “to be human” before work clock started.

Activists often feel they can’t rest while injustice persists.
Tricia argues rest is strategic & generative—prerequisite to radical imagination required for systemic change.
Honors her father’s premature death as cautionary tale: capitalism “got him.”

Rest framed as divine & human right—full stop.
Paradigm shift from productivity-centric identity to inherent worth.
Encourages operating outside binary thinking (e.g., social-media good vs bad ⇒ nuanced approach).

Tricia’s mantra: “We are resting simply because it is our divine and human right to do so.”
Host signs off: “Thanks for listening, and get some rest.”