We Will Rest!: The Art of Escape

by Tricia Hersey, George McCalman (Illustrator)

Overview

A modern sacred object—beautifully illustrated and inspired by hymnals and abolitionist pamphlets—helping to escape from grind culture and dehumanizing systems, by Tricia Hersey, “effin’ genius” (Glennon Doyle) and bestselling author of Rest is Resistance
 
Give the gift of rest and escape with this exquisitely designed volume of inspiring writings by Tricia Hersey, powerfully illustrated by award-winning designer George McCalman and featuring a silk ribbon marker.

We don’t believe we are worthy of rest unless we burn ourselves out to accomplish it. Our thinking has been limited by disconnection, sleep deprivation, and the unattainable call for perfection. The systems will never give us rest. It is something we must create for ourselves and each other. 
 
Just as the North Star guided the enslaved on their journeys to freedom, visionary artist and founder of The Nap Ministry Tricia Hersey leads us to imagine a new world: one in which we subvert the narrative of productivity at all costs and embrace rest as a healing spiritual practice. 
 
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. 
 
There is another way. Focus on the escape. Focus on the transformation. We can just be. We are beautiful. We are enough. We are escape artists. We Will Rest!
 
 ***
 
Have you ever noticed
when you ask for rest
the body becomes a holy trumpet
the walls come tumbling down?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316365550
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	11/12/2024
Series:	Rest Is Resistance Series , #2
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Tricia Hersey is a multidisciplinary artist, theologian, escape artist and founder of The Nap Ministry. She is the global pioneer and originator of the “rest as resistance” and “rest as reparations” frameworks, and collaborates with communities all over the world to create sacred spaces where the liberatory, restorative, and disruptive power of rest can take hold. Tricia’s work is seeded within the soils of Black radical thought, somatics, Afrofuturism, womanism, and liberation theology. She is a Chicago native who believes in daydreaming, porch sitting, and poetry.

Editorial Reviews

Hersey beautifully delineates through the use of vintage hymns, prayer books, and abolitionist pamphlets, that rest is a birthright and a necessity and an [antidote] for a tired world.”—Essence, “Top 20 Book Picks for Fall 2024”

“Featuring impactful illustrations throughout and with strong spiritual messages, We Will Rest is a moving text that will make a meaningful gift for everyone....” ​—Booklist

“Warm, wise, and humane.”—Kirkus

“This beautifully illustrated meditation offers…a healthy perspective on the transformative power of relaxation.” —Shelf Awareness

"We all need the permission, encouragement and determination to take a break, escape, and rest, and here it is! ​"—MS Magazine

"Rest is a matter of life and death."—YES! Magazine


“Pick up this book, a pillow, and a blanket. Then, go and lay down.” —Good Faith Media


“Tricia Hersey’s new book bears witness to the transformative power of rest—and our weary world rejoices.”—The Presbyterian Outlook

From the Publisher

2024-09-27
A multidisciplinary African American artist/theologian muses on the concept of rest as necessity and strategy.

Hersey opens with a provocative question: “How do you find rest in a capitalist, white supremacist, patriarchal, ableist system?” In this part art object, part “escape artist” manifesto, Hersey offers a 10-step guide to finding rest from the oppressiveness of “grind culture.” Finding inspiration in historical figures like Harriet Tubman, who led other enslaved people to freedom, Hersey counsels readers to first become a “trickster” dedicated to ignoring everything that “stands in the way of…liberation.” Creating community is also key to finding—and perpetuating—safe spaces that allow for deliverance. At the same time, she warns that freedom requires the artfulness of improvisation because no single path will suit all who desire rest. Seekers must consciously slow down and listen to their bodies and their own inner wisdom while steering clear of the material forms of self-care that “toxic capitalism” tries to force on those caught in its gears. Their inner trickster must also be open to constant self-reinvention, an act that liberates in how it catches the grind culture off guard. Finding comfort in poetry—and especially the politically inflected poetry of Nikki Giovanni and Langston Hughes—also assists with a seeker’s mission to continue dreaming in a system that exhausts the body and numbs the mind and spirit. As it calls out the racist, sexist brutality of hypercapitalism, this spiritual book offers respite to the weary through spare, duotone illustrations, playful word-based page layouts, and refreshingly uncluttered pages that sum up her wisdom in everything from epigrams and single-paragraph reflections to poems and brief narratives.

Warm, wise, and humane.

Kirkus Reviews