The World Steel­pan Thrust of T&T (WSTTT), led by Bertel Git­tens Jr, and High­landers Steel Or­ches­tra (HSO), di­rect­ed by Robert Her­nan­dez, will host the sec­ond an­nu­al Bertram “Bertie” Mar­shall Na­tion­al Steel­pan Quiz & Spelling Bee for Chil­dren to­mor­row from 11 am to 3 pm at IMAX, One Wood­brook Place.

It was mid­day on a hot Ju­ly Thurs­day. Mu­si­cal di­rec­tor Der­ri­anne Dyett had just re­turned from a mu­sic the­o­ry class at the En­gi­neer­ing Build­ing with her young charges. They all hopped off en­er­get­i­cal­ly from two UWI Cam­pus bus­es pro­vid­ed by the uni­ver­si­ty in sup­port of the Bird­song Acad­e­my’s an­nu­al mu­sic camp.

Un­der the di­rec­tion of mae­stro/founder Ken­neth Listhrop - who shared con­duct­ing du­ties with young Sameer Al­ladin - the T&T Youth Phil­har­mon­ic (TTYP) skil­ful­ly ex­e­cut­ed a chal­leng­ing reper­toire of sym­phon­ic dances and hymn clas­sics at the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (NA­PA) on Ju­ly 30.

The heart­beat of love, uni­ty, and con­scious­ness will pulse stronger than ever as Hari Fest III re­turns for its third and most ex­tra­or­di­nary in­stal­ment in 2025.

In­spired by the Bible verse He­brews 11:1—“Now faith is con­fi­dence in what we hope for and as­sur­ance about what we do not see”—the T&T and US-based Can­dice Clarke Acad­e­my of Dance (CCAD) has em­barked on its fourth Cre­o­la In­ter­na­tion­al Dance Tour. The theme of this year’s tour, Leap of Faith, is root­ed in that very con­cept.

The death of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o in 2025 at age 87 has prompt­ed a reck­on­ing on lan­guage, au­thor­ship, and cul­tur­al sov­er­eign­ty across Africa. A nov­el­ist, play­wright, and the­o­rist born un­der colo­nial rule in Kenya, Ngũgĩ be­came the con­ti­nent’s most force­ful voice for writ­ing in African lan­guages and for break­ing the de­pen­den­cy on colo­nial forms. His es­says, nov­els, and pub­lic stance re­shaped how gen­er­a­tions of African writ­ers un­der­stood the re­la­tion­ship be­tween lan­guage and free­dom.

At 18 years old, most teenagers are think­ing about uni­ver­si­ty, friend­ships, and the ex­cit­ing jour­ney in­to adult­hood. For Shiv­ali Ram­bachan, how­ev­er, life took a dras­tic and un­prece­dent­ed de­tour.

He is one of the last of the bards whose voice was raised in ca­lyp­so in the 1970 surge for Black Pow­er. At 84 years old, clear-sight­ed and an­a­lyt­i­cal, Broth­er Valenti­no told me how he came to be recog­nised as the “Peo­ple’s Ca­lyp­son­ian” back in the “Roar­ing Sev­en­ties”.

Eman­ci­pa­tion, for Za­kiya Naila Uzoma Wada­da, is the on­go­ing jour­ney to­ward ful­ly re­al­is­ing our African selves. It’s a de­f­i­n­i­tion that guides and shapes her life and lead­er­ship as ex­ec­u­tive chair of the Eman­ci­pa­tion Sup­port Com­mit­tee (ESC) of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

In the heart of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s health­care his­to­ry lies a qui­et rev­o­lu­tion led by a woman whose vi­sion, grit, and com­pas­sion rad­i­cal­ly re­shaped how the coun­try cares for its most frag­ile lives.

With a new in­ter­im ex­ec­u­tive led by Richard Forteau and pow­ered by sup­port from An­gos­tu­ra Lim­it­ed, Pan­land Lim­it­ed, the Min­istry of Cul­ture, and the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC), this year’s Laven­tille Steel­band Fes­ti­val (LSF) promis­es to be a spec­tac­u­lar show­case of T&T’s na­tion­al in­stru­ment.

ANSA McAL Lim­it­ed served as the of­fi­cial spon­sor of the Women in Lead­er­ship (WIL) 2025 Net­work­ing and Cock­tail Re­cep­tion, host­ed by the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies – Arthur Lok Jack Glob­al School of Busi­ness (UWI-ALJGSB).