Today, we’d like to introduce you to Princess Pratt.
Hi Princess, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Greetings, I’m Princess Pratt, a 37-year-old native and resident of The Bahamas living as a cultural practitioner/worker, performance artist, and local Bahamian tour guide and historical/cultural educator. My performance art mediums consist of storytelling, poetry/spoken word, drumming, and dancing. I was birthed into and brought up in a multicultural and multitalented family.
On my maternal side, I descend from Clarendon, Jamaica, my mother’s birthplace. My mother, Hyacinth Pratt is the first person to inspire and indulge my curiosities and love for learning. She taught me to read straight out of the womb, it seems, because, by the time I was only a mere 2 years of age, I was able to read a full chapter of Psalms from The Bible, thus making me an avid and proficient reader from a very young age.
Growing up, she would always share with me entrancing stories from Jamaica, and through her I was introduced to my first cultural icon, Jamaican cultural icon and famous storyteller, Miss Lou. Not only was I introduced to Miss Lou, but I was also introduced to a Bahamian storyteller by the name of Kayla Lockahart-Edwards, who would beautifully grace my TV screens on the weekends, sharing Bahamian stories accompanied by drumming. I loved pretending to be both Miss Lou and Mrs. Lockhart-Edwards, and I wish I had gotten a chance to meet them in real life as they have both now departed.
My biological father, the late Preston Pratt, would only be with me for the first two years of my life, but those two years were enough for him to pass on his musical prowess and abilities at a very young, tender, and impressionable age. He was a keyboardist and Bahamian roots reggae dub artist who not only passed his musical abilities onto me but also his love for music.
My stepfather, the late Keith Stubbs, whom I called Daddy, came into my life at just the right time to pick up where my biological father had left off. Not only was Daddy a keyboardist and musician as well, but he also nurtured my musical abilities by further teaching me to play the keyboard and introducing me to the guitar. He would also guide me into writing my very first song at the age of eight. Then there was my grandfather, the late Senator Berlin Pratt, who was the father of my biological father, Preston Pratt.
My grumpy, as I would affectionately call him, was a deacon of music and an excellent orator. He would always indulge me in old folklore stories of his beloved island, Cat Island, and he would always have a funny joke to accompany it as he was a comedian at heart. I cannot share any story about my life and how I came to be without mentioning these key figures who played a pivotal role in not only inspiring but nurturing my creative passion and love of and for culture.
Not only was I inspired and nurtured by my parents, grandparents, and extended family in general, but the second primary school I attended by the name of Gerald Cash Primary also played a pivotal role in my cultural influence and upbringing. While there, it was recognized that I was a great speaker and performer, and so I was entered into the E. Clement Bethel National Arts Festival, where I won my first distinction as a Choral Speaker.
My love for music, dance, and Junkanoo, our national cultural festival, was also given a space to bloom and blossom at Gerald Cash Primary with help from a teacher who was a fire dancer. She was my very first introduction to the art form, and I knew back then that someday I wanted to be a fire dancer like her. Though that day wouldn’t come for a very long time and with many curveballs and challenges, I was able to learn the art form thanks to a cousin who not only trained me but passed her tools onto me, which enabled me to incorporate the art form into my cultural repertoire.
Back at Gerald Cash, though not fire dancing, I became a choreographed dancer and participated in my very first junior Junkanoo parade at my school. I was also an active member of my school’s bell choir. Though I grew up with and was fascinated by culture, art, and creativity, I never once thought that I would actually grow up to have a career in culture, creativity, and the arts. As we know, life always happens unexpectedly, but sometimes right on time, and in the right time.
Fast forward to the age of twenty-seven in 2014, I experienced a near-tragic event that was spiritually and psychologically traumatizing, to say the least. I was encouraged by a friend at the time to write about the experience as a form of cathartic release. I did, and what a release it was because the piece, in turn, took on several life forms.
The same friend who encouraged me to write just happened to be a very talented singer and turned my piece into a song that found its way on our local radio stations. It was also during this same year that I had come to some sort of realization and was feeling this burgeoning call to create a cultural career.
I had no idea at the time exactly how that would materialize, but I knew that it was something I really wanted to do, and I knew I had always been passionate about showcasing Bahamian culture through its various forms and because of this vision, my personal brand Sensually Spiritually Culturally Me was birthed.
From time to time, I would share my cultural happenings and experiences with my social media audiences under the hashtag #sensuallyspirituallyculturallyme. I had also started a YouTube channel and I would share some of my videos there as well, no script, no beautiful graphics, or catchy music just me and whatever was happening at the time as it was raw, unfiltered, and unedited.
The following year, 2015, I was approached by a colleague from an NPO that I was a part of to provide some cultural dancing for an event that would combine drumming and dancing. I obliged, and that very performance gave birth to Ubuntu, a cultural percussion band blending African drumming with Bahamian culture. Ubuntu quickly gained traction, landing us in diverse performance spaces from schools to public and private events, national events, even nightclubs, and open mic events.
