I Am Tobago

The Author

Meet Quincy

I was born in Tobago when the island had just one traffic light, and even that was there only so children could cross safely to and from the nearby primary school. Some of my most vivid childhood memories are of racing down Sangsters Hill in Scarborough, dashing across the main road, plunging into the sea, and eating far too many sea grapes until my stomach ached, long before a deep-water harbour replaced those simple freedoms.

I spent part of my early years in Trinidad before returning home to Tobago at the age of nine. I attended Scarborough Methodist Primary School and Bishop's High School, growing up immersed in music under the guidance of my paternal grandmother, a revered educator who awakened in me a deep love for language, discipline, and storytelling.

Music became my first language. I played organ and piano for the Scarborough and Bon Accord Methodist Churches, performed steel pan at hotels across the island, and played oboe and clarinet with the Tobago Youth Orchestra. As a child, I placed third on the nationally televised talent competition Aunty Hazel's "12 and Under" as part of a duo with fellow Tobagonian Stacy Frith.

I later emigrated to Tennessee to study Biology and Medicine at the University of Tennessee, but music called me back. I formed a band and spent more than fifteen years touring across the United States. In 2017, one of my projects reached the Grammy consideration stage, featuring a song I wrote and recorded with pan virtuoso Andy Narell. Listen here

Along the way, I married my wife, opened a retail Bohemian store with her, and became a father.

Today, I write and create from the same well of memory and belonging that shaped me as a boy in Trinidad and Tobago. My work is rooted in the energy and culture that shaped me, guided by the belief that our stories deserve to be told with pride, beauty, and permanence.

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