My Guyanese Mom Rocks! “Odetta Abiola Young”

Marian Joan Burnett (born 22 February 1976 in Linden) is a Guyanese middle-distance runner who specializes in the 800 and 1500 metres. She competed in the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympic Games, reaching the second heat of the 800 metres on both occasions. She won the first of her three national Sportswoman of the Year awards in 1998 including being a national champion in two sports – track & field and bodybuilding & fitness. In…

Meet Marva Jacobs, the new Honorary Consul for Guyana to the State of Georgia. Born and raised in Bartica, Marva was officially appointed to this role in February 2015. Her focus will be on connecting the Guyanese community, which is estimated to be about 10,000-strong in the State, with the Guyana embassy in Washington and facilitating improved business relations with Guyana. A former Guyana Airways employee, Marva emigrated to the US in the 1970’s and served for 7  years at…

Grace Aneiza Ali is the founder and editor of  OfNoteMagazine.org, an online magazine that celebrates people of color in the arts. She was born in Guyana and moved to the United States when she was fourteen years old. Having grown up surrounded by a culture of illiteracy among women, she is committed to the work of educating girls in developing nations. Grace launched Of Note in 2009 as a platform to honor “artists whose work values compassion,…

B.G. is British Guiana; Bhagee is a fiery local stew. Philippa was the second daughter in a family of six children growing up in mid-20th century in colonial Guyana. She recounts her Sisyphean trials growing up a Carrington in Lot 10, First Street, Georgetown — from the women’s battles to the neighbours that never wore clothes to the relatives who walked with their shoes in their hands. B.G. Bhagee: Memories of a Colonial Childhood About…

I always had childhood dreams of ensuring that I make a difference in the world; that a day would come when I would be able to do better for my family. And it became clear that law was the answer…like doctors, lawyers have the ability to shape lives, to change lives, to save lives. They bring life to society through various procedures which they use to secure justice.” ~ Latoya Andrea Roberts. From being a…

Born in Georgetown, Guyana and raised in California’s Silicon Valley, hairstylist Marcia Hamilton is known for her ability to mesh old school beauty with up to minute trends and techniques. She discovered her passion for art and style at an early age, but against her mother’s predictions, Marcia had ambitions of becoming an auto mechanic. After a series life changing events, destiny lead Marcia onto the inevitable path of her career in hair. She began…

Flora Zeta Zhang Elizabeth Tian Ai Cheong-Leen was born in Hong Kong in 1959.  Her father Hilton Cheong-Leen was born in Georgetown, British Guyana but is of Chinese descent and her mother Pauline Chow is from Beijing. Flora graduated from The Royal Ballet in the UK and at the Paris Opera in France. She starred as the lead actress in movies such as: “Life After Life”, “Duel to the Death”, “Chasing Girl” and “Return of…

Pauline Melville was born in Guyana in 1948 and has emerged as one of the most accomplished talents on the modern literary scene. Her pre-school years were spent in the then British Guiana. Her father was “mixed-race Guyanese, part South American Indian, African and Scottish”, and her mother came from a “big working-class family” in south London. The family moved to south London in the early 1950s, when she was “five or six”. A professional…

Below, the first female army officers, from left, Brenda Aaron, Clarissa Hukumchand, Hyacinth King and Captain Joan Granger, in their uniforms of green khaki shirts and blouse, green berets, shiny black shoes and shoulder bags at Camp Ayanganna. Reprinted from Guyana Graphic, Tuesday, January 31, 1967 (Winston Oudkerk photo) The four young women are donned military uniforms of green khaki on January 30, 1967 and marched smartly off to begin a course of training as…

Ms. Valerie Rodway (1919-1970) was a teacher and Guyanese composer.  She is best known for her national songs, which include, “O Beautiful Guyana,” “Kanaïma,” “Hymn for Guyana’s Children,” “Arise, Guyana,” and “Guyana the Free.  She also put to music the famed Guyanese independence poem by Martin Carter, “Let Freedom Awaken.” Ms. Rodway was a member of one of those families whose contributions to Guyana are still evident. Her father, Newton Berthier Fraser was born in…

SHE was recently elected the first woman president of the Guyana Press Association (GPA), shattering the glass ceiling that existed for seven decades. Although excited for her new role, Nazima Raghubir is ready to hit the ground running with plans to have the GPA offer more training for its journalists. “There is a high turnover of media workers, journalists in Guyana. A lot of us aren’t trained and we don’t have a journalism programme at…

Meet Domini Alleyne, 2014 Miss Barbados Senior Fitness Queen. The 30 year old fitness model, who reings from Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo and Den Amstel West Coast Demerara in Guyana, migrated to Barbados at age 13. She later returned to Guyana and in 2011 worked briefly for the local HJTV television channel and was also a fashion model. However, chronic overeating following a failed marriage propelled Domini to embark on her fitness journey. Here’s Domini…

Maureen Bunyan is an Emmy Award winning Anchor at WJLA TV 7, ABC Affiliate in Washington D.C.  She is of  Guyanese and Aruban heritage.  Her parents moved from Guyana to Aruba in the 1930s, where Maureen was born.  The eldest of three daughters,  immigrated with her family to the United States when she was just eleven years old, after her father, Arthur Bunyan, accepted a job with a company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her mother Wilhelmina was…

A collection of short stories which are all set in the Caribbean and London. Pauline Melville is the winner of “The Guardian” Fiction Prize and winner of the Macmillan Silver Pen Award. This book was also awarded the 1991 Commonwealth Writers Prize for best first book. Shape-shifter (Picador Books) More Books by Pauline Melville ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  Pauline Melville

Michelle Morgan is a Meteorologist for CBS affiliate WWL-TV in New Orleans, Louisiana.  Morgan is a first-generation American born in Brooklyn, New York — but grew up in Queens, New York during her childhood and teenage years. Both of her parents are proud Guyanese immigrants. Her mother is from Rose Hall in the East Berbice-Corentyne Region and her father is from New Amsterdam. She credits her parents as huge supporters and advocates of her educational…