As Car­ni­val 2025 wrapped up, fans were left won­der­ing—where was De­stra Gar­cia? The so­ca queen, the Queen of Bac­cha­nal, who usu­al­ly com­mands the stage every year, was no­tice­ably miss­ing from the cel­e­bra­tions.

In T&T, where agri­cul­ture and sus­tain­abil­i­ty in­ter­sect with cul­ture and com­mu­ni­ty, one woman is lead­ing a move­ment that re­de­fines how we view food waste.

As the first black woman in Cana­da to build a haven for abused women and chil­dren, Dr Roz Roach, ex­ec­u­tive di­rec­tor of Dr Roz’s Heal­ing Place, is a pi­o­neer­ing fig­ure in the field of so­cial work and com­mu­ni­ty em­pow­er­ment.

D J Pri­vate Ryan (Ryan Alexan­der) has ce­ment­ed his place as one of the most in­flu­en­tial DJs in the so­ca in­dus­try. His jour­ney start­ed in child­hood when he would sneak in­to his fa­ther’s mu­sic col­lec­tion, spin­ning records on a turntable and blend­ing tracks from the ra­dio. It was his way of teach­ing him­self the art of DJ-ing long be­fore he even knew what it would be­come.

At every ma­jor sport­ing event, mu­sic plays a cen­tral role in set­ting the mood, en­er­gis­ing ath­letes, and en­gag­ing the crowd. But for too long, the pop­u­lar Car­ni­val hits have been at the tip of every DJ’s fin­ger­tips, of­ten ob­jec­ti­fy­ing women and girls.

For In­ter­na­tion­al Women’s Day 2025, the theme “Ac­cel­er­ate Ac­tion” has struck a chord with many, re­new­ing the call to fast-track progress to­ward gen­der equal­i­ty and women’s em­pow­er­ment. But for for­mer politi­cian Hazel Man­ning, this isn’t just a slo­gan—it has al­ways been her life’s mis­sion.

The sec­re­tary of the San­ta Rosa First Peo­ples’ Com­mu­ni­ty Jacque­line Berna­dine Khan is ap­plaud­ing Mex­i­co on the move to de­cree 2025 as the Year of the In­dige­nous Woman.

Afrobeats su­per­star Davi­do (David Adeleke) and new­ly crowned Chut­ney So­ca Monarch and Road March champ Machel Mon­tano ap­peared at Sun­na­tion’s Sun­rise Break­fast Par­ty in Mo­ka last Fri­day. They ig­nit­ed a wave of ex­cite­ment at the much-an­tic­i­pat­ed event.

Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion’s co­or­di­na­tor for the coun­ty Ca­roni, Carlis­ton “Ca­lyp­so Kerr,” says re­gion­al Car­ni­val bod­ies should be giv­en fund­ing to meet their bud­gets.

Kaiso Show, the 21st edi­tion of the 3Canal Show, took place from Feb­ru­ary 22-25 at the Win­nifred Atwell Au­di­to­ri­um, Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s.

In the cool morn­ing air of Paramin, be­fore the sun ful­ly ris­es over the hills, a group of ten men gath­ers in the same place they al­ways have. They move with pur­pose, set­ting up ta­bles, un­pack­ing bread, prepar­ing salt­fish, and mak­ing sure every­thing is just right. There’s no big an­nounce­ment, no grand stage, just 550 sand­wich­es wait­ing to be hand­ed out to the peo­ple of their vil­lage.