In Memoriam: Sonia Suzette Williams

“Everything that happens in the universe has an impact on who I am, how I live, and what I write: thought, word, deed. Everything I think, I write, I speak has an impact on the world; like the tide of the sea beats upon the shore, shaping the space.” — Sonia Suzette Williams, literary and theatre artist and educator (January 17, 1967-January 6, 2024); Green Readings, Barbados, June 2013

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IN 2013, ArtsEtc invited Sonia Williams to be one of six participants in its annual environmental literary event. We staged Green Readings from 2008 to 2016, and we don’t know why she wasn’t on the bill sooner.

Since Sonia has passed, we’ve heard her described as “a force of Nature,” as an “energy source,” and we have long known it to be a truth. We first became aware of this about her years earlier at another literary lime, staged on a party boat. It was a moored event, but the ocean was choppy that day and all on deck were stumbling and swaying—all except Sonia, freshly returned from Jamaica, feet firmly planted, at one with the motion of the waves as she performed. She was a natural choice for the Green Readings bill years later and, as she delivered work on the theme of caves—mental, spiritual and physical—she charged the atmosphere at Hastings Rocks. She always charged the atmosphere in her interactions with ArtsEtc.

Every Green Reader is asked to make a statement—an environmental impact statement, if you will—as part of their performance. That is Sonia’s above.

ArtsEtc extends its heart to her family, friends, loved ones, associates and collaborators. We give thanks for the opportunities we had to know and engage with her.

May she continue to charge the atmosphere.

— Linda & Robert, ArtsEtc