Dr. Kim Dismont Robinson is the Folklife Officer at the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs. She studied at the University of Miami, Department of English, and received a doctorate in 2003 with a focus on Caribbean literature. She is a creative writer and is currently working on a play about Mary Prince. Kim and her husband, Dr. JJ Soares, live on Bethell’s Island in Ely’s Harbour with their children Jasmine, Giselle and Eva; Kim’s adult stepdaughter Ashlee lives in Atlanta.
- What is your favourite Bermudian tradition?
Codfish breakfast on a Sunday. I also appreciate how this tradition is related to, but different from, saltfish breakfast in the Caribbean.
- Where is the best place for a fish sandwich?
Art Mel’s!
- Where is the best place for sushi?
Harbourfront – I’ve never been disappointed.
- What’s the most Instagram-worthy place in Bermuda?
A shorter list would be “What’s the least Instagram-worthy place in Bermuda?” This place is just so darned beautiful, everywhere you look.
- What is the best advice you’ve ever gotten?
Not exactly advice, but the African proverb “When you walk with the blessings of your mother and God, there is no man who can stand in your way.”
- What do you like most about yourself?
My sense of discernment.
- What do you like least about yourself?
My tendency to overanalyze things. Two sides of the same coin, I guess.
- What keeps you up at night?
Not what, but who: my three-year-old, Eva Simone. I can sleep through just about anything else.
- What’s the biggest obstacle you’ve overcome?
Coming to terms with my mother’s leukemia and her passing.
- What’s your favourite thing to do on Sunday?
Nap, walk on the railway trail, and eat ice cream.
- What was your first job ever?
Summer job: working at a tennis court. Full-time job: writing an instruction manual for the software used to track prisoners and their belongings at a Philadelphia correctional facility.
- Who was/is the most influential person in your life?
My mother, Diane Dismont. She was the wisest, kindest person that I’ve ever known. She set a very high bar in terms of what’s to be reasonably expected from a person.
- Do you ever get island fever?
I love to travel, but I don’t get island fever. I’m a person who is quite content to take a staycation.
- What’s your favourite thing in your office?
A picture of my husband and my four girls, and a wooden boat made by Milton Hill Sr.’s apprentices – Ami Zanders and Tramaine Stovell.
- What’s your favourite thing at home?
Our porch looking out onto Ely’s Harbour.
- Loquat or Bermuda banana?
Loquats, hands down. Although why aren’t cherries a choice?
- St George’s or Somerset?
St. George’s. My grandfather, Cecil Dismont, played for the team, so I’m a legacy fan.
- What are you reading right now?
American Gods by Neil Gaiman and The Rose of Martinique: A Life of Napoleon’s Josephine by Andrea Stuart.
- What is your guilty pleasure?
Coffee Haagen Dazs and reruns of Desperate Housewives
- What is your biggest phobia?
Flying and spiders, especially those house spiders we have here with the fuzzy legs. The shortest horror movie ever would be me starring in Spiders on a Plane! I’d be dead of a heart attack in the opening scene.
