Tricia Hersey
Tricia Hersey is an American rest advocate and activist best known as the founder of the organization The Nap Ministry. She advocates for the importance of rest as a racial and social justice issue.
Early life and education
Hersey was born and raised in Chicago.[1] She received her bachelor's degree in community health.[1] Hersey enrolled in divinity school at Candler School of Theology at Emory University as protests related to Black Lives Matter were just beginning. After she experienced stress related to her graduate program, deaths in her family, and being robbed with her young son, Hersey began taking naps more often.[2][1] They made her feel healthier and more energized, and she began to incorporate rest into her graduate research topics of black liberation theology, somatics, and cultural trauma.[2][3] She has tied experiences of oppression as contributors to Black exhaustion[4]
Hersey received master of divinity degree from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University.[5]
Career
Hersey's work argues that that sleep deprivation as a racial and social justice issue[4], and calls for rest as a form of resistance to white supremacy and capitalism[1] that is tied to American slavery, when enslaved Africans were regularly sleep deprived.[2] Hersey believes that rest disrupts that history and contemporary "grind culture".[2] She contends that rest is key to black liberation because it allows space for healing and invention.[2]
Hersey takes daily naps[1] and refers to herself as a the Nap Bishop[2]Hersey founded The Nap Ministry in 2016, an organization that advocates for rest as a form of reparations and resistance to capitalism as well as ancestral connection.[2] The organizations seeks to destigmatize self-care and sleep.[1] She spent the first year after founding networking and developing the organization,[3] and hosted first nap experience in May 2017.[3]
The organization hosts nap collective experiences based in Atlanta, where people nap together for 30-40 minutes.[6] Hersey has also hosted pop-up sessions in Chicago.[5][7]-The organization's Instagram has 20,000 followers as of June 2020.[2]
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/18/style/self-care/healing-trauma-racism-wellness.html
https://www.vogue.com/article/black-mental-health-wellness-instagram-accounts
Personal life
Hersey resides in Atlanta.[8]
References
- ^ a b c d e f "Listen: You Are Worthy of Sleep". The Atlantic. 2020-04-30. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Atlanta-Based Organization Advocates For Rest As A Form Of Social Justice". NPR.org. 2020-06-04. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ a b c Ellis, Nicquel Terry. "Atlanta woman has an antidote for burnout – napping for self-care and social justice". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
- ^ a b Vaughn, Mikiesha Dache (2020-07-01). "Rest as Resistance: Why Nap Ministry and Others Want Black People to Sleep". Complex. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ a b Lichtenstein, Amanda Leigh (2018-05-01). "The Trend: Time for a Nap". Hemispheres. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Pandika, Melissa (2019-04-04). "'Nap Bishop' Tricia Hersey Is Spreading the Gospel of Rest". Bon Appétit. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Ellis, Nicquel Terry. "Atlanta woman has an antidote for burnout – napping for self-care and social justice". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
- ^ Moore, Natalie Y. (2020-06-18). "On this Juneteenth, I'm resting up for the work ahead | Natalie Moore". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2020-09-04.