It's Sunday. The atmosphere in the cafe is thick with the hum of chit-chat, laughter and the clicking heels of the pristine waitresses. I'm in New York, but I could be anywhere. Sitting here in this trendy cafe reminds me of my university days and of my time at Pembroke.When I won a Rhodes Scholarship (and became the first Bahamian Rhodes Scholar and the first woman from the British Caribbean to do so), I had no idea how much my life would change. Growing up in the slums of Nassau, Bahamas, as the daughter of a barber and a secretary, studying at Oxford seemed unattainable. Intelligence, focus and faith got me to McGill University, and during my final year one of my Chemistry professors suggested I apply for the Rhodes Scholarship. After winning the scholarship, the Secretary of the Rhodes Scholarship Committee for Jamaica and the British Caribbean told me about his college and his Oxford experiences. He finished with the best possible advice: 'When you choose your college, choose from the heart'.
I fell in love with Pembroke. The gardens, the quads, the Chapel, the dining hall, the porters, living in the same room where Samuel Johnson lived and wrote his dictionary, everything was as I had imagined it to be. Most of all, Pembroke seemed to draw people who though interesting, talented, and clever, were down to earth; 'real' so to speak. I will always cherish my memories of those conversations at the MCR table at Formal Hall, that unforgettable Pembroke Port, and the care and attention shown to me by my first year scout Brenda.
I read medicine at Pembroke, matriculating in 1987. I left in 1992 as a medical doctor, the recipient of two prizes, an Athletics Blue and a different person in more ways than I can express.
I decided to explore other academic pursuits after medical school. I'd seen so many doctors who secretly dreamt of being published writers, musicians, performers, and artists have their dreams thwarted by rigid career structures and heavy on-call commitments. I vowed never to let this happen to me. I began with a Masters degree in the History of Medicine at Cambridge and was encouraged to follow my heart. My tutor asked me, "what do you love?" and the answer was music. I became interested in the Renaissance; a period when there were no boundaries between art, music, and medicine.
I looked for a medical specialty that would give me some flexibility to enable me to write my PhD thesis. As a student, I had enjoyed my psychiatry attachment, so I applied to the training scheme at the Maudsley Hospital, London.
I had been a singer until the age of 16. I loved it. There's nothing like it. That magical moment when the lights go on, when you forget who you are, where you are, even the words of the song you're about to sing. It's a moment of total freedom and connection with spirit. Six months after I started working as a doctor at Maudsley, I had the urge to sing solo again. I employed a vocal trainer from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Singing was like breathing, taking in a new love of life. I felt completely free, with nothing to achieve, nowhere to get.
In 2002 I had the idea of bringing joy and hope to health care communities through the performance of live music and drama in hospitals. I knew from my own experiences as a doctor how the stressful atmosphere of a hospital can affect health-care professionals, patients and their families. I arranged the first livemusic day in October 2002 at Guys Hospital and then another at St Thomas'. They were an incredible success.
In 2003, I established the charity Performing Cures to continue this work (www.performingcures.org). The same year, I was invited by the Prime Minister of the Bahamas to take up the post of consultant to a commission established to transform urban areas of the country. Seventeen years after coming up to Oxford, I returned to the country of my birth, as both a Bahamian and British citizen, a medical doctor, a professional jazz singer and founder of a charity.
My job as a consultant in the Office of the Prime Minister is essentially the human side of urban renewal and human development. The Bahamian Urban Renewal initiative is an extremely innovative project. It began two years ago as a small government project in one of the oldest and most socially deprived areas of Nassau. Since then the initiative has expanded to over 14 urban areas on three different islands. My focus has been on empowering people through education. I and my team do this through what I've called 'Re-Search' - looking again at what we are manifesting in our daily lives, our physical environment and in nature. We conduct small pilot studies, surveys and dig up secondary literature and publish papers on socio-demographic profiles, spiritual transformation, holistic education for children in urban communities and community development in the Haitian immigrant populations.
My approach to leadership is to leadbyexample. Transformation for me is about being true to yourself, having the courage to explore the boundaries of the 'Self', and going wherever the journey takes you. For the past two and a half years, I've been exploring the boundaries of who I am as an artist. In June 2005, I released my first single, 'Forbidden Love'. The single did very well. Immediately after completing the single, I began working on an album. The album, recorded in New York, on my own record label, Soul Imagination, is now complete. Excerpts from the album can be heard on-line at: www.soulimagination.org.
A number of international gigs are planned for the Bahamas, UK, Europe and the US in the months leading up to the release of the album in November 2006.
The second project I'm working on is a collection of shortstories. When I first moved to Nassau in 2004, I began a weekly short-story column 'People Transform' in the Nassau Guardian. They were all new stories, based on personal experiences, and they proved to be very popular. The column ran for a year and the stories have been brought together as a collection, which should be finished by December 2006.
I've also been working on a collection of my paintings for November 2006.
The charitable organisation I set up in the UK, Performing Cures, has been evolving as an international organisation. The purpose of Performing Cures is to bring a spirit of joy and possibility to communities through the performance of live music and dramatic performances in public spaces of hospitals, health-care centres and half-way houses. Part of the proceeds from the sales of my album and art pieces will be donated to the Foundation.
My time at Pembroke was a true and full exploration of love and life. It's a time I shall never forget.
The Pembrokian, News from Pembroke College
Issue No. 30, August 2006
www.pmb.ox.ac.uk
