Swé is a visually impaired singer from Guadeloupe who has overcome the obstacles of her disability to make a name for herself in the field of music, thanks to her determination and talent.
Swé is proof that disability is not an obstacle to any dream. Her passion for music began very young, from the age of five with the learning of the piano. Visually impaired by birth, she attended the Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles in Paris where she was then able to learn singing, drums and saxophone.
She quickly turned to singing to consider a professional career. “Raised as someone who didn’t have a disability,” she “didn’t see the barriers right away,” she says. After a sound engineering school that allowed her encounters and opportunities, Swé began to write and record her own music. Within a few years, her reggae dancehall has conquered the entire Caribbean and the Caribbean community of France. Over the years, the singer gradually realized “that there were things I could not do as quickly as someone who could see, but I also understood that I had to be less demanding with myself”. After a period of “denial”, she became especially aware of the opportunities that she could be deprived of because of her disability. “Some organizers were completely reluctant to let me go on stage when I had already done some monstrous scenes in front of 5,000 to 10,000 people,” she says.
Despite these discriminations, Swé has never build fences around her in the accomplishment of her career. Author, composer and performer, she has 5 albums to her credit and was elected best Reggae Dancehall artist at the Hit Lokal Awards 2012, which reward Caribbean artists from France. Based in Saint-Martin since 2019, she released her single “Pa Lagé” at the end of last year, and is pursuing the projects that are close to her heart with as much optimism and determination as ever.
TWO EVENTS ON DISABILITY AWARENESS ON APRIL 15TH
During the Disability Awareness Day to be held on April 15th, the CCISM and AGEFIPH (Association de gestion du fonds pour l'insertion des personnes handicapées) are organizing two workshops as part of their partnership to mobilize economic actors on the issue of disability.
• From 8:30 am to noon at the CCISM: RRH workshop (network of disability referents) with the objective of raising awareness and encouraging companies, non-profit organizations and institutions to reflect on disability. This workshop will take place around exchange in working groups to co-construct shared tools and develop common projects.
• From 1pm to 3pm at the CCISM: Rendez-vous Handicap Entreprise with the objective of bringing together the institutions and businesses of the territory to discover how to be accompanied in a process of inclusion. Participants will have the opportunity to understand who does what, and how to participate or benefit from these initiatives.
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