Cer­vi­cal can­cer is of­ten called a “silent” dis­ease—and for good rea­son. In its ear­li­est stages, it usu­al­ly caus­es no symp­toms at all. You may feel per­fect­ly well, but mean­while, ab­nor­mal cells are qui­et­ly de­vel­op­ing on your cervix. By the time warn­ing signs ap­pear, the dis­ease may al­ready be more ad­vanced and hard­er to treat. This si­lence is what makes cer­vi­cal can­cer es­pe­cial­ly dan­ger­ous—and why wait­ing for symp­toms can be cost­lier than many peo­ple re­alise.

PINKnicTT has evolved in­to one of the most an­tic­i­pat­ed pre­mi­um events on the Car­ni­val cal­en­dar, seam­less­ly blend­ing high-end en­ter­tain­ment with a pow­er­ful so­cial mis­sion—rais­ing aware­ness for breast can­cer.

Bright colours, soft mats and neat­ly arranged toys wel­come vis­i­tors in­to the ther­a­py rooms at the Caribbean Kids and Fam­i­lies Ther­a­py Or­gan­i­sa­tion (CK­FTO) satel­lite clin­ic on Ram­saran Street, Ch­agua­nas. While the space may re­sem­ble a cheer­ful play­room, it is in fact a care­ful­ly de­signed ther­a­peu­tic en­vi­ron­ment where chil­dren with dis­abil­i­ties, along with their fam­i­lies, are sup­port­ed as they work to­wards stronger, more in­de­pen­dent fu­tures.

As the 2026 Car­ni­val sea­son heats up and new so­ca re­leas­es dom­i­nate the air­waves, the Bo­cas Lit Fest is turn­ing the spot­light on ca­lyp­so with the launch of a new dis­cus­sion se­ries, Kaiso Con­ver­sa­tions, ded­i­cat­ed to the art of ca­lyp­so song­writ­ing. The in­au­gur­al event will fea­ture mu­si­cal icon David Rud­der.

The Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC) of­fi­cial­ly ush­ered in the Car­ni­val 2026 sea­son with the open­ing of the John Cu­pid Car­ni­val Vil­lage last Fri­day at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah, sig­nalling the start of an ex­pand­ed and vi­brant cul­tur­al of­fer­ing for the na­tion­al fes­ti­val.

At a time when the world is cry­ing out for peace, love and uni­ty — and as T&T finds it­self un­com­fort­ably close to what in­ter­na­tion­al news has de­scribed as the threat of war — Hum­ming­bird Medal re­cip­i­ent and car­ni­val band­leader Vanes­sa Forde has turned to her own “peace troop”, Clas­six Pro­duc­tions (CP), to cre­ate joy, calm and har­mo­ny.

Denise Bel­fon is de­liv­er­ing what she be­lieves is a much-need­ed so­ci­etal fix this Car­ni­val: nor­mal­is­ing com­fort, care and con­cern for men dur­ing times of stress. Her Car­ni­val 2026 fron­trun­ner, Fix You Good, ac­knowl­edges that some­times men are car­ry­ing more than they let on.

New York, NY—Caribbean mu­sic reached a sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone at Jazz at Lin­coln Cen­ter as Kesthe­Band de­liv­ered a land­mark, sold-out, two-night run at the Uni­ty Jazz Fes­ti­val—set­ting a first for so­ca mu­sic with­in the fes­ti­val’s his­to­ry.

One of Ch­agua­nas’ most pop­u­lar J’Ou­vert bands, Jou­vert Junkiez, is promis­ing a pow­er­ful re­turn to the roots of Car­ni­val with its 2026 por­tray­al, Ra­ma­jay… Time to Break Away.

Prose fic­tion writer and hand­i­craft artiste, Vashti Bowlah, cred­its her rur­al up­bring­ing and her par­ents for her be­com­ing a pub­lished au­thor and en­tre­pre­neur.

Sav­ina Ram­nanan, known pro­fes­sion­al­ly as Sav­ina or Sav­ina Leo, is a life coach, as­trologer, and spir­i­tu­al guide whose work is root­ed in both tra­di­tion and lived ex­pe­ri­ence. Raised in a Hin­du house­hold, she cred­its her up­bring­ing with lay­ing a strong spir­i­tu­al foun­da­tion that would lat­er shape her world­view and ca­reer. As an adult, she came to recog­nise that much of what is mar­ket­ed as “New Age” spir­i­tu­al­i­ty in the West draws heav­i­ly (of­ten with­out ac­knowl­edge­ment) on Hin­du and In­dige­nous philoso­phies. Still a prac­tis­ing Hin­du, Ram­nanan ap­proach­es spir­i­tu­al­i­ty with rev­er­ence and depth and in­ter­twines it in­to her pro­fes­sion­al prac­tice.

Staff of The Re­tail Ware­house (Christ­mas Vil­lage) (TRW) and Cook­ies N Cream Kids Stores (CNCK) turned up the glam­our on Jan­u­ary 4, step­ping out fash­ion-for­ward at Pas­sage to Asia restau­rant, Ch­agua­nas, for the com­pa­nies’ first Staff Awards and Din­ner Cer­e­mo­ny.