For just about 30 min­utes yes­ter­day, Trinidad born rap­per Nic­ki Mi­naj spent time bond­ing with stu­dents of the St Jude’s Home for Girls in Bel­mont.
Mi­naj, seat­ed next to Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Gary Grif­fith, spent the time dis­cussing sev­er­al top­ics as the stu­dents asked her nu­mer­ous ques­tions about her ini­tial mo­ti­va­tion to be­come a record­ing artiste to the re­la­tion­ship that be­came her even­tu­al mar­riage to Ken­neth Pet­ty last year.
“I met Mr Pet­ty when I was 17 years old, first of all,” said Mi­naj in a full Tri­ni ac­cent.
“When I met him as a teenag­er, I was like oh God, typ­i­cal bad boy, I’m not gonna be able to lock him down, get out of here. And then he turned out to be... all of that (good)stuff. He’s just that on the out­side,” she said.
She added, “And he be­came ex­act­ly what I need­ed for the bal­ance in my life.”
Mi­naj al­so spoke on the ef­fect of drugs, ro­man­tic re­la­tion­ships as a teenage and even her teenage preg­nan­cy and sub­se­quent abor­tion as she tried to use her life as a les­son for the girls at the home.
“Even in my teenage years, I didn’t know which way I was gonna turn. I had a lot of things go­ing on, I’ve ex­pe­ri­enced be­ing in a home with do­mes­tic vi­o­lence. I’ve ex­pe­ri­enced you know, be­ing at a very dif­fi­cult cross­road in my life as a teenag­er and some­times as a teenag­er when things hap­pen you feel like there’s no up from there some­times,”
said Mi­naj.
“I don’t know what is go­ing on in your life but it feels so dif­fi­cult when you’re go­ing through it, but you will get through it. You will get out of it. I was one of those girls who ex­pe­ri­enced be­ing preg­nant as a teenag­er and you know I was so ashamed to tell my moth­er that. Till this day I nev­er told my moth­er. I felt like I let my­self down, and I felt like if any­one were to find out my whole fam­i­ly would be ashamed of me,” she said.
She added, “I want you guys to use, if you want to use my life as a les­son in the fact that there are al­ways bet­ter days ahead. I want you guys to be en­cour­aged.”
“There has to be some­thing in­side of you, even right now to­day that de­cides, you’re gonna win no mat­ter what. No mat­ter what comes at you,” Mi­naj told the girls.
Mi­naj al­so host­ed an im­promp­tu tal­ent show in which some girls sang Be­y­once’s Ha­lo as well as Mi­naj’s 2014 hit Pills and Po­tions.
She was how­ev­er im­pressed with a spo­ken word piece by one of the girls and ex­pressed some re­gret that she had not record­ed the per­for­mance to so­cial me­dia.
They then con­vinced Mi­naj, with the aid of a smart­phone do a verse from her hit song Mega­tron and a cou­ple lines from her verse on Mo­tor­sport.
Mi­naj al­so asked the stu­dents what they felt they need­ed in the com­mu­ni­ty, as she said she hoped to cre­ate a space for the youths in the area.
Be­fore leav­ing, Mi­naj do­nat­ed $US25,000 to home. Source: Trinidad Guardian, Feb 2020

Kalisa Villafana made history last August as the first black female graduate at Florida State University (FSU) to earn a doctoral degree in nuclear physics.
Villafana is thus, only the 96th black woman in the United States with a Ph.D. in physics.
“It’s overwhelming and a pretty big deal,” she said of her history shattering achievement. 
“It feels great to be the first at Florida State, and I hope that more young women are encouraged to pursue physics degrees. Diversity and inclusion are necessary. Everyone can contribute different perspectives to various fields.”
A native of Trinidad and Tobago, Villafana, had her undergraduate degree from Florida A&M University. 
Villafana’s quest to becoming a physicist started when she was 12. She was exposed to “tons of physics experiments” when she was growing up as a student of an all-girl Catholic school.
Villafana took several courses during her time at Holy Faith Convent in her home country, where she and other girls were exposed to loads of physics experiments.
“I thought it was interesting. From then on, I said I want to be a physicist. That never changed,” she said.
She would then return to Trinidad and Tobago to work and return to the United States after a year to ensure her childhood dream came to fruition.
