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Movement #1 LISTEN: Hydrodamalas Gigas (Stellar Sea Cow)

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Movement #1 LISTEN: Hydrodamalas Gigas (Stellar Sea Cow)

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"I will remember you. Not by name (written in the possessive) of the one they say "discovered" you after generations of Indigenous relationship. I will say once upon a time there was a huge and quiet swimmer, a plant-based rough-skinned listener, a fat and graceful mammal" (Gumbs, pg. 17)

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Movement #2 BREATHE: Weddell Sea Mothers

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Movement #2 BREATHE: Weddell Sea Mothers

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"The mother Weddell seal will push her baby into the water against her will. She will force her child's head into the water while her baby coughs and sputters and struggles and squirms. She is new here. She does not know she can breathe underwater. Until she does" (Gumbs, pg. 23).

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Movement #3 REMEMBER: The Sea Life Park Website

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Movement #3 REMEMBER: The Sea Life Park Website

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"I am related to all marine mammals. I am related to all this in captivity. I am writing this in honor of my great grandmother Edith who was not the only woman in our lineage to die captive in an asylum" (Gumbs, pg. 37).

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Perfect for Families*
sale prices ending soon!
Adults & Children from $159.99 per person (3 years and up)
Encounter includes General Admission to Sea Life Park. This experience has limited participants, so book early! Program Duration: 45 min (water time: 30 min).
Experience one of the best dolphin encounters on Oahu! From a waist-deep platform, participants can touch and observe dolphins while they swim right in front of them and perform high-energy behaviors. Learn animal training behaviors and all about their anatomy. Dolphins swim up to and may even "hula dance" with the guests! Individual (not group) photos with your dolphin are available for purchase weather permitting, starting at $35.

Program Times
Offered Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday at 9:45 a.m., 11:00 a.m., and 2:00 p.m.
Based on availability.

PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS

It is required that you arrive 45 minutes before the start of your reserved program. If you are late or fail to arrive for check in you will not be able to participate in the activity, and there will be no refunds.

Cancellations are required to occur 24 hours in advance. Cancellations made less than 24 hours prior or "no shows" will result in charges processed in full.

Absolutely NO jewelry or piercings will be allowed into the water. For the safety of the animals, we are very strict on this. You will not be able to participate and will not be given a refund. No 3D nail art, or anything that can potentially fall off in the water, such as sunglasses, glasses, rings, bracelets, necklaces, hair ties etc.

Each child 3 through 7 years old must be accompanied in the water with a paying adult (18 years or older).

Bring your own towel and swimwear. Changing facilities are available.

Use only biodegradable sunscreen to protect the animals and their environment. Approved sunscreen is available in our gift shop.

The use of safety vests is required for all participants. Approved vests are provided to participants.

Due to the physical nature of this program, pregnant women are not allowed to participate

Must be in good physical condition, without back or neck problems--this is a physical activity

Things you should know before your visit:

You may be asked to provide an ID for use of all major credit cards.

Cancellations are required to occur 24 hours in advance. Cancellations made less than 24 hours prior or "no shows" will result in charges processed in full.

We reserve the right to cancel any session due to the welfare and safety of the animals.

Anyone acting in a manner which threatens the safety of the animals, themselves, or other people (including; without limitation, unruly or disruptive behavior, or failure to follow directions), may be removed from the activity without a refund

All participants or their legal guardians are required to sign a release of liability and waiver form before participating

All interactive programs occur in groups. For information on rates for an exclusive experience, please call 808-259-2500

-->

Check out the Dolphin Encounter!

We welcome guests with disabilities! If special needs are required, please contact us directly at 1-808-259-2500 or email us at reshawaii@sealifeparkhawaii.com

Plan your Sea Life Park visit today! View our in-park experiences and buy your tickets online.

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Perfect for Families* sale prices ending soon! Adults & Children from $159.99 per person (3 years and up) Encounter includes General Admission to Sea Life Park. This experience has limited participants, so book early! Program Duration: 45 min (water time: 30 min). Experience one of the best dolphin encounters on Oahu!

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Movement #4 PRACTICE: Article by Alexis Pauline Gumbs dedicated to Lana Garland

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Movement #4 PRACTICE: Article by Alexis Pauline Gumbs dedicated to Lana Garland

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A quote from attached article: "Could our city be like that—a committed practitioner of something we are currently terrible at?  Committed to learning to act beyond reaction, but with profound intention, with awareness of the smaller decisions under each movement of resources?"

