On the Saturday before Sunday service, people flocked to the historic Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church on Sept. 20 to tap into another spiritual practice: rest.
March On! Festival hosted “Napping as Resistance: Rest as a Tool for Collective Liberation,” led by Tricia Hersey, founder of the nationally recognized Nap Ministry and author of “Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto” (2022). Hersey’s movement frames rest as a spiritual and practical necessity, a way for Black communities to reclaim dignity and healing in the face of generations of overwork.
Drawing on church tradition and liberation theology, she invited participants to see rest as faithful resilience: a practice of care that resists capitalism’s demand for endless labor and opens space for joy, imagination, and collective renewal.
“I’ve been leaning into the idea of speaking gratefulness over my body, over my spirit,” Hersey told the crowd. “There’s so much to be afraid of, there’s so much fear going on right now, but I believe we have the power to slowly place ourselves in a temporary space of joy and freedom, which is resting.”
Throughout the event, Hersey read passages from “Rest Is Resistance,” blending scripture and lived experience into a call for radical self-care.
She reflected on how exhaustion has weighed on Black communities for generations.
“I always wonder what more our ancestors could have done with more rest,” Hersey said.
Considering the many generations of African Americans who were forced into labor, and the socio-economic disparities Black people face today, Hersey views rest as both inheritance and resistance—a way to regain strength and carry justice work forward.
Emphasizing rest as a spiritual practice and act of political resistance, Hersey urged people to pause and collect themselves, deliberately reclaim their bodies and spirits from a culture built on overworking, and return renewed.
“Resting is a faith walk,” she said. “Social-justice work is spiritual work, and spiritual work is political work. To say, especially as a Black person, ‘I refuse to be burned out’ is a radical act of faith and a disruption of capitalism. My work is simply a pushback—a voice saying, ‘No. We can sleep. We must.’”
Guided Meditation, Rest as a Pathway to Joy
The gathering included a guided daydreaming meditation led by artist Arin Maya. She filled the sanctuary with soft, sustained melodies, her voice mingling with the gentle resonance of a singing bowl.
The bell-like tones invited participants to close their eyes, breathe deeply, and rest.
“I grew up in church—Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago with Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.—and in the theology of Black liberation. There’s a song we used to sing: ‘What God has for Me is for Me,’” Maya told The Informer. “I’ve evolved that to: What I want for myself, God wants for me too. If I’m burned out, I need to rest and care for myself—that’s what God wants as well.”
Among those deeply moved was Cammie Ward, who said the gathering felt like a rare invitation to stop and breathe.
“This event was amazing—it moved me to tears,” Ward reflected. “Hearing her voice over the sound system, it felt like permission to close my eyes and truly rest. I loved it.”
Ward connected the message to her own family history of overwork.
“Rest is necessary for longevity. Not resting—being overwhelmed and overworked—takes a real toll on the body. I’m 53, and seeing the trauma in my own family from parents who were constantly overworked truly frightened me,” Ward said. “Because of that, I make sure to find time every day to crochet or simply sit still. It’s okay to just relax and rest.”
Maya’s views rest as closely tied to faith and underscored prioritizing it in one’s life, describing it as a pathway to joy: a practice that nurtures creativity and the strength to sustain resistance.
“My faith tells me God is an active player in creating my life, and I’m part of that creativity,” she said. “If what I need is rest, God and I work together so I can receive it.”
The Inspiration Behind the Nap Ministry
Before founding the Nap Ministry, Hersey spent years as a political activist, organizing direct actions and community campaigns. She remembers watching fellow organizers push themselves past the point of safety.
“It also felt like a lot of times activists don’t know how dangerous it is to be at protests and on frontlines with an exhausted brain,” she told The Informer. “When you are exhausted, when you are in burnout mode, it is a physical, spiritual thing happening in the body that really takes a toll on your thinking, takes a toll on your creativity, on your ability to be imaginative.”
Hersey had an up-close view of the power of prioritizing rest.
“My grandmother is the muse of all my work. She survived a lynching in Jackson, Mississippi, migrated to Chicago, and—despite poverty—rested every single day,” she said. “She taught me what it means to rest inside a capitalist system.”
Further, Hersey notes that a celebrated activist ensured rest was part of her famous journeys to freedom.
“I love the story of Harriet Tubman pausing during Underground Railroad missions to nap and pray. Even in life-or-death situations, she stopped to dream and strategize,” Hersey said. “She was never caught. That practice of rest is a model for activists today.”
In times of unrest, Hersey encourages people to make rest a priority. She pointed to today’s political landscape—marked by ongoing protests, social upheaval, and attacks on people of color and marginalized communities —as fertile ground for exhaustion.
“People wake up every morning not knowing what they’re going to see. Anxiety and fear are everywhere. Resting right now is majorly important because all that fear can consume you,” the author explained. “Burnout only leads to more trauma, and that cycle weighs on our mental, physical, and spiritual health.”
Through the chaos of uncertainty—whether political, personal, or anything in between—Hersey emphasized rest must be prioritized as a natural right of all people. Her work, she explained, “just hopes to be a calendar,” meant to serve as a constant reminder to slow down and reclaim that right.
“Resting is a birthright, it’s not a luxury,” she said. “I think that there’s a different reimagination that we’re missing by not looking at resting as being part of the foundation for a liberated world.”