Car­nat­ic mu­sic is one of the old­est clas­si­cal mu­sic sys­tems in the world, with roots in South In­dia.

Caribbean food—once pi­geon­holed, of­ten mis­un­der­stood, but al­ways loved—is ex­pe­ri­enc­ing a re­nais­sance. Across the world’s most com­pet­i­tive food cities, the flavours of the re­gion are step­ping in­to long-over­due recog­ni­tion, buoyed by chefs, cre­ators, and cul­tur­al keep­ers who are re­defin­ing what Caribbean gas­tron­o­my means to­day. At the heart of this move­ment is Nneka Nurse: culi­nary strate­gist, cul­tur­al cu­ra­tor, and the founder of Best Dressed Plate (BDP)—the plat­form now con­sid­ered the glob­al au­thor­i­ty on Caribbean cui­sine.

“A south girl at heart,” Can­dice Ram­sub­ag Sinanan grew up in south Trinidad, heir to the gift of bak­ing as the daugh­ter and grand­daugh­ter of gen­er­a­tions of gift­ed home bak­ers.

Dy­nam­ic young tal­ent and ris­ing star Yung Bred­da (Akhen­aton Lewis) is shak­ing up the mu­sic scene once again with the re­lease of a pow­er­ful new so­ca track ti­tled Coul­da, just in time for Christ­mas and the fast-ap­proach­ing Car­ni­val sea­son.

Dr Ca­lene Rose­man and Dr Jes­si­ca Adams Skin­ner have shared a friend­ship that spanned over four decades, hav­ing grown up to­geth­er in Laven­tille, then leav­ing T&T for Amer­i­ca – Rose­man, with the sole pur­pose of see­ing Janet Jack­son.

In just 14 months, Frosty Cups Events Artistry has gone from a bold idea to one of Trinidad’s most talked-about pre­mi­um slushie ex­pe­ri­ences, and at the helm is There­sa Noel, the vi­sion­ary founder who is re­defin­ing cre­ative event re­fresh­ment.

Known for his in­no­v­a­tive work, Nevin Roach, of Low­lands, To­ba­go, has of­fi­cial­ly com­plet­ed his Mas­ter’s de­gree in IT Man­age­ment from IU In­ter­na­tion­al Uni­ver­si­ty of Ap­plied Sci­ences, Ger­many.

Dr An­jani Ganase has spent most of this year on the is­land of To­ba­go—div­ing off its reefs to re­search the state of its corals. Her pre­lim­i­nary find­ings sug­gest trou­bling news for To­ba­go’s coral reefs.

Trinidad and To­ba­go–born aca­d­e­m­ic Dr Michael Khan played an in­te­gral role in “a per­fect start to the Fall Con­vo­ca­tion at Saint Mary’s Uni­ver­si­ty,” where he was of­fi­cial­ly in­stalled as the in­sti­tu­tion’s 35th Pres­i­dent and Vice-Chan­cel­lor. The uni­ver­si­ty, lo­cat­ed in Hal­i­fax’s South End in No­va Sco­tia, Cana­da, ap­point­ed Dr Khan on Ju­ly 1. He was for­mal­ly sworn in and took his oath of of­fice on No­vem­ber 13, dur­ing a Con­vo­ca­tion Cer­e­mo­ny.

As a woman in the church, Ak­i­lah Hold­er has con­sis­tent­ly spo­ken out on so­cial is­sues where many Chris­t­ian lead­ers—pre­dom­i­nant­ly male—have re­mained silent. Over the years, she has found her­self, of­ten un­ex­pect­ed­ly, at the fore­front of con­ver­sa­tions that many with­in the church have hes­i­tat­ed to con­front.

Cre­ative di­rec­tor of Co­co Vel­vet In­ter­na­tion­al Fash­ion & Mod­el Man­age­ment, Christo­pher Nathan, has spent a great deal of his ca­reer train­ing and de­vel­op­ing young, pro­fes­sion­al fash­ion mod­els for in­ter­na­tion­al place­ment. And even as he lies par­a­lyzed in a bed at the San­gre Grande Hos­pi­tal, his thoughts still go out to his “chil­dren,” whom he said may be wor­ried that he has not been in con­tact with them in sev­er­al days.

Grow­ing up in a small, peace­ful vil­lage in cen­tral Trinidad, Can­dice Dookree nev­er imag­ined that her love for the out­doors and nat­ur­al cu­rios­i­ty would one day lead her in­to the world of geospa­tial sci­ence. What be­gan as a child­hood shaped by com­mu­ni­ty and crick­et grad­u­al­ly evolved in­to a deep in­ter­est in how places grow, change, and con­nect. To­day, that jour­ney has po­si­tioned her at the fore­front of re­search that could trans­form how Trinidad and To­ba­go plans its ur­ban fu­ture.