An Soulful Anthem
How the former CEO of a prestigious southwest spa is taking a creative leap to prepare for the next phase of her career. And for good reason.
Shelving the Ph.D.
After completing her work as chief executive at one of the country’s most prestigious spa and resort destinations, Janice Brooks discovered she was standing in a unique time and space. She realized that if she were willing, she could create rare pause from the traditional roles of life and corporate convention to fulfill a dream that has been building in her for more than a decade.
Having achieved many personal and professional milestones, Brooks has a clear vision for what her future life’s work will look like. And she is ecstatic. She spent years working in public affairs for clients, agencies and with top-level government projects. She has earned the adoration of colleagues, politicians and friends, and has created a pleasant home for her family in Utah’s beautiful southwest desert.
To take her work to the next level, Brooks knew she would need to do one of two things: go back to school to complete a Ph.D. in human cognitive development that she started several years ago, or take to the stage to produce a soulful anthem of artistic expression and emotional intelligence that would celebrate her past, purpose, and destiny.
A consummate creative, Brooks made the decision to shelve the idea of a Ph.D. At age 58, and having closed one door and preparing to open another, she determined she would need to roll up her sleeves go to work preparing for what she believes will be the most exciting decade of her profession. This decade, she determined, would require her to reach deep inside herself and her heritage to bring about the most pure sense of wisdom, leadership and courage that she can find.
Powerful Women of History
For more than 20 years, Brooks has been visiting public schools, libraries and college classes in southern Utah and Las Vegas to teach about her favorite women of history. Uniquely, she does more than show up with a prepared lecture or PowerPoint presentation. Typically, she arrives in elegantly dusty dress from a distinct time and era of American history, and with the particular poise of the character she has come to portray.
“This is something I have done for a couple of reasons,” Brooks says. “I wanted to find a way to celebrate my own history and heritage. I also really wanted to get to know these women on a more personal level who prepared the path that I have been blessed to walk on.”
According to Brooks, “To be intelligent, to be articulate, to lead, and to the have courage to hold power as a woman is inherent.” She believes passionately that these attributes come from a long line of women in history, and can be cultivated simply by “taking pause and looking back.”
This spring, Brooks will debut her one-woman magnum opus titled, “Traveling Shoes.” In the show, she has selected eight women of history to personify using techniques of characterization, costume and live performance. Carefully, Brooks selected characters that she has spent years both reading and writing about. “If I can get in touch with a woman well enough to personify her in song, speech and demeanor, then I have really made an effort to know her,” Brooks says. “And then, for my effort, I am best positioned to learn from her and to know how best to be like her.”
Selected to be included in her 90-minute stage performance are women that Brooks says, “Circle my emotional wagon.”
Characters include abolitionist orator Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman of the underground railroad, Rosa Parks of the civil rights movement, Texas politician Barbara Jordan, Utah pioneers Biddy Mason and Jane Manning, and New York congresswoman Shirley Chisholm. The first African-American woman elected to Congress, Chisholm became the first female candidate for President of the United States.
“All of these women were simply remarkable for their time, and powerfully strong,” Brooks says. “They were visionary leaders.”
Knowing Them
Of Jane Manning (1822-1908), Brooks says, “It takes a woman of sheer grit and tenacity to walk 800 miles with bloody feet in freezing temperatures. In fact, there is not a more ultimate expression of standing up for what one truly believes in.”
Brooks describes a personal feeling of kinship to Manning who reached Nauvoo, Ill., in 1843. Without shoes and weary, she arrived only to find that her journey of pioneer hardship and walking barefoot across rocky terrain had really just begun.
In May of 1848, after arriving with a pioneer handcart company, Manning gave birth to a daughter, Mary Ann, the first black child born in the state of Utah. “To me, Jane Manning is Utah’s African-American matriarch and a true example of dignity, toughness, commitment to hard work, and goodness,” Brooks says. “Like all of the women in the show, there is much we can learn from her character and strength.”
Brooks describes Rosa Parks as “the quintessential servant of mankind.” With no children of her own, Parks “gave her heart to the stewardship and humanity of all children,” Brooks says. “She cultivated kindness and gentility, and I so admire her for that.”
