Fayola KJ Fraser
Alexandra Stewart is a career poet, teaching artist, and MFA student, and the winner of the 2023 NGC Bocas Youth Writer Award. She made history as a nine-time finalist, the only three-time champion in the First Citizens National Poetry Slam (2022, 2020, and 2019), and the only person to win in consecutive years. She is one of the most awarded spoken word poets in the Caribbean, at just 26 years old, and she works relentlessly to improve her craft.
Focused on reaching hearts, her poems comment on social issues in creative and thought-provoking ways. Performing both locally in T&T and internationally, Stewart’s work has channelled global appeal. Her composition for the NGC Bocas Youth Writer Award, Dear Daughter, was described by judges as “evocative and powerful, which pushes past ‘page and stage’, living online and rent-free in the minds of anyone lucky enough to hear or read it.”
As the author of a broad spectrum of thought-provoking compositions that resonate with the listening public, she seeks to impart social impact through every word, sentence, and piece. She chooses to be selective in her manner of addressing sensitive topics and always elects to be “quick to listen and slow to speak,” allowing the poems to “simmer quietly” in her mind. As a writer, she uses her outlet, and indeed her job, to process the world around her, aiming to strike a balance between the serious and entertaining.
She also uses her craft as a vehicle and as “a way for people to hear themselves more clearly.” Stewart has achieved a great number of accolades. Currently engaged in a programme of tertiary study at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine, she is set to graduate with an MFA in Creative Writing in 2024. She was longlisted for the acclaimed Commonwealth Short Story Prize and has performed in Toronto as well as taught a workshop in Kansas City. According to Stewart, “the future looks international,” and she is focused on harnessing the “inheritance of storytelling” indigenous to T&T and broadcasting it on the world stage.
Her love for music is also interwoven into her plans, as she hopes to combine poetry with music, set her compositions to music, and produce her spoken word films. Surrounded by a strong community of people who believe in her in a field that can be considered non-traditional, Stewart credits her mother’s support as the bedrock of her career. “My life would be so different if my mother hadn’t encouraged me, 16 years old at the time, to take the mic and perform at UWI Speak.” The gratitude that she has for such a strong support system has translated into her support for younger, upcoming artistes in the same field.
Her idea that “the future looks back” encapsulates her commitment to be generous with her time and talent to others. Indeed, she reminisces about the artists, writers, and mentors who have encouraged her along her journey and uses teaching as her way to give back the same pearls of wisdom she has received. Stewart has, similar to most artistes, experienced the scepticism surrounding the creative field and has weathered the challenge of people trying to undervalue her work. In her experience, “spoken word poetry performances are like blooming poui trees.”
This, in her opinion, is metaphoric for the way that we are blessed to experience the richness of the poui trees for a short period every year, but similar to her, “the trees are working hard all year round; efforts are unseen and unnoticed.” Although people may believe her craft amounts to “just” a four-minute performance, the level of effort, number of years, and dedication to building experience and practicing her craft are countless. Alexandra Stewart continues to reframe and push the boundaries of the art of spoken word in the country and the region.
Wielding our gift of storytelling, buried deep in our Trinidadian roots and given to us by our ancestors, she has shaped her gifts into a flourishing career of performance, teaching, and writing. Merging entertainment and social commentary, she has overcome sceptics and channelled her abilities to touch hearts by holding up a mirror to the human experience.
Connect with Stewart on Instagram to see her upcoming ventures @talktothefro