When mul­ti-award-win­ning singer Bruno Mars co-wrote and com­posed one of his love songs, God Was Show­ing Off—a track on his The Ro­man­tic al­bum 2026— mu­sic lovers learned of earth an­gels and mir­a­cles “put to­geth­er on­ly God can do.”

Aware­ness of the hor­ri­ble con­di­tions of Caribbean slav­ery and the con­stant strug­gle for free­dom among en­slaved peo­ple has been part of Eman­ci­pa­tion Day ob­ser­vances. How did the ex-slaves re­spond to their new­found free­dom? Who com­prised this op­pressed group? They be­longed to a di­verse group and al­so fol­lowed dif­fer­ent re­li­gions.

A unique cul­tur­al pro­pos­al is gain­ing at­ten­tion from artis­tic and na­tion­al cir­cles: the mint­ing of unique coins for the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go (T&T), in­spired by the tenor pan.

As drums rolled and an­ces­tral chants rose across Trinidad and To­ba­go for Eman­ci­pa­tion Day, many ho­n­oured the mo­men­tous end of African slav­ery. But there is an­oth­er free­dom sto­ry—one that be­gan near­ly two decades be­fore Au­gust 1, 1834.

Of all the safe­ty fea­tures in­stalled in your ve­hi­cle, from airbags to seat­belts to re­in­forced steel frame, noth­ing is more crit­i­cal than your brak­ing sys­tem. Your brakes are the on­ly thing stand­ing be­tween you and a dis­as­trous col­li­sion. The most com­mon wear-and-tear com­po­nent of this sys­tem is the brake pad, which safe­ly clamps down on the met­al ro­tor to stop your tires from spin­ning. Know­ing the warn­ing signs of a fail­ing brake pad can quite lit­er­al­ly save your life.

Ak­i­lah’s Jew­ellery is more than fash­ion—it cel­e­brates Africa’s in­deli­ble im­pact on glob­al style while re­con­nect­ing wear­ers to Moth­er Earth and to them­selves.

Kid­ney dis­ease is a grow­ing, neg­a­tive, health con­cern in Trinidad and To­ba­go. Many of us are un­aware of our kid­ney health be­cause kid­ney dis­ease of­ten pro­vides no signs and symp­toms.

As Trinidad and To­ba­go ob­serves African Eman­ci­pa­tion Day, vis­i­tors to the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (NA­PA) are be­ing in­vit­ed to re­flect on the en­dur­ing in­flu­ence of African her­itage through a spe­cial ex­hi­bi­tion that ex­plores iden­ti­ty, re­silience and cul­tur­al mem­o­ry.

As Trinidad and To­ba­go marks the Eman­ci­pa­tion Day hol­i­day this week­end, the sound of ring­ing bells, the pow­er­ful rhythm of drums and the soul­ful voic­es ris­ing in Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist church­es across the coun­try serve as a re­minder that the jour­ney to free­dom did not end with the abo­li­tion of slav­ery. It con­tin­ued through gen­er­a­tions of strug­gle for cul­tur­al recog­ni­tion, re­li­gious ex­pres­sion and the preser­va­tion of iden­ti­ty.

Callaloo, ground pro­vi­sions, pelau, stewed chick­en… all can be found on a plate at Sun­day lunch, a core house­hold tra­di­tion across T&T. Syn­ony­mous with Tri­ni cul­ture, “Sun­day Lunch” has be­come a culi­nary tra­di­tion in its own right, en­joyed by Trinida­di­ans at home and nos­tal­gi­cal­ly recre­at­ed or yearned for through­out the di­as­po­ra.

In the heart of East Dry Riv­er, a re­mark­able artis­tic dy­nasty is emerg­ing. Meet the Warn­er sib­lings: Jhendiya, a ded­i­cat­ed young steel­pan mae­stro, and her younger broth­er, Rhasaan, a five-year-old prodi­gy whose stag­ger­ing achieve­ments in dra­ma, spo­ken word, and mu­sic are re­defin­ing what is pos­si­ble for a child his age.

Shurlan Lon­don de­scribes her­self as an en­tre­pre­neur, culi­nary pro­fes­sion­al, ed­u­ca­tor and cre­ative ser­vice provider who en­joys us­ing her skills to cre­ate so­lu­tions that make peo­ple’s lives eas­i­er and health­i­er.