A Book Review of Rest is Resistance, by Tricia Hersey, turned manifesto.

Abstract

“A Book Review of Rest is Resistance, by Tricia Hersey, turned manifesto,” is a narrative written by Elizabeth Williams Wesley, a fierce advocate for educational equity. In her narrative, Elizabeth describes the impact of burn out on a Black woman educator and as the first DEI practitioner at an anti-Black, elite institution, with a predominantly white teaching staff serving a majority student of color population, after the uprisings of 2020. Elizabeth describes the conditions that brought her to burn out, leaving her spiritually, emotionally, and physically depleted- exacerbating already existent physical health conditions and causing mental health distress. Elizabeth discusses how burn out impacted her, leading her to take a year off for a “Restoration to Health” sabbatical to rest and heal. She describes the struggle and guilt associated with resting. She briefly introduces and reviews Tricia Hersey’s book, Rest Is Resistance, and how that book influenced her rest practices, transformed her mindset towards work and instilled the ideology of rest as a practice of liberation, and how those practices offer her relief from current and future burn-out. She highlights her plan for her sabbatical to build sustainable healthy habits that would fortify her mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally; consisting primarily of exercising and going to therapy, but that it flourished into much more. Elizabeth offers a critique and solutions to the sustainability of the teaching profession. Then, she describes how she rested during her sabbatical, what she learned through rest, and how rest allowed her to envision what education could be in her vision of a new school. 

Elizabeth’s narrative describes her healing journey, what brought her to sabbatical, and how she sustains through her rest practices. This narrative directly connects to “illuminating how holistic learning and wellbeing is understood, practiced, supported, and/or requires support in their educational settings.”

Community Voices Submission