Reg­gae artiste Yak­s­ta is po­si­tion­ing his lat­est sin­gle, Roar, as more than a mu­sic al re­lease, us­ing it as a plat­form to con­front what he views as grow­ing in­au­then­tic­i­ty, so­cial im­bal­ance and cul­tur­al drift across the Caribbean and be­yond.

As the Na­tion­al Parang As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (NPATT) marks its 55th an­niver­sary this week­end, the or­gan­i­sa­tion will host an af­ter­noon of com­mem­o­ra­tive ac­tiv­i­ties, in­clud­ing a Thanks­giv­ing Ser­vice and cul­tur­al cel­e­bra­tion.

The St Philip and St James RC Church staged its fourth an­nu­al Fam­i­ly Day at Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege, Ch­agua­nas, on East­er Mon­day.

Promise House TT is bring­ing its mis­sion to the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah on May 23 with its first-ever 5K run and walk. The event aims to raise aware­ness of pae­di­atric can­cer and hos­pice care, un­der what its lead­er­ship de­scribes as an “ecosys­tem of love” for the coun­try’s most vul­ner­a­ble cit­i­zens. While mem­bers of the pub­lic can reg­is­ter for the run or walk to com­pete for prizes, the event al­so serves as an in­vi­ta­tion for in­di­vid­u­als to sim­ply show up and sup­port the cause.

For­mer na­tion­al vol­ley­ball cap­tain Ryan Stew­art is en­cour­ag­ing fel­low ath­letes to think about life be­yond the fi­nal whis­tle from an ear­ly stage. Hav­ing worn the cap­tain’s arm­band from 2015 to 2022, Ryan speaks from ex­pe­ri­ence. An in­jury dur­ing the 2018 Cen­tral Amer­i­can and Caribbean Games in Colom­bia side­lined him for five months. He suf­fered from plan­tar fasci­itis, a de­bil­i­tat­ing foot con­di­tion that af­fects rough­ly 10 per cent of the gen­er­al pop­u­la­tion and can be ca­reer-threat­en­ing for high-im­pact ath­letes. That ex­pe­ri­ence forced him to con­front the re­al­i­ties of the lim­it­ed spe­cialised care avail­able to sport­ing tal­ent at home.

The sound of prayer, the rhythm of an­cient chants, and the qui­et sym­bol­ism of rit­u­al marked a sa­cred time for mem­bers of the Ethiopi­an Or­tho­dox Tewa­he­do Church in Trinidad and To­ba­go, as they ob­served Holy Week with cer­e­monies steeped in cen­turies-old tra­di­tion.

Born and raised in Laven­tille, for­mer Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Monarch Rod­er­ick “Chuck” Gor­don says he has a “to­ry” to tell—one aimed at build­ing men­tal re­silience and fos­ter­ing a more com­pas­sion­ate so­ci­ety. His lat­est sin­gle, Love Meh­self, de­liv­ers that mes­sage through mu­sic ground­ed in per­son­al re­flec­tion and so­cial aware­ness.

Thou­sands of mu­sic lovers con­verged on the Cen­tre of Ex­cel­lence on Sat­ur­day night for the high­ly an­tic­i­pat­ed I Am the Mu­sic Boss – Di­a­mond Edi­tion, a pro­duc­tion that once again un­der­scored the en­dur­ing ap­peal of chut­ney and Bol­ly­wood fu­sion on the lo­cal en­ter­tain­ment stage.

Nan­cy Her­rera has vi­sions of Steven Spiel­berg, to have lights in all forms of fash­ion on the Queen’s Hall stage when Meta­mor­pho­sis Dance Com­pa­ny presents Il­lu­mi­na­tion– A Jour­ney of Light and Be­com­ing on April 18 and 19. Think of his sci-fi clas­sic Close En­coun­ters of the Third Kind, in which he used in­tense, colour­ful lights and shafts of blind­ing white light to rep­re­sent the alien pres­ence. While Il­lu­mi­na­tion has noth­ing to do with ex­trater­res­tri­al be­ings, the spec­tac­u­lar use of light a la Spiel­berg would have been fas­ci­nat­ing for Her­rera.

The Form Two year group of Bish­op Anstey High School East in Trinci­ty host­ed the first Cake Pic­nic on March 23 with a va­ri­ety of ar­ti­san cakes in a num­ber of flavours, in­clud­ing Boston Cream, Mar­ble, Red Vel­vet, Lemon Blue­ber­ry, to name a few, on dis­play.

If you are among the many peo­ple check­ing so­cial me­dia for up­dates on a gin­ger­bread house on Ana Street, this sto­ry is for you.

In Trinidad and To­ba­go, we have made herbal sup­ple­ments part of our dai­ly rou­tine. Cap­sules of­ten promise quick re­sults and may lead us to think that they are safer to use. Women use them as reme­dies for men­stru­al pain, fer­til­i­ty, and hor­mone bal­ance, to name a few. The be­lief that they are nat­ur­al is mis­lead­ing and while some herbs have ben­e­fits and I rec­om­mend them in my pri­vate prac­tice, sup­ple­ments can car­ry hid­den risks that are over­looked, es­pe­cial­ly for women. The most pow­er­ful tool for main­tain­ing women’s health is prop­er nu­tri­tion.