“When it comes to a Ph.D. program you have to feel like you’re going to thrive and the people there want you to succeed,” Florida State University News quoted Villafana as saying. “That was what I got from FSU. None of the other schools I visited gave me that energy.”
After choosing Mark Riley, a world-renowned physicist, to be her adviser, the rest was history for Villafana. Riley chaired the physics department when Villafana first arrived at FSU.
“Kalisa is absolutely fabulous,” Riley, who’s now dean of the FSU Graduate School said. “She is brilliant, persistent and has a super sense of humor. It has been a joy to work with her and the research results she has produced are outstanding. She has an amazing future ahead of her.”
Aware of the fact that the world of physics is mostly white and male, Villafana hopes her achievement would serve as an inspiration to young black girls.
“I always encourage young women to pursue what they are passionate about and what makes them excited, even if they are a minority in the field,” she said.
“Hopefully, other young girls are motivated when they see us, even though the field is predominantly white and male,” Villafana added. 
Villafana, who wants to specialize in cancer research, working as a medical physicist further noted that she wanted to “show them how to get to the next point.” 
“In Trinidad, many people don’t know how to get to the United States and get a Ph.D. that’s paid for by the school. They don’t know how to go from being an international student from the islands to a doctor in the U.S.”
Villafana currently works as a process engineer with the Intel Corporation in Arizona. Her achievement inspired her mother and sister to go to college. My mom went back to school and got her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and my young sister started her bachelor’s program as well,” Villafana said. “When you do certain things, especially coming from a small place in Trinidad, people are encouraged.”
Source: Facelive Africa, Feb 2020

Sekani Solomon is a down-to-earth, quirky, driven Tobagonian living in New York City. He is a senior motion designer currently working at Cash App in Square.
He has now pivoted to working full-time in the tech area and earlier this month he told Newsday, in five years he sees himself as being an instrumental player in design in one of the largest financial technology companies in the world.
Solomon first made his debut in the Black Panther movie in 2017, after he was a part of the production team responsible for building the movie's main title sequence. Before this he designed commercial projects for Dolby, Apple, Facebook, GE, IBM and Disney.
His latest accomplishment was becoming the first creative from TT, out of 500 entries from 45 countries, to be inducted in a Young Guns 17, hosted by The One Club for Creativity in New York. The One Club for Creativity is for people excelling in film, animation, graphic design to name a few.
The entries are narrowed down to 89 and from this, 28 winners are selected and awarded based on the merits of their work.
Young Guns competition is a yearly competition for creative talents under the age of 30.
He told Newsday wining a Young Guns award is no surprise to him because of the time and effort invested into his skill.
“I was so happy that the time and effort I’ve put in is being recognised in this way,” he said
On The One Club’s website, under Sekani’s entry, principal and founder Gordon Jee said he enjoyed judging the work all of the animators who entered this year but “Sekani’s work stood out in ways that made me excited when I viewed his entries.”
He commended Solomon’s brilliant, clear and effortlessly use of textures and “the strength of the silhouettes chosen to capture maximum drama.”
Solomon told Newsday he came from humble beginnings growing up in Hope, Tobago. “Like any kid I loved being outside, riding bikes and playing in nature.”
Solomon always had a creative side as he would draw often and make his own toys using cardboard and tape. For him, spending time by the river was also another activity he loved doing.
Many people aren’t aware that he also has a love for music and can play the guitar and drums. He also enjoys snowboarding and skimboarding (a type of surfing) in his free time.
At 15 years he was introduced to photoshop and he began dabbling in creativity.
“For me, it was a natural progression from drawing on paper. Naturally at that age, I was terrible at it. I decided to leave the arts behind to focus on sciences which, alongside law and business, is typically reinforced as one of the few pathways to success, and rediscovered it later on when I was 18 and fell in love.”
This was the beginning of journey that changed his life in many ways he told Newsday.
But before he found his place in the creative industry, he told Newsday he moved away from the arts because he though it wasn’t feasible and sustainable. “Fortunately for me I was quite wrong. I always felt like I wanted to do something creative.
“I wanted to be a software engineer, even though I was doing graphic arts and motion a lot in my free time. Eventually I looked for colleges that had both graphic design and software engineering courses before deciding to fully do graphic design. I then decided I wanted to do motion design.”
