Aim for Fantastic: Jamaica Gilmer’s Empathetic Leadership
Jamaica Gilmer is a strategist, storyteller, photographer and curator who has a fifteen-year background in creating and implementing curricula. She is the founder and director of The Beautiful Project (TBP), an arts collective that centers Black women and girls as the authority over their own narratives. Her work as a storyteller and photographer allows her to capture realities that are often overlooked and misunderstood. Jamaica helms TBP’s curating and organizing efforts in partnership with families, organizations, and institutions. A graduate of Howard University’s John H. Johnson School of Communications, she is a highly influential speaker sharing insight across the nation as a guest lecturer, keynote, and panelist. She is the lead curator of TBP’s most recent exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Pens, Lens and Soul: The Story of The Beautiful Project. The range of her visual storytelling can be found at www.jamaicagilmer.com. Jamaica is a passionate, bold, thought leader and one to watch as a champion for Black girls everywhere.
“I’m committed to growing and learning deeply. Which means that if you’re being led by me, harm is not a value or tool. Someone on my team said to me that bravery through vulnerability is one of my superpowers. As an Executive Director, of The Beautiful Project specifically, I’m keenly aware that we can make our collective dreams come true by working and learning together. Even as I practice empathy, I’m working to not hide under the collective mantra, but to have checkpoints where I know when to step out, lead, and make decisions.”
Kristine: As I was preparing for this conversation, I looked at the last issue of the Beautiful Project journal. There was a piece that you wrote in there, speaking to the girls and women involved in the project, and you wrote — “I don’t want you to aim for perfection. I want you to aim for fantastic.” My first question for you is, when was the last time you felt fantastic and what was true for you in that moment?
Jamaica: You made me smile, thank-you for reading back to me what I wrote for my girls. It’s been a rough morning and I needed to hear that. It is so lovely to feel my whole system reground itself.
I just turned 40, and so it’s been a love parade. On my birthday, I had kind of adjusted to what loveliness could look like, without me being on a plane and going to the beach. It was just fully embracing who I am and the love that surrounds me. I adore roses. So, I bought myself two dozen roses and I was just kickin it with my husband and arranging them. I felt so fantastic because as I was arranging them I had this super comfy, cozy setup and I could see the image of what I was doing. It was wonderful and calming. It’s beautiful to see the arrangement come together and so I took a picture of them as I talked with my husband, who I adore. The juxtaposition of both was just… fantastic. What was true for me was this completely unfiltered acceptance of myself and what I find lovely.
Kristine: What color were they?
Jamaica: Red. All red, two dozen red roses. Arranged beautifully. So decadent.
Kristine: Lovely. I also saw this thread of photography being a place where you are bringing your past into your present. Do you recollect some of your earliest photographs or an early sense of having a camera in your hand — and what you wanted to take pictures of?
Jamaica: Super early on, I was obsessed with Polaroid cameras. I had a deep affection and kind of a love affair with my family’s photo albums. Especially the photo booth pictures and the Polaroid pictures. I just loved them. I think this is true for a lot of kids back then, if your mom or dad had a Polaroid camera, it was our job to wave it back and forth. And it was like a dark room in your hand — you’re watching this image come up. I just loved watching the emotions in pictures come up and I loved that camera in particular.
I remember always being moved by people and moments, like when people laugh and it makes their body move as if they just can’t take it. That is one of my favorite moments. I could see images all of the time. Unfortunately there were only so many pictures in a Polaroid camera, so there were only so many times my mother was gonna let me use that camera. There was some more flexibility with disposable cameras and my mother didn’t mind developing them, though there was a question around when she would get around to sending them off to be developed. I learned that as long as I could be patient around getting the film developed, my mother would buy me disposable cameras on demand. That’s when I really stretched out, because whenever I was with my friends or family, I just saw and took the images all of the time. It was always people, always really special, sweet moments that I wanted to capture and see again.
Kristine: Are you an empathetic person?
Jamaica: Yes I am. I’m very much an empath. I can see emotions and I can connect to the wave of emotions in a room. When I’m taking photos it always kind of feels like a rollercoaster. People are on so many different wavelengths in any given moment. I really enjoy that. Even when I’m photographing one person, I love to settle into that moment where they let me see who they are. And I think that feels for folks like a shocking but fantastic invitation.
