For years, Gillian Smith-Trum­pet lived in a state of con­fu­sion and suf­fer­ing. She was plagued by con­stant ill­ness, un­ex­plained symp­toms and frus­trat­ing med­ical dead ends.

In a world where beau­ty pageants are of­ten de­fined by glam­our and spec­ta­cle, Sih­lé Le­tren stands out—not just for her poise and el­e­gance, but for the sto­ry she car­ries with her. As T&T’s del­e­gate to Miss Uni­verse, Sih­lé em­bod­ies the pride, re­silience, and vi­bran­cy of her home­land, trans­lat­ing na­tion­al iden­ti­ty in­to a glob­al stage pres­ence.

This week on Book­shelf, I turn to a writer who was way ahead of her time, per­haps even ahead of ours. George Eliot, born Mary Ann Evans in 1819 re­ject­ed every con­ven­tion re­quired of a woman of her cen­tu­ry.

As T&T marks its 63rd year of in­de­pen­dence, the rhythms of ca­lyp­so and so­ca will take cen­tre stage in a spe­cial trib­ute con­cert ho­n­our­ing two of the art­form’s tow­er­ing fig­ures—Em­rold Phillip, bet­ter known as the Peo­ple’s Ca­lyp­son­ian Bro Valenti­no, and the late Ce­cil Hume, the trail­blaz­ing Mae­stro.

On Tues­day, the Hin­du com­mu­ni­ty in T&T—and around the world—be­gan ob­serv­ing the ten-day fes­ti­val of Ganesh Ut­sav, ho­n­our­ing the birth of Lord Ganesh, revered as the re­mover of ob­sta­cles and pa­tron of new be­gin­nings.

They num­ber near­ly half a bil­lion across 90 coun­tries, yet In­dige­nous Peo­ples re­main among the most mar­gin­alised com­mu­ni­ties in the world. The Unit­ed Na­tions es­ti­mates that while they make up less than six per cent of the glob­al pop­u­la­tion, they ac­count for 15 per cent of its poor­est. Still, their re­silience is wo­ven in­to the fab­ric of hu­man­i­ty: they speak the vast ma­jor­i­ty of the world’s 7,000 lan­guages and em­body some 5,000 dis­tinct cul­tures.

The SK Dance Acad­e­my lit up the Bis­ram Gopie Au­di­to­ri­um at NCIC Na­gar, Ch­agua­nans, re­cent­ly, with a vi­brant cel­e­bra­tion of move­ment, mu­sic, and mul­ti­cul­tur­al ex­pres­sion.

Gabrielle Le Gen­dre is on a mis­sion to de­liv­er un­for­get­table au­di­ence ex­pe­ri­ences while cre­at­ing plat­forms for emerg­ing Caribbean tal­ent. In an in­dus­try where the spot­light of­ten stays fixed on per­form­ers, the founder of LG Stage Man­age­ment has built her rep­u­ta­tion com­mand­ing every­thing be­hind the cur­tain.

On Sat­ur­day evening, amid soft lights and warm con­ver­sa­tion, a crowd of clients, de­sign­ers, and well-wish­ers gath­ered at 21 Stone Street, Port-of-Spain. The oc­ca­sion was more than the open­ing of a new re­tail show­room. For lead de­sign­er and man­ag­ing di­rec­tor Vani Ma­haraj, it was the cul­mi­na­tion of a child­hood dream.

In May, Aval­on Gill took a bold step to­wards ad­vanc­ing women’s rights in T&T. She reg­is­tered Her Lega­cy, Her Foun­da­tion, a non-prof­it or­gan­i­sa­tion, ded­i­cat­ed to ad­vo­cat­ing for poli­cies, gov­ern­ment ini­tia­tives and pri­vate and pub­lic sec­tor pro­grammes to meet the spe­cif­ic needs of women across the coun­try.

Re­bec­ca Bap­tiste is not your typ­i­cal mod­el. While many in the fash­ion world speak about the im­por­tance of pro­tect­ing the en­vi­ron­ment, Bap­tiste has gone a step fur­ther—wear­ing the crown of Miss En­vi­ron­ment T&T 2025, the very first ti­tle­hold­er in the coun­try.

On the night of In­de­pen­dence in 1962, when the Union Jack was low­ered and the red, white and black flag was hoist­ed for the first time, 16-year-old Mavis John left her home in Mor­vant and made her way to Wood­ford Square. She want­ed to be there, in the crowd, for his­to­ry.