Her Excellency Christine Carla Kangaloo, O.R.T.T., President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago delivered the feature address at the 2026 Installation of the Poet Laureate of Trinidad and Tobago, held at the National Library and Information System Authority (NALIS) on Thursday 15 October 2026, National Poetry Day.
In her address, Her Excellency highlighted the importance of poetry in preserving Trinidad and Tobago’s cultural heritage, giving voice to diverse experiences and encouraging honest public discourse. Her Excellency paid tribute to outgoing Poet Laureate, Mr. Paul Keens-Douglas, who was also present, and reflected on the responsibilities of poets in a democratic society, including the need to protect authentic creative expression in an era of artificial intelligence.
Following the President’s address, Ms Danielle Boodoo-Fortuné was announced as the 2026 Poet Laureate of Trinidad and Tobago and was presented with the award by Her Excellency.
The Poet Laureate of Trinidad and Tobago Programme is a national initiative dedicated to recognising literary excellence, celebrating our nation’s rich oral traditions and promoting engagement with poetry through public readings, workshops and community outreach. Relaunched in September 2026 under the patronage of Her Excellency the President, the programme is a collaboration between the Circle of Poets of Trinidad and Tobago and NALIS.
𝐒𝐞𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐇𝐞𝐫 𝐄𝐱𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐚 𝐊𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐨, 𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐓, 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐠𝐨 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐰:
Good evening.
It is a privilege to join you on National Poetry Day and to serve as Patron of the Poet Laureate of Trinidad and Tobago Programme. I congratulate the Circle of Poets of Trinidad and Tobago and NALIS on reviving this office in our national life. Its importance will be measured not by ceremony alone, but by the extent to which it carries poetry into our classrooms, communities and public conversation.
In Trinidad and Tobago, poetry has never lived only on the printed page. We hear it in the calypso tent and the panyard; in churches, temples and masjids; in schoolyards, festivals and spoken-word performances. It carries our many accents, ancestries and faiths. It gives form to private feeling and preserves public memory.
A poet is, among other things, a truth-teller. Poets record our heights and our failures, what is beautiful in us and what is broken, the country as we celebrate it and the country as it is experienced by those who stand at its margins. They examine the human condition and the wider world without turning away from what is difficult. Sometimes, they give words to truths a society already knows. At other times, they make visible what a society has been trying not to see.
This is why Percy Bysshe Shelley’s description of poets as “the unacknowledged legislators of the world” remains so apt. Poets do not make law; they help to shape the moral climate in which laws are debated, power is exercised and citizens understand themselves. Their authority comes from independence of mind, disciplined craft and fidelity to truth.
Mr. Keens-Douglas, your work has proved the point. Through Tanti Merle, Vibert and the world of Mr. Tim Tim, you have preserved the cadence, humour and social memory of Caribbean life without sanding away its unmistakably local character. Trinidad and Tobago has long heard itself in your work. As you conclude your tenure as our first national Poet Laureate, I thank you for the imagination, wit and humanity with which you have served.
I cannot speak of poetry reaching the next generation without also acknowledging Derron Sandy, a regular supporter of and performer at The Office of The President’s annual Pan Camps. Through spoken word, he has helped our young campers discover that their own experiences are worthy of expression and that their own voices deserve to be heard.
Truth-telling, however, has never been without cost. We should be alert whenever a nation’s public voice begins to grow guarded: when citizens weigh not only what they wish to say, but how their words may be received; or when measures adopted for exceptional circumstances begin to shape ordinary civic life. No one doubts that public safety is a solemn responsibility. But so, too, is preserving the space in which citizens may question, reflect and contribute with confidence. A healthy democracy makes room for both security and candour.
At such moments, we need poets to speak out and speak up. Their task is not to become agents of any organization or faction, but to retain the independence to celebrate what is worthy, illuminate what calls for attention, and give voice to experiences that might otherwise go unheard. Speaking truth to power need not be adversarial. At its best, it is an act of faith in the Republic – the belief that its institutions are strengthened, not diminished, by thoughtful and honest engagement.
In a country of many communities and convictions, truth-telling must also make room for listening. Poetry can address difficult realities without diminishing the dignity of others. It can bring injustice into view without turning disagreement into enmity, and invite those entrusted with authority to see what they might not otherwise see. That union of candour and humanity is especially valuable to our national conversation.
That truth-telling tradition extends beyond the printed page to the calypso stage. As Trinidad and Tobago prepares to lay Slinger Francisco, the Mighty Sparrow, to rest tomorrow, we remember one of the greatest exponents of that tradition. Through the calypsos he brought to life, the intelligence of his interpretation and the force of his performance, Sparrow made humour carry criticism and melody carry memory. He could celebrate us and chastise us in the same breath. He showed that an artist can be loved by a people without flattering them. In saying farewell to him tomorrow, we will honour an incomparable performer and the civic value of an unafraid Caribbean voice.
The authentic human voice has acquired a second urgency. Artificial intelligence can now assemble polished verse in seconds. It can recognise patterns, imitate cadences and reproduce the surface of a style. What it cannot do is live our history, bear moral responsibility for what it says or incur the human cost of an unpopular truth. A machine can generate language; it cannot supply conscience.
We need not fear the technology or deny its usefulness. We must, however, protect authorship, consent and credit. For poets, the answer is to become more fully themselves. This is no time to retreat into imitation or silence. We need voices formed by lived experience, disciplined craft, moral judgment and the courage to be recognizably their own.
To the laureate who will be named shortly, I offer my congratulations and this charge: let the office enlarge the reach of your voice without narrowing its freedom. Speak in a voice unmistakably your own. Tell us what is beautiful and what is broken. Praise us when praise is due, and disturb us when conscience requires it. Help the country hear voices it might otherwise miss.
A nation does not need its poets merely to praise it. It needs poets who love it enough to tell it the truth.
Thank you.
See full album of the event below:
