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Tau Battice is an Educator, Portraitist, and Ethnographer who was born in Basseterre, St. Kitts-Nevis, and is based in New York City has been selected as the 2022 St.Kitts-Nevis Independence Prime Ministers’ Guest Lecturer .

The Prime Ministers Independence Lecture Series  is an annual highlight for the Independence celebrations and features prominent speakers from various spheres of influence from the Caribbean and abroad. The theme for this year’s Independence celebration is ““Refocus, Re-create, Redesign: Independence 39”.”

“I am tremendously humbled that I have been chosen to share at such a powerful event. It is indeed a high honour to have this reasoning with my people, especially with the young minds that will be in the audience. I feel very inspired. The more I live, the more I realize that to serve as positive inspiration is one of the noblest contributions.

When asked about what the audience can expect, he said “It all remains to be seen and heard, because I ‘literally’ use images and words. I hope, though, that by sharing bits of my own journey, I can spark some fresh thinking about who we are, individually and nationally, and who we can be.”
He described the Prime Minister’s Independence Lecture Series as an opportunity to showcase successful personalities who positively engage with persons from all walks of life.

“It is immeasurably useful because of the potential for the young minds gathered and the nation as a whole to be sparked by a returning, accomplished, well-meaningful national. Further, I commend the series for its potential not only to build bridges but also to plant positive seeds for the present and next generation of our thought leaders to nurture.”

Professor Battice was born in St. Kitts and grew up in East Street, Newtown. He attended Saint Joseph’s Primary School (Roman School), St. Theresa’s Convent School, and then the Sixth Form (College of Further Education). He moved to the United States of America initially to pursue Medicine but grew tired of being in the lab and fortunately won a full undergraduate scholarship to study English at the City College of New York where he completed his Bachelor’s work. He continued his Graduate work at Brooklyn College.

Mr. Battice is a life-long lover of photography and its power to preserve the moment, proclaim nuance, and propel humanity to positive action.  Specializing in portraiture, with a primary interest in creating visual ethnographies of the underrepresented African diaspora, Tau engages in long-term personal projects from The Bronx to Brazil and is currently working on his first monograph “Harlem in the Time of Corona.”

He has done photographic work in The Dominican Republic, Colombia, Chile, and Brazil. He exhibits widely with 20 solo and group exhibits to date and two more opening in October in the U.S. and in November in Brazil. His images have been published from the U.S. to Japan in publications such as “The Huffington Post,” “The Nation,” “The Village Voice,” “Kajima,” and “Nueva Luz.”

His “Liamuiga Love, Oualie Ovation” series, which began in 2011, was `  featured in “Nueva Luz ” in 2020 and exhibited at five galleries and museums in New York state from 2020-2021. This critical reception has re-invigorated his energy to return home to continue collaborating on the dignified images he hopes will be a gift of visual representation and national consciousness to St. Kitts and Nevis.

The Prime Minister’s annual Lecture Series is part of the Independence celebrations and features prominent nationals of St. Kitts and Nevis from various spheres of influence. The theme for this year’s Independence is “Refocus, Re-create, Redesign: Independence 39”.

The 2022 Prime Minister’s Independence Lecture Series will be held on  Wednesday 14th @ 7:30pm, Marriott Ballroom.