He said his talent began to get noticed and awards started coming in.
“I worked on the main titles for a show called Manhattan, for which we won the Outstanding Main Title Emmy at the 67th primetime Emmy Awards."
He also worked on the main titles for Vinyl on HBO (directed by Martin Scorsace) which was nominated for an Outstanding Main Title at the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards. Solomon was also involved in shows like Godless and Gypsy on Netflix.
When asked for his thoughts on the animation and film industry in Tobago, Solomon said he sees potential for growth. “I think the challenge is bringing awareness to the value of design and educating clients of the process, cost and benefits of high-end design.
“Tobago’s image can benefit from visual products such as good branding, website, digital content and commercials. All this helps in telling the story of Tobago and improving how it looks to the world.” He hopes to see more local productions from young people in Tobago.
Solomon believes consistency was the key to his success and now advises those in in the creative industry be diligent, hard working and to understand that the field goes beyond TT. “That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to leave. You need to develop your skills to compete internationally, there’s a lot of competition so you need to be among the best. Find mentors and other artists that are in the position you want to be in and soak up as much information as possible; networking is a huge factor in this industry.”
Solomon encouraged the THA to invest more in digital arts and design education and awareness.
“I don’t think the value of design is yet fully understood in Trinidad and Tobago. There is a reason companies collectively spend billions of dollars yearly on design, advertising and branding. We need to help create tangible skills. In my opinion, our education system depends way too much on testing, which isn't an accurate way to determine what tangible way someone can contribute.
“In addition, we are only getting more and more screens which mean more demand to put things on them, so the more people capable of having those skills, the more foreign revenue we can earn. Nothing can be done if we don't have the skillset.” Source: Newsday.

CALYPSO ROSE, one of TT's most distinguished international artistes, has received yet another prestigious international award. On Thursday, the 79-year-old was named Officer of Arts and Humanities, on behalf of the French Government, at the residence of the French ambassador to TT.
The award is regarded as one of the highest honours among the four French Ministerial Orders of Merit. She is said to be a well-known name in France and has previously won awards in the country, including the world album of the year award at the Victoire de la Musique awards in 2017, the Grand Prize for world music at Sacem Grand Prix and the 2016 artist award for world music by Womex at the 18th Womex Awards in Spain.
The ever-smiling Calypso Rose, whose real name is Linda McCartha Sandy-Lewis, was present at the embassy to receive the award, despite coming off a typically hectic travel schedule. She received a medal and certificate to validate her most recent achievement, which was delivered by the French ambassador to TT Serge Lavroff, who said he, like much of France, is a fan of the veteran singer/songwriter. Source: Newsday, Feb 20, 2020

A British dub poet who was raised in Trinidad has won the prestigious T.S. Eliot Prize for his book A Portable Paradise.
Poet Roger Robinson won the £25,000 award which was announced on January 13 at a ceremony in London.
Nine other books were shortlisted for the prize, the most valuable in UK poetry, and considered one of the literary world’s highest-profile honours.
Robinson is only the second Caribbean writer to win the prize, following Nobel laureate Derek Walcott, who won in 2011 for his book White Egrets.
A release from Bocas Lit Fest said Robinson's book. published by Peepal Tree Press, ranges in subject from family and ancestry to the perils of making art, but has been most celebrated for a sequence of poems addressing London’s tragic Grenfell Tower fire.
“There was a strong sense of humanity to the book,” said the chair of the prize judges, poet John Burnside.
“It came down to how moving the personal poems were and how relatable and accessible his poetry about his family was, alongside the more political parts about black history, Grenfell and the NHS. There is a wonderful balance of the public and the personal in this collection. It is passionate and sociologically engaged….
“Poets have always written about injustices like racism and misogyny, because poetry is a great medium for that, as it engages all of our faculties, our abilities as humans, our empathies. When people are overtaken about rationality, they forget humanity and pity. Poetry reminds us of those traits again.”
Born in London to Trinidadian parents, Robinson was raised in Trinidad. He returned to Britain at age 19 and since then has divided his time between the two countries — calling himself “a British resident with a Trini sensibility.”