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Voices: From the Core: Learning to Breathe During a Pandemic

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Durham is constantly moving forward. What if we let our core values guide that progress?

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Movement #5 COLLABORATE: Subversive Sirens

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Movement #5 COLLABORATE: Subversive Sirens

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"When I can't see the shore I'm here timing my breathing to yours. Knowing collectively we can leap, we can dive, we can practice our faith in each other" (Gumbs, pg. 53).

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Movement #6 BE VULNARABLE: Stella Attenuata

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Movement #6 BE VULNARABLE: Stella Attenuata

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"What if we are all necessary in our specificity? Can I trust you to love me with spots? If you clock me, is the time up" (Gumbs, pg. 64)?

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Pantropical spotted dolphins are found in all tropical and subtropical waters worldwide. These relatively small dolphins are quite social and often school with other dolphin species. Learn more about the pantropical spotted dolphin.

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Movement #7 BE PRESENT: "Allie" the humpback whale in San Francisco

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Movement #7 BE PRESENT: "Allie" the humpback whale in San Francisco

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"And what I wonder is, what happens when we shift our behavior beyond the characteristics most palatable to predatory "allies"? What happens when we value our mass impact as much as or more than our unique and haunting songs" (Gumbs, pg. 71)?

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It's an unlikely sight in San Francisco Bay.

A humpback whale has been splashing around in the waters near Alameda for more than two weeks.

The much-photographed cetacean has earned herself the name "Allie" and there's even an Alameda Allie Facebook page where people can post photos.

Experts say Allie appears to be an adult female who is in poor health.

"The whale is underweight and skin condition is poor," said Giancarlo Rulli, a spokesperson for the Marine Mammal Center. "The whale has a moderate amount of whale lice and that's consistent with a poorer than normal skin condition."
ALSO: Sharks as big as small yachts spotted off California coast after 30-year absence
Biologists at the center suspect the animal came to the bay in search of shelter from the harsh conditions of the open ocean. Humpbacks feed near the Golden Gate Bridge where the ocean waters can be rich with anchovies, but they rarely travel deep into the bay.

"The hope is the whale is gaining strength within that shelter area," says Rulli.

Allie has many fans who are rooting for her and on Thursday morning a group gathered at Pier 3 in Alameda for a prayer circle.

Many also track her location and say hello to her daily from the shore.

"I just came back from the whale," said Mark Klein, who is part of the group Alameda Point Harbor Seal Monitors that conducts daily seal counts. "The latest position is where the USS Hornet is docked near the row of ferries. You can go out to that wharf and usually you can just look and see where there are a bunch of people with cameras and that's where Allie is."

On some days, Allie has put on spectacular shows, throwing her big blubbery body into the air and then falling into the water with an epic splash.

"It's very thrilling, especially when she breaches out of the water," Klein said.

The Marine Mammal Center asks the public to not approach the whale.
Amy Graff is an SFGate staff writer. Email: agraff@sfgate.com

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Allie the humpback whale continues to make San Francisco Bay her home

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It's an unlikely sight in San Francisco Bay. A humpback whale has been splashing around in the waters near Alameda for more than two weeks. The much-photographed cetacean has earned herself the name "Allie" and there's even an Alameda Allie Facebook page where people can post photos.

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Movement #8 BE FIERCE: Leopard Seal Video

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Movement #8 BE FIERCE: Leopard Seal Video

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"All I know is I am grateful for how wide you opened your mouth, for the oceans you let through you, for your fierce and knowing movement" (Gumbs, pg. 77).

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National Geographic photographer Paul Nicklen says "I always wanted to go down to Antarctica and get into the water with as many leopard seals as I could." In the amazing viral video below, he almost got more than he bargained for when a massive leopard seal took both his camera and his head into its mouth.

As Nicklen explains in a 2006 article in National Geographic, he knew something special was about to happen when his experienced guide said "Bloody hell, that's the biggest leopard seal I've ever seen."

Surprisingly, rather than attacking Nicklen, the female seal began to "nurture" him by bringing him food. She started with live penguins, then dead ones after realizing he was a "useless predator."

Watch the video and then check out some more of Nicklen's fantastic images.

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Nat Geo Photographer Comes Face-to-Face with Massive Leopard Seal in Antarctica (VIDEO)

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National Geographic photographer Paul Nicklen says "I always wanted to go down to Antarctica and get into the water with as many leopard seals as I could." In the amazing viral video below, he almost got more than he bargained for when a massive leopard seal took both his camera and his head into its mouth.

