About
When you experience the work of artist Tricia Hersey you are witnessing a practice unbound, defying the lines that are often drawn between disciplines, methodologies, and schools of thought. Tricia’s craft has taken a lifetime to perfect. It is deeply influenced by her experiences as the daughter of an abolitionist pastor, as a native of the South Side of Chicago, and as the torch-bearer of her family’s Mississippi and Louisiana roots. Her upbringing is woven throughout her two decades of experience as a teaching artist, chaplain, poet, theatermaker, performance artist, and community organizer. She necessarily dissolves these boundaries to unlock mental, physical, and spiritual spaces for radical thought and imagination. The wideness of her practice opens portals and possibilities of world-building and future-casting while embodying the teachings of somatics, womanism, womanist theology, Black Liberation Theology, Afrofuturism, and her ancestors.
From these vast reservoirs of knowledge, Tricia created the ‘rest is resistance’ and ‘rest as reparations’ frameworks and founded The Nap Ministry, a global pioneer and originator of the movement to understand the liberatory power of rest. Tricia’s words and the immersive experiences she creates through and outside of The Nap Ministry are calling us to move far beyond mainstream concepts of wellness. She asks us to study the ways in which our divinity, higher purpose, and ability to resist violent and oppressive systems are intertwined with how we access our rest, imagination, and DreamSpace. Her work is a pathway to the rest practices needed to collectively build and imagine new worlds as we simultaneously dismantle and deprogram ourselves from the systems that prop up and perpetuate the racial, social, and environmental harm done by white supremacy and extractive capitalism.
When considered in its totality, Tricia’s practice is limitless and experiential in ways that words on a page can never contain. It washes us with a new consciousness that proves rest is not a luxury, but a human right and a deliberate rebuking of the oppressive structures that are snatching the souls of humanity. Every work that Tricia creates is a balm in the form of artistic and spiritual practice and each piece provokes a collective reawakening, offering us a blueprint for a rest revolution. Through her practice we can gather and grow the tools that will help us construct and unveil truly liberated worlds and futures.
Tricia has 20 years of experience as a teaching artist, archivist assistant, community activist, and arts-integrated curriculum developer with Chicago Public Schools, Columbia College Chicago, Steppenwolf Theatre, United States Peace Corps, Emory University Rare Books and Manuscript Library, and numerous community organizations and universities in nationwide.
Hersey has exhibited artworks, delivered talks, and created collective napping experiences with School of the Art Institute Chicago, MOCA Cleveland, Speed Museum, Flux Projects, United States Peace Corps, Google Global, MIT, Brown University, and many more.
Her words and work have been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, PlayBoy, Afropunk, The Atlantic, Complex Magazine, Dutch Vogue, NPR All Things Considered, USA Today, Bon Appetit, and others.
She holds a Bachelor of Science in Public Health from Eastern Illinois University and a Master of Divinity from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University.
Tricia currently lives in South Georgia with her husband, Tommy, and her son who is nicknamed The Dream.
From these vast reservoirs of knowledge, Tricia created the ‘rest is resistance’ and ‘rest as reparations’ frameworks and founded The Nap Ministry, a global pioneer and originator of the movement to understand the liberatory power of rest. Tricia’s words and the immersive experiences she creates through and outside of The Nap Ministry are calling us to move far beyond mainstream concepts of wellness. She asks us to study the ways in which our divinity, higher purpose, and ability to resist violent and oppressive systems are intertwined with how we access our rest, imagination, and DreamSpace. Her work is a pathway to the rest practices needed to collectively build and imagine new worlds as we simultaneously dismantle and deprogram ourselves from the systems that prop up and perpetuate the racial, social, and environmental harm done by white supremacy and extractive capitalism.
When considered in its totality, Tricia’s practice is limitless and experiential in ways that words on a page can never contain. It washes us with a new consciousness that proves rest is not a luxury, but a human right and a deliberate rebuking of the oppressive structures that are snatching the souls of humanity. Every work that Tricia creates is a balm in the form of artistic and spiritual practice and each piece provokes a collective reawakening, offering us a blueprint for a rest revolution. Through her practice we can gather and grow the tools that will help us construct and unveil truly liberated worlds and futures.
Tricia has 20 years of experience as a teaching artist, archivist assistant, community activist, and arts-integrated curriculum developer with Chicago Public Schools, Columbia College Chicago, Steppenwolf Theatre, United States Peace Corps, Emory University Rare Books and Manuscript Library, and numerous community organizations and universities in nationwide.
Hersey has exhibited artworks, delivered talks, and created collective napping experiences with School of the Art Institute Chicago, MOCA Cleveland, Speed Museum, Flux Projects, United States Peace Corps, Google Global, MIT, Brown University, and many more.
Her words and work have been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, PlayBoy, Afropunk, The Atlantic, Complex Magazine, Dutch Vogue, NPR All Things Considered, USA Today, Bon Appetit, and others.
She holds a Bachelor of Science in Public Health from Eastern Illinois University and a Master of Divinity from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University.
Tricia currently lives in South Georgia with her husband, Tommy, and her son who is nicknamed The Dream.
Recent Teaching and Facilitation:
The Theatre School at DePaul University, Guest Artist and Workshop leader for The Entrepreneurial Actor Course, 2018
Emmaus House, The Road Fellows Program, Black Liberation Theology Workshop, Atlanta, GA. 2017.
Free Street Theater, Performance Art and Direct-Action Workshop, Chicago, IL. January 2017
Google ORD Conference, Ignite Talk, “Rest as Resistance,” Chicago, IL. January 2017.
Emory University, Candler School of Theology, “Poetry As Spiritual Practice,” Teaching Assistant, Summer Course, 2017.
Little 5 Arts Alive Festival, Poetry and Storytelling Workshop, Atlanta, GA. July 2016.
Movement and Somatics Workshop, Emory University Dance Department, Atlanta, GA. December 2015.
Publications:
Black Food Book: Stories, Art, and Recipes from Across the African Diaspora. "Care and Rest Our Liberation, 4 Color Books, 2021. Print
Long Live the Girls Anthology. Poetry Contributor, Break Arts International Arts and Education Collaborative, Chicago, IL. 2014.
AIMprint: New Relationships in the Arts and Learning. “The Connection” Chicago, IL: Columbia College Chicago, 2008. Print.
Community Organizing Leadership and Training:
Founder: The Nap Ministry is a community installation that examines the liberating power of naps. We believe rest is a form of resistance and install Collective Napping Experiences for the community to rest together in a safe space.
www.instagram.com/thenapministry/?hl=en
Southern Region Member: Black Land and Liberation Initiative. The Black Land and Liberation Initiative is a vision, strategy and training program grounded in black liberation and anchored by black leadership. www.blacklandandliberation.org
Facilitator: 7th Annual Black Urban Growers Conference: Rooted and Rising: Black Southern Land Legacies of Resistance and Resilience. Black Urban Growers (BUGS) is an organization committed to building networks and community support for growers in both urban and rural settings. Through education and advocacy around food and farm issues, we nurture collective Black leadership to ensure we have a seat at the table. www.blackurbangrowers.org
Trainee: Kingian Nonviolence Conflict Reconciliation Curriculum, Emory University, 2018.
Certifications:
National Archives and Records Administration, Federal Records Management and Your National Archives, 2018.
Labyrinth Facilitator Training, Veriditas at The Cathedral of Saint Philip, Atlanta, Georgia, 2014.
