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One of the exercises in CLP is about identifying and clarifying our personal values. We each identify our top five values, writing one each on five index cards. Then we have to drop one, and another… until we are left holding the card with our number one, top value. What is your current One right now and why?

Connection to community. I’ve been seeing the effects of the lack of community – especially in person – because of the pandemic. Although, during the pandemic I was able to run programs for school children who were supposed to be online. It made me see the value of such connections to human beings, to people.

I absolutely relate to that. Would you like to say more?

I grew up in a small village; everybody knew everybody. That’s one thing I like about New Haven, that it’s a small community. Over the years, it really has become village-like for me, in the sense that I’ve seen children basically born, and grow up. Grow up and start talking, start calling my name, go to school, and follow on a trip with me. I really appreciate that.

Part of my mission in life is to spread love and build community. I’ve formed that in New Haven in my direct neighborhood as well as New Haven by extension, and also with the children and the families that I’ve worked with.

Where did you grow up?

On the island of Dominica, which is a small Caribbean island in the West Indies. I moved from Dominica in 2005, and have lived in New Haven ever since. I’ve been involved in youth development work – environmental education, mentorship, outdoor education, and nonviolence work ever since.

What was it that led you to move to New Haven?

I moved here because of my father. He was an activist doing youth development work. He worked with the International Festival of Arts & Ideas and Youth Rights Media. He eventually moved to California, and I decided to stay.

What is one big, burning leadership question you are wrestling with these days?

It’s around the importance of developing others’ leadership, and continuously creating space for developing leadership in others – whether adults, children, or young people – how do we do that?

Within sports, you have scouts who go into the schools and places to look for soccer players, football players, basketball players. That should be the approach when it comes to leadership with young people and developing their leadership. I honestly think that true leadership on any level is leadership that has the potential to develop others’ leadership – to strengthen other people.

What inspires you, gives you hope these days?

Definitely young people. Young people continuously inspire me, because I see them. I always believe that young people are a force for change. We always say that our young people are the future; I believe they are the present. They have the skills, and if we give them the opportunity, they are able to make change. They are the ones that are able to bring in other young people as well. They can pull the parents in. And with that, you can bring about whole change, run by young people – they are facilitating the change. I’m very inspired by that.

I believe learning is inter-generational. We have a lot that we can learn from the young people, and we have a lot that we can teach young people. Being intentional about creating spaces where you have all the different generations, so that they can learn from each other and be with each other. I think that’s the only way we can really build community, pass on culture, and so on.

This work of transformational change is hard. Stepping in, stepping up, over time, can be draining – physically, intellectually, emotionally, psychically, spiritually. How do you recharge, restore, take care of yourself, rekindle your fire?

I like music – listening to it, and playing it. I like drumming, I find that a great outlet. I’m a big reggae fan, I love reggae. I consider myself to be eclectic, I listen to all types of music – there’s a time and a season for every type – but I have a bias for reggae. I believe that in the morning especially, if I’m going to listen to music it has to be inspiring, it has to have substance. So I listen to a lot of positive music. I also like my local, traditional Dominica music, called bouyon and cadence.

Another outlet is riding my bicycle. I bought a mountain bike so that I would be able to go on the trails and on the road. I do some mountain biking in West Rock Park, and use the Farmington Canal and trail.

And spending time in nature. I love going hiking – sometimes with other people, sometimes by myself. I like the local hikes, East Rock, West Rock, and also the different state parks – Devil’s Hopyard, Chatfield Hollow. I love going to the river – I’m a big river person. I grew up going to the river, swimming on the beach and on the river. That really recharges me. I’m a big fan of Hammonasset, and I often go to Lighthouse Point Park as well, and Lake Pattaconk.

