The Black Rest Podcast

In this episode of the Black Rest Podcast, host Deja Carrington is joined by the esteemed Dr. Joan Morgan, Director of the Center for Black Visual Culture at New York University. Together, they delve into the transformative power of rest as a form of resistance and a catalyst for creativity within the global Black community. Dr. Morgan shares her insights on the Black Rest Project, exploring how r...

In this episode of The Black Rest Podcast, Dr. Deborah Willis, a visionary photographer, scholar, and director of NYU’s Center for Black Visual Culture, joins Esther Armah, CEO of the Armah Institute of Emotional Justice to explore the radical, emotional, historical, and deeply personal meanings of Black rest. Together, they trace how a nation built on the backbreaking labor of enslaved Africans s...

In this powerful and intimate episode, host Dejha Carrington sits down with Dr. Treva B. Lindsey, a scholar, writer, cultural critic, and co-founder of Black Feminist Night School, to explore why rest is not merely restorative but revolutionary for Black people globally. Dr. Lindsey reflects on her childhood in Washington, DC, where chosen kin, community care, and the freedom to try (and fail) sha...

On this episode of The Black Rest Podcast, host Dejha Carrington sits down with award-winning artist James Allister Sprang for a rich, sensory conversation about growing up Caribbean American in South Miami, discovering art as a place of calm, and learning to find rest through sound, breath, and presence. The heart of the episode explores Rest Within the Wake, Sprang’s immersive 48-minute musical...

On this episode of The Black Rest Podcast, host Dejha Carrington sits down with two extraordinary guests, Dr. Bettina L. Love and Khary-Lazarre White, to talk about what rest looked like in their childhoods, how they learned it (or didn’t), and how they’re reshaping rest and joy for the next generation.  Together, the three explore the crisis of rest for Black children today, the generational patt...

In this episode of The Black Rest Podcast, host Dejha Carrington is joined by writer, scholar, poet, and Black feminist love-evangelist Alexis Pauline Gumbs for an ancestral and deeply restorative conversation. Together, they explore how water becomes a teacher, metaphor, and sanctuary for Black people across generations. Gumbs reflects on the lessons she learned from her grandfather in the ocean...

In this episode of The Black Rest Podcast, host Dejha Carrington sits down with Miami-based researcher, writer, and community archivist Nadege Green to explore rest as a radical practice for Black and queer bodies. Together, they journey through the power of movement, the grounding presence of water, and the necessity of slowing down in a world that demands constant output. Nadege shares stories f...