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Movement #9 LEARN FROM CONFLICT: Ngai Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998

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Movement #9 LEARN FROM CONFLICT: Ngai Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998

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"And loving you can be the stretch that shapes the length of me, the strength of us. And yes, sometimes I have to vocalize my limits and so do you. Let's get it done though, and get back to breathing sky" (Gumbs, pg. 85).

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294 Species recovery groups

The Crown having acknowledged the special association of Ngai Tahu with the taonga species in section 298, the Director-General must, to the extent that a taonga species is or becomes the subject of a recovery plan or species recovery group,—

(a) Provide Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu with copies of the proceedings and publications of any relevant species recovery group for that taonga species; and

(b) Consult with, and have particular regard to the views of, Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu when the Director-General makes policy decisions concerning the protection, management, or conservation of all taonga species subject to a species recovery group, including—

(i) Recommendations to the Minister of Conservation in respect of the promulgation of any regulations under any enactment; or

(ii) The preparation of any plans or publications for the advancement, conservation, management, or control of a taonga species pursuant to section 41(1)(e) of the Wildlife Act 1953; or

(iii) Proposals for the transfer of a taonga species into or from the Ngai Tahu claim area or methods of control or protection of a taonga species; and

(c) Invite Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu to nominate a person to join any relevant species recovery group for a taonga species which exists or existed solely or predominantly within the Ngai Tahu claim area; and

(d) In the case of kakapo, hoiho (yellow-eyed penguin), kaki (black stilt), mohua (yellowhead), takahe, tieke (South Island saddleback), and rapoka/whakahao (New Zealand sea lion), invite Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu to nominate a person to join the species recovery groups for those taonga species.

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Movement #10 HONOR YOUR BOUNDARIES: Beaked Whale Report

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Movement #10 HONOR YOUR BOUNDARIES: Beaked Whale Report

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Taken from the report: "Baird’s beaked whales are reported to be shy and difficult to approach with boats."

"Sometimes when someone is avoiding you, they are just avoiding you. We have the right to be obscure. It is not an invitation to colonize us. It is not seduction. Boundaries can be beautiful. Teach me so much" (Gumbs, pg. 92).

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Picture for Puzzle Dream Narwhal by Emily Winfield

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Movement #11 RESPECT YOUR HAIR: Dream Narwhal

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Movement #11 RESPECT YOUR HAIR: Dream Narwhal

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"Who benefited from the conspiracy to teach us that we are not beautiful? That we were not possible? Who first named our adaptation into profit? Our deep sharp realness into fairytale dust to sell back to us when we noticed ourselves, turning that prior scarcity of representation into a very high profit margin for whom" (Gumbs, pg. 99)?

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Dream Narwhal Puzzle bt  Emily Winfield Martin

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Movement #12 END CAPITALISM: Greek Activists

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Movement #12 END CAPITALISM: Greek Activists

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"I am writing this in solidarity with the Greek activists who are currently using music and community education to raise awareness and stop off-shore drilling speculation" (Gumbs, pg. 105).

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As other countries turn away from fossil fuel exploration, Greece is searching for oil and natural gas amid protests. But a global shift to renewables and the pandemic are complicating drilling plans.

A group of young Greek women in traditional dress and wearing face masks, hand out flyers to shoppers and hold signs reading "nature is our antidepressant," and "my appearance is a political act."

For the past three years, the all-women activist group Vrisoules have been interrupting politicians' speeches and political rallies with singing and dancing to protest oil and gas exploration in Western Greece.

Their name is the Greek word for natural springs, just one of the precious features of the landscape the group says is threatened by fossil fuel exploration. During the protests, they dress in black to highlight what they say is the severity of the situation.

Read full article here

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Movement #13 REFUSE: Anti-Trans Optics: Recognition, Capacity, and the Image of Force

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Movement #13 REFUSE: Anti-Trans Optics: Recognition, Capacity, and the Image of Force

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"And for the sweet stealth acrobats who exhaust systems with our constant transformation, who are mistaken every day for something else. Yes. All my love. And keep going" (Gumbs. pg. 114).

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Movement #14 SURRENDER: Black Girl’s Guide to SURVIVING MENOPAUSE

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Movement #14 SURRENDER: Black Girl’s Guide to SURVIVING MENOPAUSE

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Taken from website: "This is a curated intergenerational exchange, a space for exploration, mentorship, intimacy, and vulnerability around life, identity and change. It’s the excavation of the things that you needed to know about your personhood through the years, but were never told. It’s the guide we wish we had access to no matter our age."