It’s a bit challenging in the wintertime, because I can’t go to the river or beach and take a swim, so I use my other outlets then. I’ve learned how to adapt to the seasons here. When I first moved here, the first couple winters were very depressing. I didn’t like it – I went to work, came home, went to sleep, went to work. I started to think of ways that I could join it. I started riding my bike year-round, and I embraced the winter sports of skiing, tubing, and animal tracking, still being outside in nature. I’m outside year-round. Even right now in the work that I do, I am outside year-round, I’m taking children outside year-round.

Introduce us to someone you are/were close with personally (e.g., family, teacher, friend, mentor), who shaped (or shapes) you and how you view leadership and possibility for a better community/world?

I’ll share two people.

The first person – I’ll take it way back – was my high school football coach in Dominica. And when I say football, I really mean soccer. He was very inspirational to me – he gave me one of my first leadership opportunities, to be the captain of my football team.

I was a little troublesome in high school; I was very talkative, and I played around, I used to drum on my desk a lot, I used to get in a little bit of trouble. He used to mentor me in terms of my behavior in school: ‘you need to be on top of your school work in order for you to play, you need to be disciplined both on the field and in school.’

That leadership role as captain led to other leadership opportunities within my high school career. I became a leader of peer counseling groups, and of my section we called houses. Eventually I started representing the school at debates and speech competitions, and I eventually became president of my school, we call it ‘head boy’ – it’s really president of the student council or student body of the school.

It’s amazing how powerful it is when those adults believe in us, how much they can shape our path.

Definitely. And that’s why I have to give it back and pay it forward, for what people have done for me. I have to give it back to all the young people.

You mentioned there was a second person?

Her name is Miss Grell. Growing up I used to go to church, I was in the choir, and I used to play drums in the choir. Eventually the church formed a youth group, and the person in charge of the youth group was Miss Grell, Ma Grell.

She basically took us all over the island, she mentored us, and helped us to do fundraising. That was one of my first solid experiences as a youth organizer – as a child organizing community events and bringing people together, doing things like car washes, bake sales and what not.

I transferred a lot of those things to adulthood. I remember once we had a bake sale at the church, and we didn’t do too well. So we went around the village, knocking on doors and selling the baked goods that didn’t sell at church. Later as an adult working in a summer camp one time, they wanted to do a bake sale – we didn’t sell out either. So we walked around the community and sold everything.

What do you recommend to us, in each of these categories:
  • Reading – Any poetry collection by Maya Angelou, that’s a very powerful read. One that comes to mind is I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. And Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom. I’ve read it two to three times; it’s by him, and really gets into his story. There are a couple prophecies in it. At some point in time he took a trip to England. He was in Parliament Square in London, and said, “they should take these statues down, there will be statues of us here.” Before he passed in 2007, they erected a statue of him in Parliament Square. I was actually right around the corner, in London when it happened, and I didn’t know it was happening so I missed it – but I visited the statue.
  • Listening – Listen to Bob Marley’s Survival – that’s one of my favorite albums of all time. It really paints the picture of why Bob Marley was not only a reggae artist, it also shows you why he was a revolutionary, a visionary, somebody of peace. Every single song on there would speak to you.
  • Eating – I’m vegan, so I cook a lot. One of my favorites is cucumber salad – with cucumber, garlic, olive oil, a little salt. I recommend Caribbean Style in the Ninth Square, it’s really good, really authentic.
  • Watching – Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Man’s Chest – because it was filmed in Dominica. The scenes there are the places I have swam, hiked, bathed, run barefoot. The indigenous people they have in the movie, that’s my people. Although they pictured them as cannibals, we know better.
  • Laughing – Sometimes I make silly videos or take silly pictures and post them, and call it free up Friday! So go ahead get silly; record a video, share it with the world or friends and family or just keep it to yourself!
  • Wildcard – your choice – I recommend getting connected. Come out to community events, spread joy, teach young people manners, greet people when we see them. Spend time in nature, in the outdoors.

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Get in touch with Gamaliel directly: gamalielmoses1@gmail.com

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