“Why can’t life be sweet like the scent of this night?” ex­claimed a Ger­man first-time tourist to Trinidad while en­joy­ing the in­au­gur­al Steel­pan and Pow­der Pa­rade (SPP) in Tu­na­puna on No­vem­ber 15.

Three-time Chut­ney So­ca Monarch GI (Im­ran Be­har­ry) has of­fi­cial­ly joined T&T’s most en­er­getic live so­ca out­fit, The A Team Band, ahead of Car­ni­val 2026. The Bun­ga­low Restau­rant and Lounge in St Clair came alive last week as the band un­veiled its new front­line singers and de­liv­ered a dy­nam­ic, genre-blend­ing per­for­mance for pro­mot­ers, spon­sors and spe­cial­ly in­vit­ed guests.

In the fast-paced world of the Unit­ed Na­tions Cli­mate Change Con­fer­ence, it may seem un­think­able—es­pe­cial­ly for ne­go­tia­tors—to pause for a mind­ful­ness ex­er­cise. “What’s that do­ing there in the first place?” some might ask.

Mas lovers, get ready—Kalicha­ran Mas is set to mes­merise with its daz­zling 2026 Car­ni­val pre­sen­ta­tion, Be­daz­zled.

Mindy Romero Mollineau turns cakes, brown­ies, and cook­ies in­to a fes­tive, in­ter­ac­tive ex­pe­ri­ence with her mo­bile dessert cart—and dreams of a café of her own.

Au­thor and sto­ry­teller Mary Cuffy has long been known for cham­pi­oning lit­er­a­cy in ear­ly child­hood. She is the cre­ator of the beloved La­dy­bug book se­ries, which in­cludes Lo­la and the Danc­ing La­dy­bugs, Lo­la and the Mag­ic Sticks, and Lo­la and the Fas­ci­nat­ing Co­coa Bean, as well as the recipe book Bake the Co­coa Cook­ie with Lo­la. In ad­di­tion to her writ­ing, Cuffy has lec­tured in the Cer­tifi­cate and Bach­e­lor of Ed­u­ca­tion in Ear­ly Child­hood De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Stud­ies pro­grammes at the UWI Open Cam­pus, and she con­tin­ues to en­gage young read­ers through her week­ly chil­dren’s col­umn in the Guardian.

For the last Panora­ma com­pe­ti­tion (2024-2025), High­landers Youth Steel Or­ches­tra (High­landers) nar­row­ly missed reach­ing the fi­nals for the third time in over 50 years—falling short by just one point. But with this year’s tune, David Rud­der’s Tri­ni 2 de Bone, the band is pulling out all the stops, aim­ing for a stronger per­for­mance in the 2025-2026 Panora­ma sea­son. Re­hearsals be­gan in Au­gust un­der arranger Joeth Roberts and drill mas­ters Adilize Bap­tiste, as­sist­ed by An­der­son Bap­tiste.

In the VVIP sec­tion of the COP30 con­fer­ence in Belém, Brazil, far from the in­ter­na­tion­al cam­eras cap­tur­ing every mo­ment, Sel­win Hart sits in a closed-door meet­ing help­ing to push the process for­ward. I’ve been giv­en rare ac­cess to this space to con­duct our long-await­ed in­ter­view. It runs a bit late—he is de­layed by an­oth­er meet­ing—but I ex­pect­ed that. When he fi­nal­ly steps out, he jokes, “This has been two years in the mak­ing.”

The Hy­att Re­gency Ball­room shim­mered in soft blush tones last week­end as 800 el­e­gant­ly dressed women gath­ered for the Women’s Ac­tion for New Di­rec­tion (WAND) an­nu­al Christ­mas Lun­cheon. The sold-out event—themed La Vie en Rose —was a cel­e­bra­tion of op­ti­mism, phil­an­thropy and the un­mis­tak­able pow­er of women com­ing to­geth­er for a cause.

New­ly-ap­point­ed chair­man of the board at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go (UTT), Prof Emer­i­tus Sel­wyn Cud­joe is no stranger to the aca­d­e­m­ic land­scape. An au­thor, lit­er­ary schol­ar, cul­tur­al his­to­ri­an, colum­nist, and es­say­ist, his ex­per­tise spans Africana Stud­ies, Caribbean Lit­er­a­ture, and Com­par­a­tive Lit­er­a­ture.

For­mer banker, film pro­duc­er, de­sign­er, and gar­ment man­u­fac­tur­er Lyn­da McK­oy de­liv­ers a pow­er­ful mes­sage to women: “Look up­on chal­lenges not as road­blocks but step­ping stones to great­ness.”

The Art So­ci­ety of Trinidad and To­ba­go came alive last Fri­day evening as artists, pa­trons, and art lovers gath­ered for the open­ing of the So­ci­ety’s An­nu­al No­vem­ber Mem­bers’ Ex­hi­bi­tion, apt­ly ti­tled Peace in Pieces. Held at the So­ci­ety’s Fed­er­a­tion Park gallery, the event marked the start of a three-week show­case that brings to­geth­er more than 60 lo­cal artists across gen­er­a­tions and dis­ci­plines.