Letting go….

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…

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…

Acclaimed soprano, Alyson Cambridge, is celebrating a huge honor having been presented with the Vanguard Trailblazer Award, by the Institute of Caribbean Studies in Washington D.C. Alyson is the first opera singer to have ever been recognized in the genre last night at the Caribbean American Heritage Awards 25th Anniversary Gala. On hand to enjoy the accolades with her was her Guyanese father, Dr. Richard Cambridge and Scandinavian/American mother Joedy Cambridge.  The award was presented…

THE ADVERTISERS TRIBUNE, NOVEMBER 18, 2018 As a young Guyanese girl growing up in New York City from the age of 14, Aliann Pompey had no idea that her undiscovered talent would lead her to four consecutive summer Olympics, beginning in Sydney and ending in London. Medalling in two commonwealth games, gold in 2002 and silver in 2010, and competing at World Championships, are just some of many achievements Aliann has attained over the years;…

Too often people mistake Guyana for Ghana.  During  a recent trip to Florida, I was having a conversation with a colleague about the Mashramani celebrations in Guyana and she said to me “that’s in Africa right?”  I’ve also been asked quite a few times “what other language do you speak in Guyana?  That’s why I decided to put together this synopsis  to enlighten some folks on the difference between “Guyana” in South America and the African nation…

Nine-year-old award winning author and poet, Anaya Lee Willabus, will be launching her second book, ‘A Bully’s Disguise.’  Anaya Lee published her first book ‘The Day Mohan Found His Confidence,’ at the age of 8, which earned her five awards, as well as local and international recognition for her outstanding literary contribution. A Bully’s Disguise, sheds light on peer pressure and how it may influence one’s decision in elementary school.  Mohan, the nine year old…

My mother is a woman like no other. Nicola Amanda Dover Roberts, amazing mother of three rocks!!! She is the best mom that you can ever ask for. She is brave, adventurous, loving, charismatic, caring and to top it off kind-hearted. She is an intelligent, hardworking young woman whose beauty is beyond compare. I remember this one instant whereby I wanted to participate in my primary school’s fair because it was my last year in the…

“The handicap of deafness is not in the ear; it is in the mind.”   These are the words of actress, Marlee Matlin, and Marcia Shury is determined to live in this truth. “Silent Hearer” chronicles the story of Marcia S. Shury as her happy childhood was turned upside down due to the onset of a sudden partial hearing loss.  The book details how she rose above the many obstacles and frustrations that she encountered in school, in…

This past weekend the people of Guyana felt a sense of pride as Rafieya Aasieya Husain became the first Guyanese in over 40 years to place at the Miss World Pageant. The 22-year-old beauty queen, who is a native of Essequibo County, was one of the top 10 Finalists named at the Miss World competition finale held on Sunday at the Excel London ICC Auditorium. Rafieya also won the ‘Beauty With a Purpose Title’, which…

Helen Taitt was the founder and director of the School of Guyana Ballet, which trained many of the teachers with the Guyana National School of Dance. Her dancing career spanned two decades from the 1950s to 1970s. Helen made the theatre her life-long career, performing, composing and teaching right up to the end of her life. She was Guyana’s best known, most accomplished and acclaimed professional dancer, and was also a choreographer, writer, dance instructor,…

Oonya Kempadoo is an internationally published and acclaimed author, born in England in 1966 to Guyanese parents. She was brought up in Guyana and studied art in Amsterdam. Oonya has lived and worked for most of her life in various Caribbean islands including Trinidad, Tobago, St. Lucia, and is currently based in Grenada. A creative writer and novelist, she also works freelance as a researcher and consultant in the arts, private sector, with youth and…

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…

Navigators Travel to Guyana gives a taste of what Guyana has to offer to its readers, and it is the follow up to Navigators Travel to Barbados written by Howard Liverpool. This time our intrepid explorers travel to Guyana and learn about the history and geography of the country. They also sample some of the local cuisine and have a scary encounter with a ram sheep. It’s a children’s book geared to kids from ages…

Oscar Wilde said it best “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” You should be your own biggest cheerleader. Forget about what you look like and be proud of who you are! Stop trying to measure up. The only person you have to compete with is yourself and always remember that You Rock!

Shondell ‘Mystery Lady’ Alfred is a professional boxer from Guyana. She is one of the first female boxers to represent Guyana internationally and in 2011 the “Mystery Lady” was awarded “Most Inspirational Boxer of the Year” by the Women’s Boxing Archive Network (WBAN).  Alfred’s knockout victory over Corrine Van Ryck DeGroot was largely responsible for her winning the award in front of a glamorous line up of boxers worldwide. Shondell grew up in Albouystown where she took to athletics and later karate while in…