My Guyanese Mom Rock Contest Winner – Yvette Irving

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 Amy Barbour-James  (named Caroline Amy Aileen Barbour-James) was a London-born Guyanese civil rights activist and civil servant. Barbour-James was born in London on 25 January 1906 to Guyanese parents, John and Caroline Barbour-James. They were a middle-class family who lived in west London in the early 20th century. Amy’s father, John Barbour-James, was a postmaster in Victoria-Belfield, in Guiana and was transferred to a post office off the Gold Coast (now: Ghana) in 1902. The family later relocated to London in 1905….

Embrace people’s differences with Karen O. Roberts’s empowering debut children’s book, Look at You! You Are Beautiful.  Brimming with vibrant pictures of kids from all walks of life, this charming collection stands in stark contrast to defeat the looks-obsessed culture in which children grow up today. Karen was born in 1971 in a small town in the only English speaking country in South America, Guyana. As a child, she often felt awkward, too tall, too…

The Miss World Pageant is scheduled to take place this September in Indonesia  and the new franchise holder for Guyana,  Natasha Martindale, is busy prepping the reigning queens, Ruqayyah Boyer, to bring home the prestigious title. The Miss World organization appointed Martindale to the Guyana franchise in late June 2013.  A former pageant contestant herself,  Martindale is a Christ Church alumni and also attended Georgetown School of Accountancy and a private College of Business &…

Professional bodybuilder, Alana Shipp, has muscled her way to the top echelon of  Women’s Body Building in just a few years.   Born in 1982 in Barbados to Guyanese parents, Alana spent her early childhood in Guyana prior to moving to Queens, New York at age 11. After graduating high school, Alana enlisted in the US Marine Corps and spent almost 8 years as a non-commissioned officer, working as a logistics procurement manager in Okinawa,…

Claudette Izel Humprey (nee Masdammer)  is the First Female Olympian from British Guiana (Guyana).  Born on March 30th, 1936,  Claudette atttended the St. Georges Anglican School and subsequently entered the Tutorial High School on an athletic scholarship. Her athletic ability was recognized by the Castello Brothers, founders of Tutorial High school, during the annual public schools’ sports meeting.  On account of her sprinting prowess, Claudette represented British Guiana at the 1956 Olympic Summer Games held…

Earlier this month I had the pleasure of watching the young women of St. Albans Episcopal Church perform the Maypole dance at the annual Guyana Folk Festival held in Brooklyn, NY.   I remember doing this as a little girl growing up in Guyana dressed up in frilly dresses and socks with colorful hair bows, as we danced and weaved the ribbons to the sound of music. Watching this recreated many, many years later brought back sweet memories. A maypole is a tall…

During the colonial period in Guyana, the country’s coastal lands were worked by enslaved Africans and indentured Indians. In Creole Indigeneity, Shona N. Jackson investigates how their descendants, collectively called Creoles, have remade themselves as Guyana’s new natives, displacing indigenous peoples in the Caribbean through an extension of colonial attitudes and policies. Looking particularly at the nation’s politically fraught decades from the 1950s to the present, Jackson explores aboriginal and Creole identities in Guyanese society….

Meet Sonia Godding-Togobo, Guyanese-born documentarian, director and filmmaker currently based in the UK.  First migrating to Canada at age two, Sonia graduated from Archbishop Denis O’Connor Catholic High School in Ontario. Sonia has worked in broadcast television for the last decade with broadcast credits in Canada and England.  She has also produced short films in both Haiti and Ghana. In 2001, after graduating from Humber’s Film and Television program, Sonia went on to work in numerous post production houses before…

Meet Food artist, Indra Mekdeci, CEO and Founder of Reminiscence.  Founded in December 2011, Reminiscence is the premiere source in Guyana for beautifully designed, delicious fruit bouquets and chocolate treats.  Indra was born in Guyana and currently resides in Georgetown where she runs her home-based business. Her mouth watering delicacies include chocolate dipped fruit, cake pops, edible hampers and an assortment of chocolate truffles. The idea for starting Reminescence came to Indra while she was…

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…

“Small Business Warrior” Tiffany Johnson wants to help businesses that are overlooked.”  Tiffany is a program manager helping small businesses grow on Amazon.com. She recently spearheaded a new Amazon initiative called the Black Business Accelerator, which provides access to capital, business guidance, mentorship, and marketing support to help Black business owners succeed as sellers in Amazon’s store.  “The role small businesses play in our society is very personal to me,” she said. The daughter of…

Soulful.  Divine.  Spellbinding.  Simone Denny is…a legend in the making.  Born and raised in Toronto, this powerhouse diva is of Guyanese heritage.  Simone’s Caribbean Canadian environment exposed her to a wide and eclectic mixed bag of musical influences. She grew up listening to calypso, reggae, Brazilian music, and of course, R&B. Simone knew in her heart that music would always be a major part of her life. Singing at a talent show in the 6th grade…

Meet Melabeu Cheriece,  Professional Model, Actress & Bikini Bodybuilding Competitor.  She’s the daughter of Guyanese author and Beterverwagting native, Adrianna Rose,  who recently published the novel Trapped in the Middle. Melabeu began competing in August, 2012 and has fallen in love with the bikini bodybuilding sport. During her teenage years she won the Miss New Jersey Perfect Teen Pageant and has grown in the performing arts, professionally.  She is very passionate about health and fitness…

Guyanese Singer Charmayne (Maxee) Maxwell of the 1990s R&B group Brownstone, mysteriously died Saturday, members of her family have confirmed.  Maxee was born Charmayne Maxwell on January 11, 1969 in Guyana.  She was best known for her work with Grammy-nominated band Brownstone and her 2000 solo single “When I Look into Your eyes.” She was 46 years old. Brownstone was  popular during the mid-1990s. Their  1995 hit single “If You Love Me”,  was nominated for…