Barbados: Ministry of Youth mourns death of Sonia Williams

The Ministry of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment of Barbados extended heartfelt condolences to the family, friends and relatives of Sonia Williams.

Notably, Sonia Williams is a multiple-award-winning director, actor, theatre arts educator, writer, inspirational speaker and activist. She has also remained a theatre tutor in the Youth Achieving Results Performing Arts Programme.

She was born on 17 January 1967 at the Pleasant Hall, St Peter, Barbados. She migrated to Brooklyn, New York, at the age of 12 in 1979; she received a degree in B.A. in Theatre Arts and Women Studies and a Watson Fellowship to Nigeria in the year 1989.

She made a comeback to Barbados in 1990. When she returned, she worked under the direction of Earl Warner in his various classic works. The work includes Your Handsome Captain, Fatpork, Austin Tom Clarke’s Growing up Stupid under the Union Jack, lights and Ntozake Shange’s Crack Annie.

Along with that, Williams has also written and directed various full-length plays, which include From Bussa to Barrow and Beyond and the Ritual. Her woman shows include Pilgrimage to Freedom, Three Points of Centre, and the Choreopoem Embodied Knowing.

Her work as a director includes Odale’s Choice, return to the Source, which was written by Kamau Brathwaite; Children of Negus, which was written by Kamau and Bruce; St John and Shepherd, by Rawle Gibbons of Trinidad and Tobago. She has also published a novel with the title named “This too will pass.”

Moreover, Sonia Williams has always been a lover of arts and passionate about teaching and developing emerging talents. As a lecturer, she always pushed her students to grow well and never tried to bring them down in front of anyone.

She has taught in the Caribbean at the Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts in Jamaica, a Youth training entrepreneurship scheme in Antigua, Trinidad and at the Barbados Youth Service, UWI Cave Hill and the Barbados Community College.

Furthermore, the students of Sonia Williams have also extended their deep condolences to her family, friends, and colleagues. While expressing their sentiments, they stated that “Sonia’s passing has left a massive void in the theatre community of Barbados and the entire Caribbean.”

Sonia Williams has left a huge impact on the hearts and minds of people through her diligent work and contribution to filmmaking.