There were sad and som­bre mo­ments, but the fu­ner­al ser­vice for Guyana-born Caribbean jour­nal­ist Rick­ey Singh in Bar­ba­dos on Ju­ly 16 was any­thing but dark and colour­less.

Long be­fore she be­came one of Trinidad’s well-known fash­ion fig­ures, Lyn­da Os­borne was a dis­ap­point­ed teenag­er with a pair of scis­sors, a vi­sion—and a cre­ation of her own.

Nes­tled in the vil­lage of Mt Pleas­ant, To­ba­go, St Patrick’s An­gli­can Church stands as a bea­con of re­silience and faith. Con­se­crat­ed in 1843, it holds the dis­tinc­tion of be­ing the old­est church build­ing on the is­land. Built with fire bricks made from ship bal­last and car­ried by en­slaved Africans from Mt Irvine Bay, the church’s very foun­da­tion tells a sto­ry of sac­ri­fice and en­durance.

Spar­row Take Over is more than a book—it’s a cel­e­bra­tion of a ge­nius still alive among us. Re­leased in ho­n­our of Slinger Fran­cis­co, The Mighty Spar­row, who turned 90 on Ju­ly 9, this strik­ing col­lec­tion of es­says and pho­tographs edit­ed by Don­ny Ben­ny pays trib­ute to the liv­ing leg­end with the rev­er­ence and joy he de­serves. 

In cof­fee tins, in old syrup buck­ets, in con­crete yards where noth­ing is meant to thrive. They grow or­chids and shame bush, lime trees and rose­mary. Their gar­dens don’t fol­low sym­me­try. They fol­low in­stinct, mem­o­ry, and long­ing. You’ll find aloe and hi­bis­cus in the same pot. Basil, chadon beni, cro­tons. They don’t call it ther­a­py. They say they’re “putting their hand in some­thing”. It keeps them root­ed. It keeps them sane.

French Am­bas­sador Di­di­er Chabert is call­ing for the teach­ing of the French lan­guage in schools to be main­tained and strength­ened.

The Em­bassy of the Re­pub­lic of Türkiye in Port-of-Spain host­ed the “Turk­ish Culi­nary Jour­ney”, a vi­brant cel­e­bra­tion of Türkiye’s rich and di­verse culi­nary her­itage. The event took place on June 25 at the T&T Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce in West­moor­ings.

In any con­cert or fete, the spot­light nat­u­ral­ly falls on the per­form­ers who set the mood and keep pa­trons danc­ing. But for many at­ten­dees, the ex­pe­ri­ence wouldn’t be com­plete with­out the bar­tenders and mixol­o­gists whose cre­ativ­i­ty shines through in the drinks they serve.

A wave of vi­brant colours, rhyth­mic drum­ming, and joy­ous chant­i­ng swept through the streets of Port-of-Spain last Fri­day as the In­ter­na­tion­al So­ci­ety for Kr­ish­na Con­scious­ness, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Sri Sri Rad­ha Gopinatha Mandir, pre­sent­ed the an­nu­al Ratha Ya­tra—al­so known as the Fes­ti­val of Char­i­ots.

Large Band of the Year, The Lost TRIBE, has un­veiled a new Free Roam­ing Sec­tion fea­tur­ing sailor mas as part of its 2026 pre­sen­ta­tion, Is­land Cir­cus.

The Fash­ion Unit of Glob­al Trinidad and To­ba­go has un­veiled the 15th edi­tion of its sig­na­ture Look­Book, ti­tled Mem­o­ries and Mile­stones—an el­e­gant, genre-de­fy­ing cel­e­bra­tion of Caribbean cre­ativ­i­ty through the lens of wed­ding and for­mal wear fash­ion.

The Cunu­pia-based Ap­sara Dance Com­pa­ny cap­ti­vat­ed au­di­ences on Fri­day with a cel­e­bra­tion of In­di­an dance tra­di­tions at its third an­nu­al con­cert, held at the NCIC Na­gar.