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….
The Arts
Amander Williams-Clarke is a Guyanese Sculptor/ Wood Artist based in Bridgetown, Barbados. Her family owned and run business, Williams Legacy, specializes in fine art creations using indigenous wood. Born in South Ruimveldt in Guyana, Amander migrated to Barbados with her parents at age five. The art of wood craft was passed down from generation to generation beginning with the patriarch of the family Nathaniel Williams who initially worked with straw specialising in hats, baskets, brooms,…
Award winning singer/songwriter Maiko Watson brings a fresh take on soul music to the Canadian independent music scene. Whether performing with a band or minimal instrumentation, her radiant sultry voice shines through… delivering a powerful, earthy, organic sound that sets her apart from the rest. Born on April 29, 1981 in Georgetown, Guyana Maiko’s family migrated to Canada when she was just a few months old. Maiko has sung her entire life, and started singing…
Meet Vanessa Lee Chester, television and film actress, born on July 2, 1984 to Guyanese parents. She is the oldest child, and the first member of her family to be born in the United States. She has a younger brother named Kevin. Vanessa began acting at the tender age of 3 when her mother signed her up for an audition with a New York agency. She spent her early years in Brooklyn before heading to…
Alyson Cambridge is an accomplished soprano opera singer, born in 1980 to a Guyanese father (Richard Cambridge) and Danish-American mother. At age 23, while a first-year student at the Curtis Institute of Music, she was the Grand Prize Winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Nine months later she debuted at the MET as Frasquita in Carmen under renowned music conductor/director James Levine; a performance that earned her praises from many news outlets including…
Singing Sensation & Dancehall Artist Jackie (Jaxx) Hanover has been heating up the airwaves in the Guyanese Music industry. Jackie, who is also a talented songwriter, reigns from Bagotville, West Bank Demerara and now lives in Georgetown. In a 2012 interview with www.entertainmentmocco.com, Jackie shared the following about her life and music career. Check out her story… Entertainment Macco: You recently released the song “Ladies Anthem” Why did you choose to sing this song with…
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…
Joyce Ferdinand-Lalljie was a child prodigy who began playing one of her mother’s piano pieces when she was three years old. She and her younger sister Mavis both became concert pianists and were known as the two Ferdinand girls. Joyce is accredited as being the first black woman, if not the first woman to play a full piano concerto. In his article on radio in British Guiana for the 1951 Chronicle Christmas Annual, Albert E…
Monica Chopperfield, aka Lady Guymine (1932-2009) was a Guyanese calypso and cultural phenomenon. Popularly known for her hit calypso “Granny Fit” (which you can watch her singing in the clip below), she was born on July 31, 1932, in Berbice, Guyana and would grow to become “an important 20th century calypsonian.” Her performing career started in a show produced by Zelda Martindale at the roofless Olympic Cinema on Lombard Street and she went on to…
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…