Paula Lindo – Our histories, stories, present, future.

Calypsonian Allison “Warrior Empress” Bernard will be having her first solo show on Mother’s Day, May 12. The show, themed With Women in Mind, will feature a variety of female performers from a range of performing arts genres.

Bernard said the theme was inspired by her desire to celebrate feminine energy, and felt there was no better day to celebrate this energy than Mother’s Day. “Feminine energy represents reproduction, fertility, nurturing, whether it’s humans, animals or plants. It is the feminine energy that will give birth to anything, no matter how you turn and twist it. With Women in Mind could be anything that speaks and represents the feminine energy, so that’s why it is deliberate that the show doesn’t only have singers. We have spoken word artistes, a saxophonist, a comedy corner, dancers, and all of these things are expressions of the performing arts where the feminine energy can be celebrated, so I particularly chose only female performers. It would have been easy to get only calypsonians but I think that would have been boring and isn’t a true representation of women in the performing arts. Women do everything, so With Women in Mind is a phrase which represents the feminine energy of women at any level. The all-female band is headed by percussionist Sheena Richardson. I want to showcase that we have good female entertainers and you can have a good show with women.”

In addition to Bernard, the line-up will include saxophonist Michelle Henry, reggae artiste Jeneile “Queen Omega” Osborne,  calypsonians Karene Asche, Stacey Sobers, Juelle Archer, Sasha Ann Moses and Lois Lewis, spoken word artiste Ashlee Burnett, pannist Natasha Joseph, dance company Wasafoli T&T and Lyrix Comedy.

Bernard has been involved in the performing arts since she was in secondary school. While attending the then Diego Martin Junior Secondary School, she became involved in theatre and music. She had always loved to sing but did not begin to think of becoming a professional singer until 2009 when she was doing backup singing for Ella Andell and the singer encouraged her to make the leap. “I worked in the corporate sector for most of my life, the oil and gas sector, both downstream and upstream, and I used to take part in the company’s calypso competition. When I was singing with Ella, I was doing my own thing with the harmony, and she told me, you are a solo artiste. She said why don’t you go into calypso, and at that time the only memory I had of women in calypso was Denyse Plummer getting toilet paper in Skinner Park and I said not me. I didn’t go into it right away, but in 2009 I won BPTT Calypso Monarch and the then CEO of BP, Robert Riley also encouraged me to get my feet wet. In 2010 I entered the Queen Calypso Monarch and came sixth, the only no-name artiste, and up to now I’m making the finals of Calypso Queen Monarch, having placed second in 2015 and 2018, and this year I placed third. In 2015 I got accepted into Kalypso Revue and I just keep moving on.”

Before Bernard became Warrior Empress, she performed under the name Sister Ali. “The Sister Ali phase was my frightened phase and I realised too that I had to have some sort of fortitude to stand up against these giants. My personality naturally is not a timid one, but even though I was timid in entering calypso, I think it was more not wanting to fail and being embarrassed. Some people think I am aggressive, but I think it has worked for me, and I decided I’m Warrior Empress because I know I am a warrior. I know people will think I shouldn’t be doing a show because I don’t have years in the business but why should I wait?”

Bernard said she is an advocate for women, which is another reason she chose to do the show. “I always try to do whatever I can in terms of uplifting people. For me, one doesn’t necessarily have to be a professional counsellor to render help to anybody or to advise, it could just be your ability to rationalize things, to hear people out, to give people a good word, and I have been doing that from ever since. So I advocate for women in the sense that I have faced some tough times in my life, and I continue to see women who face tough times in their lives, and i think we need to go back to the strong women in guiding the not-so-strong, so that’s why I say I’m an advocate for helping other women, whether it is in the performing arts by the songs I write or simply having conversations that can inspire and help somebody.”