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The Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause is a multimedia project seeking to curate and share the experiences, stories, and realities of non-binary, Black women, and femmes over 50 related to aging, intimacy, body, spirituality and change through the medium of audio storytelling.

We've hosted sold out events in Washington, DC and Durham, NC in addition to an international conference in Kenya!

With over 5K listens in 10+ countries, non-binary, Black women, and femmes are this information and this community. Your support allows us to curate, produce and edit new content for Black women over 50 that will be shared via a high quality podcast product as well as curate and co-host intergenerational salon-style community engagements that engage intergenerational WOC, indigenous folx, Black women and femmes

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The Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause is a multimedia project seeking to curate and share the experiences, stories, and realities of non-binary, Black women, and femmes over 50 related to aging, intimacy, body, spirituality and change through the medium of audio storytelling.

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Movement #15 GO DEEP: Puerto Rican Protests

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Movement #15 GO DEEP: Puerto Rican Protests

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"What I know is I am proud of you, for the depth of work you are doing, for the layers you are uncovering, for the changes you made when you learned that what you thought was rock bottom was just a reflection of a sound you were making called need" (Gumbs, pg. 130).

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Some of Puerto Rico's biggest stars rallied a crowd of many thousands in San Juan on Wednesday, calling on the island's governor, Ricardo Rosselló, to resign. It was the fifth day in a row of protests in the U.S. territory, following a leak of hundreds of pages of misogynistic and homophobic texts between the governor and his main advisers.

During the day, trap artist Bad Bunny and singer Ricky Martin were among the huge crowd that marched to the governor's mansion.

Tensions ratcheted up in the evening as protesters burst through a barricade at the governor's mansionand security forces fired tear gas at the crowd, causing many to flee into surrounding streets. A livestream from Puerto Rican news site El Nuevo Día showed chaotic scenes of demonstrators confronting riot police a few minutes after midnight local time.

By early hours Thursday, the old city of San Juan resembled a war zone, with police chasing protesters through the streets while firing rubber bullets, gas canisters and what appeared to be flash bombs.

Earlier, demonstrators wearing gas masks and hard hats set a pile of garbage on fire in a plaza, and police quickly fired tear gas at them. A street was shown littered with debris and broken glass.

As El Nuevo Día reported, police spokesperson Axel Valencia said five people were arrested and two people were reported injured.

He said several senior police officers were in the area and ordered the protesters to stand down.

"They were given verbal commands to cease and desist what they were doing. They were throwing rocks, quarter sticks of dynamite. They were throwing many things," Valencia said, according to the news site. "You all saw how close they got to the fences of the perimeter, and well, there came a moment when our personnel had to use tear gases."

The protests have been gaining momentum every day with high-profile support, including from Lin-Manuel Miranda, who led a demonstration in New York calling on Rosselló to step down.

Rosselló has apologized for the texts but has insisted that he intends to remain in office.

In the private chat messages published on Saturday by Puerto Rico's Center for Investigative Journalism, the governor and his inner circle use misogynistic language to talk about women. They use homophobic language to talk about journalists and Ricky Martin. They engage in fat-shaming. They talk about manipulating the media and public opinion polls. And they make jokes about shooting the mayor of San Juan.

The governor's chief financial officers made a joke about the dead bodies that piled up in a government facility before and after Hurricane Maria in 2017. That comment has been particularly galling for many Puerto Ricans still recovering from the deadly storm nearly two years later.

The island is suffering from far more problems than the hurricane. It's been mired in an economic recession for more than a decade, including a debt crisis that has resulted in slashing public services and the imposition of a federal oversight board that has taken control of Puerto Rico's finances. Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced leave the island, a trend that accelerated after the hurricane. For many residents, the chats have become a representation in black and white of the indifference they feel their leaders have for their daily struggles.

Protesters say they expect demonstrations to get bigger should the governor continue clinging to office.

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Streets A 'War Zone' As Protesters Call For Puerto Rico's Governor To Resign

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Some of Puerto Rico's biggest stars rallied a crowd of many thousands in San Juan on Wednesday, calling on the island's governor, Ricardo Rosselló, to resign. It was the fifth day in a row of protests in the U.S. territory, following a leak of hundreds of pages of misogynistic and homophobic texts between the governor and his main advisers.

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Movement #16 STAY BLACK: Caribbean Monk Seal Info

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Movement #16 STAY BLACK: Caribbean Monk Seal Info

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"I say thank you for being Black and curious. Thank you for being calm and brave. And that I honor you for continuing to be who you are, no matter what they tried to turn you into, despite their haunting every night" (Gumbs, Pg. 139-140).

