Guyanese, Roxanne Caleb, named Nyack College’s 2015 Valedictorian

The Honorary Judge Ingrid Joseph is a Democratic judge of the New York City Civil Court Kings. She was born in Brooklyn to Guyanese parents. Judge Joseph is running for re-election in the New York State primary on September 13, 2018.  She was elected to the court in 2009, and her current term expires in 2018. She is also serves as an acting justice of the Kings County Supreme Court, Civil Term. Here’s Her Story…

New York-based lawyer Denise M. Grant was born in Guyana and is a Partner in the  Project Development & Finance Group, Shearman & Sterling,LLP. She is the daughter of Guyana’s former ambassador to the United States, the late Hon. Cedric Grant and the second oldest of four girls (three of whom are lawyers). Denise was raised in England before migrating to the United States in 1982 where she graduated with an International Relations degree from…

In a once unthinkable career for women, aviation in modern times has seen a multitude of females excelling in the field. One such example is US-based Guyanese (Captain) Beverley Drake, who knocked down the stereotype in her aviation career to prove that women can do a man’s job. Beverley, who grew up in Georgetown, in an interview with Guyana Times Sunday Magazine revealed that her father always wanted her to become a pilot, so he…

Guyana celebrates Republic Day or Mashramani (abbreviated as ‘Mash) on February usually on the 23rd. Guyanese citizens enjoy festive and colourful parades much like that of a carnival, music, and games. Guyanese cook on this special day to mark the birth of a new country. Mashramani should not be confused with the country’s Independence Day on May 26. After it gained independence from the British in 1966, the Guyanese people established itself as an independent…

Future Scientist, Stony Brook University Class of 2013 Majors: Chemistry; Chemical & Molecular Engineering UNCF-Merck Science Initiative 2012 Award Recipient Dara Bobb-Semple has many accomplishments at Stony Brook – from twice being recognized for achieving a 4.0 GPA, to receiving the MARC award in fall 2011, to being elected to Tau Beta Pi Honor Society (December 2011), to recently being named a recipient of a national award, the 2012 UNCF Merck Undergraduate Science Fellowship! But…

Gertie Wood’s name has appeared at fleeting moments on the periphery of scholarship on the Guyanese women’s movement. As such not much has been said or published on the significant volume of work and activism she undertook for women and girls in British Guiana. Social worker, women’s rights activist, accomplished concert artist, and politician, Wood was sometimes the sole female voice articulating for women and equitable conditions of work in the period of her greatest…

Ready to take the world by storm, the sultry songstress known to audiences as “Petra” crosses effortlessly into the realms of Caribbean music infused with pop, jazz and R&B melodies that places her in the evolving category called “Island Pop.” Born Roshell Petra Hooper, the singer/songwriter who hails from Guyana, South America was raised in Trinidad and Tobago in a family of professional musicians; her mother was a talented singer and her father is the…

Dawnn Lewis is a popular actress and singer, perhaps best known for her roles on sitcoms such as  A Different World and Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper.  She was born on August 13, 1961 in Brooklyn, New York, to Guyanese parents Joyce and Carl Lewis.  She attended the High School of Music & Art and graduated at age 16. After high school, Dawnn went on to the University of Miami where she graduated Magna Cum Laude. Career: Dawnn made…

Happy Holidays GGR Family! Countdown to Christmas- what’s on your Santa wish list?

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…

Ruth-Anne Lynch is a Guyanese travel writer and radio practitioner  based in England.  With parents from Guyana and Jamaica, she was educated in Guyana, Jamaica and the UK with degrees in International Tourism Management and Radio (Production and Management). In 2010, the writer embarked on a travel research tour of the three Guianas in South America, to update the Guianas chapter of Rough Guides’ South America on a Budget (2nd Ed.), published in August 2011. …

This Sunday, June 22, at 9pm, Guyanese recording artist Lisa Punch will be a Rising Star contestant on ABC Television. Please go to your Smartphone’s app store to download Rising Star app so that you can vote for her.  Get more information about the show at http://abc.go.com/shows/rising-star.  Let us help this Guyanese Girl to win! Make sure you watch the show and vote. Voting is live and the window to vote is short, so you…

By the end of her senior year, Lisa Wilson will be a degree ahead of many of her peers.   The 17-year-old high school student is set to earn an Associates Degree in Biology with Honors in June 2016, prior to graduating high school.  Lisa is currently a  Smart Scholars at the Medgar Evers College Preparatory High School (MECPHS) which allows her to take Medgar Evers College courses during her high school years. Lisa was…

Alyssa Raghu shed tears of joy Sunday night when she was advanced to Hollywood for the next round of American Idol.  The 15 year old songbird auditioned on the premiere episode on season 16 of the ABC’s singing competition before judges Katy Perry, Lionel Ritchie and Luke Bryan. Born to Guyanese parents, Alyssa is a student at Lake Nona High School in Orlando Florida and also plays the guitar. According to www.wftv.com, Alyssa’s ‘American Idol’ journey…

Grace Nichols is a Guyanese poet.  She was born in Georgetown, Guyana in 1950, the fifth of seven children. She was raised in the village of Highdam and attended the school where her father worked as headmaster and her mother taught piano lessons. At age eight she moved with her family to Georgetown, and at age sixteen she left high school with the hope of becoming a teacher. Earning a degree in communications at the University…