While many peo­ple still as­so­ciate hos­pices with death, dy­ing and the smell of an­ti­sep­tics, dis­in­fec­tants, and pun­gent chem­i­cals, all these neg­a­tive con­no­ta­tions and pre­con­cep­tions are quick­ly dis­pelled up­on en­ter­ing Vi­tas House.

Last week, Book­shelf ex­plored An­drea’s Jour­ney: From Free­dom Fight­er to True Lib­er­a­tion, the mem­oir of An­drea Ja­cob, a woman whose life was shaped by the Black Pow­er Rev­o­lu­tion of the 1970s in T&T.

For a woman who has won many ac­co­lades in her ca­reer, for­mer West In­dies women’s cap­tain Meris­sa Aguilleira’s na­tion­al award is set apart. Her in­ter­na­tion­al ca­reer in the sport of crick­et spanned over a decade, and she touched every con­ti­nent in the world, but Aguilleira ad­mits that be­ing recog­nised by her own coun­try is sig­nif­i­cant and spe­cial.

It was the 19th-cen­tu­ry French painter Paul Gau­guin who once said of art, “It is a ques­tion of how to be rich in spir­it rather than rich in ma­te­r­i­al.” Those are words al­most every artist lives by.

An in­vi­ta­tion to per­form in Africa evolved in­to an ex­pe­ri­ence of a life­time for mul­ti-tal­ent­ed T&T artiste Em­press Ajé.

The gap in the en­er­gy sec­tor be­tween men and women em­ploy­ees has al­ways been a Gulf apart, even with the gains made in re­cent years.

This week, Book­shelf shines its light on a pow­er­ful new mem­oir that pro­vides an eye­wit­ness ac­count of one of T&T’s most sig­nif­i­cant his­tor­i­cal mo­ments—the Black Pow­er Rev­o­lu­tion.

Pro­gramme di­rec­tor of the Civ­ilian Con­ser­va­tion Corps (CCC), Ma­jor David Ben­jamin, says the par­tic­i­pants in the pro­gramme are show­ing the T&T pub­lic the true val­ue of our young peo­ple.

Prof Brid­get Br­ere­ton an­swers how the coun­try has done since set­ting out on the post-slav­ery, in­den­ture, and colo­nial gov­ern­ment dirt tracks on­to the high­way of self-gov­ern­ment and po­lit­i­cal in­de­pen­dence.

Ros­alind Gen­tle cel­e­brat­ed her 100th birth­day on Sep­tem­ber 7, 2024. The ma­tri­arch was sur­round­ed by fam­i­ly, friends, and neigh­bours who gath­ered at the Biche Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre to mark the spe­cial oc­ca­sion.

Ani­ta Mitchell is a full-time farmer, moth­er, and wife. She is an in­spi­ra­tion, show­ing courage, strength, and de­ter­mi­na­tion in over­com­ing chal­lenges.

The Ro­tary Clubs of T&T will host the Hats & Heels High Tea and Fash­ion Show on Sep­tem­ber 22 from 3 pm to 6 pm at Hy­att Re­gency Trinidad.