Discovering Leadership Where We Stand

Ray Chew, Jewel, Carmen de Lavallade, Patti Austin, Arthur Mitchell, and Virginia Johnson at the Riverside Theater Gala

Answering the Call of Leadership?

It was a time of transition, dotted with uncertainty and hesitation. After the commercial film-editing company I had worked at for eight years closed—the owners moving to Brazil—I decided to join the community development ministry at the Riverside Church in Manhattan. I had been pretty comfortable at the editing company—knowing my role and the typical routine. There were no real surprises and certainly not much in terms of stretch or growth. Talents and gifts are revealed when you step into unfamiliar territory. So began the discovery of my leadership capabilities—one measure at a time.

Some regard leadership as a calling. They recognize their skills and abilities and know exactly where and how they want to apply them. For those folks, the clarion call is loud and clear, so they set about making it happen with passion and determination.

For others, it’s not so much a “calling” as it is a cacophony of high-pitched notes that pulse incessantly until we take notice. In these cases, a leadership role is most often foreign until a situation dictates that we take action. Or we may be reluctant because we have yet to recognize our talents and gifts or don’t see leadership within our realm of being. We are nudged, pulled, and prodded until we learn how to improvise, syncopate, and swing our way into moments of meaningful accomplishment.

After a year in the community development ministry, I became Director of Theater Programs. I did not see myself as a leader in those first years. For me, it was just an exciting opportunity to bring community into an artistic space and share work that could enrich and expand their lives. I was propelled by an energy and commitment that had little to do with title, stature, or leading people.

Called to Document

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio’s first book, The Undocumented Americans, is a finalist for the National Book Award in nonfiction.  She writes about undocumented immigrants as only her first-hand experience as a Dreamer allows her. In New York Times and Forbes interviews, Villavicencio speaks of her experience as an undocumented student at Harvard and why she felt compelled to write the book.   

Like James Baldwin said, it was time to pay my dues. I was on DACA then, and in grad school, I’d read a bunch of books on immigrants that I hated. They all seemed to elicit pity, or guilt, or inspiration, or fixate on the migrant body as a laboring body—calloused hands, swollen feet, an innate connection to the land. That didn’t sit right with me. I wanted to write about us as people first, with idiosyncrasies and flaws and charming quirks and eccentricities. And I wanted to weave their stories with my own.

Villavicencio is a writer, but never thought she would be writing about immigration. Her journey has been difficult, and writing her story, along with those of hundreds of others, has taken an emotional toll. But she strongly felt she had to be the voice of millions just like her. When asked what her aspirations are, she says:

I hope to retire my parents, to have given as many dogs as possible some really happy lifetimes, and to have left a legacy of “love in the time of cholera” during this country’s ethnic cleansing. I want to have left a body of work that shows that a people said to live in underground and in the shadows, lived, loved, and created openly under their god, with their heads held high.

A Leader in My Mind

David Letterman took his show, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, to Yellow Springs, Ohio to interview Dave Chappelle. During their conversation, Letterman told Chappelle that after George Floyd’s murder, he was waiting to hear from him:

Letterman: “When am I going to hear from David? In my mind he is a leader here. How far off am I or am I right on the money? Or should I just go back to Indiana?”

Chappelle: “I am far from a leader.”

Letterman: “Do you want to be?”

Chappelle: “No. No. I’m having way more fun being whatever the f**k I am than being somebody that people would look to for moral or intellectual guidance. It would require me to live a completely different way.” (Here, Chappelle cites Black leaders who have died penniless and that he doesn’t want.)

Letterman: “That’s your view. I’m waiting for you to say something. So, what does that make me—a follower.”

Even as Chappelle rebuffed being a leader, he says that his special, 8:40, was “behind what others were already doing.” But he was shocked that nobody was talking about what it feels like to watch a man get murdered by a policeman. He wanted his statement to be genuine. People were relieved, “because It touched something people were feeling that wasn’t being reflected in the larger conversation.”

Letterman pointed out that this was exactly his perspective on it [Chappelle’s statement]: “Oh, here it is. I knew it had to come, it did come and here it was. From that standpoint—great.”

Whether we claim a leadership position or not, we all have leadership potential and capabilities. Those initially hesitant to step into a leadership role may be driven by the urgency or the persistent why of a situation and feel compelled to act. As Chappelle and Villavicencio did. Energized by core values, and with a sense of humility, they’re not necessarily looking to be recognized as someone who leads people. The situation and the people affected by it cause them to take action.

When next you hear the blare of a leadership call—Answer. Perhaps someone is waiting to hear from you.