T&T’s Car­ni­val scene is once again push­ing the bound­aries of lux­u­ry and well­ness with a new col­lab­o­ra­tion that blends self-care with the is­land’s fes­ti­val en­er­gy.

Danielle Bou­caud-Hen­rique is some­what of an in­tro­vert who wears many hats. She’s the Brand Head of Car­ni­val band BLISS and a free­lance Project Man­age­ment and Strat­e­gy con­sul­tant. Add to it wife of Ran­dall Hen­rique and moth­er of two, Jax­on and Zara.

Dear Dani: Your go-to guide for cul­ti­vat­ing joy, pos­i­tiv­i­ty, and hap­pi­ness in every­day life

Reign­ing Ca­lyp­so Monarch Machel Mon­tano will be de­fend­ing his ti­tle tonight with his Car­ni­val 2025 re­lease Bet Meh.

“Jan­u­ary 15, 1995. Late­ly, words have been as­sail­ing me. Words like ash­es, co­coyea brooms, sem, chataigne, roti, chunkay­ing, le­p­ay­ing, wash­ing wares. Every­day do­mes­tic words from long ago, a far-off time and place. Oth­er words fly past me like spec­tres, and they want some­thing—words like gloam­ing, lovevine, lianas, pois-doux, zabo­ca, man­go vere, pomme-cythere, Man­zanil­la, ca­lyp­so, J’Ou­vert morn­ing, gin­ga, car­ilee, goo­goonie, chuntah, calchul. Pa­tois words and Hin­di words. Words are ghosts, an­ces­tors on this side. They are not sym­bols. They are alive and sen­sate—full of flesh and stone and jagged edges. Word jumbies.”—Ram­abai Es­pinet, The Swing­ing Bridge

When sev­en-time win­ners Phase II Pan Groove strikes the first notes at this evening’s Panora­ma Large Con­ven­tion­al Bands Fi­nal at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah, it will mark the home­stretch of one of the com­pe­ti­tion’s keen­est en­coun­ters in many years.

Jo­han­na Jor­dan is a 25-year-old moth­er and busi­ness own­er who has over­come nu­mer­ous chal­lenges in her jour­ney to be­com­ing a suc­cess­ful make-up artist and en­tre­pre­neur. Born in Trinidad and raised in To­ba­go, Jor­dan grew up with her moth­er and fa­ther in a com­mu­ni­ty that played an es­sen­tial role in shap­ing her val­ues and per­son­hood.

De­fend­ing Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Monarch Machel Mon­tano made a sur­prise guest ap­pear­ance at Fa­ti­ma Col­lege Old Boys As­so­ci­a­tion’s all-in­clu­sive fete last week­end, end­ing a ten-year hia­tus and ce­ment­ing his Pardy cam­paign to in­flu­ence a record-ty­ing 11th Road March ti­tle.

Two ma­jor art gal­leries are host­ing Car­ni­val ex­hi­bi­tions fea­tur­ing the works of ap­prox­i­mate­ly 90 artists in­clud­ing Tracey Alon­zo.

Thou­sands were caught up in mu­si­cal ec­sta­sy when Ray­mond Ram­nar­ine and Dil-E-Nadan gave a daz­zling per­for­mance on the big stage at Kuchela–The Cen­tral Fete on Fri­day.

Pic­ture this: It is Tues­day, and the air is thick with an­tic­i­pa­tion. Thou­sands of peo­ple wav­ing flags, arms raised, voic­es chant­i­ng and are wait­ing for one mo­ment. The lights dim, the bass rum­bles, and then, as if struck by light­ning, Kees Di­ef­fen­thaller ap­pears.