There was one open mic event in particular that we were invited to very early on in our journey, and it became a defining moment for me. It was at said event that I would perform my poetry piece for the very first time while my band provided drumming, the same piece that would become a song; finally, I would get a chance to share it and give it a new life and a new rhythm.
Something about that performance awakened a fire in me because from that, I began diving back into my writing and was longing to feel the spirit of performance again, so I started volunteering to read at schools. Around the same time, in true alignment, a friend introduced me to a friend who had recently opened up an underground bar and bistro and was seeking local talent. Together, we curated an open mic night called Expressions in March of 2017.
Expressions started off as a biweekly open mic night featuring up-and-coming poets, singers, rappers, etc. While Nassau was no stranger to the open mic scene, that scene had been dead for quite some time, and Expressions became the phoenix that gave it a rebirth. The bi-weekly event quickly grew into a weekly event attracting raw talent from all over the island, landing us other creative partnerships and media features. It lasted for over a year, ending with a Christmas show and creative cultural market in one.
Shortly after, due to the growing momentum of the open mic experience, a friend and fellow poet and I partnered together to curate another open mic called Barefoot Poetry in 2018. Though Barefoot Poetry was short-lived, as there were only two events held, it was very memorable and pivoted us into being chosen as two of the country’s top 30 contemporary artists for the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas’ ninth National Exhibition NE9 entitled The Fruit and The Seed held in 2019.
Our production entitled Riddim and Tingum was part of A Season at Fiona’s, which was held in the Fiona’s Theatre, an amphitheater on the grounds of the NAGB. It featured dynamic presentations of poetry, music, and dance by some phenomenal artists, including Tanicia Pratt, who I just had to have in the show. Concurrently, I would also be featured in the NE9 exhibition as a dancer in a short film presented by another artist and documentarian. Needless to say, NE9 was one for the books and Riddim and Tingum is still being highly commended and spoken about.
Successfully pulling off Riddim and Tingum also created an avenue to be included in the University of The Bahamas’ School of English’s second annual Blue Flamingo Literary Festival, where I served as a committee member, media correspondent curator, and host of the book market and performance stage. I would go on to serve in that capacity for a few more years after, even hosting my own poetry writing workshop and moderating another.
While all of that was happening between 2017 and 2019, as I mentioned earlier I had begun reading at schools as my own individual brand. And with Ubuntu as well. It was during this period I began contemplating switching my focus to bringing much-needed life back to storytelling and creating its own niche market.
As a child, I had storytelling icons to look up to, but as an adult, I quickly realized that there were hardly any visible storytelling icons actively engaging the performance side of the art and that there was a huge disconnect between this generation and our rich and sacred art of storytelling and oral traditions.
I also started envisioning writing my own stories because most of the Bahamian folklore stories that I would come across had to be tailored to suit my young audience, who had no connection to the stories of the past, so I needed to produce stories that would be a bit more modern as well as relatable to all audiences, young and old. This defining moment for me would also actualize in 2019 affording me the opportunity to perform as a storyteller sharing my own original story B’rabby and Da Bonefish Woman for the very first time.
Interestingly enough, the story was inspired by a local food event, the first of its kind that was created by a local chef with international acclamation and recognition. The event brought together chefs from around the Caribbean and the US. I thought it would be the perfect idea to include Bahamian storytelling to make it a full cultural event. So I took a leap of faith and reached out to the producers of the event and offered my services free of charge, and they were happy to have me perform.
And like a rocket ship, I took off, the magic of storytelling was back and everybody wanted to bask in its energy. Not only was I performing storytelling, but I married my love of storytelling and drumming and got my partner to become my storytelling drummer. So while I performed the stories, he would accompany me on drum giving my stories rhythm and movement bringing them to life.
I would then go on to form my children’s brand, The Princess and The Books, as a result of being contracted to read stories to a toddler playgroup on a weekly basis and provide creative play and musical activities. I then saw an opportunity to collaborate with teachers to share storytelling at summer programs. I took it a step further and began offering folklore writing classes for an after-school program.
The Storytelling completely took on a life of its own and created niche markets for me where there wasn’t any available before. It seems as if I suddenly was everything everywhere all at once because while I was busy making the rounds with storytelling, I was still actively performing as a spoken word artist, host, and drummer while simultaneously working my day job as a tour guide.
Then 2020 came, and just like that, everything that had suddenly appeared seemed to just disappear quicker than I could even blink. I was heartbroken and distraught, but little did I know, the lockdowns would breed a new kind of innovation, and they were just the ones I needed to further evolve my storytelling craft. I was invited to join a community called Caribbean Freedom Fighters, a collective of storytellers across the diaspora, the US, the UK, and even as far as Africa.
