Port of Spain: the story of a city | Backstory By Judy Raymond | Issue 151 (May/June 2018) A childhood encounter with a touring steelband began Stephen Stuempfle’s connection with Trinidad. Now the US scholar has written an illuminating history of Port of Spain in the era before Independence. As Judy Raymond learns, Stuempfle’s research has only deepened his love for T&T’s capital
Fanny Eaton: forgotten beauty By Judy Raymond | Issue 143 (January/February 2017) In the paintings of the nineteenth-century British Pre-Raphaelite artists, one “exotic” face stands out. Fanny Eaton, born in Jamaica, was a mixed-race model who found herself, for a few years, near the heart of Victorian London’s art world — and was long forgotten. Judy Raymond tells what’s known of her story
The Merikins: heroes of the forgotten war By Judy Raymond | Caribbean Resilience (1 May 2020), Issue 140 (July/August 2016) Two hundred years ago, a group of free black veterans of the War of 1812 arrived in Trinidad. In the island’s deep south, the villages they founded still preserve the traditions of the “Merikins,” as writer Judy Raymond and photographer Marlon Rouse discover — and still have much to teach their fellow citizens
Angelo Bissessarsingh: back in times By Judy Raymond | Issue 138 (March/April 2016) For Trinidadian Angelo Bissessarsingh, what started as a childhood obsession with yesteryear artefacts grew into a passion for researching and writing about history that’s helped reignite public interest in T&T’s complicated past. Judy Raymond tells the story of a young historian’s archive and love for what once was
Gerard Besson: “I’m such a set of loose ends” By Judy Raymond | Issue 136 (November/December 2015) Trinidadian historian and publisher Jerry Besson on his eccentric relatives and colourful career — as told to Judy Raymond
Carifesta: A Grand Family Reunion By Judy Raymond | Issue 1 (Spring 1992) This summer in Trinidad and Tobago the Caribbean stages its arts festival, Carifesta, for only the fifth time in two decades. Judy Raymond reports
Word of mouth (January/February 2015) By Judy Raymond, John Robert Lee and Attillah Springer | Issue 131 (January/February 2015) Trinidad’s stickfighting season, a new film about the history of steel pan, and St Lucia’s week of Nobel celebrations
Picking the Big Apple By Judy Raymond | Issue 107 (January/February 2011) ...or should that be picking in the Big Apple? Judy Raymond is spoilt for choice in New York City
Past masters of the mas By Judy Raymond | Issue 107 (January/February 2011) These old-time characters still come out to play every Carnival, and Abigail Hadeed is there to record them. Here she shares some of her images
Albert Laveau: A Man for All Seasons By Judy Raymond | Issue 100 (November/December 2009) Actor Albert Laveau tells Judy Raymond how he's guiding the Trinidad Theatre Workshop into its next half-century
The Measure of a Mann By Judy Raymond | Issue 100 (November/December 2009) Margaret Mann was an English housewife whose drawing teacher was the renowned Trinidadian artist Michel-Jean Cazabon..
Meiling and Msquared By Judy Raymond | Issue 95 (January/February 2009) What do you get when you add master designer Meiling to affordable chain-store fashion?
JGB Siegert: a taste for adventure By Judy Raymond | Issue 94 (November/December 2008) Judy Raymond traces the long and exciting journey of Angostura bitters’ inventor Dr JGB Siegert, from the battlefield of Waterloo to the rainforests
They call her Noble — Trinidad’s Noble Douglas By Judy Raymond | Issue 91 (May/June 2008) Trinidadian dancer Noble Douglas trained with the best and in turn has trained the best
Winter movie heads for the tropics By Judy Raymond | Issue 91 (May/June 2008) Frances-Anne Solomon’s award-winning movie A Winter Tale, set in the Caribbean Diaspora in Toronto, is to be screened around the region
Meiling: the realm of style By Judy Raymond | Issue 89 (January/February 2008) Caribbean Beat editor Judy Raymond spent many arduous months following Trinidadian designer Meiling to document her career
Sir Vidia Naipaul: A knight of celebrations By Judy Raymond | Issue 86 (July/August 2007) The University of the West Indies, St Augustine campus, honours Nobel Laureate Sir Vidia (VS) Naipaul
Up close and impersonal By Judy Raymond | Issue 86 (July/August 2007) Caribbean Dreams, a photographic journey through Virgin Gorda turns out to be a bland affair
Blessed are the meek By Judy Raymond | News & Online Exclusives Judy Raymond on Brown Face, Big Master, by Joyce Gladwell, originally published in the Caribbean Review of Books
Every man is an island By Judy Raymond | News & Online Exclusives Judy Raymond on A Distant Shore, by Caryl Phillips, originally published in the Caribbean Review of Books
Last-minute mas By Judy Raymond | Issue 113 (January/February 2012) Judy Raymond watches artists Ashraph and Shalini Seereeram whip up a Cat in Bag Carnival band full of style and satire
Derek Walcott: making poetry from nothing By Brendan de Caires and Judy Raymond | Issue 101 (January/February 2010) As the St Lucian Nobel laureate turns 80, Brendan de Caires reflects on the meaning of Derek Walcott’s life and work
