Bermuda’s own Tiara Webb, an author and cultural ambassador, marked a first by serving as judge during an “historic” gathering of poets and spoken-word artists from across the Caribbean last week in Barbados.

Ms Webb said she was “full to the brim” after her time with the Wapax! regional poetry slam.

It was held during the Carifesta XV celebration of culture in Bridgetown, the Barbadian capital, where a delegation of Bermudian artists also represented the island on the international stage.

Ms Webb said that the slam, covered by the newspaper Barbados Today, marked a milestone for literary arts in the Caribbean, bringing together poets from Barbados, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Trinidad & Tobago, Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands and the Bahamas.

She added: “This was history in the making, and I was honoured to witness and support poets from across the region.

“The Caribbean’s literary voices deserve visibility alongside its music, food and performance traditions.”

As well as judging, Ms Webb took part in Carifesta’s Writers’ Clinic, and attended a prose master class led by the award-winning Grenadian author and editor Jacob Ross.

She went on to cofound a writers’ support group with class participants.

Ms Webb said she would use connections built at Carifesta to expand the regional reach of Bermudians with the group Bermuda Voices, which was inspired by a visit to the island this year by the award-winning Barbadian-British author Nailah Imoja.

Ms Imoja was the island’s 2025 writer in residence, leading workshops with mentorship and teaching that Ms Webb said “planted the seed that grew into Bermuda Voices — a collective committed to giving Bermudian writers opportunities to share, support and grow in dialogue with each other and with the wider region”.