Photo credit: Richard Ramirez

AS a child growing up in San Fernando Sirju Seeharack Mohan demonstrated superior skills in visual arts, designing and executing almost any idea once a pencil, paintbrush or other writing instruments reached in his hands.
"I do my work as gifts. Painting has been my hobby all of my life. I have given away hundreds of paintings. I am also a volunteer at the Broward County Sheriff's Office for the last 10 years. I did many portraits which I presented to them," Mohan said.
It is his love for the arts which landed the 77-year-old his latest award from the Pompano Beach Cultural Arts awards ceremony held on May 15 in Florida. He was nominated in the Visual Arts category, beating scores of competitors at the gala event. He did a live painting of 12 people dressed in Indian garments for a wedding, much to the appreciation of the audience.
Mohan told Newsday: "I feel so proud to receive this award. I have received about 20 awards from different events in different countries. I have had displays in almost all the cities on the east coast of the US. I always fly the TT flag anywhere I go."
The Pompano Beach Cultural Arts Committee created the award ceremony to recognise and honour the outstanding creativity in Pompano Beach.

Known as an artist, calligrapher and sculptor, among other titles, Mohan said he was delighted to share the work, having travelled the world doing so. He has been living in Florida for many years and recently visited his hometown of Friendship Village.
The ceremony recognised the outstanding creativity taking place in the city of Pompano Beach.
People were also honoured in categories such as dance, music, spoken word and theatre.
Mohan has completed portraits of people among them former US president Barack Obama, opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar and former lieutenant governor in Florida, Jennifer Carroll (née Johnson), a Trinidad-born American.
He also presented a self-portrait of former present Anthony Carmona as well as to Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai when she visited TT.
The soft-spoken Mohan is also a board member of an NGO called Unity in the community.
"This organisation raises funds to give scholarship to students. Every year I do a local painting which I put up for auction. They are worth thousands of dollars and the mayor auctions them. I do not charge them because that is my contribution. Eight years now I am doing this with them," Mohan said.
He recalled that during the reign of two commissioners at the Broward County, he presented them with portraits of themselves free of charge.
Source: Newsday, June 10, 2019

This soil gave birth to the first black woman to be crowned Miss Universe in the history of the award, Janelle Commissiong, in 1977, and went on to see the gorgeous Wendy Fitzwilliam cop the title in 1998. Trinidad and Tobago has had five representatives place in runner-up positions at the international beauty pageant.
According to Providr, “Trinidadian women are well known for their extreme diversity in terms of looks due to the racial mixing on the island. The women are downright gorgeous…”  In Trinidad and Tobago, you will find people of Indian, African, Chinese, Syrian, Lebanese, European, and Indigenous ancestry, to name a few. 
​Melodic Accent
Our women are both beautiful and intelligent. Now mix this with the fact that MSN ranked Trinidad and Tobago’s accent as the 4th sexiest in the world, and you just might have a recipe for something very close to perfection.
The team at MSN stated that “…this accent is the most charming on women for its musicality and singsong quality. If you were to plot the notes of Trinidadian speech on a music sheet, they would flit up and down throughout the staff. Even when they’re angry, Trinidadians sound sprightly.”
And according to CNN, who ranked the accent 11th sexiest in the world, it “offers an undulating, melodic gumbo of pan-African, French, Spanish, Creole and Hindi dialects that, when adapted for English, can be sex on a pogo stick.”
The full list includes Venezuela, Brasil, Argentina, Korea, Ethiopia, India, Italy, Trinidad and Tobago, Canada, USA, the UK, the Philippines, Russia, Sweden, Iran, and Australia.
Many may say validation was not needed. After all, if God is a Trini, then the women here are surely angels. 
Source:  Life in Trinidad & Tobago 2017