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After five years of futile efforts to find or confirm sightings of any Caribbean monk seals - even just one - the U.S. government on Friday announced that the species is officially extinct and the only seal to vanish due to human causes.

"Humans left the Caribbean monk seal population unsustainable after overhunting them," Kyle Baker, a biologist for the National Marine Fisheries Service, said in a statement. "Unfortunately, this led to their demise and labels the species as the only seal to go extinct from human causes."

A Caribbean monk seal - the only subtropical seal native to the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico - had not been seen for more than 50 years. The last confirmed sighting was in 1952 at Seranilla Bank, between Jamaica and the Yucatan Peninsula.

The United States listed the species as endangered in 1967. The fisheries service will now have the species removed from the list.

"Caribbean monk seals were first discovered during Columbus's second voyage in 1494, when eight seals were killed for meat," the fisheries service noted. "Following European colonization from the 1700s to 1900s, the seals were exploited intensively for their blubber, and to a lesser extent for food, scientific study and zoological collection. Blubber was processed into oil and used for lubrication, coating the bottom of boats, and as lamp and cooking oil. Seal skins were sought to make trunk linings, articles of clothing, straps and bags."

Hawaiian, Mediterranean species at risk
Just two other monk seal species remain: Hawaiian and Mediterranean monk seals, both of which are endangered and at risk of extinction. Populations have fallen to below 1,200 and 500 individuals, respectively, the fisheries service stated.

"Worldwide, populations of the two remaining monk seal species are declining," said Baker. "We hope we've learned from the extinction of Caribbean monk seals, and can provide stronger protection for their Hawaiian and Mediterranean relatives."

The Hawaiian population is declining at a rate of about four percent per year, with challenges "such as lack of food sources for young seals, entanglement in marine debris, predation by sharks, and loss of haul-out and pupping beaches due to erosion," the service said.

"The Hawaiian monk seal is a treasure to preserve for future generations," said NMFS biologist Bud Antonelis. The "fisheries service has developed a monk seal recovery plan, but we need continued support from organizations and the public if we are to have a chance at saving it from extinction. Time is running out."

"The fate of the Caribbean monk seal is a wake-up call for us to act quickly to protect other endangered monk seal populations. We must learn from our mistakes," Vicki Cornish of Ocean Conservancy echoed in a separate statement. "We must act now to reduce threats to existing monk seal populations before it's too late. These animals are important to the balance and health of the ocean - we can't afford to wait."

Other species of marine mammals that have gone extinct in modern times include the Atlantic gray whale (1700s or 1800s) and stellar sea cow (late 1700s), presumably due to overhunting by whalers, the fisheries service stated.

Climate connection
The Ocean Conservancy said some of the threats, especially erosion and debris, are tied to the El Nino weather pattern and rising sea levels, which in turn is tied to global warming.

"El Nino events, which cause storms similar to those expected to occur with increasing frequency as a result of climate change, drive marine debris closer to monk seal beaches and nearshore waters," it added. "Seal pups play with trash, which can lead to entanglement and eventual death. Increased numbers of Hawaiian monk seals have been found entangled in marine debris after El Nino events."

Entanglement happens even in "one of the best-protected ocean places in the United States," the conservation group said, referring to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands National Monument created by President Bush in 2006.

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It's official: Caribbean monk seal is extinct

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After five years of futile efforts to find or confirm sightings of any Caribbean monk seals - even just one - the U.S. government on Friday announced that the species is officially extinct and the only seal to vanish due to human causes.

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Movement #17 SLOW DOWN: Amazonian Manatee

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Movement #17 SLOW DOWN: Amazonian Manatee

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"Reports say that even though the Amazonian manatee is protected in her entire range, she is still hunted to provide meat for the military. That same military that at best stands by amidst assassinations of the activists, especially Black and Indigenous, activists and visionaries who oppose corporate harm of the local environment and the exploitation of their people" (Gumbs, pg. 143).

