KAY-MARIE FLETCH­ER

Se­nior Re­porter

kay-marie.fletch­er@guardian.co.tt

The Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (the UWI) ho­n­oured two Tri­ni ac­tress­es this year.

Gram­my and Tony award-win­ning Trinidad-born singer, song­writer and ac­tress Heather Headley and Trinidad-born British ac­tress, singer and au­thor Baroness Floel­la Ben­jamin both re­ceived Doc­tor of Let­ters (DLitt) de­gree from the UWI yes­ter­day.

Giv­ing her grad­u­a­tion ad­dress vir­tu­al­ly at UWI’s grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny for the So­cial Sci­ences Fac­ul­ty yes­ter­day, the Barataria-born Headley said she was hum­bled and ex­cit­ed to be recog­nised for her tal­ents that were cul­ti­vat­ed right on Tri­ni soil.

Headley said, “Grow­ing up in Trinidad, I was very aware that the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies held an es­teem-able and in­com­pa­ra­ble rep­u­ta­tion and that has not changed. So, it is with hum­ble pride and great ex­cite­ment that I ac­cept this de­gree.”
She al­so used the op­por­tu­ni­ty to en­cour­age fel­low grad­u­ates to build the lives they want.

“Now it’s time to take the reins ful­ly and com­plete­ly in your own hands. It’s time to em­brace your hy­phen. Be­gin to build what it is. Be­gin to build who you are. What it will be and make it be re­mem­bered. You alone bear that re­spon­si­bil­i­ty. You alone have that con­trol. You alone have that pow­er and if I may be so bold as to steal and re-pur­pose a phrase from our great po­et and for­mer re­cip­i­ent David Rud­der, you alone pos­sess that liv­ing vi­bra­tion that’s root­ed deep with­in our Caribbean bel­lies,” she added.

Headley is renowned for R&B hits such as I Wish I Wasn’t and In My Mind.
She al­so starred in tele­vi­sion shows like Chica­go Med and The Li­on King on Broad­way.

Al­so be­stowed with her hon­orary de­gree dur­ing the fac­ul­ties of Law and En­gi­neer­ing grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny on Thurs­day, Baroness Ben­jamin took the time to mo­ti­vate grad­u­ates to make a dif­fer­ence in the world.

Giv­ing her vir­tu­al grad­u­a­tion ad­dress on Thurs­day, she said, “You’re go­ing to go out and touch the world with the knowl­edge that you’ve gained, but promise me you will use it wise­ly.”

The Baroness, who gave her best im­per­son­ation of her moth­er’s Tri­ni ac­cent, added, “As my mom used to say, ‘Ed­u­ca­tion is your pass­port to life. Once you got it no one can take it away from you’.”

The Pointe-a-Pierre-born star is known for her role as a pre­sen­ter of British tele­vi­sion chil­dren’s pro­grammes such as Play School, Play Away, Jam­boree and Fast For­ward.

On June 28, 2010, Baroness Ben­jamin was in­tro­duced to the House of Lords as a life peer-nom­i­nat­ed by the Lib­er­al De­moc­rats.