The Black Rest Project

Upcoming Events

Schedule of Events

The Black Rest Project

Conceived at New York University’s Center for Black Visual Culture at the Institute of African American Affairs in 2022, The Black Rest Project is a collaborative interrogation and activation of the power and practice of rest for global Black people. The BRP is inspired by the work of artist, theologist, activist, and CBVC Artist-Scholar in Residence of Fall 2023 Tricia Hersey, a.k.a. The Nap Bishop, and supported through the guidance of the Black Rest Advisory Council. Through the cultivation of strategic partnerships with visionary scholars, cultural workers, artists, and community organizations in several domestic and international locations, we have successfully excavated, curated, and amplified visual narratives of Black rest and leisure. Black Rest must accompany a renegotiation of labor that accounts for the historical, racial, and gendered dynamics set into motion by the transatlantic slave trade. We have consistently asked what are the necessary disruptions and interventions in our institutions, artistic and scholarly practices that must happen in order to make Black rest possible? With rest widely defined in its various forms by participating scholars, artists, and activists, we have explored what new possibilities open for Black Rest when our relationship to labor is contextualized through an emotional justice framework, including how do we eradicate the lingering feelings of guilt, laziness, shame, and worthlessness that often impede Black rest.

Since 2022, the CBVC has executed 24 successful panels, keynotes, and exhibitions advancing scholarship and activism on Black Rest in New York, NY, Miami, FL, Salt Lake City, UT, Portland, ME, Paris, FR and Venice, IT, reaching hundreds of participants. In addition, the CBVC’s advisory council and collaborating partners continue to implement interrogations of Black Rest in their own programs and respective locations, including but not limited to YoungArts (Miami, FL), Ohio State University (Columbus, OH), Zora’s House (Columbus, OH), The Armah Institute of Emotional Justice, (Accra, Ghana), and The Harriet Jacobs Project (Edenton, NC). The penultimate event to this 5-year project’s conclusion is the launch of the Black Rest Podcast, with episodes featuring Treva B. Lindsey, Khary Lazarre-White, Bettina Love, Nadege Greene, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Esther Armah, and James Allister Sprang, hosted by Dejha Carrington. We will conclude the Black Rest project with the Black Rest Convening, to produce and refine literary contributions for a scholarly publication anthologizing the Black Rest project’s research since its inception.

The Black Rest Advisory Council:

Samy Alim, the David O. Sears Presidential Endowed Chair in the Social Sciences and Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Faculty Director of the UCLA Hip Hop Initiative at the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies.

Esther Armah, CEO, The Armah Institute of Emotional Justice (The AIEJ), Accra, Ghana

Nicholas Breyfogle, Associate Professor of History, The Ohio State University; Director, The Harvey Goldberg Center for Excellence in Teaching; Affiliated Faculty, Sustainability Institute; Editor, Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective; Editor, Picturing Black History, Columbus OH

Dejha Carrington, Co-founder & Executive Director, Commissioner, Miami, FL

Clive Chang, President, YoungArts, Miami, FL

Jake Goldbas, Deputy Director, Find Your Light Foundation, Los Angeles, CA

Gayatri Gopinath, Associate Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and Director of the Center for the Study of Gender & Sexuality at New York University, New York, NY

LC Johnson, Founder, Zora’s House, Columbus, OH

Jason King, Dean, USC Thornton School of Music, Los Angeles, CA

Michelle Lanier, Director, North Carolina Historical Sites; Director, The Harriet Jacobs Project, Raleigh, North Carolina

Khary Lazarre-White, Executive Director & Co-Founder, The Brotherhood Sister Sol, New York, NY

Treva B. Lindsey, Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at The Ohio State University, founder of the Black Feminist Institute and the co-founder of Black Feminist Night School at Zora’s House, Columbus, OH

Jennifer L. Morgan, Professor of Social & Cultural Analysis & History, NYU Arts & Science, New York NY