Beginning as a spoken word performer in the 1990s, he was chosen as a British Next Generation poet in 1999, and published his first collection, Suckle, in 2009. His book The Butterfly Hotel was longlisted for the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature in 2014.
“Roger Robinson’s win is a triumph not just for him but for Caribbean poetry,” says Marina Salandy-Brown, founder and director of the Bocas Lit Fest. “As well as for our partner Peepal Tree Press, the most prolific publisher of Caribbean poets over the past three decades. This is a time of great opportunity for our writers.”
Robinson is scheduled to participate in the 2020 NGC Bocas Lit Fest in May.
The T.S. Eliot Prize is the latest in a series of recent international successes for Trinidad-born authors. In November 2019, writer Ian Williams was named the winner of Canada’s Giller Prize, that country’s most prestigious award for fiction, for his novel Reproduction. (The Giller Prize was previously won by Trinidad-born Andre Alexis in 2015.)
Also in 2019, Claire Adam won the Desmond Elliot Prize — “the UK’s most prestigious award for first-time novelists” — for Golden Child. In 2016, Vahni Capildeo was named winner of the Forward Prize for Poetry for her book Measures of Expatriation, and in 2017 and 2018 poets Richard Georges and Shivanee Ramlochan were shortlisted for the Forward Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection.
According to Bocas, Caribbean writers have taken home many other coveted prizes in the UK and USA in the last four to five years
The 2020 NGC Bocas Lit Fest, this country’s annual literary festival is set to take place May 1 t- 3 and The Bocas Lit Fest which runs it will officially launch its plans for its 10th year with an ‘open house’ event on January 22 at The Writers Centre, 14 Alcazar Street, St Clair.   Source: The Loop, Jan 14, 2020

British filmmaker Sam Mendes has thanked his Trinidadian grandfather for inspiring his film 1917.
In his acceptance speech as winner of the Best Director of a Motion Picture at this weekend's Golden Globes awards, Mendes praised his grandfather Alfred Hubert Mendes.
"He signed up for the First World War, age 17 and I hope he is looking down on us and I fervently hope it never ever happens again," he said.
Born in Trinidad in 1897, Alfred went to England at the age of 15 to attend school but enrolled in the army where he served in the Rifle Brigade.
The movie 1917 is loosely based on Alfred's role as a messenger during the war which is chronicled in his book: The Autobiography of Alfred H. Mendes 1897–1991 published in 2002 by the University of the West Indies Press.
Referencing the book, the site History vs Hollywood said that after serving with the 1st Battalion Rifle Brigade, Alfred was sent to Oisemont, not far from Dieppe, France, where he trained to be a signaller. He was then sent to the Battle of Passchendaele in Belgium.
On October 12, 1917, hundreds of British soldiers, including Alfred, set out to reclaim the village of Poelcappelle, which had been overtaken by the Germans. The British soldiers suffered heavy losses with 158 of the 484 men in Alfred's battalion killed, wounded, or unaccounted for. 
Alfred volunteered to be a runner to locate the positions of the survivors so they could be rescued and for his efforts, he received the Military Medal of Bravery.
Following his service, Alfred returned to Trinidad and established himself as a writer. He produced a literary magazine called Trinidad with CLR James and contributed to The Beacon journal in Trinidad among other publications in the US and Europe.
He authored two novels, Pitch Lake in 1934 and Black Fauns in 1935. 
In 1940, according to Wikipedia, Alfred abandoned writing and became the General Manager of the Port Services Department.
He was also one of the founding members of the United Front, a party with socialist leanings that participated in the 1946 general elections.
Alfred died in 1991 in Barbados.
Source: The Loop, January 8, 2020

The work of Trinidadian artist Andrea McKenzie has been recognised with an award in Atlanta, Georgia, US, and will also be displayed this month in the Atlanta Mayor's Gallery.
McKenzie, who is based in Atlanta, recently won the 2019 I am Black, I am Power, Art and Creativity award from the Black People United Global Network with "Black" being an acronym for Beautiful Living Ancestors Controlling Kingdoms Irreplaceable Amazing Melanin.
The founder and CEO of Black People United Global Network, Dr Angela Harris, said the body, which was founded in December 2015, seeks to "strategically honour people of all nationalities and religions in the black race from all around the world.
