An historian and writer is the new director of the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs.

Kim Dismont-Robinson, who was folklife officer in the department for 15 years, will oversee programmes and events designed to promote and celebrate Bermudian creativity, identity and national pride.

She will help develop a National Cultural Heritage Policy for Bermuda that will aim to preserve, celebrate and educate about Bermuda’s cultural heritage.

Dr Dismont-Robinson, a former reporter at The Royal Gazette, will also provide support for Bermuda’s artists, craftspeople, tradition-bearers, community groups, researchers, writers and heritage organisations through collaboration, cultural curatorship and the awards of grants. She will work under the direction of Chris Farrow, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Community Affairs and Sport.

Dr Robinson has co-ordinated a string of events, including the Bermudian Heartbeats lecture series, the Bermuda Folklife documentary series and writer-in-residence programmes during her time as folklife officer.

She has overseen the publication of several books, including the Bermuda Anthology of Poetry, Volumes I and II, Florenz Webbe Maxwell’s The Spirit Baby and Other Bermuda Folktales, Kuni Frith’s Bermudian Folk Remedies, and a collection of memoirs, Take This Journey With Me.

She is also a poet and playwright. Her Trial by Fire, a play of historical fiction that chronicled the final days of Sally Bassett, an enslaved woman burnt at the stake in 1730 after she was convicted of an attempt to poison the family that held her in bondage, was staged by the department as part of its Emancipation Commemoration in 2006 and 2008. An abridged version was performed last year, organised by the Bermuda Tourism Authority.

Dr Robinson’s academic and creative writing has appeared in The Journal of West Indian Literature, The Caribbean Writer, Sargasso and Anthurium.