post-work black girl

a research and concept site

Welcome! This concept site uses houses a collection of research and artistic projects exploring Black women’s changing perspectives toward labor.

I have been working since I was 15 years old. As I got into my 20s and especially into my 30s, I noticed shifts in how Black women used the Internet to talk about work and life. Some of us talk about the soft life, some of us talk about traveling more, and others talk about earning our leisure and making enough money to escape the rat race. At the heart of these conversations is an awareness that work, the way we currently do it, ain’t working.

These projects explore how Black women navigate the reality that too often, work hurts. Further, these projects explore how Black women are moving toward a post-work world.

So far, this project has 4 main components:

  • a 3-part zine series about escaping from the harms of work and moving toward a post-work future

  • research on the current iteration of the anti-work movement

  • community activations and public lectures on labor

  • resources about post-work and anti-work

I hope you peruse the site, engage with these works, and subscribe for more updates.

what does it mean to be anti-work?

Anti-work is about actively decentering work and all of its’ vestiges — bosses, managers, rigid time schedules.

Anti-work is about questioning the Protestant work ethic and grind culture and asking whether the purpose of human life is labor.

Anti-work is about imagining a world where one’s healthcare and housing aren’t so closely linked to their ability to labor.

Anti-work is about acknowledging the harms associated with our current way of life — including burnout, isolation, and environmental degredation.

Anti-work is philosophy and political practice.

what does it mean to be post-work?

Post-work is a related concept and it is about how we move toward a world without work. This involves working less (the 4-day work week and other “creative” work arrangements), and not working at all. It involves practical ideas like intergenerational living, communal living, and community care, as well as policy shifts, like guaranteed income. In a post-work world, we all work less, and have more time to be free, flourishing human beings.

Black feminist theory, anti-work discourse, and post-work praxis

I use Black feminist theory to explore these topics. My work is inspired by the scholarship of Patricia Hill Colliins and bell hooks. I am also inspired by the practice embodied by Tricia Hersey, who are guiding us all in resting more and creating new post-work pathways after we rest.

Marxist feminist work by Kathi Weeks and Sarah Jaffe also heavily inform my thinking.

supporting this work

This work … writing, zine making, community lectures …. is independently funded. Unfortunately, until we solve “the problem of work”, we all need money. So, if you want to support my work as an independent writer, researcher, and creator, feel free to toss me a few dollars.