The economies of rest/sleep within communities of color are a currency that is not afforded to abject lives. Lack of rest has a direct impact in life expectancy, and as such Black folk live shorter lives. 

In this talk, niv Acosta examines how spaces to imagine and spaces to rest are also radical spaces.  His new multi-media projects, all devised in collaboration with Black artists, are propositions for how reparative economies can better hold communities of color:  Black Power Naps, Choir of the Slain, Baby! Love Your Body! and a written report on decentralizing capitalism.
 
Black Power Naps is a multi-purpose separatist organizing space with a focus on rest, restoration, rejuvenation, reparation and black joy.

Baby! Love Your Body! is a series of audiovisual workshops/daycare around anti racist education and awareness for Black and brown children ages 2 to 12.

Choir of the Slain is a project open to diverse gazes centered on black survival and death bringing together QPOC choirs to perform a repertoire of cinematic soundscapes, all performed while laying down.  

niv Acosta’s structural race work has consisted of two years of research and partnerships with cultural institutions, addressing the structural barriers that exists within their own structures to best include and invite the abject voices often excluded from critical dialogue.

niv Acosta Niv Acosta is a multimedia artist based in Brooklyn, New York. Acosta’s intersectional identities—as transgender, queer and black Dominican—have continuously inspired his community-based work. Acosta’s performance work has shown at various spaces including The Kimmel Center, Philadelphia, Human Resources, Los Angeles, MOMA PS1, New York, and the New Museum, New York. More…

madison moore (Ph.D., American Studies, Yale University, 2013) is a research associate in ‘Modern Moves’ in the Department of English at King’s College London. Trained in performance studies and popular culture, madison is a DJ, writer and pop culture scholar with expertise in nightlife culture, fashion, queer studies, contemporary art, alternative subcultures and urban aesthetics. He is a staff writer at Thought Catalog, Splice Today, and his other writing has appeared in Vice, Interview magazine, Art in America, the Journal of Popular Music Studies and Theater magazine. With Francisco Raul Cornejo he is also guest editing a special issue of the Journal of Popular Music Studies on “Global Club Cultures.