Al­ways the in­evitable cry of first-timers who ac­com­pa­ny me on my sam­pling trips in the Bon Ac­cord La­goon. On my fre­quent vis­its to the sea­grass beds in To­ba­go’s south­west, tur­tles are some of the more promi­nent guests, un­mis­tak­able by their re­mark­able speed un­der­wa­ter or their cau­tious heads peek­ing above the sur­face.

Jazz sen­sa­tion Vaugh­nette Big­ford treat­ed her fans to a mu­si­cal jour­ney at her Af­ter The Mas soiree at Na­pari­ma Bowl, San Fer­nan­do, on March 8. Dressed in a beau­ti­ful pur­ple Zad and East­man gown, she cel­e­brat­ed women on In­ter­na­tion­al Women’s Day.

Priyan­ka Lal­la’s fo­cus on ed­u­cat­ing chil­dren, par­tic­u­lar­ly in mar­gin­alised com­mu­ni­ties, about cli­mate change and en­vi­ron­men­tal re­spon­si­bil­i­ty aligns with the IWD 2025 goal of ac­cel­er­at­ing ac­tion to­wards a sus­tain­able fu­ture.

Wahi­da Mo­hammed-Nar­ine is cel­e­brat­ed as one of the coun­try’s lead­ing fe­male ed­u­ca­tors, but her jour­ney has been one of re­silience and de­ter­mi­na­tion. Ris­ing from pover­ty to promi­nence, she has over­come nu­mer­ous chal­lenges to achieve suc­cess.

Phag­wa, or Holi, is up­on us—and in Trinidad, we wit­ness com­mu­ni­ty spaces puls­ing with colour, com­ing alive with chow­taal rhythms and the glow of Ho­li­ka Da­han pierc­ing the night. Cel­e­brat­ed this year be­tween March 13 to 17, this Hin­du fes­ti­val her­alds the tri­umph of good over evil, de­vo­tion over ar­ro­gance, and spring’s re­new­al over win­ter’s lull.

Gospel artiste NISA, born Genisa St Hillaire, is ded­i­cat­ed to spread­ing mes­sages of hope and en­cour­age­ment through her mu­sic and tes­ti­mo­ny. She is set to host her third con­cert, Au­ro­ra, at the Cen­tral Bank Au­di­to­ri­um on May 24, start­ing at 6 pm. Known for her pow­er­ful pres­ence both in the stu­dio and on stage, NISA is ea­ger to con­tin­ue shar­ing her jour­ney and faith with her au­di­ence.

When did sports be­come a par­ty? Sports should in­spire, not ob­jec­ti­fy. That’s why Den­nise Dem­ming im­me­di­ate­ly said yes when asked to join Re­spect Her Game, an ini­tia­tive led by Dr Gabrielle Ho­sein to chal­lenge the sex­u­al­i­sa­tion of women and girls in sports.

This Sun­day, as part of our Book­shelf se­ries on no­table women writ­ers, we step in­to the rich­ly tex­tured world of Leila Aboulela, the Su­danese-born nov­el­ist who has carved a space for Is­lam­ic spir­i­tu­al­i­ty in con­tem­po­rary lit­er­a­ture.

So­ca fans may have been sur­prised to see US-based Tri­ni-born star Lyrikal (De­von Mar­tin) on Cam­pari bill­boards around Port-of-Spain dur­ing Car­ni­val 2025 fes­tiv­i­ties, but Cam­pari Caribbean was thrilled to an­nounce that it had signed the so­ca icon as the brand’s newest am­bas­sador. The sign­ing took place in ear­ly Feb­ru­ary at an in­ti­mate cer­e­mo­ny with mem­bers of the Cam­pari fam­i­ly present to wit­ness the mo­men­tous oc­ca­sion.

One of the lega­cies of the late Sat Ma­haraj, for­mer Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al of the Sanatan Dhar­ma Ma­ha Sab­ha (SDMS), was the re­vival of Chow­taal singing in SDMS schools as part of the Baal Vikaas com­pe­ti­tion.

In qui­et homes and bustling com­mu­ni­ty cen­tres across T&T, the work of the Is­lam­ic Ladies So­cial and Cul­tur­al As­so­ci­a­tion (ILSCA) is felt every day. A strug­gling moth­er re­ceives fi­nan­cial as­sis­tance to keep food on the ta­ble. A stu­dent, once on the verge of drop­ping out, now has the school­books and uni­form need­ed to con­tin­ue their ed­u­ca­tion. An ad­vo­ca­cy pa­per lands on a pol­i­cy­mak­er’s desk, push­ing for change on crit­i­cal so­cial is­sues.

Sev­en days pre­ced­ing Feb­ru­ary 25, To­ba­go-based writer, Trompe L’oeil spe­cial­ist and painter, Vidya Birk­hoff, said she stood be­fore her easel, proud that she was able to cap­ture not just an­oth­er im­age, but a lega­cy—an ex­am­ple of re­silience, am­bi­tion, and the pur­suit of a dream.