Ryan Chaitram still re­mem­bers the pride he felt as a young pan­nist play­ing for Lee Chong’s Pan Glow. Though he nev­er played again af­ter that ear­ly ex­pe­ri­ence, the mem­o­ry stayed with him—a qui­et but last­ing con­nec­tion to the in­stru­ment that would even­tu­al­ly resur­face in an un­ex­pect­ed way.

On Ju­ly 9, the An­gos­tu­ra Group Em­ploy­ees’ Cred­it Union Co-op­er­a­tive So­ci­ety Lim­it­ed (AGE­CU) cel­e­brat­ed its 50th an­niver­sary—a sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone that co­in­cid­ed with the im­mi­nent com­ple­tion of its new ad­min­is­tra­tive build­ing, sched­uled for next month.

The Ch­agua­nas Women’s and Youth Group (CWYG) pre­sent­ed Sanko­fa: Go Back and Get It at the Na­pari­ma Bowl on Ju­ly 26.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.