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Abstract

All available published statistics on the exploitation of the Amazonian manatee Trichechus inunguis are collected and analysed to determine the major trends in exploitation and, if possible, their effects on the species. The manatee's role in the Amazonian economy has traiditionally been on the level of subsistnce hunting for local consumption; export of surplus manatee products has been limited and sporadic, and keeping of records has been even more so. Unknown quantities of manatee meat were shipped to the Guianas and West Indies in the 17th century, At least from the 1780s to about 1925, the only manatee product common in Amazonian commerce was mixira (fried meat packed in lard). From 1935 to 1954, manatee hides were exported to southern Brazil and elsewhere for the manufacture of heavy-duty leather. From 1954 to the legal banning of manatee hunting in 1973, manatees were again heavily exploited for meat. At no time did manatee products make up more than a small fraction of a percent of the Amazon region's trade. Numbers of animals killed per year cannot be determined with any precision, but early statistics on mixira reflect no more than 1000/year, while the peak years of hide and meat production probably required 4000-7000 manatees/year, exclusive of unrecorded subsistence hunting. Taking the latter into account, it is likely that actual mortality ran to several thousand animals per year throughout the past two centuries. Decline of meat production in the 1960s may reflect overexploitation. Evidence was also found of some exploitation for meat of West Indian manatees T. manatus in the states of Alagoas and Bahia, Brazil, the latter constituting the southernmost record of the species since the early 19th century.

View full text

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Commercial exploitation of manatees Trichechus in Brazil c. 1785-1973

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All available published statistics on the exploitation of the Amazonian manatee Trichechus inunguis are collected and analysed to determine the major trends in exploitation and, if possible, their effects on the species.

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"I love the part of you that is emerging under everything. You deserve to rest long enough to let whatever go. I put my skin right next to yours to let you know that even when you seem alone, I'm with you. And I will wait to see the silver next to you, before you dive again" (Gumbs, pg. 150).

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NPR's Sarah McCammon talks with Tricia Hersey, a founder of the Nap Ministry, about why her organization argues that rest could be a form of resistance.

SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST:

Resist, protest, buy from black businesses, educate yourself and your kids on racism, donate to organizations, be an ally - all good advice. But what if I told you, nap? Yeah. Lie down. Close your eyes. Go to sleep. For the past four years, Tricia Hersey has led The Nap Ministry. It's an Atlanta-based organization that advocates for rest as a form of resistance. Tricia Hersey, who calls herself the Nap Bishop, joins us now. Welcome.

TRICIA HERSEY: Hi. How are you?

MCCAMMON: Good. Great to have you with us.

HERSEY: Thank you.

MCCAMMON: This particular moment and many others before it have been about doing a lot - mobilizing...

HERSEY: Yes.

MCCAMMON: ...Right? - getting out, demonstrating, posting on social media to raise awareness. But how important is rest right now?

HERSEY: Yeah. I love all those things and have done all those things. But right now rest is critical because it's counterintuitive and counter-narrative to see slowing down, napping and rest as a key to our movement for black liberation. But it really is so important because rest disrupts and pushes back and allows space for healing, for invention, for us to be more human. It'll allow us to imagine this new world that we want, this new world that's liberated, that's full of justice, that's a foundation for us to really, truly live our lives.

MCCAMMON: You've been leading your organization The Nap Ministry for a few years now. What inspired the idea?

HERSEY: Yeah. I was inspired by the idea when I was in divinity school and I was dealing with all of the - Black Lives Matter was actually just heating up at the moment. It was, like, 2013, and a lot of the lynchings were back-to-back online and being shared. And I was a graduate student in a predominately white institution. Black Lives Matter was heating up, and I was just really exhausted from living as a black woman in America - you know, poverty and crime. I was robbed once when I was in school.

And just all of the things around me were coming on me at once, and I just decided to rest. I decided to take naps wherever I could, and it started to combine my research. I was researching black liberation theology, somatics, cultural trauma. I was doing a lot of research around slavery and historic - looking at the historic documents around the commodification of black people in America.

MCCAMMON: And I'm wondering; how do people respond to your message of rest, especially the African American community that you hope...

HERSEY: Yeah.

MCCAMMON: ...Will embrace it?

HERSEY: Yeah. I mean, it was - people would, when I would first tell them there's this - I'm doing The Nap Ministry; it's rest; it's resistance; it's reparations; you can lay down; you've done enough; this is a connection to our ancestors; this is a pushback against capitalism, a lot of people would start crying. People would look at me with, like, a tilted head and be like, wow, I've never thought of that, but yes, I'm exhausted. I'm tired. I would love to lay down.

You know, this is a racial and social justice issue. You know, sleep deprivation is a justice issue because it's been traced from all the way back during slavery. Slavery was horrific, and the times - during those times for black people, we were human machines. And so grind culture continues today to try and attempt to make us all human machines and not to see the divinity of who we really are. And so rest is disrupting that history. It's undoing part of that history, and it's allowing us to connect to our deepest selves.

