For An­tho­ny “Tony Xan­da” Alexan­der, a good so­ca parang per­fect­ly blends the au­then­tic el­e­ments of tra­di­tion­al parang mu­sic with that of mod­ern so­ca. With the count­down al­ready on to Christ­mas Day and as T&T ob­served Parang His­to­ry Month last month in Sep­tem­ber, he joined the cel­e­bra­tions with his new song, Duck She.

Have you ever tak­en a trip to an­oth­er coun­try and learned all about its his­to­ry, on­ly to re­alise you don’t know the sto­ries be­hind your own back­yard?

High­er than the Mt Ever­est base camp, Trinida­di­an Shar­lene Han­iff be­came the first Trinida­di­an woman and al­so the first fe­male Tri­ni mo­tor­cy­clist to sum­mit one of the world’s high­est mo­torable roads, Um­ling La in In­dia. Lo­cat­ed with­in the Hi­malayan Moun­tains, it ris­es 19,024 ft (5,798 m) above sea lev­el. The Ever­est base camp sits at an al­ti­tude of 17,598 feet (5,364 me­ters) in Nepal.

What be­gan as a dream on a re­hearsal room floor in Trinidad and To­ba­go be­came an in­ter­na­tion­al jour­ney that car­ried the voic­es of young per­form­ers, ed­u­ca­tors and the­atre prac­ti­tion­ers across the At­lantic and on­to sig­nif­i­cant stages for Shake­speare and the­atre.

When Amer­i­can ac­tress and for­mer Miss USA Crys­tle Stew­art stepped in front of the cam­era on Tor­to­la, the set­ting was un­mis­tak­ably Caribbean—blue wa­ters, a lux­u­ry re­sort and a de­sign­er whose work draws heav­i­ly from the re­gion.

Trinidad and To­ba­go’s Hai­ley Pysadee was crowned Miss In­dia World­wide at the in­ter­na­tion­al pageant held in Trinidad last night, bring­ing the ti­tle home as con­tes­tants from around the world gath­ered for the high­ly an­tic­i­pat­ed com­pe­ti­tion.

The awards cer­e­mo­ny, held on Sun­day, Sep­tem­ber 20, at the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (NA­PA) in Port-of-Spain, cel­e­brat­ed the rich­ness and di­ver­si­ty of Caribbean mu­sic and cul­ture. Be­yond the per­for­mances and ho­n­ours, the red car­pet be­came a vi­su­al cel­e­bra­tion of fash­ion, glam­our and cre­ativ­i­ty.

An ode to women, and to how they ought to be treat­ed by their sig­nif­i­cant oth­ers, can be heard in en­ter­tain­er Stephen Mar­celle’s sul­try vo­cals, David “Nyce­Na­tion” Pareira’s pen and Randy Williams’ vi­su­als. To­geth­er they have pro­duced Hap­py Birth­day, a lo­cal birth­day song for our ladies.

Trinidad and To­ba­go film­mak­er Teneille Newal­lo’s DANM opened the 20th Trinidad AND To­ba­go Film Fes­ti­val with a world pre­miere and left the fes­ti­val with two ma­jor awards, in­clud­ing Best Film Made in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

The 86-year-old Ca­lyp­so and So­ca icon re­turned to Trinidad last week­end to re­ceive the Elite Ca­lyp­so Ho­n­our at the Caribbean Mu­sic Awards, her lat­est ac­co­lade in a globe-trot­ting ca­reer that be­gan in Barataria decades ago.

Long be­fore bake and shark be­came one of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s most recog­nis­able culi­nary cre­ations, shark was hard­ly con­sid­ered food.

Chow is a snack close­ly as­so­ci­at­ed with the Caribbean. For Bar­ba­di­an busi­ness­woman Sami­ra Abed, man­go chow is dis­tinct­ly Tri­ni.