The Nap Ministry was founded in 2016 by Tricia Hersey and is an organization that examines the liberating power of naps. Our “REST IS RESISTANCE” framework and practice engages with the power of performance art, site-specific installations, and community organizing to install sacred and safe spaces for the community to rest together. We facilitate immersive workshops and curate performance art that examines rest as a radical tool for community healing. We believe rest is a form of resistance and name sleep deprivation as a racial and social justice issue.
We are very active on social media because we view our pages as one of our many tools to help deprogram the masses from grind culture. Please feel free to follow us to learn more about this justice movement.
Services:
Collective Napping Experience:
Our signature program that installs sacred spaces for the community to nap together. We curate the experience with yoga mats, blankets, pillows, curated soundtrack, rest altar, poetic meditations, and a post-nap-talk, all guided by Tricia Hersey, The Nap Bishop. It is a transformative and healing experience that rejuvenates and opens the mind to the possibilities of “REST IS RESISTANCE.” We have transformed parks in Chicago, yoga studios, conferences, art galleries, living rooms, and community organizations into sacred nap spaces to gather and harness the power of rest.
Immersive Workshops:
We create and facilitate immersive workshops that explore the healing power “REST IS RESISTANCE.” The workshops guide the participants on an intentional and slow exploration of the importance of creating a sustainable healing ritual via naps. During our practice together, we interact with text, music, poetry, meditation, and collective dreaming to empower our tired bodies and minds to self-care and self-reflection. We are currently touring the workshop: Rest is Resistance: Rest as a Tool for Healing, but love crafting individualized workshops based on your unique needs.
Lectures/Key Notes:
Tricia is a dynamic speaker, performance artist, activist and teacher with over 20 years of public speaking experience. Her talks are engaging, interactive and grounded in the art of storytelling, archival history and a slideshow of images from The Nap Ministry. The following themes are uplifted: “REST IS RESISTANCE”, community organizing and the science of sleep. The lectures also includes a question and answer segment. She has done lectures at Google Chicago, Boys and Girls Club, Brown University, Minneapolis Institute of Art, and many universities and organizations nationwide and internationally.
Coaching:
We believe in radical community building and want to build with you. We offer rest coaching and spiritual direction blended together to create an individualized healing plan that is based on your needs. During our practice together, we will interact with text, music, poetry, silence, meditation, rest, prayer, and collective dreaming to empower our tired bodies and minds to self-care and self-reflection.
Resurrect Rest School:
Drawing from the spirit of connected and in-person community organizing, Resurrect Rest School is a gathering space dedicated to the deep study, teaching, and practice of The Nap Ministry’s “REST IS RESISTANCE” movement. The School serves as an intensive intervention and provocative space to understand and embody the “REST IS RESISTANCE” theory and framework. Starting with a group of 40 students, The Resurrect Rest School was launched in January 2020 at the Black Mecca Project in Atlanta.
Photo from our Site Installation, “A Resting Place” for Flux Projects. Ponce City Market, Atlanta, 2019. Phtoto by: @capturedbytabia
The Nap Ministry 