Nicole Dy­er Grif­fith is no stranger to rein­ven­tion. From her ear­ly ca­reer as a reg­is­tered nurse to her work as a cor­po­rate com­mu­ni­ca­tions ex­ec­u­tive, from serv­ing in the Sen­ate to lead­ing her non-prof­it, the Oxy­gen with Nicole Foun­da­tion, she has built a life of im­pact across mul­ti­ple spheres. A for­mer Miss Uni­verse T&T, she has car­ried her na­tion’s flag on the world stage while work­ing qui­et­ly at home to cham­pi­on health aware­ness, women’s em­pow­er­ment, and cul­tur­al pride.

Ten young crick­eters from Todd’s Road got the op­por­tu­ni­ty of a life­time re­cent­ly, when they paid a cour­tesy call on Min­is­ter of Sport and Youth Af­fairs Phillip Watts.

On Au­gust 29, just over 70 peo­ple from T&T took to the Grand Mar­ket Hall stage at Car­ifes­ta XV in Bar­ba­dos with one pur­pose—to show the re­gion and the world what Trin­bag­on­ian cul­ture is.

Ca­lyp­so was among the ear­li­est gen­res of mu­sic record­ed in Eng­lish in the West­ern Hemi­sphere. It pi­o­neered so­phis­ti­cat­ed rhyming pat­terns, nar­ra­tive song struc­tures, and top­i­cal lyrics—traits that dis­tin­guished it from con­tem­po­ra­ne­ous gen­res like blues and vaude­ville in the late 19th cen­tu­ry. Over time, ca­lyp­so’s in­flu­ence would per­me­ate glob­al mu­sic, in­spir­ing and shap­ing gen­res and cul­tures from reg­gae to so­ca to hip-hop and be­yond.

On the eve of Car­ifes­ta XV, few places could have of­fered a rich­er pre­lude to the re­gion’s pre­mier arts fes­ti­val than Caribbean Brush­strokes Art Gallery, run by Tri­ni art col­lec­tor, cu­ra­tor, and for­mer banker Rae Skin­ner, now based in Bar­ba­dos.

Mu­si­cian, com­pos­er, and ed­u­ca­tor Ron Reid has spent near­ly five decades weav­ing to­geth­er the threads of Caribbean mu­sic, jazz, and ed­u­ca­tion. From the ca­lyp­so tents of Port-of-Spain to the class­rooms of Berklee Col­lege of Mu­sic, Reid’s jour­ney is one of cul­tur­al am­bas­sador­ship, men­tor­ship, and a re­lent­less pas­sion for keep­ing Caribbean mu­sic alive on the world stage.

The Feast of San­ta Rosa de Li­ma was cel­e­brat­ed last Sun­day at the Ari­ma RC Church, ho­n­our­ing the first saint of the Amer­i­c­as and the pa­tron saint of Ari­ma.

On Au­gust 22, the Med­hane Alem Parish in Arou­ca was filled with joy and solem­ni­ty as His Em­i­nence Abuna Thad­daeus, Arch­bish­op of the Arch­dio­cese of the Caribbean and Latin Amer­i­ca, con­duct­ed sa­cred or­di­na­tions.

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.

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.

T&T’s teen gospel sen­sa­tion Alyssa Joseph con­tin­ues to stake her claim as the fu­ture of Caribbean gospel mu­sic, af­ter walk­ing away with two ma­jor ho­n­ours at the 29th Caribbean Gospel Mu­sic Mar­lin (CG­MM) Awards in Nas­sau, Ba­hamas.

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.