Born in Guyana, Sharmilla Persaud, with a little unwilling help from her mother, discovered her love of fashion at an early age. Finding the perfect artistic playground in her mother’s colorful saris and jewelry, a young Sharmilla went to work cutting and combining them into her own creations. At five, she moved with her family to New York, and now credits the streets of Manhattan for lending an urban edge to her aesthetic as a…
Recent medical school graduate, Topaz Sampson, is very close to accomplishing her dream of practicing Medicine. A New Amsterdam native, Topaz was part of the graduating Class of 2015 at Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine, and is scheduled to begin residency training at Baylor College of Medicine. While in medical school Topaz was appointed 2014 President of the Student National Medical Association (SNMA), the oldest and largest student-run organization focused on the needs and concerns…
Vogue.com has named Letitia Wright as one of the actresses to watch in 2018. According to the fashion and beauty website, the Guyanese-born, London-raised actress will conquer the silver screen alongside Chadwick Boseman in 2018’s Black Panther before reprising her role as Shuri in Avengers: Infinity War. Expect her to swap out her superhero duds for pieces from Burberry and Prada. Back in February we shared that Letitia landed a role in the 2018 Marvel Comics…
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….
Linisa George is a creative outburst of energy. Born in Guyana, Linisa migrated with her family to Antigua, the island where she calls home, at the tender age of 4. She wrote in secret from the age of 6; her poems were her escape from a world that she didn’t think she fit into. It wasn’t until 2003 while living in Toronto where she discovered the writings of the amazing Maya Angelou, that she realised…
Kayla Stewart, a 2017 graduate of the Medical Arts Academy at the Gloucester Township Campus of Camden County Technical Schools (CCTS), was accepted into five of the eight ivy league colleges. She chose to attend Columbia University, but was also accepted into Brown University, University of Pennsylvania, Williams College, Cornell University, Johns Hopkins University, Carnegie Mellon University, Tufts University, University of Chicago, Northwestern University, Rutgers University-Honors College, Boston University, and New York University. Kayla lives…
Maya Tiwari (born April 16, 1952 in Liverpool Village, Guyana) is a humanitarian, world peace leader and author. Also called “Mother Maya,” she is an international teacher of Ayurveda, a health activist and the founder of the Wise Earth School of Ayurveda and Mother Om Mission. Biography Maya Tiwari was born in Guyana, the daughter of Brahmin priest Pandit Bhagawan Ramprasad Tiwari, whose family originated from Lucknow, India. Thereafter, she became a fashion designer…
Lisa Punch is a talented singer, songwriter, dancer and actress. She was born on September 4, 1992 in Guyana; the daughter of John Errol Punch and Nafieza Aiana Daniels and is the eldest of five siblings. Lisa spent the first few years of her life in Berbice before relocating to Georgetown. By age 11, she was performing across the country and appearing on local TV shows such as Talent Exclusive. At her alma mater, North Georgetown Secondary…
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…
Guyanese born Rosalind Kilkenny McLymont is the editor-in-chief of The Network Journal, a New York-based business magazine for Black professionals and entrepreneurs and CEO of newly launched AfricaStrictlyBusiness.com. She is the author of the award-winning non-fiction title, Africa: Strictly Business, The Steady March to Prosperity (The Network Journal Communications Inc., 2009), and the groundbreaking novel–Middle Ground (Beckham, 2006). She is also a partner in McLymont, Kunda & Co., an international trade and business development strategy…
Toronto-based Caterer Shaunna Marto never thought she could have a career doing what she loves. Trained in culinary arts, Shaunna founded Party’s By Shaunna in 2006; a full service catering and party business. Born in Georgetown, Guyana to a middle class family, Shaunna started cooking at the of 11; much to the horror of her parents who were concerned that she would hurt herself at the stove. They soon realize she had a talent for…
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…
Guyanese-born Daphne Steele made headlines around the world when she became the UK’s first black hospital matron in 1964. For the time, Daphne’s achievement was nothing short of amazing. Former Deputy Director of Nursing at the Department of Health, Nola Ishmael, described Daphne as a ‘first’ who led with dignity and determination.“ She helped to shape aspirations for BME nurses across the profession who sought to follow in her footsteps.” Daphne was born in 1929…
A woman of distinction, US-based Guyanese Holly Veal, a prosecutor, public defender and private defence attorney, recently announced her candidacy for Henry County District Attorney in Henry County in the U.S. State of Georgia. Holly originally hails from Wismar, Linden. She emigrated from Guyana in December 1995 to St Albans, New York. More than eleven years ago, she began her legal career as an assistant public defender. In that capacity she worked tirelessly to ensure…
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