Caribbean empowerment advocates encourage artists to tap into their creative potential

EVERY person you meet has a different story to tell. And every story can function to motivate or inspire people in some way. One Guyanese, one Trinidadian and one Jamaican joined a panel of women to share their stories, as part of efforts to help Guyanese women uncover their creative sparks.

As a young girl, Sebrena Kelly was always talkative. When her family members– most of whom were educators– would converse, as they say in Guyanese parlance, she wouldn’t ‘tek leff’. Kelly, however, left Guyana and migrated to the United States of America, but never once did she forget her roots. Instead, she used these to ground herself and chart her life path.

Kelly recounted that two events, perhaps, helped shape the path she blazes today. The first was that a friend of hers convinced her that she has a story to tell, and a voice with which to tell it and as such, Kelly was able to get her own radio programme in the US. The second was that she attended a female-only networking event, and realised that this is the field she wanted to align herself with.

“I created the platform Caribbean and American Global business connections, because I wanted to include diversity and multiculturalism in that network,” she explained. Here she hoped to integrate the rich cultural elements of the Caribbean with the global capital.

“One of the things I notice I bring to the platform is that when you see a void you fill it. Your delivery is key [and] your passion is key,” she stressed.

Promoting creativity
Ain Earle, the Trinidadian, worked in the corporate world for almost 10 years before realising that she wanted to do more. Her background is in Tourism Marketing, but she decided to push beyond that and tap into fashion as another facet of tourism.

“After seeing that talent [for fashion] and that the talent we have needs that push and development, I took the leap,” she said, while highlighting that she created a branding and marketing consultancy in the twin-island republic, which helps creative persons discover who they are and offer their skills and services to the community.

She stressed that there are a lot of persons in the creative industry and who are doing “serious and honest business” and not just doing what they do as a hobby, yet so many persons would view this work as just a hobby.

“I grew up in a cultural home always surrounded by music, steelpan, Mas and everything Trinidad had to offer in terms of culture, [and] I think that helped me to where I am now in terms of understanding local and supporting local,” Earle explained.
Earle also has alopecia, a medical condition that causes hair loss and she says that this has been part of her journey. This led her to create Bald Beauty Foundation, which is a hair-loss group that seeks to raise awareness on the condition and helps to underscore that women are all beautiful in their own ways.

Telling your story
And then there’s Krystal Tomlinson, the Jamaican author, speaker, self-management strategist and importantly- mother, who spent some time on the wrong side of her tracks as a young woman, but found the courage to rid herself of her fears and become an inspiration for others.

“What I learnt by the time I got into university and started reaping success– knowing where I was coming from and nobody believed that I could get there and me not believing that I could get there– I realised that you don’t have to be who you’ve always been and when you start making different choices, you will manifest differently in the world and you will attract different blessings,” she affirmed.

“I think I just have a story,” Krystal contended. “We don’t understand just how powerful these stories connect human beings to other human beings. Everybody doesn’t care about my story or connect to my story, but for the person who it is meant to inspire, if I don’t put it out there, they will never hear.”

Right now, she is on her mothering journey with her six-month-old baby and contends with having a very public life with her spouse, Moses ‘Beenie Man’ Davis and his two teenage children that have welcomed her into the family.

These are but small glimpses into the lives of these three women- each of whom is intent on inspiring other women to become the best versions of themselves.

“A lot of us think that whoever we are now is the sum total of who we will ever be,” Tomlinson opined. And that is why, through her book: ‘Kill Fear: The art of courageous living’, she advocates for persons to do just that– kill their fears and be bold in achieving their goals.

“When it requires following the mould and going with the crowd- we deh ya fi it, but when it requires identifying in your unique self and believing in yourself and investing in yourself before anybody else invests in you, that’s when we become timid- because we like the company of the crowd,” she said.

However, it in that moment of uniqueness that Tomlinson says the time is ripe to blossom.

“A lot of people see success and they don’t see what’s going on behind,” Earle noted too. “That creative spark, we all have it but it’s really about owning it and putting it out there.”

And for Kelly, being your authentic self is paramount to self-development. “I feel I am still growing as a woman, and every day we, as women, are growing… we’re finding voices…we’re owning spaces,” she posited.

Each of the three women is cognisant of these ideologies and perhaps that’s why they know that they can use their words to help other persons discover this for themselves. And especially in the Caribbean context, they all feel that is important.

For Tomlinson, being in the Caribbean can be both a blessing and a curse. She reasoned that the Region is a small enough place to learn how you can climb fast enough, but on the downside, Caribbean persons might not see themselves beyond the Caribbean– as global movers and shakers.

But Kelly stressed: “I don’t care what continent you’re from, we all have those things that are similar to us.” And this year, she will be launching the newest addition to her long list of endeavours: The Global Sister that speaks, through which she hopes to let women embrace their diversity and focus on entrepreneurial ventures.

In the meantime, as she visited Guyana after so many years, she decided to help her country folks with the “upliftment” that they need.

“The nation needs upliftment and I’m going to bring to the table how women should not only nurture others, but nurture themselves,” Sebrena shared. In so doing, she was expected to speak to female officers of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) to help build morale.