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.

“A book is its own crea­ture, and it will tell you when it’s done grow­ing.” —Dame Ma­ri­na Warn­er to Brazil­ian writer Mar­cel­la Marx.

A sprin­kling of fete pho­tos ar­rive in the first few posts. Next comes Panora­ma mo­ments. Then, the fre­quen­cy of fes­tive pics on my so­cial me­dia feeds am­pli­fies.

Solange Govia is most­ly known for her car­ni­val cos­tume de­signs, which come to life in the bands Harts, Tribe, and The Lost Tribe. The pop­u­lar de­sign­er, who was re­cent­ly fea­tured by BET on­line, is ac­tu­al­ly the op­er­a­tions man­ag­er and cre­ative lead of Harts.

At just 23 years of age, Ani­ka Woods is al­ready cre­at­ing a space for her­self in the lo­cal beau­ty in­dus­try. It was dur­ing the height of the pan­dem­ic in 2020 that the Uni­ver­si­ty of the South­ern Caribbean grad­u­ate de­cid­ed to ven­ture in­to her own busi­ness—Glow­box Cos­met­ics by Ani­ka.

Words are un­de­ni­ably pow­er­ful. They can evoke strong emo­tions, shape per­cep­tions, and even in­flu­ence both pos­i­tive and neg­a­tive be­hav­iour. Singer, song­writer, and gui­tarist Muham­mad Muwak­il un­der­stands the pow­er of words, and he has been us­ing his lyrics to in­spire lis­ten­ers.

Steve Sankar is a trans­for­ma­tion­al life coach from T&T. He is known for his unique ap­proach to coach­ing, which fo­cus­es on shift­ing clients’ at­ti­tudes from fear to faith. This shift helps clients ex­pe­ri­ence hope, courage, and a new sense of pos­si­bil­i­ty in their lives.

From the ten­nis court to the mu­sic stage, 27-year-old Sherisse Ar­joon has trans­formed ad­ver­si­ty in­to pur­pose, turn­ing an un­time­ly back in­jury in­to a pow­er­ful mis­sion of men­tor­ship.

The Rid­dim and Steel Fes­ti­val at the John Cu­pid Car­ni­val Vil­lage, Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah, Port-of-Spain, fea­tured four steel­bands—D’ Vet­er­ans Pan En­sem­ble from Care­nage; TTPS Po­lice Steel Or­ches­tra; Road­Block Steel Or­ches­tra from Trou Macaque, Laven­tille; Phoenix Steel Or­ches­tra from Bel­mont and Hands of Rhythm.