Who is truly allowed to rest and dream in a growing city like Seattle? Our capitalistic society’s hyper dependence on being constantly productive takes up so much room that our own well-being is placed on the back burner; it’s a wonder how anybody is receiving much sleep. To combat this, artists Mia Imani and Mayola Tikaka invite visitors to step away from an exhaustive system and take a moment to sleep or meditate at their art exhibit “Dream Temple (For Octavia)” at King Street Station.
Once you step into the gallery space, you’re first greeted with warm orange lights that transition to subtle blue high above the gallery. Pots of African violets rest on multiple stands around a spacious memory foam mattress. You’re encouraged to take your shoes off, put your bag or coat somewhere and lay across the bed. As you rest your head, you can clearly hear the calming voice of award-winning science fiction author Octavia Butler reading “Parable of the Talents,” the sequel to her novel “Parable of the Sower.” Each object in “Dream Temple” was placed in the hopes visitors wouldn’t just enter into a calm state of mind but leave questioning how much rest they actually receive on a daily basis.
The main theme of the exhibit brings attention to the fact that Black people on average receive less than the recommended eight hours of sleep — something that is widely referred to as the Black-white sleep gap.
Academia abounds with reports of this gap, often showing the connection between limited sleep and other health issues. A 2022 Yale study examined data from 2004 to 2018 and found that the number of Black Americans who’ve reported sleeping less than seven hours was 11.9% higher than white Americans. Consistent lack of sleep contributes to a multitude of health problems including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity and depression, according to the CDC. Another sleep study, this one by researchers from Harvard, Northwestern University, University of Minnesota and Columbia, focused on people with developed atherosclerosis, which is the buildup of cholesterol and fat in the arteries that can cause high blood pressure and strokes; that study found that 43.4% of participating Black Americans slept shorter hours than people of other races. While not explicitly linking its conclusions with sleep, the U.S Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health reports that 57.1% of African Americans suffer from high blood pressure.
Another contributing factor to a lack of sleep among Black Americans is stress. Susan Redline, a Harvard professor and researcher, conducted her own study to understand why the sleep gap exists. She examined the sleeping habits of residents from a predominantly Black neighborhood in Boston. Participants shared that their sleep was disturbed throughout the night mostly by loud street noises in their neighborhood. Additionally, most of them reported working multiple jobs, which they say made it even more difficult to establish a consistent sleep schedule. Researchers from Emory University found that socioeconomic status discrimination adds to the decreased hours of sleep amongst African Americans.
The process of sleeping or, as Imani calls it, “radical resting,” is something that both of the artists regard as a precious thing connected to their overall well-being. Imani grew to understand the importance of sleeping when she studied abroad in Rome. In Italy and other countries within the Mediterranean, people allocate three hours of their day to either take a nap or make their lunch without feeling rushed to go back to work or school. During these naps, Imani had profound dreams that would help shape the artwork, poetry and articles she produced at the time.
Upon her return to Seattle, Imani found herself waking up exhausted — not only because of the work culture but also because of the countless murders of Black women at the hands of the police across the U.S. The killing of Charleena Lyles involving Seattle police officers truly shook Imani to the core. Imani believes that there could have been a different way for the Black community in Seattle to heal in the midst of political unrest during Trump’s presidency and the brutal actions of police officers toward BIPOC communities. She references the dreams Martin Luther King Jr. declared in his famous speech delivered in Washington, D.C., and explains that efforts need to go back to those dreams to push for change. Imani believes compassion should be a focal point of equitable collaborations between local communities as the city evolves.
“How do you slow down at work and create space to rest? How do you create a space for dreaming and daydreaming? This idea that in order to change the world you had to do it through literary terms or through logic, and we said, ‘No, we have this in ourselves,’” Imani said. “It’s as simple as sleep; it’s [as] simple as dreaming, and that’s the one thing that’s been taken from us day to day without us being able to fight for it.”
Before coming up with the idea behind “Dream Temple,” Imani launched a project in 2018 called “Remember,” where she set a time and place for all Black community members to gather and spend time resting together. For a few hours during each of these sessions, everybody would begin to daydream, and Imani would use sound healing, a therapeutic method that uses Tibetan bowls to ease stress. Imani provided a safe space for her own community to strengthen their connection to each other.
Tikaka, an international architect, said his work constantly makes him think about how he can empower people to take action to change their conditions. Tikaka never viewed being fully rested as a strong asset but as something that is usually avoided, especially when it comes to pulling all-nighters for meeting a deadline with less than five hours of sleep. In a previous project, Tikaka examined South African cultural practices that have been displaced through colonization and replaced through European medicine. The knowledge he gained in that endeavor helped him realize sleeping is a form of resistance to a toxic work culture.
“[Sleep is] also a form of production. Having time to rest also allows you time to dream up new things,” Tikaka said. “When sleep is taken away from you — you’re disempowered.”
