“I go to Ba­naras (in the north In­di­an state of Ut­tar Pradesh) and play a song I wrote half in Trinidad Bho­jpuri and see stu­dents’ eyes shine,” she says. “I’m writ­ing in their lan­guage.”

Is­hana Edgar, an 18-year-old sec­ond-year Busi­ness Man­age­ment stu­dent at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the South­ern Caribbean, walked away with the pres­ti­gious ti­tle of Miss Cen­tral Trinidad when the Cou­va Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee (CCC) staged its mar­quee event at the Cou­va Car­ni­val Cen­tre on Sat­ur­day.

In the qui­et neigh­bour­hood of Fed­er­a­tion Park, the pul­sat­ing heart of Car­ni­val now beats from with­in the walls of the Art So­ci­ety of Trinidad and To­ba­go head­quar­ters. Cur­rent­ly on dis­play is Din­go­lay, an ex­hi­bi­tion that trans­forms the gallery space in­to a vi­brant trib­ute to the colour, ca­dence and cul­tur­al pow­er of Trin­ba­go Car­ni­val.

For years, Rox­anne Oma­lo was best known for her com­mand­ing pres­ence on the Car­ni­val stage—a four-time Car­ni­val Queen (2018, 2020, 2024, 2025) whose poise, con­fi­dence, and sto­ry­telling cap­tured au­di­ences and cel­e­brat­ed cul­ture.

Car­ni­val is one of the most vi­brant, joy­ful and cul­tur­al­ly rich cel­e­bra­tions in our na­tion. It is a time of mu­sic, free­dom, ex­pres­sion and uni­ty. As mas­quer­aders pre­pare to take to the road, I of­fer this mes­sage not to damp­en the spir­it of the sea­son, but to pro­tect the health and fu­ture of the women who cel­e­brate.

They may be get­ting down in age, but that didn’t stop res­i­dents of the Promise House fa­cil­i­ty in San­ta Cruz from tak­ing part in Car­ni­val cel­e­bra­tions.

As Car­ni­val en­er­gy puls­es through T&T this week, one name con­tin­ues to rise above the noise: Mela Caribe. At just 29 years old, born Shereese Ed­mund, the singer-song­writer is step­ping con­fi­dent­ly in­to her mo­ment, armed with spir­i­tu­al­i­ty, au­then­tic­i­ty, and a deep-root­ed love for Caribbean ex­pres­sion.

The Car­ni­val sea­son usu­al­ly in­cludes al­co­hol con­sump­tion. Oc­ca­sion­al drink­ing may be part of cul­tur­al and so­cial events, but ex­cess al­co­hol in­take can neg­a­tive­ly im­pact women’s health. As women, we process al­co­hol dif­fer­ent­ly, which leads to stronger ef­fects with small­er amounts.

Aliya Ser­rette was one of two stu­dents to be award­ed the Pres­i­dent’s Medal for her per­for­mance in the 2025 Caribbean Ad­vanced Pro­fi­cien­cy Ex­am­i­na­tions (CAPE), and she is the first stu­dent to bring that pres­ti­gious ho­n­our to her school.

For years, ex­er­cise has been close­ly tied to ap­pear­ance. Many women be­gin a fit­ness rou­tine hop­ing to lose weight, shrink their waist­line or fit more com­fort­ably in­to their clothes. While these goals are valid, fo­cus­ing on­ly on how the body looks can cause you to over­look one of ex­er­cise’s great­est ben­e­fits: pro­tect­ing your heart.

Bo­cas Lit Fest suc­cess­ful­ly launched its new Kaiso Con­ver­sa­tions se­ries with an en­gag­ing and well-at­tend­ed event fo­cused on the art of ca­lyp­so song­writ­ing, fea­tur­ing mu­si­cal icon David Rud­der. The ini­tia­tive re­in­forces the fes­ti­val’s long-stand­ing com­mit­ment to ex­plor­ing words, sto­ries, and ideas across gen­res, and to recog­nis­ing ca­lyp­so as a vi­tal part of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s lit­er­ary her­itage.