Leilehua Lanzilotti
Name Leilehua Lanzilotti
Age 38
Town/Moku Mānoa
Island Oʻahu
Social Media Handle @annezilotti
Nominated by Sharlynn Māhealani Paet
Leadership Category Culture
Share with us a little about yourself and what you do.
I am a Kanaka Maoli musician dedicated to the arts of our time. As an active performing artist, I play, teach, write, and write about contemporary music.
Why is the work that you do important to you? The community?
My focus is on supporting the practice of empathy through Arts & Culture. Live music is one of the most powerful ways for communities to come together. Listening with a sense of focused attention allows us to practice both empathy and ways of connecting seemingly fragmented material. As we listen to music in time, it is only by using our memory that we can begin to create structures. Using our memory means holding the material as the present in our mind.
Arts allow people to practice these ways of problem-solving and critical thinking through creativity in ways that get them to also be more open-minded. Holding these perspectives in our memory helps to open conversations and actions towards healing.
Share with us the qualities of leadership you admire and how you express those in your life.
"E ala! E alu! E kuilima!"
This ʻōlelo noʻeau shows us three qualities of leadership which are important: taking a stand for what you believe in, bringing the community along together, and taking action.
In terms of my own leadership in living contributions to diversity through Arts & Culture, I feel it is important to demonstrate a consistent and high level commitment to supporting women/nonbinary and underrepresented minorities within programming, curriculum planning, and support of students’ educational needs. I have written articles to help other teachers, consistently followed these ideals in my own course planning, and encourage other young musicians to be themselves fully.
In my job as Director of Community Engagement for Hawaiʻi Contemporary, I was able to take actions to make these contributions locally within my home community: fostering community partnerships with local educators, artist-scholars, and community leaders to plan community engagement activities in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (the Hawaiian Language) for the first time in the organization’s history. It also gave me the opportunity to learn from experienced community leaders in different fields, and to reaffirm my commitment to these goals.
Who has inspired you to do the work that you are doing?
My grandfather
What is one word that describes something you are excited about for the lāhui?
hoʻomau
What is one word that describes a pressing issue that is facing our lāhui?
ʻāpono