From bak­ing cheese­cake dis­creet­ly to fund­ing her ed­u­ca­tion, 24-year-old Keiris Har­ris has turned qui­et de­ter­mi­na­tion in­to a recipe for suc­cess. Born in east Trinidad to Kei­th Har­ris and Joanne Der­rick-Har­ris, she en­joyed a mod­est child­hood, find­ing joy in the every­day things.

My name is Nicole Dray­ton. I’m a proud Trinida­di­an, a daugh­ter, sis­ter, friend, and now a breast can­cer sur­vivor. This is the sto­ry of the day I stepped in­to the gayelle—not with a stick in my hand but with courage in my heart—ready to fight for my life.

They call him Flash—not just be­cause he’s fast, but be­cause there’s some­thing hero­ic in the way he runs: bold, de­ter­mined, and im­pos­si­ble to ig­nore.

In a world of­ten shaped by rou­tine and rigid ex­pec­ta­tions, Col­in Matthew Reg­is, bet­ter known as “Cre­ative Matt”, chose to carve out a life de­fined by imag­i­na­tion, pur­pose, and re­silience.

چاند تنہا ہے آسمان تنہا دل ملا ہے کہاں کہاں تنہا بجھ گئی آس چھپ گیا تارا تھرتھراتا رہا دھواں تنہا زندگی کیا اسی کو کہتے ہیں جسم تنہا ہے اور جان تنہا ہم سفر کوئی گر ملے بھی کہیں دونوں چلتے رہے تنہا تنہا جلتی بجھتی سی روشنی کے پرے سمٹا سمٹا سا ایک مکاں تنہا راہ دیکھا کرے گا صدیوں تک چھوڑ جائیں گے یہ جہاں تنہا”—In­di­an ac­tress Meena Ku­mari writ­ing in Ur­du in her col­lec­tion of po­et­ry ti­tled Tan­ha Chand

When Faith Cyrus’s par­ents named her, it was more than an ar­bi­trary name se­lec­tion; it was a de­c­la­ra­tion. Af­ter two sons, they held on­to faith that their third child would be a girl. The man­i­fes­ta­tion of that hope be­came her name and, in many ways, her sto­ry.

On June 24, the JT Al­lum Group cel­e­brat­ed a his­toric mile­stone—90 years of busi­ness ex­cel­lence—with a grand gala at the new­ly launched Le Rêve Con­fer­ence Cen­tre at C3 Cen­tre. The evening brought to­geth­er a gath­er­ing of busi­ness lead­ers, gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials, and val­ued part­ners to ho­n­our the lega­cy and fu­ture of one of T&T’s most icon­ic fam­i­ly-owned con­glom­er­ates.

The World Steel­pan Thrust of T&T (WSTTT), led by Bertel Git­tens Jr, and High­landers Steel Or­ches­tra (HSO), di­rect­ed by Robert Her­nan­dez, will host the sec­ond an­nu­al Bertram “Bertie” Mar­shall Na­tion­al Steel­pan Quiz & Spelling Bee for Chil­dren to­mor­row from 11 am to 3 pm at IMAX, One Wood­brook Place.

The Ch­agua­nas Women’s and Youth Group (CWYG) pre­sent­ed Sanko­fa: Go Back and Get It at the Na­pari­ma Bowl on Ju­ly 26.

It was mid­day on a hot Ju­ly Thurs­day. Mu­si­cal di­rec­tor Der­ri­anne Dyett had just re­turned from a mu­sic the­o­ry class at the En­gi­neer­ing Build­ing with her young charges. They all hopped off en­er­get­i­cal­ly from two UWI Cam­pus bus­es pro­vid­ed by the uni­ver­si­ty in sup­port of the Bird­song Acad­e­my’s an­nu­al mu­sic camp.

Un­der the di­rec­tion of mae­stro/founder Ken­neth Listhrop - who shared con­duct­ing du­ties with young Sameer Al­ladin - the T&T Youth Phil­har­mon­ic (TTYP) skil­ful­ly ex­e­cut­ed a chal­leng­ing reper­toire of sym­phon­ic dances and hymn clas­sics at the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (NA­PA) on Ju­ly 30.

At 18 years old, most teenagers are think­ing about uni­ver­si­ty, friend­ships, and the ex­cit­ing jour­ney in­to adult­hood. For Shiv­ali Ram­bachan, how­ev­er, life took a dras­tic and un­prece­dent­ed de­tour.