For gen­er­a­tions of cit­i­zens, the sprawl­ing com­pound on the West­ern Main Road has been en­tire­ly syn­ony­mous with law en­force­ment. Since the 1890s, near­ly every po­lice of­fi­cer who has sworn to pro­tect and serve our na­tion has marched through its his­toric gates. Yet, long be­fore it be­came the bedrock of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS), the St James Bar­racks was a vi­tal mil­i­tary strong­hold built to safe­guard the British Em­pire’s most prized Caribbean pos­ses­sion.

It is one of the most com­mon as­sump­tions that if you eat well, avoid smok­ing, lim­it al­co­hol, and ex­er­cise, you will re­main healthy and avoid dis­ease. The truth is that health is not mea­sured this way. Re­al­i­ty can tell a dif­fer­ent sto­ry be­cause many of us who ap­pear to do every­thing “right” can still de­vel­op heart dis­ease, can­cer, men­tal health is­sues, and oth­er health com­pli­ca­tions.

Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the Lord’s side? Let him come un­to me.” And all the sons of Levi gath­ered them­selves to­geth­er un­to him (Ex­o­dus 32:26).

For In­di­an clas­si­cal dancer Sádé Budhlall, it’s im­por­tant that cre­ative ex­pres­sion is fused with open mind­ed­ness, prop­er re­search and mean­ing­ful col­lab­o­ra­tion for its full essence to be felt.

With her soul­ful, pow­er­ful voice, big smile and stun­ning fash­ion en­sem­bles, the vo­cal leg­end knows ex­act­ly how to draw in her au­di­ences, hav­ing per­formed songs from her three al­bums for decades on stages across the world.

Laugh­ter and easy­go­ing con­ver­sa­tion filled the cosy, art-lined space of Tea Leaves 1881 in Wood­brook on Mon­day as 25 spe­cial­ly in­vit­ed guests gath­ered for a show­case of Christo­pher Lewis’ three books, cul­mi­nat­ing in the launch of his lat­est work, “Dear Caribbean Peo­ple: A Col­lec­tion of Proverbs for Liv­ing and Thriv­ing.” The in­ti­mate evening, com­plete with a wel­come char­cu­terie board and a com­pli­men­ta­ry cock­tail, al­so marked the au­thor’s 65th birth­day.

For 27-year-old Mark Haynes, mu­sic has al­ways been more than melody; it has been a ve­hi­cle for trans­for­ma­tion. The Trinida­di­an dou­ble bassist has once again placed his home­land on the map, se­cur­ing a pres­ti­gious Doc­tor of Mu­si­cal Arts (DMA) de­gree at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mi­a­mi’s Frost School of Mu­sic, ac­com­pa­nied by a full tu­ition schol­ar­ship and the high­ly cov­et­ed Hen­ry Manci­ni In­sti­tute (HMI) Per­for­mance Fel­low­ship.

Labour Day, June 19, is five days away. To­day, we pay trib­ute to one of the pi­o­neers of the labour move­ment whose name many peo­ple may not even know.

For na­ture lovers seek­ing a peace­ful out­door re­treat, La Ve­ga Es­tate in Gran Cou­va of­fers a unique blend of recre­ation, re­lax­ation and nat­ur­al beau­ty.

South Ko­re­an dra­mas have earned a rep­u­ta­tion for tack­ling dif­fi­cult so­cial is­sues, and Net­flix’s Teach You a Les­son is no ex­cep­tion. This grip­ping se­ries shines a spot­light on one of the most trou­bling chal­lenges fac­ing schools to­day: bul­ly­ing, vi­o­lence, and the break­down of re­spect with­in the ed­u­ca­tion­al sys­tem. Through in­tense sto­ry­telling, com­pelling char­ac­ters, and thought-pro­vok­ing themes, the se­ries asks an im­por­tant ques­tion: Who pro­tects the peo­ple who are sup­posed to be safe at school?

They say the best sto­ries come from un­ex­pect­ed places. For Spree Si­mon, it was junk, dis­card­ed pans, tins, and steel drums pulled from the scrap heaps of John-John, Trinidad. For 11-year-old Sarai Ayesha, it was her moth­er’s desk.