This year I had the pleasure of attending Leymah Gbowee’s seminar back in September. Throughout this seminar, Gbowee emphasized the significance of being in tune with your womanhood because it can be a vessel that could globally incite other women to exercise their agency and demand rights and privileges. For instance, Gbowee mentioned that she did some activist work down in Liberia, and she discusses how the collaborative efforts between herself and the other local Liberian women created a space for women who have been sexually harassed or abused. Gbowee’s inclination to help this community of women did not only come from a place of shared nationality, but it came from a place of pathos in regards to the unsolicited experiences that come with being a woman. The ability to create a network that mutually supports and protects women has always been the basis for Gbowee to continue to do the things that she does. This just goes to show that leadership is not just a desired trait, it is a powerful tool that can connect communities and it pushes one to seek the possible change that is wanted by many. Lastly, a key aspect that stuck out to me during this seminar was that Gbowee did not care about being the angry black woman stereotype. Gbowee proudly accepted this stereotype and told us fellow Black Scotties to use that anger as a source of momentum to conduct change and cultivate our selves as leaders. I can definitely say that this seminar was beyond inspiring, it has definitely encouraged me to be a leader who can ground myself in both my blackness and womanhood. Overall, this seminar has been able to teach me to not just tiptoe around spaces but to always claim a space that I enter.
Tag: Professor Korol
Being allowed to take a class that centers around female directors has made me retain the necessary mode of confidence to not only build on my strengths but to also help me envision a formidable future in which my intersectional identity fuels a sense of power in the spaces that I immerse myself in. In terms of individual strengths, I have always considered myself a good writer, though sometimes I lacked confidence in my ability to write. These insecure feelings still resembled the feelings that I had at the beginning of this course. It was not until the visual cinematic aspects of a film through a female-directed lens helped me claim and affirm these strengths as my own. This newly attained knowledge of women being the ones who are behind the camera lens and making the executive decision of putting a female protagonist at the center of a narrative truly inspired me. More importantly, getting to see the stories that were portrayed throughout these various films has consequently allowed me to see a recurring incorporated element that has encompassed itself as a common theme that I plan on adapting to my reality. Living in one’s sincerity without fear progresses an oriented version of yourself that can fully allow you to foresee your capabilities at its fullest. The female protagonists that I saw throughout these films struggle with sincerity with themselves at the beginning of each movie, however, there is a progression that allows for them to realize that they should live in authenticity to fully realize their infinite capabilities. When it comes to my interpretation and application in my own life, it has made me realize that I am a great writer and that I should be proud of my intersectional identity because they are strengths that I can utilize to further my capabilities.
Through this culmination of strengths, identity, and power, the developed growth that influences all these three key elements were able to be reinforced through this class and has contributed to my understanding of leadership. My comprehension of leadership before taking this class was based on the assumption that leadership cannot manifest itself in multiple ways, other than the assertive vocal type of leader. This class has been able to help me realize that strengths, identity, and power can reinforce you as a leader if you can live your life through a sincere lens. It can not only make one realize personal capabilities but it gives you the self-esteem to fully conduct yourself as a leader. Having the utmost capacity in your leadership fulfills not only the self-reflective aspect but it gives off an energy of self-assurance that can rub off on those who encounter your space. Overall, taking this LDR course has significantly improved my relationship between my strengths, power, and identity, to the point where self-affirmation is increasingly rectifying my coveted capabilities.
StrengthsQuest is an assessment that allows you to know your own unique skills and talents that will help you improve your role as a leader. Through this assessment, I was able to find out that my five StrengthQuests are: Futuristic, Achiever, Harmony, Input, and individualization. In terms of being futuristic, this dominant strength perfectly encapsulates how influential it can be to my productivity and work ethic. As an individual, I truly value the future. Thinking about the future has been a motivational force that drives me to execute excellent time management skills because planning out time helps further accomplish future goals that fly on my radar. This also ties into how I am able to be so productive, I aim to achieve and fulfill daily goals because that can put myself and others in a comfortable position that allows work to be done. By acknowledging that my most powerful strength is being futuristic, I hope that people can see how much of an asset that can I be, in terms of problem-solving and dreaming big. Being naturally futuristic allows for my contribution to be very purposeful because whether it be in a group or individual instance, my strength enables me to organize tasks, manage time, and produce a quality effort that will help build momentum for a group or a professional company. By identifying with being a futuristic leader, this will benefit the people that I will work with because I will always have a festering desire to envision and execute goals that promote the welfare of myself and my peers.
For my first blog post, I would like to discuss a wonderful film that I watched recently. Last Saturday, I finally got the chance to watch The Last Black Man in San Francisco, and I enjoyed every second of it. The film had a color palette that was filled with warmth that had references towards the Fall season and the incorporation of the red throughout the film served as a source of intentional purpose. Additionally, the film had stunning cinematography that was paced realistically and made it hard for me to draw my eyes away. More importantly, the film had me reflect on the fact that there is an unsettling reality that Black people will always have to flee or be structurally forced to leave their homes, It is a modern-day recurrence with historical ties. Gentrification imposes a noise of fear and actively threatens Black people’s ability to feel secure in a place that encompasses their world. Lastly, when I did research on the film I found out that the director Joe Talbot was inspired by his life long friend Jimmie Fails, who is the main character in the movie and goes on a quest to save his family’s home from the impending doom of gentrification. Talbot said that the film draws parallels from Jimmie’s life and experience of gentrification in San Franciso. Overall, I was beyond pleased with the film and I can’t wait to see what future films Joe Talbot will direct and what future films Jimmie Fails will star in.
