Tracy on the Unit Trust’s “Power to Become” set. Photograph © Abigail Hadeed/Splice Studios
“to be remembered”
“to be remembered”
“to be remembered”
I understood very early on that words have power. The right word would feel right, would stand the test of time.
At the age of eight I tried to enlist my cousins to work on a newspaper with me. My mother worked at the T&T News Centre, publishers of the T&T Mirror and Sunday Punch titles throughout the 1980s and 90s. Although, weekly publications are often described as rags, the T&T Mirror was known for investigative reporting and something people called “human interest” stories, which were really feature stories. From about the age of 12, I started spending a significant part of my school holidays in the library of the T&T News Centre. This was where the published paper was dissected and copies made for files relating to authors, subjects, photographers, etc. I was thrilled at the opportunity to pore over archives and being able to touch photos of our first Prime Minister Dr Eric Williams or see for myself how people responded when Bob Marley performed in Port of Spain. It made me feel closer to them. I also got to see them put the paper together from scratch every week. I watched reporters argue over deadlines with editors, photographers developing film in the darkroom and “type-setters” painstakingly building each page by hand.
I was certain I would be a writer and when I was 16 I was allowed a column (single appearance) to convey my teenage angst in the Sunday Mirror. It was the first time my name appeared in print and I was hooked.
Publications
As a member of Trinidad and Tobago’s indigenous community I also felt I was in a position to contribute more to the telling of my ancestors’ survival story through my storytelling. I felt like I needed to combat my community’s invisibility and this became one of the driving forces of my ambitions.
From Trinidad to Samoa and Fiji. I read aloud from my essay “Unaccounted for” in the anthology So Many Islands, for the first time, in Samoa. I also read at International Civil Society Week: Our Planet, Our Struggles, Our Future in Fiji, during that trip in 2017. You can read about that experience here.
In 2018 I attended the Commonwealth People’s Forum in London and we shared our stories there as well. At the People’s Forum I was part of a panel which discussed Indigenous Rights and Self Determination.
In 2026 I travelled to the Bahamas for the Lucuyan Archipelago Residency at Poinciana Paper Press in Nassau. Thanks to Fresh Milk (Barbados) and the Panta Reah Foundation.
I had a blast at the press, ink hijinks, editorial excursions, thrilling experiments and I learned so much.
I felt really blessed to be in such a creatively nurturing environment in the midst of all the turbulence of the world.
Going back to the fundamentals of the way information was carried to advance a cause (learning how to make paper, stitch pamphlets together to make books, create inks/dyes out of wood and fruits and leaves, carving stamps and stencils, and more) reignited my passion for publications.
to be remembered is a collaborative accordion artists book made at Poinciana Paper Press with the support and guidance of Sonia Farmer.
I wrote the main poem, which was set in Lava from Typotheque, and letterpress-printed onto Kitakata papers, then hand-sewn into the accordion with thread dyed using cocoplums. Writing and illustrations by Carol Sorhaindo were silkscreen printed onto Rives BFK for the accordion body, with hand applications of color from cocoplum, logwood, and rouccou dyes.
Book covers are wrapped in handmade paper using banana and sisal plants with black walnut dye additions, and held together with a bellyband of authentic Androsia batik from the island of Andros collaboratively stamped by Sorhaindo, artist Lisa Codella and myself.
The book was bound by hand in an edition of twenty copies.
“to be remembered”
Order through Poinciana Paper Press.
So Many Islands
Click to order through Peekash PressEncyclopedia of Caribbean Archaeology - The Santa Rosa Carib Community or Santa Rosa First Peoples’ Community
Click to order on AmazonExcerpts from Dispatch from Fantasy Island appear in Issue 26: MOKO Magazine, along with a digital artwork as “There are galaxies.”
An essay, excerpts of “unearthed” (Dispatch from Fantasy Island) and digital artwork “IN/VISIBLE NATIVE” appears in issue 16 of the Caribbean Review of Gender Studies. A special issue, with the theme Gender Articulated: Visual Language and the Un/Seeable Self.
Corporate
I am passionate about my writing. I think of great filmmakers like Stanley Kubrick, who were careful about not wasting a frame. Similarly, I weigh each word carefully. I have had the opportunity to learn so much about the business of energy and finance through developing copy and publications for clients. I enjoy immersing myself in new subject areas and finding the right voice: tailoring work for in-house publications as well as for dissemination in more wide-reaching digital formats.
Annual Reports
The Clara Lionel Foundation 2025
Women’s Voice and Leadership (Caribbean) 2025
Storytelling
Flow (Liberty Caribbean) 2024
Website Content
Hadco Experiences 2023
Strategic Communications
Trinidad and Tobago Unit Trust Corporation 2022
Communications Strategy
IAM Movement 2025
Co-Director “Me We Green”, along with Dylan Quesnel. Here’s the trailer.
Nudge Caribbean 2021
Produced a short titled “Nudge Now”. Here’s the trailer.
Brand Story and Website Content
Trinidad and Tobago Unit Trust Corporation 2019Digital Campaign (Social Media), Producer/Writer/Interviewer
Trinidad and Tobago Unit Trust Corporation “Power to Become” SEA Series 2019
Facebook/Instagram/TwitterWriter/Editor, Website content
Montanos’ Chocolates 2019Writer/Editor, Created website content & Newsletter
NH International 2016Writer/Editor, BP Trinidad & Tobago
Wrote and edited content for Inside bpTT the inhouse magazine of BP Trinidad and Tobago, produced every quarter. As an independent contractor I worked together with BPTT’s Communication team to produce a magazine which served to update employees, the Government and oil and gas stakeholders on developments and sensitise them to company values. 2012 to 2017Writer for Caribbean Beat, the Trinidad and Tobago Business Guide, Caribbean Review of Books and Discover Trinidad and Tobago. 2004 to 2008.