contributed photo
One of the exercises in CLP is about identifying and clarifying our own personal values. We each identify our top 5 values, writing one each on 5 index cards. Then we have to drop one… and another… until we are forced to choose our number 1, top value. What is your current One right now and why?
Btw, I LOVE this exercise and do it with my students, except I ask them to start by identifying three :).
Wow, this is so tough! I want to say Family, but I feel like that’s a constant, always at the forefront. My wife, our dog and cat, they’re the center of my life… and, of course, my brother, nieces and nephew (my parents and other brother are deceased but they’re always in my heart)… my cousin Val who I love like a sister… my family has always been a source of inspiration and love for me…
Yet, I’m looking at your question and the word that pops out at me is “current.” These last few months, ever since finding out one of my plays was named a semi-finalist, and then a finalist in a summer theatre conference (I didn’t get into the conference but making it to the final round was incredibly encouraging) I’ve felt incredibly inspired to get back to my writing. So, I think Creativity is the value driving me now.
Gosh, that’s an awfully long answer LOL and you see I couldn’t immediately choose one (that’s the Libra indecision, yo :).
What is one big, burning leadership question you are wrestling with these days?
Oh, wow. Another tough one!
After all these years, and everything I learned through CLP and Courageous Community, I still struggle sometimes with what it means to “lead.” I embrace Paul Schmitz’s tenet “everyone leads,” and I know that means me too. But at times, in certain situations, I resist being “in charge” or being asked to lead. Yet I hate it when other people are making decisions that affect my life. That all sounds paradoxical, I know.
Let me try to clarify.
As a professor, in the classroom, I feel great – I am a leader to a certain extent, but I also impart to my students that they’re leaders, too. I design exercises, lessons and projects to give them the opportunity to practice their leadership skills; so in that setting, I am very comfortable, totally living the notion “everyone leads” – me, and all of them. It is fun, rejuvenating and exciting!
But the same cannot be said when I am serving as one leader related to administrative content and debates, especially when that kind of role involves needing to create mountains of perfectly executed paperwork to inform a debate about, for example, one structural change. I enjoy the pressure and time crunches of teaching, writing and performing, but not of administrative deadlines that affect important decisions, debates and votes.
Life is much too short to do the things that don’t bring out your best.
What inspires you, gives you hope these days?
My students, and young people around the country who are starting to wake up and realize the power of the vote. And who are starting to realize their own power in general, to hold the courage of their convictions and take action on issues like immigration, gun control and sexual harassment.
Activists of all ages who are working every day to reclaim democracy and addressing a host of other burning issues in this country: criminal justice reform, immigration, institutionalized racism, violence prevention, sexism, misogyny…
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?
Long walks with Dulce (our dog:) around Lighthouse Point Park (one of New Haven’s gems). Oh, two years ago I bought a kayak – best therapy in the world, I highly recommend. Can’t wait to get out on the water this season!
Listening to piano jazz and classical guitar on a daily basis is incredibly soothing and inspiring.
I also joined an LGBTQ softball team last month (it’s primarily LGBTQ but allies are welcome to play, too) – it’s been awesome! Although we lost our first two games last week, we played hard, yo! And we’re playing ball, having fun and building community, what more could we ask for?
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?
Prof. J.B. Lyman was my professor in undergrad (Western CT State Univ.) for Literature for the Stage and many other lit classes. She led by example, and instilled in me a love for the art and history of dramatic literature. Kind, funny, brilliant – a dynamo – and she led in such a way that was not intimidating. Not sure I can explain it; I only know how I felt around her. And I only know everyone – faculty and students – loved her.
We sat rapt in her class, eager for every one of her words – I think that might have been when I started to take copious notes:) – she brought to life the stories of Agamemnon and Prometheus in her delivery, vocally and physically. Her lectures were not lectures, they were impassioned, engaging performances yo! She was also one of the most compassionate and nurturing teachers I’ve ever known.
What do you recommend to us, in each of these categories:
- Reading – Paula by Isabel Allende
- Listening – Mary Lou Williams, Gerri Allen, Marian McPartland, Rene Marie, Carla Cook, Tito Puente, Joni Mitchell, Eva Cassidy
- Eating – Coromandel in Orange, a great Indian restaurant
- Watching – Seven Seconds, American Crime (Season 1 is all I’ve watched so far and I know it’s three years old, I’ve always been behind the times when it comes to TV, what can I say :), Better Call Saul
- Laughing – Being a Dog: Following the Dog into a World of Smell by Alexandra Horowitz
- Wildcard – Notes from the Field written and performed by Anna Deavere Smith (the best piece of theatre I’ve ever experienced)
Learn more about Janis
To get in touch with Janis directly: info@janisastor.com