A Report by The Criminal Justice Policy Program, Harvard Law School.
Submitted to Chief Justice Ralph D. Gants, Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts

Black Power Naps is a sculptural installation, vibrational device and curatorial initiative that reclaims laziness and idleness as power.

Departing from historical records that show that deliberate fragmentation of restorative sleep patterns were used to subjugate and extract labor from enslaved people, we have realised that this extraction has not stopped, it has only morphed.

A state of constant fatigue is still used to break our will. This “sleep gap” shows that there are front lines in our bedrooms as well as the streets: deficit of sleep and lack of free time for some is the building block of the “free world”. After learning who benefits most from restful sleep and down time, we are creating interactive surfaces for a playful approach to investigate and practice deliberate energetic repair.

As Afro Latinx artists, we believe that reparation must come from the institution under many shapes, one of them being the redistribution of rest, relaxation, and down times.

"Taking steps to be radically inclusive is not merely a personal pedagogical initiative; it is also a political point of view. How we choose to structure our classrooms (literal or metaphorical, physical or digital) is a way for us to model society in miniature. We create small worlds in our classrooms, in a designated space, for a finite amount of time. So I ask you: how do you want to change the world this year?"

Wendy Trevino was born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. She lives in San Francisco, where she shares an apartment with her boyfriend, friend & two senior cats. She has published chapbooks with Perfect Lovers Press, Commune Editions and Krupskaya Books. Brazilian no es una raza, a bilingual edition of the chapbook she published with Commune Editions, was published by the feminist Mexican press Enjambre Literario in July 2018. Her first book-length collection of poems, Cruel Fiction, was published by Commune Editions in September 2018. Wendy is not an experimental writer.

"When you are talking to a person in a ring smaller than yours, someone closer to the center of the crisis, the goal is to help. Listening is often more helpful than talking. But if you’re going to open your mouth, ask yourself if what you are about to say is likely to provide comfort and support. If it isn’t, don’t say it. Don’t, for example, give advice. People who are suffering from trauma don’t need advice. They need comfort and support. So say, “I’m sorry” or “This must really be hard for you” or “Can I bring you a pot roast?” Don’t say, “You should hear what happened to me” or “Here’s what I would do if I were you.” And don’t say, “This is really bringing me down.”"

We're in the middle of a nationwide reckoning over race. One thing that's come up a lot in that conversation is workplace diversity.
After the police killing of George Floyd, companies from fast food chain Shake Shack to bidet company Tushy published statements condemning racism, stating they were committed to creating racially equitable organizations. But there is a difference between performative and active allyship.