"Our mission is to collectively come together under one roof to give recognition to well-deserving individuals who have gone above and beyond to help the relevancy of our image as a race to have a positive influence on our families, communities and business through their God-given gifts and talents."
McKenzie told Newsday via e-mail that she was nominated anonymously for the award.
"I felt honoured to be recognised amongst thousands of artists in the city of Atlanta, Georgia. I always work hard towards perfecting my craft and achieving my goals. Receiving this award brought great fulfilment and pride to be able to represent my country internationally in the arts."
McKenzie's work was also selected by the mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms, to be exhibited at the Mayor's Gallery, City Hall, Atlanta, from November 14- January 4 in a dual exhibition called SANKOFA (go back and get it).
"I'm very excited to be given this amazing opportunity."
The exhibit will feature ten pieces from McKenzie of mixed media including glass, acrylic, resin, glitter and cowrie shells. She said her new, unique style is giving her the breakthrough, "as no one is doing it in Georgia."
Atlanta's Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs (OCA), in an online post, announced the exhibition by McKenzie and Ghana-born artist Alfred Addo. The joint exhibition commemorates the ideas embodied in Ghana’s Year of Return, a reflection on the 400th anniversary of the first enslaved Africans' arrival in Jamestown, Virginia.
Addo was born to a family of artists and has been exposed to art since infancy. OCA noted his primary inspiration came from his father, who exhibited his work regularly and challenged Addo to produce unique artwork.
"Although Addo was passionate about art, he also possessed a keen interest in the physical sciences, a field he found satisfyingly challenging. He was torn between going to college to study medicine and pursuing his passion to be a professional artist. In the end, he chose to follow his passion and pursue art full-time.
"Since then, Addo has specialised in sculpture as his core medium. Interestingly, his physical science background led him to experiment with different materials, including sawdust, which he played with as a child in the sawmill where his father bought and cut wood for his sculptures. Naturally, Addo grew up loving this medium and decided to make it the main material he uses in all his artwork. Passionate about the sustainability of the earth, Addo perfected the method of recycling sawdust and waste materials to create various types of sculptures and relief works."
Addo has successfully participated in many international art exhibitions in places including Johannesburg, Cape Town, New York, Chicago, Washington, DC, Miami, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Atlanta, San Diego, California, Martha’s Vineyard and in his home city Accra, Ghana.
OCA described McKenzie as "a true island girl" who comes from one of the most culturally diverse nations in the world, TT, and her natural aptitude for creativity was nurtured at an early age because of her family’s involvement in the nation’s world-famous Carnival.
"McKenzie’s fascination with contrast, textures, and fabrics was the fuel behind her kaleidoscope-like pieces. She uniquely infused glass, acrylic, and other materials on varying canvas, which propelled her into achieving a viable international clientèle."
OCA noted throughout her young career, she has exhibited works in multiple nations including TT and neighbouring Caribbean islands. Her art has also been exhibited in New York, Washington, DC, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Seattle, London and Australia.
In 2013, after losing her job in event marketing, McKenzie pursued her passion for art and became a full-time artist, with clients in the US and Europe. As a full-time artist, she does commissioned pieces where people contact her via e-mail or on her website and let her know what they want, whether it is for their homes or businesses.
Her first exhibition, Pieces of Me, was held in Trinidad in 2013 and featured 25 pieces about her and life experiences, including first love and first disappointment.
McKenzie has clients from countries such as the US, Sweden, England, Scotland and TT. She works primarily with acrylic on canvas or wood board. Her dream is to have her pieces featured in the set decoration of successful television shows and box office movies and showcased all over the world.
To see more of McKenzie’s work visit her Instagram @andreas.heart and her art page on Facebook at Andrea’s Unique Art. Source: Newsday, Nov. 2019.

Three Trini showbusiness figures and a film director with Trini roots have been recognised by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth in her 2020 New Year's Honours List.
They are singer Billy Ocean, actor Rudolph Walker, actress and television presenter turned Lib Dem peer Floella Benjamin, and film director Sam Mendes.
Ocean, born Leslie Sebastian Charles, has been appointed a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to music.
MBE is the third highest-ranking Order of the British Empire award, behind Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) which is first and then Order of the British Empire (OBE).