Shonari Richardson is an artist from Tobago.
The 22-year-old has been painting since the age of two. But only recent has he become a sensation in his hometown of Spring Garden.
How did he do it?
It does help if your cousins are Tobago-born Black Panther actor, Winston Duke, and Watson Duke, the politican and PSA president.
Winston Duke, who plays the character, M'Baku in the Marvel movie is described as an antagonist, itching to take the crown from his archnemesis, Wakanda King T'Challa played by American actor, Chadwick Boseman.
Richardson, who did the portrait of his cousin last week Thursday, said it took just about a day and half to complete it. He utilized acrylic paints to complete his masterpiece, which measures 22 inches in width and 30 inches in length.
Proud of his cousin's accomplishments, Richardson said, he could not find any fault in Duke's depiction of the character, M'Baku, and acknowledged the immense talent and scope of the movie directed by American film director and screenwriter, Ryan Coogler.
Before the hype and fanfare of the Black Panther movie, many Trinidadians and Tobagonians had no idea who was Duke. Not to be confused by minority Tobago House of Assembly leader Watson Duke, who acknowledged recently, he and the Black Panther star are cousins.
Richardson, who shares a close relationship with the Hollywood actor, posted this comment along with the painting:
I never got the drive to paint a painting like how I did this one and in record time too maybe because we're related or because he's Tobagonian and this most epic movie out right now. Anyways I've just painted Marvels movie Black Panther's M'Baku played movie star and Tobagonian Winston Duke…big up yourself cuzzo. So excited to see this movie eh. 
He said Duke is very low-key and makes surprise visits to Tobago to see the family.
Though Richardson may not share the same passion for the big screen as his cousin, talent definitely runs in the family.
He said, “I have seen the movie but I have no desire to become an actor. I plan to further my studies in Visual Arts at the University of the West Indies in August.”
Richardson continues to hone his art and has painted several prominent people in areas of politics and entertainment. From Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to former prime ministers, Kamla Persad-Bisessar, Patrick Manning and Dr Eric Williams to name a few.
Richardson's post has been shared on social media to rave reviews. It shows Richardson next to the completed portrait of the Black Panther star, Winston Duke.
One of the shares came from Duke himself, who posted the portrait and this comment on his Facebook page: Wow! This incredible Fan Art is courtesy of my tremendously talented Cousin and God Brother, Shonar Richardson Art! Friends, what do you think? Let's show him some love!  
Source:  Daily Express, March 2, 2018
The Black Panther movie has grossed $763.3M globally, and according to online US Magazine, Deadline Hollywood given the immense popularity amongst movie-goers, the Marvel sensation looks like it will rake in more than $1 billion.

The Cutlass played to sold out audiences at the T&T Film Festival last September, taking home the People’s Choice Award and Best Trinidad & Tobago Feature Film. Now, it is headed to the Marché du Film at the Cannes Film Festival in France in May, a rarity for Trinidadian cinema.
Inspired by true events, The Cutlass is a dramatic thriller set in the tropical wilderness of Trinidad, and tells the story of a young woman who falls into the grasp of a dangerous sociopath. Taken from her friends at gunpoint and dragged deep into the island rainforest, she must quickly learn to navigate this unforgiving landscape and the tangled mind of her abductor.
The film was directed by Darisha J Beresford, written by Teneille Newallo and stars German-born, Tobago-raised Lisa-bel Hirschmann, Trinidadian Arnold Goindhan and Hollywood actor Kirk Baltz.
A release said the film is one of three chosen by Film TT to receive both a grant and investment from the T&T government. Newly signed to Leomark Studios - a Los Angeles-based production and distribution company with more than 200 titles in release worldwide - The Cutlass will be making its international market premiere as part of Leomark’s new market line-up. The agency hopes to sell it to multiple territories around the globe, and has a track record of doing so.
The film has also signed to Wild Eye Releasing, a distribution company that bought its North American rights, with the exception of its theatrical release.
The producers of The Cutlass—Darisha J Beresford, Teneille Newallo and Drew Umland—have held onto the rights to all Caribbean distribution and to theatrical distribution in North America (which includes the US and Canada) and will self-distribute throughout these territories. The film connected with both Wild Eye and Leomark through Ben Yennie at Guerrilla Rep Media, who has been been advising on all aspects of distribution.
Self-distribution on such a massive scale seems a first for any T&T film and the producers hope it might break new ground as a distribution model for the English-speaking Caribbean and its diaspora. The Cutlass will be at Cannes from May 17 to 26, and is scheduled for a Caribbean theatrical release this August.
The T&T theatrical release is scheduled for August 2 and will subsequently be released in the Caribbean, US and Canada.

Trinidadian author Ingrid Persaud is the regional winner of the 2017 Commonwealth Short Story prize for her story The Sweet Sop. 
Persaud was among the names of regional winners announced on Monday. 
The overall winner will be announced in Singapore on June 30.
Persaud follows countryman Lance Dowrich who win the regional prize last year. 
A writer and artist, Persaud currently resides in Barbados.  
According to her bio, she came to writing and fine art having first pursued a successful legal career that included teaching and scholarship at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, in the United States and King’s College London.
Her creative work has been widely exhibited and her writing featured in several magazines.
Her debut novel, If I Never Went Home (2014) was highly praised.
Other regional winners are Nat Newman (The Pacific), Anushka Jasraj (Asia), Akwaeke Emezi (Africa), and Tracey Fells, Canada and Europe.
The five outstanding stories were successful in a year of fierce competition when the Prize received a record 6,000 entries from across the Commonwealth.
“It speaks to the high quality of the shortlisted stories that the judges’ decisions were rarely straightforward – and it speaks to the high quality of the winners that none of the judges left the conversation unsatisfied by the choices we ended up with. These are engaging and moving stories that honour and understand the potential of the short story form to burrow in on intimate stories and also to give you vast canvases painted with precise strokes. They also reveal the extent to which human concerns cross borders while the ways in which those concerns are played out are always individual and specific," said Kamila Shamsie, Chair, 2017 Commonwealth Short Story Prize.
Source: Loop News May 24, 2017.