Research Guides: Center for Black Visual Culture (CBVC) at the Institute of African American Affairs (IAAA): Read

Selections from the Black Rest Advisory Council

Book

Picturing Black History: Photographs and Stories that Changed the World by Daniela Edmeier; Damarius Johnson; Nicholas B. Breyfogle; Steven Conn
ISBN: 9781419769559

Publication Date: 2024-11-12

Picturing Black History uncovers untold stories and rarely seen images of the Black experience.

The following essays in Picturing Black History explore rest:

The Revolution of Being by Chet’La Sebree
Wade in the Water by Dustin Meier
Free the Land, Free the People by Jocelyn Imani
Portraits of a Black Daguerreotypist by Cedric Rose
A Sharecropper's Family by Alex Lichenstein
Beauty Salons as Sacred Space in Black America by Blair Banks
Slim Hyatt: Disquair Extraordinaire by Shawn Waldron
Love is the Message by Sai Isoke

Articles

Black Women’s Work and Leisure in the Black Mecca by Eshe Sherley
The everyday lives and struggles of Black women in Atlanta reveal the roots of their activism.
Members Only by Robert Kodosky
With integration a legal right, swimming pools became a new battleground in the segregation fight.
Crowning Miss Parkridge: Black Leisure in Southern California by Dustin Meier
The Parkridge Country Club demonstrated the fragile promise of African American recreational space in 1920s Los Angeles.

Additional Reading

Books

Black Buddhists and the Black Radical Tradition: The Practice of Stillness in the Movement for Liberation by Rima Vesely-Flad
ISBN: 9781479810505

Publication Date: 2022

This book illuminates distinct Buddhist practices amongst meditators of African descent. It includes interviews, dharma talks, and writings of more than sixty-five Black Buddhist teachers and long-term practitioners.
Black Fatigue: How Racism Erodes the Mind, Body, and Spirit by Mary-Frances Winters
ISBN: 9781523091324

Publication Date: 2020

This is the first book to define and explore Black fatigue, the intergenerational impact of systemic racism on the physical and psychological health of Black people--and explain why and how society needs to collectively do more to combat its pernicious effects.
Black Girls Breathing: Heal from Trauma, Combat Chronic Stress, and Find Your Freedom by Jasmine Marie
ISBN: 9781538756621

Publication Date: 2024

In Black Girls Breathing, Jasmine Marie offers you the power of breathwork, and the revolutionary nature of slowing down and turning inward.
Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems and Meditations for Staying Human by Cole Arthur Riley
ISBN: 1399815032

Publication Date: 2024

In Black Liturgies, Riley invites readers to reflect on their own experiences of wonder, rest, rage, and repair.
Black Women's Mental Health: Balancing Strength and Vulnerability by Stephanie Y. Evans; Kanika Bell ; Nsenga K. Burton
ISBN: 9781438465838

Publication Date: 2017

This book offers a unique, interdisciplinary, and thoughtful look at the challenges and potency of Black women's struggle for inner peace and mental stability.
Black Women's Yoga History: Memoirs of Inner Peace by Stephanie Y. Evans; Jana Long (Foreword by)
ISBN: 9781438483634

Publication Date: 2021

Examines how Black women elders have managed stress, emphasizing how self-care practices have been present since at least the mid-nineteenth century, with roots in African traditions.
The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming Our Communities by Rhonda V. Magee; Jon Kabat-Zinn (Foreword by)
ISBN: 9780593083925

Publication Date: 2019

Incorporating mindfulness exercises, research, and Magee's hard-won insights, The Inner Work of Racial Justice offers a road map to a more peaceful world.
The Invisible Ache: Black Men Identifying Their Pain and Reclaiming Their Power by Courtney B. Vance; Robin L. Smith
ISBN: 9781538725139

Publication Date: 2023

From an award-winning actor and a #1 bestselling author, a unique combination of moving memoir and practical tools that offers guidance for Black men seeking to reclaim their mental well-being-and, ultimately, to live wholeheartedly.
Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto by Tricia Hersey
ISBN: 0316365211

Publication Date: 2022

In this book, Tricia Hersey, aka The Nap Bishop, encourages us to connect to the liberating power of rest, daydreaming, and naps as a foundation for healing and justice.
We Will Rest!: The Art of Escape by Tricia Hersey
ISBN: 9780316365550

Publication Date: 2024

We Will Rest! is a modern sacred object, medicine for a sick and exhausted world. Weaving together meditations and poetry with storytelling and art, Hersey provokes liberation through refusal and trickster rebellion in the face of capitalism and white supremacy.

Book Chapters, Articles and Dissertations

An Exploratory Analysis of How Maya Angelou, Audre Lorde, and Patrisse Cullors Radicalized the Meaning and Practice of Self-Care
Lindsay, Melanie Marie. An Exploratory Analysis of How Maya Angelou, Audre Lorde, and Patrisse Cullors Radicalized the Meaning and Practice of Self-Care. 2022. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses.
‘Critical Self-Care’: Reimagining Possibilities of Self-Care as Everyday Resistance in the Context of the Neoliberal University
Riccitelli, Joanna. “‘Critical Self-Care’: Reimagining Possibilities of Self-Care as Everyday Resistance in the Context of the Neoliberal University.” Critical Sociology, vol. 51, no. 3, 2025, pp. 471–86, https://doi.org/10.1177/08969205241245091.
“Rest as Resistance:” Black Cyberfeminism, Collective Healing and Liberation on @TheNapMinistry
Monier, Mel. “‘Rest as Resistance:’ Black Cyberfeminism, Collective Healing and Liberation on @TheNapMinistry.” Communication, Culture & Critique, vol. 16, no. 3, 2023, pp. 119–25, https://doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcad022.
You Won't Break My Soul: Black Women's Contemporary Anti-Work Philosophies and Post-Work Experiences
Berry, Sharla. “You Won’t Break My Soul: Black Women’s Contemporary Anti-Work Philosophies and Post-Work Experiences.” Journal of Labor and Society, vol. 27, no. 4, 2024, pp. 524–52, https://doi.org/10.1163/24714607-bja10159.
Rest as Resistance. From Self-Care to Decolonial Narratives
Steinvorth, Sofia, and Luísa Santos. “Rest as Resistance. From Self-Care to Decolonial Narratives.” Cultures of Silence, 1st ed., Routledge, 2023, pp. 155–71, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003206712-13.