Walker has been upgraded to CBE, the highest-ranking Order of the British Empire award, 13 years after receiving an OBE for his services to drama. This latest award is in recognition of his foundation helping disadvantaged children become actors.
Benjamin, already a baroness, has also been upgraded from OBE to Damehood for services to charity. She gets Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (DBE). The two senior ranks of the Order of the British Empire are Knight or Dame Grand Cross, and Knight or Dame Commander.
Mendes, byname of Samuel Alexander Mendes, can soon be called Sir Sam, as he is to be Knighted for his contribution to drama. This senior honour is awarded to members who have made major contributions to any activity, usually at national level. Per tradition, knighthoods and damehoods are presented with a touch of a sword by the Queen (or King).
Ocean, who was born in Fyzabad in 1950, is best known for his 1980s hits such as Caribbean Queen (1985) for which he won a Grammy Award, When the Going Gets Tough (1986), and Get Outta My Dreams (1988).
In 2010, he was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the MOBO Awards in London, and in 2011 he became a Companion of the Liverpool Institute of the Performing Arts.
Walker, who was born in San Juan in 1939 and was a founder member of the Trinidad Theatre Workshop, was one of the first regular Black actors on British television in the ‘60s. He played Patrick Trueman in the BBC soap opera EastEnders which he joined in 2001, and Bill Reynolds in 1970s sitcom Love Thy Neighbour, and acted in several plays and films.
Benjamin, who was born in Pointe-a-Pierre in 1949, was previously honoured with an OBE in 2001 for her contribution to television. A politician and activist, she has dedicated much of her career to campaigning for young people and her various charitable interests. In 2010, she was introduced to the House of Lords as a Life Peer nominated by the Liberal Democrats with the title of Baroness Benjamin, of Beckenham in the County of Kent.
England-born Mendes, 54, grandson of acclaimed Trinidadian writer Alfred Hubert Mendes, directed two Bond films as well as multiple international theatre productions, and won an Oscar for American Beauty. In 2002, he got a CBE.
Following the announcement of the Honour’s List in London on Saturday, Dame Benjamin, 70, said: “For the last 40 years, I believed that you have to give back and you have to try and think about other people as much as you can because when I came to Britain (from Trinidad), aged 10, I had a pretty tough time, people told me to go back, they didn't want me here.
"And I realised that I was worthy because my parents kept telling me that."
She also said, “I was thrilled to receive my OBE (two decades ago), but to get my Damehood for charity means even more to me because I have truly dedicated my life to giving to charity, charitable causes, and charitable experiences.”
Mendes said: “I'm amazed, delighted and extremely proud. I have stood on the shoulders of so many collaborators and colleagues over the last 30 years – actors, writers, designers, producers, technicians – to whom I owe a huge debt of gratitude. I would not be receiving this honour without them."
The distinguished awards are handed out once a year and recognise the outstanding achievements of people across the UK.
The decision about who gets an honour – and the type of honour they get – is made by special committees. The process begins with nominations from the public, which are siphoned down by the committees and reviewed by the prime minister before the various honours are bestowed by Queen Elizabeth II or senior royals next year.
The list, which was drawn up and approved during Theresa May’s premiership, rewards a lineup of well-known figures from arts and sport. But the vast majority (72 per cent) of the 1,097 recognised are people who work in their communities.
Source: Newsday, December 27, 2019.

Darielle Williams twirled upside down at least seven feet above the audience, held by two cables attached to each leg, hands moving and head bopping to the beat of Get Ur Freak On. She was not only a backup dancer for Missy Elliott, but also representing TT at a high level – in both senses.
Williams rocked the stage as an aerialist at the 36th annual MTV Video Music Awards on August 26 in New Jersey as Missy Elliott, the 2019 Video Vanguard Award winner, sang a medley of her hits Throw it Back, The Rain, Hot Boyz, Get Ur Freak On, Work It, Pass that Dutch and Lose Control.
An aerialist is an acrobat who performs high above the ground on tightropes or trapezes.
Williams's most recent performance at home was in a show held in June at Sound Forge, a multipurpose event space on Mucurapo Road, Port of Spain. 
"I last danced in TT at Queen's Hall with the Caribbean School of Dance.