Imani and Tikaka see “Dream Temple” as an opportunity to foster more conversations and recognition of what the future of Seattle could look like if people’s rest and mental and physical well-being were considered first. Imani emphasized that through sleep the city can truly create a new way of existing without having to extract more labor every day.
As its name reflects, the exhibit honors Octavia Butler, whose writing consistently focused on themes of change. The characters in Butler’s books are often forced to make choices to either survive or let themselves be irreparably harmed for the betterment of their community. Writing within the science fiction genre, which often lacks adequate BIPOC representation, Butler challenged mainstream themes that don’t acknowledge societal issues like racism, classism and misogyny. Her novels center Black female characters who face systemic inequities whether the story takes place in the modern day or 100 years in the future.
Although the book was published in 1993, “Parable of the Sower” is set in an alternate 2024, where wealth inequality and irreversible climate change has created a dystopian society where communities reside behind walls.
The main character, a Black girl named Lauren Oya Olamina, lives within one of these gated communities. Lauren believes that her neighborhood won’t always be the safe haven it’s perceived as by her family and neighbors, who use religion — specifically Christianity — as a way to ignore the growing threat outside their walls; she is concerned her community’s belief system holds them back from seeing the truth of their situation. When Lauren has to flee the neighborhood, she soon finds herself making a new family and having the chance to share a new belief system, which she calls Earthseed. Through Earthseed, Lauren emphasizes the importance of accepting change and is able to create her own community built on this pillar.
During the pandemic, “Parable of the Sower” made a spot for itself on the New York Times best seller list as more people took in the similarities between Butler’s world and our own. Butler, who passed away in 2006, took inspiration from the political state of the U.S. during the ’80s and early ’90s when she wrote the novel. It now serves as a cautionary tale, warning us that if we don’t make the necessary changes to create a world that isn’t harmful to our well being, then we won’t be too far off from what Lauren had to deal with.
“She foresaw the political turmoil that we’re in today. What type of world do we want to build? Octavia really gave us a way of envisioning that outside of the limitations of Earth,” Imani said. “How can we have our own Earthseed in our day to day? How can we envision a freedom where we’re not tethered to the material extractive practice of systems of oppression on Earth?”
Imani views Butler as a prophet who inspired her to begin centering rest in her life. It was important for Imani and Tikaka to create an environment that could invoke a similar feeling within each person who steps into the gallery so they can see rest as a way of enacting change.
Each wall within the temple has a different image or video projected as a way for attendees to envision themselves rested. One projected image looks through a window frame to see multiple Black people just sleeping. Another shows a notebook page filled with the written manifestations of Butler’s dreams of becoming a bestselling author, owning a beautiful home and being able to afford health care for herself and her mother. Underneath the projection of Butler reading is a bed display with the molding of Imani’s body in a sleeping position. Tikaka explained that the display is built with slabs of material positioned either up or down to reflect graphs of brainwaves from a person sleeping. The third projection shows a time-lapsed video of the Space Needle being built with the backdrop showing the same image of many Black people sleeping.
As the video plays, a voice repeats the phrase “how can you rest when your community can’t sleep?” For Tikaka, the words are connected to the need for unanimous agreement from surrounding communities when a new building or landmark is built. When the city proposes new projects for its benefit but leaves out the communities directly impacted, he said there is an active decision being made that those people aren’t a part of the evolving city. Seattle history is full of these civic projects, like the creation of I-5 into the Central District, which uprooted many homes and communities and led to the creation of activist groups like the Citizens Against Freeways. The 1972 construction of the Kingdome also negatively impacted the Chinatown-International District as residents expressed concerns of their homes and businesses being displaced.
“Oftentimes with these civic projects, we’re the last people asked what we want. [You’re] revitalizing the city, [but] are you thinking about our wants and dreams?” Imani asks. She emphasizes paying attention to these historical exclusions when new projects come around, to ensure that the affected communities have an “opportunity to be involved and the city is engaging with the community.”
Tikaka added that being fully rested ties into a person’s ability to build a stronger connection with the developing parts of their community. He believes if a person is able to dream and imagine a reality they see themselves and their community being a part of, they will feel inspired to make that dream come true. This in turn could present the perfect opportunity for a city like Seattle to recognize the importance of each community residing here.
“Dream Temple (For Octavia)” is the first part of a series called “Dreaming a New City, A Living Archive,” which will have seven parts based on the seven different districts within Seattle, inviting residents of each district to rest and dream. Imani and Tikaka plan to work on this project for the next two years. Their goal is to connect with local organizations and city officials to create a culture that recognizes the importance of sleeping.
Marian Mohamed is the associate editor of Real Change. She oversees our weekly features. Contact her at [email protected].
Read more of the March 20-26, 2024 issue.