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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

So­ca sen­sa­tion Machel Mon­tano of­fi­cial­ly launched his much-an­tic­i­pat­ed al­bum, En­core, on Feb­ru­ary 6, de­light­ing fans with not on­ly the mu­sic but al­so be­hind-the-scenes in­sights in­to the cre­ative process.

Avril Alexan­der hails from south Trinidad, and while her larg­er-than-life cre­ative tal­ent may have gone large­ly un­no­ticed at home in her ear­ly years, the in­ter­na­tion­al stage quick­ly recog­nised her gift.

By now, the en­tire pop­u­la­tion knows what’s on Aaron “Voice” St Louis’ mind: Woman and woman and rum. His lat­est song Cyah Be­have is now among the 2026 Car­ni­val an­thems, and he has even hint­ed at en­ter­ing the Road March race. But the in­fec­tious tune’s jour­ney start­ed just one month be­fore its even­tu­al re­lease date. In fact, it did not even be­gin in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

World Can­cer Aware­ness Day, ob­served an­nu­al­ly on Feb­ru­ary 4, seeks to raise aware­ness about can­cer and en­cour­age its pre­ven­tion, de­tec­tion, and treat­ment. On this year’s World Can­cer Day, themed “Unit­ed by Unique” we are called to re­mem­ber our col­lec­tive com­mit­ment against can­cer, and the World Health Or­ga­ni­za­tion ac­knowl­edges every pa­tient’s unique ex­pe­ri­ences and the val­ue of peo­ple-cen­tered care de­liv­ered joint­ly by health­care providers, fam­i­lies, friends and com­mu­ni­ty.

Looks can be de­ceiv­ing. You might ap­pear healthy, ca­pa­ble and in con­trol, yet heart dis­ease can de­vel­op qui­et­ly. Many women jug­gle ca­reers, fam­i­ly re­spon­si­bil­i­ties and the men­tal load of keep­ing life on track. Over time, this con­stant pres­sure drains en­er­gy and places the heart un­der strain.

Two years ago, Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies stu­dent Chloe Ram­nar­ine learned her can­cer had re­turned. What could have been a mo­ment de­fined by fear in­stead be­came the start of a jour­ney that would open new path­ways for can­cer treat­ment for pa­tients across the re­gion.