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.

• So Many Islands
  Click to order through Peekash Press

• Encyclopedia of Caribbean Archaeology - The Santa Rosa Carib Community or Santa Rosa First Peoples’ Community
  Click to order on Amazon

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.  

• Website Content

  Hadco Experiences

• Strategic Communications

  Trinidad and Tobago Unit Trust Corporation 2022

• Communications Strategy

  Nudge Caribbean 2021

  Produced a short titled “Nudge Now”. Here’s the trailer.

• Brand Story and Website Content
  Trinidad and Tobago Unit Trust Corporation 2019

• Digital Campaign (Social Media), Producer/Writer/Interviewer
  Trinidad and Tobago Unit Trust Corporation “Power to Become” SEA Series 2019
  Facebook/Instagram/Twitter

• Writer/Editor, Website content 
  Montanos’ Chocolates 2019

• Writer/Editor, Created website content & Newsletter 
  NH International 2016

• Writer/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 2017

• Writer for Caribbean Beat, the Trinidad and Tobago Business Guide, Caribbean Review of Books and Discover Trinidad and Tobago. 2004 to 2008.