From the first time Brooks read about Sojourner Truth, she describes being moved by the determination of a former slave who achieved a seemingly impossible task to purchase her freedom from slavery, and that of her son. “As I have studied Sojourner, I can only describe a fierce sense of dignity, peace and courage that has come over me,” Brooks says.
Popular for her powerful public speeches about abolition and women’s rights, Sojourner Truth is perhaps best known for her sermon on gender inequality delivered in 1851 at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention. “Ain’t I a Woman” makes a profound cameo appearance in “Traveling Shoes” as Brooks dramatically reenacts its original, emotional delivery.
“Sojourner has taught me that you can’t have courage if you’re not afraid,” Brooks says. “Fear is the momentum that gives you strength and energy, and even though you’re scared as hell, you do it anyway.”
Brooks laughs when stating that this may very well be the reason she has made the decision to perform “Traveling Shoes” on stage in her home community. “It scares the hell out of me,” she said.
“This is what I consider my Ph.D. program — a synthesis of my personal and professional interests, of my past and present. In fact, it is requiring me to make an ultimate investment in creativity to bring something new to life.”
Transcending Ideology
From what she describes as “a bit of a hiatus from my professional career,” Brooks says, “I’m rising up to my own calling and it’s as though these great women of history are stepping in to help me.”
Purposefully, Brooks says “Traveling Shoes” is intended to give viewers both a personal education and interpretive experience, as all works of art should do. “It is remarkable how the stories of these women always bring us to a place of celebration and inspiration that transcends ideologies of race and ethnicity,” she says. “In a collective, these stories have nothing to do with race — race is merely the form by which they were all birthed. Rather, we realize from stories like these that all of us are simply the color of what is holding us together.”
According to Brooks, this is what it is really all about.
“I knew I had to do this show when I realized the next phase of my life and career is going to be about social intelligence, social activism and social entrepreneurship,” she says. “As I move back into working with clients and corporations, I need what only the creative process can teach me, and I need the courage and will that only my characters have the ability to impart.”
“Traveling Shoes” will debut March 27, 2014, in celebration of National Women’s History Month at the Eccles Fine Arts Center Concert Hall in St. George, Utah.
“I’m only going to do this performance once in its entirety,” Brooks says. “I’ve got a decade of new work to get on to.”
*This article originally appeared in Elan Woman Magazine, 2014
Note to the reader:
Janice Brooks is a former public affairs consultant, business executive, community activist, freelance writer and professional storyteller living in Ivins, Utah. At completion of her contract as CEO at southern Utah’s renowned Green Valley Spa, she is devoting her creative energy and passion to compiling a book of personal essays and poems, designing and producing corporate literary and motivational events, and accepting public speaking engagements.
Brooks served six years (two as Vice-Chairman) for the Clark County Housing Authority in Nevada. She also served as chairman of the Commissioner’s Committee for the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials. For her dedication and service to the Las Vegas community, “Janice Brooks Bay,” a 100-unit affordable housing development, was named in her honor. She is the author of two books, “Focus on Nevada’s Children” and “Focus on Nevada’s Women.” She has served on numerous community and civic boards, and produces society and literary columns for readers in her community. It is Ms. Brooks’ wish for all readers to select a role model from history to be inspired by.
“Traveling Shoes: A One-woman Show” creatively designed and performed by Janice Brooks.
To prepare for this next phase of her career, there is one particular project Janice Brooks has selected to immerse herself in, fully. It brings to life many powerful women of history. And for good reason.
Step back in time and experience the powerful, dramatic, living histories of eight courageous women of American history. Written to bring the wisdom and wit of Utah Slave matrons Biddy Mason and Jane Manning to life, as well as the courage and diligence of historical heroines like Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Buffalo Soldier Cathay Williams, Rosa Parks and Barbara Jordan. Through dramatization and characterization, these women will undeniably teach, inspire, and empower audiences as Brooks employs the soulful traditions of narrative, oration and song. A resilient exposition of reenactment.
This article originally appeared in Elan Woman Magazine.
Melynda Thorpe Burt is a writer, director and producer living in southern Utah. In addition to her work as executive producer and show creator for the Southern Utah LIVE television group, she is continuously developing her interest in filmmaking. Melynda enjoys the art of storytelling, using various forms of media, and is founder of Iron Spyke Pictures, a film production and distribution company. Burt also works as public relations and creative services director at TCS Advertising & Public Relations in St. George, Utah.
