Sleep in Public
Sleep in Public is a virtual gathering designed to aid participants in situating their experiences of fatigue, disability, labor, & rest within collective political & relational frameworks. Members dream together toward synthesizing rest with the everyday practices & relationships at the core of our lives.
Modes of Rest:
Physical Rest || sleep, move slowly, breathe, apply & release pressure.
Mental Rest || listen & validate, vent & receive validation, weep.
Emotional Rest || gather materials, practice gratitude, affirmation, naming, record-keeping.
Sensory Rest || savor stillness, quiet, darkness, cool, warmth, texture, water, movement.
Creative Rest || embody resonance & rhythm, collage, color, organize ingredients, make marks.
Social Rest || cultivate solitude, co-regulation, boundaries, correspondence.
Spiritual Rest || attune to landscape, ritual, communion.
We will gather monthly via Zoom for four broadly themed 2-hour sessions (I will reach out to prospective participants to coordinate scheduling after I receive 6-10 responses to this invitation). Participants are invited to approach the themes associatively & intuitively:
Sleeping Beauty : Rest in Mass Media
Virtual Reality : Rest & Consumption
Daymares : Rest & Productivity
Seasonal Stasis : Rest & the State
Each 2-hour gathering is divided into three parts (bird-themed, obviously):
Landing : Introductions
Nesting : Resting
Preening : [Dis]Connections
Sessions are intended to feel restful throughout—I expect we will also feel challenged when we confront internalized & externalized hierarchies our rest habits interface with every day.
To be considered for this group, please submit your responses to the Application Questions at the bottom of the page to unsung.studio.applications@gmail.com
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GRATITUDE:
The facilitator’s frameworks of rest were developed in communion with her conspirators & draw influence from the works & teachings of: Ismatu Gwendolyn, Tricia Hersey, Chen Chen, Devon Price, Natalie Diaz, Solmaz Sharif, Joy James, Bayo Akomolafe, & more.
From Tricia Hersey: “This is metaphysical, spiritual and political work and anyone who uplifts a message of rest as a form of resistance without tapping into the history of Black liberation and the evils of capitalism is nothing but an agent of grind culture. Do not listen. You should instead read texts on Black liberation like: bell hooks, James Cone, Toni Morrison, Katie Cannon, Audre Lorde, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. By centering this scholarship you are respecting the work that has influenced and inspired everything about The Nap Ministry. You will begin the process of deprogramming from your brainwashing under grind culture. Go slow. Learn history. Learn your own history. View your body as its own unique technology. Listen.”
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NOTE: This space prioritizes personal autonomy and self-regulation—all participants are encouraged to tend our own boundaries and capacities while sharing thoughts, feelings, strategies, technologies, resources, requests, & wisdom to build relationships, sustain support, & practice mutuality.
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APPLICATION QUESTIONS:
What draws you to this group? What would you like to offer to the group? What would you like to receive?
Which of the seven types of rest do you feel most practiced in? Which do you feel most estranged from? How do you account for these feelings?
Are there ways this group could better accommodate your access needs that I may not have considered?
What would you like to share with the facilitator about your identity?
Participants are invited to pay-what-you-can. The recommended compensation for all four sessions is $236. Are you able to pay more than $236 to subsidize the cost for applicants experiencing financial precarity? Would you like to be considered for a partially or fully subsidized registration? Please estimate your contribution amount, taking into consideration your class positionality & the many hours of study & preparation undertaken to organize this group.