I watched your fu­ner­al on Zoom. Heard voic­es. Echoes of you. Dull pewter light. The cam­era was fixed high and slight­ly to one side. The priest moved in and out of range. The cof­fin crossed the screen once, a head shift­ing. I was in my kitchen in the Caribbean, the lap­top open, the light too bright around me.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

It’s show­time! That time when women par­tic­i­pat­ing in the Car­ni­val fes­tiv­i­ties get set to put their best faces for­ward for the glitz and glam of the Great­est Show on Earth. Over the years, make­up for the Pa­rade of the Bands has be­come part and par­cel of the cos­tumes them­selves, at a sep­a­rate cost, of course.

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.

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.

The na­tion’s pro­tec­tors trad­ed uni­forms for stage lights and ser­vice weapons for mi­cro­phones when the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) So­cial and Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion host­ed its 4th An­nu­al Pro­tec­tive Arms Monarch Com­pe­ti­tion at Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s.

Fresh off a sea­son of in­ter­na­tion­al ac­claim and cul­tur­al tri­umph, Trinidad and To­ba­go’s own Kes The Band is prepar­ing to car­ry the sound of the Caribbean across Eu­rope with the launch of their Roots, Rock, So­ca Tour, be­gin­ning April 30.