Lit­er­a­ture as com­mu­ni­ty will be in fo­cus at the 2026 Bo­cas Lit Fest, Trinidad and To­ba­go’s an­nu­al fes­ti­val of words, sto­ries, and ideas, which launched its pro­gramme last Wednes­day.

For over a decade, mem­bers of Mil­waz Pro­duc­tions have been en­gaged in ex­pe­ri­en­tial study of Eng­lish Lit­er­a­ture, with a strong fo­cus on Shake­speare­an ed­u­ca­tion – the re­al­i­sa­tion of a dream for founder Janei­ka Tu­dor-Bap­tiste. The com­pa­ny has en­gaged stu­dents and teach­ers through per­for­mances, adap­tions and work­shops, and has made use of every op­por­tu­ni­ty to gain in­ter­na­tion­al ex­pe­ri­ence to strength­en its abil­i­ty to achieve its mis­sion of reignit­ing the pas­sion for Shake­speare and lit­er­ary arts in Caribbean class­rooms.

When Os­car-win­ning ac­tress Lupi­ta Ny­ong’o cel­e­brat­ed her 43rd birth­day ear­li­er this month, the im­age she shared with the world was not the usu­al glam­orous por­trait. In­stead, she sat hold­ing a bas­ket filled with 77 pieces of fruit, each rep­re­sent­ing a fi­broid she has car­ried in her body over time.

Si­mone Leid is a Trinida­di­an po­et and gen­der ad­vo­cate whose writ­ing re­flects a deep en­gage­ment with gen­der and sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment work across the Caribbean. Her po­ems come from the women she meets and the con­di­tions she en­coun­ters in her work.

As a gy­nae­col­o­gist, one of the most fre­quent con­cerns I hear from young women re­volves around ir­reg­u­lar pe­ri­ods. While oc­ca­sion­al vari­a­tions in the men­stru­al cy­cle can be com­plete­ly nor­mal—es­pe­cial­ly dur­ing ado­les­cence or times of stress—per­sis­tent ir­reg­u­lar­i­ty is of­ten the body’s way of sig­nalling that some­thing deep­er may be go­ing on. One of the most com­mon un­der­ly­ing caus­es is Poly­cys­tic Ovary Syn­drome, or PCOS.

For three years, Sachin Ram­lochan called his bar­ber shop home—sleep­ing in a small room af­ter long, ex­haust­ing days on his feet, cut­ting hair from morn­ing to night, de­ter­mined to sur­vive de­spite be­ing home­less.

What be­gan dur­ing child­hood as a form of ther­a­py for Ja­son Granger even­tu­al­ly turned in­to a long-last­ing pas­sion. Fo­cused on main­tain­ing au­then­tic­i­ty and cre­at­ing a sense of com­mu­ni­ty, the Ari­ma au­thor is now steadi­ly build­ing his cat­a­logue chap­ter by chap­ter.

Many women qui­et­ly shoul­der life’s hard­est sea­sons—hid­den be­hind ca­reers, fam­i­ly roles, and ex­pec­ta­tions. With her de­but book, Dear Sis, This Too Shall Pass: Let­ters of Hope, Heal­ing and Sis­ter­hood, Sun­ny Gopaul hopes to re­mind them they are not alone. A woman of faith and long­time ad­vo­cate for women and youth de­vel­op­ment, Gopaul has spent more than a decade cre­at­ing spaces for women and girls to grow, re­flect, and sup­port one an­oth­er. Her new book con­tin­ues that mis­sion. “Every woman car­ries a sto­ry,” she says, “and every sto­ry de­serves to be heard.”

In Trinidad and To­ba­go, food is not on­ly our fu­el source, but it’s al­so our cul­ture, tra­di­tion and com­fort. Dif­fer­ent cook­ing meth­ods for lo­cal cui­sine can be sat­is­fy­ing, but there are con­cerns which arise be­cause of our eat­ing habits. Lifestyle dis­eases that are com­mon among women in­clude ges­ta­tion­al di­a­betes, Type 2 di­a­betes, and high blood pres­sure, to name a few. Every­day meals can be al­tered to have a pow­er­ful im­pact on women’s health.

The NGHS Non No­bis Foun­da­tion host­ed its an­nu­al In­ter­na­tion­al Women’s Day Sem­i­nar, “Pur­ple Pow­er for Progress 3” at Na­pari­ma Girls’ High School, bring­ing to­geth­er women from across the com­mu­ni­ty for a day of mean­ing­ful dis­cus­sion, re­flec­tion and em­pow­er­ment.

T&T dancer Achsah Hen­ry is still pro­cess­ing what she de­scribes as a “pinch-me” mo­ment af­ter per­form­ing at the World Base­ball Clas­sic (WBC) ear­li­er this month.

“Al­low the spir­it of God to lead you, and live in love.” These are among the guid­ing mes­sages of Laven­tille’s own Genelle Bharat, a mul­ti-tal­ent­ed per­former, fire­fight­er, and com­mu­ni­ty fig­ure whose life em­bod­ies pur­pose, faith, and per­se­ver­ance.