Un­der a canopy of blos­som­ing beau­ty and Caribbean rhythm, the third an­nu­al Caribbean Cul­tur­al Diplo­mats Ex­pe­ri­ence un­fold­ed like a liv­ing love let­ter to the re­gion’s cre­ative bril­liance.

Ger­many will soon sign six new project agree­ments with Cari­com val­ued at more than €30 mil­lion, aimed at ad­vanc­ing re­gion­al ini­tia­tives in re­new­able en­er­gy, the cir­cu­lar econ­o­my, bio­di­ver­si­ty con­ser­va­tion, the blue econ­o­my, and skills de­vel­op­ment.

The Bel­mont Free­town Cul­tur­al Arts and Folk Per­form­ing Com­pa­ny once again stamped its mark on Trinidad and To­ba­go’s cul­tur­al land­scape with Cul­tur­al Ex­plo­sion 5: “A Won­drous Odyssey,” at the Winifred Atwell Au­di­to­ri­um, Queen’s Hall, on Sep­tem­ber 27.

Dubbed by the Na­tion­al Coun­cil of In­di­an Cul­ture (NCIC) as the largest cel­e­bra­tion of the Fes­ti­val of Lights out­side of In­dia, the an­nu­al NCIC Di­vali Na­gar will once again il­lu­mi­nate the Na­gar site in En­deav­our, Ch­agua­nas, from Sat­ur­day to Oc­to­ber 19, un­der the theme “Nine Nights of Lo­ka San­gra­ha.”

Mes­sages of peace, love, uni­ty, and cel­e­bra­tion echoed through the Sea Lots com­mu­ni­ty last Fri­day night as Yung Bred­da (Akhen­aton Lewis) cel­e­brat­ed his 26th birth­day with a free con­cert in his home­town.

Bi­lat­er­al trade be­tween T&T and Chi­na has topped US$1 bil­lion for the fourth con­sec­u­tive year, plac­ing the part­ner­ship among the most ro­bust in the Caribbean.

The Wa­ter­loo High School in Cara­pichaima cel­e­brat­ed its 25th an­niver­sary on Oc­to­ber 2, mark­ing a quar­ter cen­tu­ry of aca­d­e­m­ic ex­cel­lence, cul­tur­al de­vel­op­ment, and ser­vice to the com­mu­ni­ty.

T&T’s na­tion­al flag was proud­ly fea­tured in Hom­e­na­je a Lati­noaméri­ca, a vi­brant trib­ute to Latin Amer­i­ca pre­sent­ed by the Chilean Folk­loric Dance Com­pa­ny—An­tuma­pu—at Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s, on Sep­tem­ber 30.

Two decades af­ter he first carved out a name for him­self on the Panora­ma stage, leg­endary steel­pan arranger Du­vonne Stew­art has come full cir­cle, re­turn­ing to the band that be­lieved in him at the start of his ca­reer—Courts Sound Spe­cial­ists of Laven­tille.

Five years may not seem like much in the grand scheme of things, but for breast can­cer sur­vivor Sade Weekes, it could very well have been a life­time filled with many changes–some bad, but some not so bad.

Fiona Branker is a cer­ti­fied women’s fit­ness train­er with more than 15 years of ex­pe­ri­ence. As a cer­ti­fied nu­tri­tion and weight man­age­ment coach, work­outs are part of her dai­ly rou­tine. But when she be­gan ex­pe­ri­enc­ing heart pal­pi­ta­tions dur­ing one ses­sion, she knew some­thing was wrong.

The first in a se­ries on African women writ­ers whose lives and work re­shaped the con­ti­nent’s lit­er­a­ture.