"The Sound Forge show was fun. The dancing was choreographed by Bridgette Wilson and there were fire devils and moko jumbies, spoken word, a fashion show, with performances by Kes and Protoje."
A former student of Mucurapo Girls' RC, St Francois Girls' College and St Joseph's Convent, Port of Spain, Williams, 34, grew up in St James.
Communicating by voicenotes, Williams told Newsday, "I always had a passion for dance."
She danced at school and began taking classes at 16 at the Caribbean School of Dance.
"I started with modern dance and later added ballet, jazz and tap dance." Before that, she was a swimmer and gymnast. But even then, she preferred forms of gymnastics which included dance.

She was supported wholeheartedly by her parents, Judith Theodore and David Williams.
"My mother is an actress. She played Sandra on the series Westwood Park.
"They both always saw me having a career in the performing arts. They just wanted their children to be successful at whatever we decided to do. "But I was always the performer in the family."
After school, Williams moved on to Florida International University, where she did a degree majoring in dance with a minor in business administration. The four-year programme focused on Latin American and Caribbean dance/ choreography.
"It was exactly what I saw myself doing in the future. I learned a lot on the history of dance and kinesiology, which is the study of human or non-human body movement."
Her studies also included in-depth exploration of cultural dances, critiques, choreography, lighting and the intricacies of staging a show. She wrote a thesis on J'Ouvert.
Then her life took what she described as a slight detour – which became her passion.
"I continued dancing for one of my FIU professors in his Afro- fusion company called Brazz Dance Theatre."
She was also introduced to circus arts through a company called Animate Objects Physical Theatre, and learnt aerial and fire dancing.
"I also learnt stilt-walking and acrobatic stilt dance, which, I admit, I did not learn in TT. I can only do up to three feet, which is all they do in the US."
She later performed with companies that focused on a variety of dance, including Afro-Peruvian fusion and belly-dance fusion companies.
"But really, after starting pole dancing and doing more circus arts, I went further in that direction, especially focusing on aerial."
Now she performs mostly as an aerial acrobat, though she still loves dance.
Performing at the VMAs was "bigger than any other award show I had performed in," she says. "To perform with the artist receiving the Vanguard Award of that year was just the icing on the cake."
That was not the first time she had danced backup for an A-list performer, though.
Williams said the key to her success so far has been consistent hard work and opportunity. She said making the best of each one has given her a chance to be discovered for other career-altering opportunities.
Before the VMAs, she danced on stages that included the Latin Billboard Awards, fire dancing for Reggaeton superstars Romeo Santos, stilts for Don Omar, and most notably, aerial for Jennifer Lopez and Pitbull in 2013. She did pole dancing for Aubrey O'Day, formerly of the band Danity Kane, in a show called The Knockouts.
"In 2014 I auditioned for Le Rêve, which was a cirque-style show in Las Vegas and was a major stepping stone in my career. The creator of this show, Franco Dragone, was a creative director of Cirque Du Soleil, but branched off to start his own show."
Williams had a number of solo performances in it, including an aerial hammock, aerial chair, and a character who did a 50-foot high dive into water. These solo roles led to her auditioning for Beyoncé for the Formation World Tour in 2016.
"That was a highlight in my career that happened because she wanted a black female aerialist.
"After that, I moved to LA from Miami, where I lived for about six years,and mostly hustled for gigs in the super-competitive market."
Moving to LA was partly motivated by wanting to seek out different kinds of opportunities.
Her agent helped her gain another grand opportunity when Missy Elliott was looking for black aerialists.
"Being a black aerialist is what I get called for most," Williams points out. "People seem to forget you can just do aerial and it really doesn't matter what colour you are, though sometimes – generally – I'd be overlooked for someone of a lighter complexion."
Because of this, she said, many of the openings that come her way would be in cases where organisers of shows want a racially diverse cast, or are outright seeking a black aerialist.
"But when I do perform and they take note of my skills, it is generally from there where I would get more opportunities or stick around on a job. I use these opportunities as an advantage for bursting open even more doors."
Though she couldn't reveal much about it, Williams said her next major performances will be in a live version of one of her favourite childhood movies.
As a performer, Williams said, she is motivated to keep improving at her craft.
"I am competing with myself, trying to gain new skills and up my game. But I do have future goals of getting into acting as well."