MCCAMMON: And in less than a minute that we have left, what do you say to people about how to make that happen in their lives, especially if they feel like they can't rest right now?

HERSEY: Yes. You know, I love to reimagine rest outside of a capitalist and colonized system. So I love to think of resting as something that's subversive and inventive - closing your eyes for 10 minutes, taking a longer time in the shower, daydreaming, meditating, praying. So we can find rest wherever we are because wherever our bodies are, we can find liberation because our body is a site of liberation. So the time to rest is now. We can always...

MCCAMMON: I'm going to...

HERSEY: Yeah, go ahead.

MCCAMMON: I got to stop you right there. That's...

HERSEY: Of course.

MCCAMMON: ...Tricia Hersey. I'm sorry. That's Tricia Hersey. She's the Nap Bishop from The Nap Ministry. Thanks so much.

HERSEY: Thanks for having me on. Bye-bye.

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Atlanta-Based Organization Advocates For Rest As A Form Of Social Justice

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NPR’s Sarah McCammon talks with Tricia Hersey, a founder of the Nap Ministry, about why her organization argues that rest could be a form of resistance.

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Movement #19 TAKE CARE OF YOUR BLESSINGS: Black Single Mothers

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Movement #19 TAKE CARE OF YOUR BLESSINGS: Black Single Mothers

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"Who here has not been mothered by someone genetically and socially distant from your birth situation, at some necessary time? And if you have ever shared something, taught someone, shared responsibility for someones wellness for even a part of their journey, how would you measure what you gained from that potentially "costly behavior"? We call it love" (Gumbs, pg. 162).

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Credit... The New York Times Archives

This is a digitized version of an article from The Times's print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.

Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.

Not long ago, Patricia Polhill, a 25‐year‐old flight attendant, invited Jacqueline Whitehead, who is 18 years old, to her home to demonstrate how she juggles her job, her responsibilities to her 5‐year‐old daughter and her domestic life.

"She was interested in seeing how I coordinate my relationship with Sharisse and my flight schedules. I'm assigned to the shuttle or to the route to Puerto Rico, so I can be back the same day and pick her up at her day‐care center," the stewardess said, as she stopped by the offices of the Sisterhood of Black Sirgle Mothers in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn recently.

"The teen‐age girls here don't really regard me as an elder," she said. "I'm always wearing jeans and sneakers so they think I'm a kid."

That kind of rapport between women of ages sufficiently divided to make the older ones role models but not disciplinarians, is the essence of an innovative program that has paired 15 single mothers in their 20's and 30's with 15 adolescent mothers. It was organized five years ago by a half‐dozen women who paid for phone calls and stamps out of their own pockets in order to share their experiences as single mothers. It now has 256 members, a spacious office in Restoration Plaza, and a branch for women in the Bronx and Westchester.

Awarded a Grant
Members of the organization had already been bolstering each other in innumerable ways when the Ford Foundation approached them with the idea for the project for which it provided a grant for $83,275. The women help one another find housing, jobs and baby sitters and, if they have not completed their education, suitable high schools.

They also intervene, when necessary, with city agencies. And they sponsor family visits to the theater and go on weekend outings in the country: They hold "mothers' nights out"; they have guest speakers who discusss everything from birth control to safety for the single parent, and they counsel men involved with the women.

"We felt that the capacity to be a family is not limited to blood relations and that social workers may be committed, talented and well meaning, but you still need someone in the same situation," Daphne Busby, founder of the organization and executive director of the "sister‐to‐sister" project, said recently.

The focus of the project - helping the young who bear children before they themselves have grown up.- is attracting increasing attention from government and social welfare authorities. According to Federal statistics, every year, some 600,000 teen‐agers give birth; 250,000 of them are under 17 years old, 12,000 are under 15. It has been estimated that as many as 90 percent keep and attempt to raise their babies. Congress last year mandated the formation of the Federal Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Programs, but funds have yet to be appropriated for its operation.

'Not Sufficient Help'

"There is certainly not sufficient help," said Dr. Lulu Mae Nix, director of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare office. "These girls have tremendous needs that simply are not being met, and they certainly need the kind of support that this group is providing."

The ways in which the 15 pairs of big and little "sisters" give and take are sometimes simply fun - such as a bus tour of Manhattan and a visit to the circus - sometimes hard‐nosed and practical, sometimes poignant and intensely personal.

