Covid got us down, but we’re back on the last day of Black History Month!
In celebration of Black History Month, we’ll be highlighting a diverse range of books, all written by Black American authors, all of which celebrate and prioritize Black Joy. We’ll be featuring a title every day through the month of February.
Kleaver Cruz, creator of the Black Joy project, says that “Black joy is resistance. Amplifying Black joy is not about dismissing or creating an ‘alternative’ Black narrative that ignores the realities of our collective pain; rather, it is about holding the pain and injustices we experience as Black folks around the world in tension with the joy we experience in pain’s midst. It’s about using that joy as an entry into understanding the oppressive forces we navigate through as a means to imagine and create a world free of them.”
Today’s work is Tricia Hersey’s Rest is Resistance, a manifesto on what the world (and your life) might look like if we were all well-rested. Hersey – aka the Nap Bishop – challenges Grind Culture, capitalism and the proposed value of constant productivity. Instead, she offers a ministry of rest, building on the tenants of Black Liberation, somatics, the history of the Sabbath, activism and more. In the words of the Nap Bishop – we are enough. Rest.
Thanks for reading along as we shared the smallest sample of the amazing work that has been and is being written by Black American authors – we hope you’ll keep reading great art by Black authors all year long!
