The set­ting was the Hol­i­day Inn (now called Crowne Plaza) in Port-of-Spain; the year was 1984; and the oc­ca­sion was sup­posed to be a straight­for­ward cor­po­rate cel­e­bra­tion, the award­ing of a pres­ti­gious fran­chise to lo­cal man­u­fac­tur­er Mi­co Gar­ment Fac­to­ry to pro­duce British-de­signed Van Heusen shirts and slacks.

His­to­ry of­ten re­mem­bers land­mark con­sti­tu­tion­al cas­es by the lawyers who ar­gued them or the judges who de­cid­ed them. Rarely does it re­mem­ber the small­est per­son at the cen­tre of the dis­pute.

Lo­cal pro­duc­er David “Mill­Beatz” Mil­lien be­lieves T&T has one of the rich­est pools of mu­si­cal tal­ent in the re­gion. That be­lief in­spired him to cu­rate and ex­ec­u­tive-pro­duce Gen­er­a­tion Next, an al­bum he hopes will show­case the coun­try’s emerg­ing artistes and song­writ­ers to glob­al au­di­ences.

The on­line pro­gramme dis­cussed mon­u­ments and re-en­act­ments in the Gir­mi­tiya in­den­tured In­di­an di­as­po­ra. It ex­plored how mon­u­ments, memo­ri­als and his­tor­i­cal re-en­act­ments shape col­lec­tive mem­o­ry in the di­as­po­ra. In coun­tries such as In­dia, Fi­ji, Mau­ri­tius, Réu­nion, South Africa, Guyana, Suri­name, and Trinidad and To­ba­go, com­mu­ni­ties have cre­at­ed phys­i­cal and per­for­ma­tive spaces to com­mem­o­rate the his­to­ry and ex­pe­ri­ences of in­den­tured labour­ers and their de­scen­dants. By ex­am­in­ing these sites of re­mem­brance, the dis­cus­sion high­light­ed how her­itage, iden­ti­ty and cul­tur­al re­silience have been pre­served and trans­mit­ted across gen­er­a­tions.

“…Al­bert Gomes fad­ed from na­tion­al con­scious­ness… His suc­cess­es are for­got­ten…” This analy­sis by Je­re­my Tay­lor, in 2004 in Caribbean Beat, ac­cu­rate­ly de­picts the man­ner in which a fight­er for the voice­less and dis­pos­sessed has been rel­e­gat­ed to the dust­bin of Caribbean his­to­ry.

In homes across Trinidad and be­yond, her voice and writ­ings have long been a fa­mil­iar pres­ence—in the­atre halls, on vil­lage stages, and in the qui­et spaces where cul­ture is re­mem­bered, re­vived and reimag­ined.

World Steel­pan Day 2026 will be cel­e­brat­ed on to­mor­row with a full day of per­for­mances, an An­ces­tral Walk and a ma­jor youth show­case at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah.

As Panazz: The Sto­ry is cel­e­brat­ed in Wash­ing­ton, DC, on Tues­day to mark World Steel­pan Day, for­mer Panazz leader and mu­si­cal di­rec­tor Bar­ry Bartholomew is re­flect­ing on the un­like­ly jour­ney that trans­formed a Har­vard school as­sign­ment in­to an in­ter­na­tion­al­ly ac­claimed doc­u­men­tary.

A chance meet­ing be­tween a mu­si­cian and a vo­cal­ist at a pop­u­lar live en­ter­tain­ment hub in Port-of-Spain has re­sult­ed in a mu­sic lover’s dream – a free show on Au­gust 12, at which jazz, soul, R&B, Caribbean in­flu­ences and time­less clas­sics will form a mu­si­cal ta­pes­try through sto­ry­telling and au­di­ence in­ter­ac­tion.

For USM­NT (US Men’s Na­tion­al Team) and FC Dal­las de­fend­er Shaque­ll “Shaq” Moore, giv­ing back to com­mu­ni­ties through sport has been a ma­jor high­light of his ca­reer.

As Trinidad and To­ba­go cel­e­brates World Steel­pan Day on Au­gust 11, recog­nis­ing the on­ly acoustic mu­si­cal in­stru­ment in­vent­ed in the 20th cen­tu­ry, the con­ver­sa­tion in­evitably turns to the fu­ture. If you want to know if the fu­ture of the na­tion­al in­stru­ment is se­cure, look no fur­ther than the qui­et, lush agri­cul­tur­al vil­lage of Biche in east Trinidad.

The medals prove it. As it turns out, he’s just as in­ten­tion­al when it comes to mat­ters of the heart.