Jackie Thomas, who is 27 years old, for example, taught Rebecca Johnson, 20, to stop paying her rent in cash so that the landlord could not charge her twice. She also bought Miss Johnson, who has two infants under the age of 2, an alarm clock when she discovered that the younger woman was avoiding obligations by oversleeping.

On a different level of interaction, Yvonne Davion, who at 39 years old is the oldest of the big sisters, became a sustaining force for Keysha McKenzie, when the 18‐year‐old's boyfriend, who was the father of her 10‐month‐old daughter, died unexpectedly last month.

Miss Davion accompanied Miss McKenzie, who is estranged from her own family, to the funeral and grave site and later staved with her.
'A Dual Struggle'
A central purpose of the project, Miss Busby explained, "is to give the girls the chance to see what survival is."

"Being a teen‐ager and being a mother," she said, "is a dual struggle, and most of our members became mothers when they were very young. We also teach them that even if they are having difficulty paying the rent and buying the food, they must make time to play with their children. Even if you have a problem, your child needs you to come to the school play. That's a priority along with the rent and the food."

And so is self‐image. "Before you can raise a child, you must feel good about yourself," Miss Busby continued. "If you feel shaky, that will filter through to your child."

In fact; altering the public perception of the single mother is a primary goal of the entire program. "Look at the labels put on single mothers," Miss Busby said, enumerating some: "unwed mother, illegitimate child, broken home."

"Society pins those on you and then asks you to function in a positive way," she said.
Neighbors Were Shocked
The teen‐agers agreed. "The neighbors in my building were shocked when I continued going to school," said Denise Holmes, a 17‐year‐old mother of a 5‐month‐old daughter.

"They figure you'll just sit around and have more babies," Jackie Whitehead said.

"Or go on drugs and be destitute," said Pat Polhill. "I was 19 when I had my daughter and people just held their breath to see what terrible thing 1 would do next," she said.

The women selected to be big sisters fit no stereotype; they seemed, in fact, indistinguishable from any cross section, save for the fact that they are all black. "Black women do have their own problems," said Miss Busby.

The big sisters include a teacher in a high school for pregnant students, a college instructor, a laboratory technologist, an administrator in the Women's Action Alliance, a secretary, and several women who were chosen specifically because they are on public assistance, know how to cope with the red tape of welfare and are determined to get off it.

Loretta McAllister, 28 years old, who lost a daughter to a brain tumor last year and who has two sons, Majid, 3 years old, and Faruq, 17 months, is one of those. She is now s.eamng Fang r:u that she can begin job hunting and is confident that "by the summer, 1 will be working."

"It will be good for the girls to see that I will get off and learn not to be dependent on it," she said on a recent bus tour of the city with the group.

Jackie Thomas, the daughter of alcoholic parents - her father denied his paternity when she was 9 years old -said she "paid the bills and the rent, bought the furniture and dealt with my mother's men, which was rather unsafe for me."

Still, she was graduated from the academically rigorous Bronx High School of Science and entered City College when her two sons were 3 years old and 6 months old. She was graduated with honors and was sent by the college to Japan. She enrolled in Fordham University to study for a master's degree but had to withdraw when she lost her public assistance because of her university stipend.

Besides working for the telephone company as a business representative, Miss Thomas, whose sons are now 8 and 5 years old, does cake decorating and sells Avon cosmetics and Tupperware. She has invited several of the teen‐age mothers to her home to learn how she decorates the cakes and earns extra money.

Asked how she overcame such odds of poverty and childhood mistreatment, she said without rancor: "My mother did have strong qualities when she wasn't drunk. I was also involved in modern dance, church and bugle corps groups. There were always consistent older people in my life. Now if I have nothing else to give, I have this."
Help When It Is Needed
The little sisters are survivors, too. Renee Graves, who is 17 years old, found life with the father of her son, Alwarris, now a year old, fraught with quarrels. "For a long time I didn't know what to do or where to go," she said. "These were the only people who could help me when I needed shelter. I think I would have given up without the sisterhood."

Now Miss Graves has been reunited with her mother and is about to complete her senior year at Sarah J. Hale High School. (All the little sisters are required to attend school and turn in their report cards.) She is also making up courses in business machine technology, cabinetmaking, carpentry, business arithmetic, music, art and health sciences. She will enter New York City Community College in the fall.

Asked how she was managing such a heavy schedule, she said simply: "It ' has to be done. Nobody else is going do it for me."

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Single Mothers Sharing a Difficult Time (Published 1979)

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This is a digitized version of an article from The Times's print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.