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Point Galera, Toco. Photo courtesy the Toco Foundation The participants of this year's Cropper's Writer Workshop will today read poetry and short fiction on Radio Toco live from 2:00 to 2:30 pm, hosted by Wendy Diaz. Radio Toco is an independent station that broadcasts at 106.7 FM, has 90,000 listeners, and can be heard throughout northeast Trinidad, in Tobago, and by some listeners in the Eastern Caribbean.  Reading today are: Andre Bagoo : journalist and PLEASURE blogger whose poetry and book reviews have been published in journals such as Boston Review, The Caribbean Review of Books and Draconian Switch. Shakirah Bourne : an award winning short story writer from Barbados who is not afraid to voice what others try to keep secret. Shivanee N. Ramlochan : an English Literature teacher from Trinidad who advocates fairness and freedom in life, art and her fiction writing. Colin Robinso n: a Trinidadian writer and community organiser whose work engages political questions of desi...

Alice Yard Space, Woodbrook. Photo courtesy Georgia Popplewell. This Friday, the participants of the Cropper's Writer's Workshop will read at Alice Yard, Woodbrook. Among the participants in this year's workshop are Alake Pilgrim, PLEASURE blogger Andre Bagoo, Colin Robinson and many more. FIND out more here . READ more about the Cropper Foundation here .

This year, the end of the noughties, finds me putting up a Christmas tree – first time this millennium. I wanted to get a live tree, in a pot, in soil, so I let my fingers do the driving through TSTT’s new yellow pages and called every plant nursery between Diego Martin and San Fernando and east as far as Arima. No, no, no, no and finally yes, in Mount Hope. Drove there last Saturday morning. What was described on the phone as a Norfolk pine four foot high, barely managed two; quadruped really a limping biped. It would have been taking advantage to string lights and hang ornaments on that baby; it would be just right in 2012, but not for 2009 and at $225, somewhat out of my reach anyway. The San Antonio Nursery in Santa Cruz offered to go into the field and lop off the top of one of the Norfolk pines in their yard. ‘We do this and it sends out several new tops,’ they assured over the phone. I was already burnt by my last encounter but San Antonio – St Anthony to us – is th...