Mem­bers of the St Philip and St James RC Church rung in the sea­son in their tra­di­tion­al way with a Christ­mas con­cert and bless­ing of the crèche last Fri­day at the church’s Ch­agua­nas com­pound.

Ar­ti­fi­cial In­tel­li­gence (AI) is a com­mon con­ver­sa­tion around the world these days - most­ly on how it can help or hurt hu­mans.

Af­ter spend­ing 14 years in the cor­po­rate are­na as a busi­ness an­a­lyst, fit­ness en­thu­si­ast Ker­ine Farmer pur­sued her pas­sion for health and fit­ness, build­ing her brand as a per­son­al train­er.

Mor­isha Ran­some is used to jug­gling many roles. She is a fash­ion de­sign­er, ca­lyp­son­ian, project man­ag­er, busi­ness con­sul­tant and events co­or­di­na­tor.

That was the pow­er­ful state­ment Howard Uni­ver­si­ty grad­u­ate and for­mer in­vest­ment man­ag­er An­dre Sealey made as he spoke about his ven­ture, The Make it Hap­pen Net­work, af­ter host­ing their first-an­niver­sary gala on Oc­to­ber 19 at Es­tate 101 in Mar­aval.

Eliz­a­beth “La­dy” Mon­tano spends the Christ­mas sea­son rest­ing in prepa­ra­tion for the busy Car­ni­val ahead.

The Pres­i­dent of the Na­tion­al Parang As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T (NPATT), a tal­ent­ed singer and song­writer whose dis­tinc­tive voice has won many ac­co­lades, spends the en­tire year wait­ing for her favourite time of year – Christ­mas.

Pupils and staff of the St Charles (Tu­na­puna) Girls’ Ro­man Catholic School pre­sent­ed their Christ­mas pro­duc­tion, ti­tled Joy to the World, at the au­di­to­ri­um of the Bish­op Anstey High School East/Trin­i­ty Col­lege East High School last Sat­ur­day.

The beau­ty of Caribbean beach­es is stained by sar­gas­sum, with­ered-look­ing al­gae that break with the waves and heaps up on the shore­line. For vil­lagers and vis­i­tors alike, beach­es be­come an eye-sore. Not on­ly are tourists turned off but busi­ness op­por­tu­ni­ties for res­i­dents in af­fect­ed ar­eas are re­duced.

For many cou­ples, pre-wed­ding anx­i­ety and last-minute plan­ning can be a se­ri­ous road­block to their dream day. Those jit­ters com­bined with the stress of plan­ning the event can be chal­leng­ing and time-con­sum­ing.

Dionne Brand, a Trinida­di­an-Cana­di­an writer, is one of the most evoca­tive voic­es in Caribbean lit­er­a­ture. Her works weave to­geth­er themes of dis­place­ment, re­silience, and gen­er­a­tional trau­ma. Born in Guayagua­yare, Trinidad, in 1953, Dionne Brand em­i­grat­ed to Cana­da in the ear­ly 1970s, es­tab­lish­ing her­self as one of the most sig­nif­i­cant Caribbean-Cana­di­an writ­ers. Her works span po­et­ry, fic­tion, and es­says, each marked by her sharp in­tel­lect and com­mit­ment to so­cial jus­tice.

The re­launch of Va­lerie Bel­grave’s mem­oir, Art for the Peo­ple, de­tails the his­to­ry of the pro­lif­ic, mul­ti­fac­eted Trinida­di­an artist, au­thor, and com­pos­er.