Happy Birthday to Our Beautiful Guyana!

Cindy A. Johnson is a professional basketball player who played for the University of Delaware and several European teams.   In 1998 and 2000, she was captain of the Guyana’s National Women’s Basketball Team during the Caricom games. A graduate of the University of Delaware, Cindy played a pivotal role in the rise of UD women’s basketball in the late 1990’s under coach Tina Martin.  She finished her career as the schools all-time leading scorer and…

Born and raised in Guyana, South America, Onica Charles faced many disadvantages still experienced by its citizens today. When she was twelve years old, her parents brought her to the United States “to give me a chance at a good education.” Charles had no idea that one day, that opportunity would inspire her to create a similar path for others. Charles (M.P.A. ’09) made the decision to attend Nova because “I was able to begin…

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…

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…

On Sunday July 1st, 2018, Guyanese from New York/New Jersey Diaspora turned out in support of the Coalition of Guyanese Women – Conversation and Fundraising Luncheon held in honor of the first lady of Guyana, Her Excellency Sandra Granger.  The Coalition, made up of  Sherif Barker, President of Guyana Unity Movement, Cloyette Harris-Stoute, Founder & President of Guyanese Girls Rock, Sharon Devonish-Leid, CEO of Netstruc PR and Internist, Dr. Candace Cummings hosted the event to help…

Renowned Guyanese Fashion Designer, Sonia Noel, showcased her First Resort Collection this past weekend during Caribbean New York Fashion Week. The fun and flirty collection was rich with Noel’s signature weave patterns incorporating vivid hues, leopard prints and polka dot. The event which was held at The Out Nightclub in New York City coincided with Mercedes Benz Fashion Week and was attended by members of the press and the Caribbean Diaspora.  Models, many whom were…

Guyanese cake artist extraordinaire Corrie Bacchus is combining your ideas with her ability to magically transform sugars and spices into truly unique cakes, edible art sculptures and desserts. Hand-sculpted cake art gives evidence of her passion for creating savoury slices of heaven. Bacchus said since childhood she has been fascinated with baking. Her mother baked every Saturday, and Bacchus always helped in the kitchen, observing her mother’s techniques. Through her business, Corries Creative Cakes, Bacchus…

Rochelle Porter has never met a blank surface she didn’t want to draw on. A lifelong lover of global design traditions, the Atlanta-based artist takes cues from the breezy hues of her Caribbean roots, the stark simplicity of Scandinavian prints and the bold geometrics of West African weaves to create vibrant, eye-catching textiles for the home décor and apparel markets. Her travel-inspired patterns feature joyful, unexpected burst of color and classic motifs with a fresh,…

June Givanni is a pioneering international film curator who has considerable experience in film and broadcasting for over 30 years and she is regarded as a resource for African and African diaspora cinema.   She was born in Guyana and grew up in the UK .  The development of the Pan African Cinema Archive is based on her collections from years of working in the field of cinema. Her motivation for the archive is to make this…

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…

Karen Godette, MD, is a board certified radiation oncologist in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, GA. Dr. Godette practices general radiation oncology and specializes in breast and gynecological malignancies, prostate cancer and soft tissue sarcoma. Within these areas, her expertise is brachytherapy. Dr. Godette treats patients at Winship at Emory University Hospital Midtown where she has served as medical director since 2001. Winship Cancer Institute is Georgia’s…

WASHINGTON, DC June 10, 2018 (CMC)  — Guyanese American television host Joy-Ann Reid has been inducted into the into the “Wall of Fame” of the Washington-based Institute of Caribbean Studies (ICS)  Reid, is also a political analyst, journalist, and national correspondent for MSNBC. Reid was born in Brooklyn, New York to a father from the Democratic Republic of Congo and a Guyanese mother. She graduated from Harvard University in Massachusetts with a concentration in film…

Lorna E. Welshman-Neblett has reached a pinnacle that few women of color have attained in the fragrance industry. More than 20 years ago she launched Angel, the first Thierry Mugler perfume, in the U.S. market. The fragrance has been flying off high-end shelves since. Welshman-Neblett’s career in the fragrance industry began in the late 1970s, when Elizabeth Arden established a separate fragrance company with Chloe, Burberrys and others. Welshman-Neblett started working with Thierry Mugler Parfums…

As women we sometimes tend to be very self-critical and always focusing on your own faults and weaknesses. Self-criticism can be both a healthy means of increasing self-awareness and personal growth, and, on the other hand, it can serve as a major obstacle to self-esteem and peace of mind. Stop all of the negative self-talk and criticism of your image and feel happy about who you are. “When a woman becomes her own best friend…

She’s Mad Real: Popular Culture and West Indian Girls in Brooklyn In She’s Mad Real, Oneka LaBennett draws on over a decade of researching teenage West Indian girls in the Flatbush and Crown Heights sections of Brooklyn to argue that Black youth are in fact strategic consumers of popular culture and through this consumption they assert far more agency in defining race, ethnicity, and gender than academic and popular discourses tend to acknowledge. Importantly, LaBennett…