Happy Holidays GGR Family!

May 2015 bring you new hopes, new aspirations and a whole new beginning!

New York-based Kim A. Clarke is an internationally acclaimed multifaceted bassist, composer and educator, who counts her father, Henry Clarke, and her late Guyanese-born grandfather, trombonist/bassist Henry “Hy” Clarke, Sr., as her personal jazz heroes.”  Kim plays  the Acoustic Bass, Electric Upright and four and five-stringed Electric Bass Guitar. Her electric Bass playing has been described as soulful, funky, rich & tight. For more than 20 years Kim has performed with some of the world’s…

Born on January 16, 1982, Thara Natalie Prashad, musically known as Thara, is an American R&B singer/ songwriter/actress of Guyanese Heritage. Her father is Indo-Guyanese and her mother is part Irish and part African-American. While pursuing degrees in biology and acting at Fordham University, the sassy singer gave up her scholarship to pursue a music career.  Thara impressed DJ Clue of Desert Storm Label with her audition and was offered a music contract in 2004….

Cindy Rajkuma, a dual-enrollment student who graduated from Valencia College and Ocoee High School in Orlando, is determined to get into medical school. “Becoming a doctor has always been my career path,” says Cindy, who will begin classes at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in January 2016, right after she completes an internship in Washington, D.C., with the National Institutes of Health. She doesn’t have to worry about paying for college because Cindy has been named…

Dr. Candace Cummings is a board-certified Physician in the field of Internal Medicine and currently serves as a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine and Hospitalist at Stony Brook-Southampton Hospital, a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine, on the faculty at Stony Brook-Southampton Hospital and is a member of The Leading Physicians of the World.  She previously served as an Attending Physician at Meeting House Lane Medical PC in Southampton, New…

United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Human Resources Management, Catherine Pollard, was born in Georgetown, Guyana 1960.  She attended Bishops High School from 1971 to 1978 and holds a Master’s Degree in Accounting from the University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica. Catherine was appointed to this top post by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in April 2008.   The Office of Human Resources Management (OHRM) is responsible for implementing the vision of the Secretary-General for an integrated…

Guyanese, Iris de Freitas, was the first female lawyer in the Caribbean and possible The chance discovery on eBay of a postcard featuring a portrait of a young black woman in university robes has led a Welsh university to honour one of its alumni. As part of its International Women’s Day celebrations on Tuesday 8 March 2016 Aberystwyth University,  a public research university in Aberystwyth, Wales officially named a room in honour of Iris de…

As a highly successful voters’ rights lawyer in the US, Marcia is able to help thousands of persons, particularly minorities, through her work and hopes to replicate her successes in Guyana. Now 46 years old, Marcia lives in Washington D.C. with her husband and two daughters. Though she has lived in America for more than three decades, Marcia said that she had never forgotten her roots. Promoting democratic rights in Guyana and beyond…Lawyer Marcia Johnson-Blanco…

The year was nineteen seventy-five. Barren couple, Pearl and Edward Riley stumbled upon a newborn baby girl. Her cries could only be heard by a true mother, which Pearl immediately became. Bundled up with their new child, they discovered a parcel of artifacts and a scribbled note that read: Sakkara. Pregnant seamstress, Petrina Dugal, became a runaway at the age of twenty-six. She ran away from a brutish husband, Roger, and a well-loved South American…

In August 2013, Althea Chase with the help of her sister Crystal, hosted a sleep over for her daughter and 6 of her friends. They did manicures, pedicures and chocolate facials which they all loved.  They ate pizza, drank apple cider in champagne glasses, and had girl talk. The girls talked about their future plans and how they were going to make the world a better place. It was a life changing, fun experience and…

Linda McPherson is the current President of District Council 1707 of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employee (AFSCME).  She represents some 28,000 non-profit social services ranging from home care, social services, direct care, public center-based day care, educational, fundraising and her own local Heat Start.  She is employed at Community Parents, Inc. /Medger Evers Head Start where she works as a Family Service Coordinator.  She praises the federally-funded Head Start program for…

“Be patient” is easier said than done but always remember that Good Things take time…

Janice Elizabeth MacGregor is a second generation Canadian born to parents who emigrated from Guyana and became Canadian citizens. Her father, Frank Moorgen (RIP 2010), was born in Hampshire Village, Berbice and her mother, Mary Moorgen (née Deonarine) was born in Corentyne, Berbice. ‎ Janice, her brother, and her sister were born in Edmonton, Alberta (Canada). She attended Millwoods Christian School where her strong commitment to academics and faith were formed. She fondly recalls visiting…

 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….

Delece Smith-Barrow is a lifelong writer and journalism enthusiast. She is a higher education reporter at U.S. News & World Report, where she covers admissions challenges and student life issues for graduate students, as well as minorities in college and graduate school. She also edits stories on trends in online education and how to pay for an education. Prior to working as an education reporter, she worked as a producer, online editor and writer at…