Kristine: Even when you were just talking about it, your smile got really big and you had this light coming out of your face.
Jamaica: It makes me so happy. I’m a really intense person and I enjoy who I am. I also care about people so I can be overly aware of everyone, at times to my own detriment. So when I’m taking a picture of a person, it’s fully my world and it feels right. I don’t ask myself a thousand questions about whether I should have said x, y or z. I feel very free when I have a camera in my hand. I can enter into a moment intentionally and protect it with a photograph.
Kristine: It’s reminding me of facilitation — that intentional interaction with people in space. You said you have an intense personality and you’re also deeply empathetic. How do those traits show up in your role as Executive Director of The Beautiful Project? Is there a thread there, between these things and your style of leading?
Jamaica: Right before quarantine, I was with a dear friend working on a few projects. I wrote my artist statement and described myself as a hope architect. It was one of those big moments where I found words to match how I show up in the world. That part of me reverberates like a drum and is appealing to folks. When I am hopeful, people connect to their own possibility and wonder if I can help them get there, wherever there is.
I’m also honest and self-aware. I’m committed to growing and learning deeply. Which means that if you’re being led by me, harm is not a value or tool. Someone on my team said to me that bravery through vulnerability is one of my superpowers. As an Executive Director, of The Beautiful Project specifically, I’m keenly aware that we can make our collective dreams come true by working and learning together. Even as I practice empathy, I’m working to not hide under the collective mantra, but to have checkpoints where I know when to step out, lead, and make decisions.
“Honestly, I think there have been shifts in the nonprofit sector, but nothing has fundamentally changed.”
Kristine: We have our THRiVE Summit coming up, and some of the other 2018 10 to Watch leaders are going to be speaking about their experiences in the program and the nonprofit sector as a whole. We’re going to ask them what has and hasn’t changed for them since 2018. I’m wondering what has and has not changed for you, as a member of the first 10 to Watch cohort?
Jamaica: Honestly, I think there have been shifts in the nonprofit sector, but nothing has fundamentally changed. Since 2004, it was commonplace for people to feel comfortable correcting my language when I described The Beautiful Project. We were explicitly focused on Black girls and women and people would question our value or legitimacy in response. Applications for grant funding in North Carolina were similar in tone. It was daunting and for a time, I shifted TBP’s fundraising efforts outside of the state.
When 2018 hit, I was working to build relationships with North Carolina based funders, to try again and figure out how this landscape could support TBP. I wasn’t really sure where the entry points were. I sat down with Nick Allen, Chief Program Officer for United Way of the Greater Triangle and asked clear questions about United Way’s historic mission, harm, and inaccessibility. He was transparent about why he was there, what he believed the future could be, and how this opportunity was a way to push open this steel door that is philanthropy in North Carolina.
Speaking specifically to the 10 to watch program, one of the brilliant benefits was the Leadership Triangle Transforming Leaders training. Especially because it gave me a local opportunity to grow in a program that I had been looking at for years. That was fantastic.
Kristine: Okay. Last question. You are embedded in a collective of people who I imagine you love, respect, and find nourishment from. Talk to me about the collective and how people can support you and the people that you love.
Jamaica: We are a vibrant collective of artists and educators, working together to advance the wellness and representational justice of black women and girls in North Carolina and around the nation. Our collective has three parts: staff, beautiful community and our board. As staff, we call ourselves a small and mighty team. Dr. Erin Stephens is our brilliant Program Director. Khayla Deans is our innovative Creative Director. Winnie Okwakol is our designer extraordinaire, when you see something pretty, Winnie has been there. We also have an amazing Project Coordinator, Bria Pearson and our number loving Budget Analyst, Maya Metz. Our Board is small and mighty as well, operating as our elder circle of experts and advocates. Our Beautiful Community includes a glorious group of Black women educators, photographers, writers, filmmakers and researchers who partner with us to cultivate and protect the voice and power of Black girls and women.
The Beautiful Project is a dream house for Black girls and women. Our goal is to make it a sustainable dream house. I’m very interested in funding partnerships with people who are invested in representational justice and understand what it is to support from a paradigm of partnership, not charity. If individuals, companies or foundations want to give financially, I welcome your support.