CFF served as a much-needed online creative outlet that allowed us as storytellers from across the oceans to be able to come together online and host themed storytelling events where we would all share stories in relation to the event’s chosen theme. This became a wonderful online gathering and virtual storytelling around the fire for persons of all ages to tune into and enjoy, fostering inter-generational connections and bonds.
Through that connection and platform, that same year of 2020, later on down in November, I was able to take my storytelling to an even higher level and gain regional recognition by being chosen as one of two Bahamian storytellers to participate in the eleventh iteration of the Ananse Soundsplash Storytelling Festival and Conference, an eight-legged storytelling festival that celebrates the rich oral tradition of the Caribbean, highlighting its potential as a resource for national development facilitated by Ntukuma Storytelling Foundation of Jamaica and the Jamaica National Library Service.
Thankfully, the festival was able to pivot into becoming an online festival due to the traveling restrictions of that year, and this gave the festival not just a new audience but an even bigger audience because, at this time, everyone worldwide was locked down at home and thus Ananse Soundsplash was a hit. So much so, the founder of the festival, Dr. Amina Blackwood-Meeks, in the following year of 2021, created a first-of-its-kind certifiable storytelling course through the University of The West Indies Mona Institute of Caribbean Reggae Studies unit, and as a result of its creation and under her tutelage, I became a certified storyteller in May of 2021.
Later on that year, I would go on to participate in Ananse Soundsplash again as well as I was featured as a dinner guest on National Geographic’s World of Flavor with Big. Moe Cason, courtesy of the same chef I would approach to launch my storytelling career at his event, so everything came back full circle in a divine way. I would also be featured once more as part of a national exhibition at the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas entitled Double Dutch 8 under the same documentarian who featured me back in 2019.
In conclusion, my crown defining moment in storytelling and perhaps the most rewarding thus far, would take place in August of 2023. I went from gaining regional recognition to international recognition by being invited to perform as a storyteller at an annual Caribbean folk festival called Bankra Caribbean Festival held in Queens, New York. The festival founded by Braata Productions, a nonprofit folk company is a celebration of diverse Caribbean folkloric culture and traditions and features displays by St. Kitts and Nevis, Domonica, Jamaica, Grenada, and The Bahamas.
While there, I performed my original story Anansi and The Silk Cotton Tree which was actually written for the Ananse Soundsplash and quickly became popular. I was invited to perform it in person a few times after Ananse Soundsplash and I just knew that was the story that would take me across the ocean. At the festival, I got to connect with even more Caribbean storytellers and cultural and folk practitioners.
Since then, I have been conjuring more creative ways to enhance and evolve not only my performance as a storyteller but the craft itself. I’m looking forward to taking Anansi off of the pages and onto the stages and big screens and wherever stories can travel through whichever medium they can travel. I sincerely thank you for inviting me to share my story on your platform and for making this another defining moment for me, Peace.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Just being a creative artist in itself in The Bahamas is a huge obstacle and challenge. Here in The Bahamas, we were brought up in a culture that focused more on academics and servitude over creativity, so being a doctor, lawyer, civil servant, and hotel worker always stood at the forefront of what it meant to be a professional worker.
Anything creative full-time as a career for the most part was looked down on and frowned upon and you weren’t seen as a serious person, and in some instances still holds weight. Having a full-time creative job meant and still means that you make no money, at least not nearly enough to be able to live comfortably.
In recent years there has been a creative renaissance resurging here in The Bahamas and this has created what we call the Orange Economy. The Orange Economy seeks to provide funding for creatives as well as carve out spaces for creative industries and artists to be able to flourish however it is still in its infancy stages.
As a creative, and like most creatives that I know, our creativity is something that has to be a part-time venture because it isn’t able to sustain us full-time, so most of us would have full-time jobs and careers outside of our creative niches that are more economically and financially feasible for us.
Also, business persons don’t make it any better because when they do decide to call upon a creative or artist to render services most times there’s very little or no payment involved and there’s no real respect for the art. Somehow payment is replaced with ‘an opportunity for exposure’.
Fortunately for me though, I’ve never been shy to create my own opportunities or approach people/businesses to create opportunities instead of just waiting for somebody to give me one, and I was also able to find a soft landing in the Tourism Industry as tour guide marrying my love of storytelling and love of Bahamian history and culture.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Storytelling, Writing, Poetry, Spoken Word, Dancing (African and Fire Dance), Hosting, Curating Events, Public Relations, and Media Correspondence. Tour Guiding.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://princessabdiel.wordpress.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sensualspiritualculturalme/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/princessabdiel/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4aD4QK0tgu-mkjf5WacaVg
- Other: https://www.theprincessandthebooks.weebly.com
Image Credits
Torell Glinton
