Faizah Tabasamu (Rochelle Ward)  is a poet, blogger and teacher. She started writing poetry while attending the St. Maarten Academy. She now teaches English and Literature at the same school. Faizah holds a BA in English and Communications from Pace University, where she received the Hilary Becker Poetry Award.  She has taken MFA-level creative writing course at the University of the West Indies, Trinidad. 

Over the last eight years, Tabasamu has recited her poetry at Axum and Summer Speaks slams, at the St. Martin Book Fair, the Marigot massacre commemoration, and the Anguilla Literary Festival. Her poetry appears in  the anthology Where I See the Sun--Contemporary Poetry in St. Martin (2013), published by House of Nehesi Publishers. According to Tabasamu, "Poetry is my way of seeing." Faizah is one of the island's few consistent and quality bloggers, at rochelleward.com and saltfishandlace.com. She is also the owner of Don't Break the Comb, St. Martin's first natural hair group.