Meet Janice Liddell, PhD | Perpetual teacher and learner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Janice Liddell, PhD and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Janice, can you share a quote or affirmation with us?
If your dreams don’t scare you, they are not big enough!                                                                (Ellen Sirleaf)

I selected this as my guiding quote for 2022. It is an very aspirational quote that encourages me to dream big. This is a particularly important aspiration for someone generally in my age group. I am a senior, an elder–73 years young. While so many of my agemates believe they are in their declining years, I say it’s all about perspective. If we believe we are on the decline, nearing the end, that’s exactly where we will be. However, if we believe we have simply reached another important point in our lives and we have the rest of our lives to fulfill those dreams, then we know we must dream big and pursue them with all the gusto we have. The bigger the dreams, the scarier they are because with those huge dreams we encounter all kinds of fears–fear of failure, fear of ridicule, fear of success, even. Sometimes we do fear success–as in what might come next if I succeed at this one? But I am of the mind that God walks with us and all we have to do is lean on God and pursue whatever dream(s) we might have. Some have always wanted a degree–go for it; some have dreamed of starting a business, buying a house, get healthy, whatever, I say “GO FOR IT!!!. If you are scared to pursue it, then you are in the right place; your dream is big enough. I started my www.blacfacs.com AND wrote my first play after I turned 50 and now my website and my playwriting sustain me. I have big dreams relative to both of these and I am definitely pursuing my dreams. I want to be as successful as I can be with both these ventures and the road to get to where I want to be is challenging, but I work every day to achieve those ends. Don’t give up because you are an elder—become the example, the mentor for the youth. Show them how to age and continue to dream big and how to achieve those dreams. We can do this thang!!!

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I am first an educator (albeit retired) having taught at Clark Atlanta University for over 35 years, but during that time I was also a writer. I have written poetry for most of my life and tried my hand at short stories, but never had the nerve to seek publication, even though people who read them thought they were good enough. So I taught–helped young people learn to enjoy the written word; how to enjoy reading/analyzing/and writing. Then one day a church member asked me to write a play for a competition. I had never written a play, but at 50 years of age, I took on the challenge. I wrote a play, Hairpeace, and it won the competition. Since then, it has been performed in several venues in the US,, Barbados and in Jamaica. As well, it earned a place in a Women’s Play Festival just last year. I have written six other plays over time some of which have been performed and even earned awards. My play Who Will Sing for Lena, about the traumatic life of Lena Mae Baker, the only woman executed in Georgia’s electric chair, has earned numerous awards and a place last August at the prestigious international play festival in Monaco. I found my voice with that first play and I have not shut up since (lol). I continue to write and am hoping for more and even bigger successes. But I also have another creative venture–my Black History website, www.blacfacs.com. I have been building it with the help of a great team and hope it will come to my imagined fruition soon of assisting African Americans to learn Black History in a fun and engaging way as it further builds a scholarship I started 20 years ago to honor my deceased historian colleague and sister-friend, Dr. Alma R. Williams.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Of course, this is a difficult task to complete for this period of COVID, but speaking of pre-Covid days, I have always invited friends to Atlanta during cultural events–The National Black Arts Festival was a huge draw and I miss it so much. But even after that, I enjoyed inviting friends to Atlanta to attend the Atlanta Black Theatre Festival (ABTF). I just love attending the 40 play activities in four days and most of my friends also love plays–or at least they put up with them because I love them so. While I don’t entertain a lot, if friends or kin come outside the time of a festival of any kind, I will always find a cultural event to attend–a play at True Colors, or any of the other great theatres around town. We do have an array of theatres in Atlanta so there is almost always a play on stage someplace. I enjoy taking people to the Arts Exchange in East Point; they almost always have some wonderful activity or exhibit going on. Or the Hammonds House, especially if there is an event going on. In pre-COVID days, we would attend Felton Eaddy’s monthly Poetry Kitchen which featured local poets and fun activities. Also, my friend of umpteen years, Nia Damali, owns Medu Bookstore at Greenbriar and most of my visiting friends enjoy a trip out there. I don’t do much eating out, but rather prefer to throw-down something pescatarian or vegetarian at home and my husband, Allan Alberga, enjoys serving as bartender to folks so we get most of our drinks here, too. While we don’t entertain a lot, we do have options for when we do.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My parents let us know from the earliest years that we could do or be whatever we wanted as long as we worked hard and stayed the course. They not only “talked the talk”, but they also “walked the walk’. I was about three years old when my mother graduated from high school. I can even remember attending the ceremony. Subsequently she had three more children but managed to get her barber license and work with my dad in the barber shop that he opened and ran for 5o years. He was a master barber and he and Mom did well together until she decided she wanted to do something else. So she returned to school and over the years taught 4th grade AND earned her Masters Degree. Dad was busy, also. He was always taking classes and developing hobbies–he took photography classes and opened his own dark room in the back porch of our house. We have so many photographs of various stages of our family life. Then he took up carpentry and created so many wood fixtures–from book cases to cabinets to picture frames–he even made Mama a quilting frame–she was also an exquisite quilter. With doing all of that, they were still super involved in our education–serving as PTA officers, room parents, chaperones for various activities, etc.. Their very lives exemplified what it took to be successful in whatever you wanted to do. They showed us how to live our lives productively and pushed us to be the best we could be. They deserve more than a little credit for propelling me to who and what I am.

Website: www.blacfacs.com