Luisa Múnera, Senior Manager, Artistic Programs and Curator, YoungArts, Miami, FL

Sheri Neale, Co-Founder, Maroon Arts Group, Columbus, OH

Kristina Newman-Scott, Vice President of the Arts, Knight Foundation, New York, NY

Marshall Short, Co-Founder, Maroon Arts Group, Columbus, OH

James Allister Sprang, Multidisciplinary Artist, Philadelphia, PA

Rosie Gordon Wallace, Founder of The Diaspora Vibe Culture Arts Incubator (DVCAI), Miami, FL

List of Black Rest Activations

1. Between the Lines: Rest is Resistance – Conversation with author Tricia Hersey and Dr. Joan Morgan

October 12, 2022 | Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture | New York, NY

2. EMOTIONAL JUSTICE: A Roadmap for Racial Healing

October 13, 2022 | CBVC | New York, NY & Virtual

3. The Black Rest Project presents Joshua Rashaad McFadden: I Believe I’ll Run On 

November 16, 2022  | CBVC | New York, NY

4. Black Rest Project Advisory Council Convening 

August 2023 | Casa Artom | Venice, IT

5. Still Here: Generations of Black Miami Artmaking

September 2023 | Commissioner | Miami, Fl

6. Rest is Power Exhibition

September 7 – October 22, 2023 | CBVC | New York, NY

7. Rest is Power Artists Roundtable

September 12, 2023 | CBVC | New York, NY & Virtual

8. Welcome for Tricia Hersey, CBVC Fall 2023 Artist-Scholar in Residence

September 25, 2023 | CBVC | New York, NY

9. Collective Rest Experience with Tricia Hersey

November 6, 2023 | CBVC | New York, NY

10. Rest is Resistance Book Group with Tricia Hersey

November 16, 2023 | CBVC | New York, NY

11. Rest Within the Wake James Allister Sprang 

December 2023 | YoungArts | Miami, Fl

12. Joan Morgan YoungArts Master Class with James Allister Sprang and Marikka Hughes

2023 | YoungArts | Miami, Fl

13. Intentional Moments of Rest during National YoungArts Week

January 7-14, 2024 | YoungArts | Miami, Fl

14. Exploring Black Rest in Black Music

March 6, 2024 | CBVC | New York, NY & Virtual

15. Zora’s House Rest Residency Concept

May 2024 | Zora’s House | Virtual

16. YoungArts New York City Interdisciplinary Lab

May 2024 | YoungArts | Louis Armstrong House | New York, NY

17. Theorizing Black Miami: Histories, Movements, and Ethics of Care

May 2024 | Commissioner | Miami, Fl

18. The Harriet Jacobs Project Memorable Proof Installation

July 2024 | The Harriet Jacobs Project | Edenton, NC

19. YoungArts The Rest Residency 

2024-2025 | Miami, FL

20. Black Feminist Night School: Rest as Resistance Practice, Featuring Deja Redman 

September 12, 2024 | Zora’s House | Columbus, OH

21. Bettmann Archive by Getty Images, Slippery Rock Iron Mountain 

October 24, 2024 | Picturing Black History Initiative

22. Migrations & Translation Black Rest in Translation Panel 

Nov 8, 2024 | NYU | Paris, Fr

23. Data For Black Lives (D4BL) III: Utopia
November 20, 2024 | Pérez Art Museum Miami | Miami, FL 

24. Black Feminist Night School: Featuring Tifani Kendrick

November 21, 2024 | Zora’s House | Columbus, OH

25. Conversation with H. Samy Alim, Esther Armah, Treva Lindsey, Kaila Story and Dr. Joan Morgan  

February 2025 | UCLA | Los Angeles, CA

26. Black Rest Podcast

Spring & Summer 2025 | Virtual

27. Black Rest Final Convening 

Jan 13 – 15, 2026 | NYU Florence and The Recovery Plan | Florence, IT

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