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Days of the Sahib Poet Bio
Chitra Singh is a singer/songwriter and a nursing aide. She is the co-founder of the Rajkumari Cultural Center, an Indo-Caribbean arts and culture organization in Queens.

Here, a biography of Rajkumari Singh is accompanied by a portrait by pen done by her daughter Pritha Singh.

Rajkumari Singh
Rajkumari Singh was a poet, playwright, activist and cultural producer who presided over a movement by artists in Guyana to reclaim the slur "coolie." She suffered from polio and died while receiving treatment in New York City in 1979, at the age of 56. She was the mother of eight children, who carried on her artist legacy through dance, song, theater and literature.

Cover of Heritage Issue 1
One of Rajkumari Singh's chidren, Gora Singh, who was trained in Indian classical dance in India, produced an event in Guyana in 1973 to commemorate the 135th anniversary of Indians landing in the colony. The program also doubled as the first issue of Heritage, a literary pamphlet/newsletter put out by the Messenger Group artistic collective.

Cover of Heritage Issue 2
The second issue of Heritage, containing new writing by Mahadai Das, Henry Muttoo, Janet Naidu and others, appeared in September 1973, six months after the first issue. This is a rare and historically significant publication.

Pages from Heritage Issue 2
These pages from the second issue of Heritage contain a pen drawing and a polemic about the 1948 massacre of sugar cane workers at the Enmore Plantation in Guyana, which fanned the embers of the movement for independence in Guyana. The pages also contain an add for the third issue of the newsletter.

Remembering Gora
Chitra Singh is a singer/songwriter and a nursing aide. She is the co-founder of the Rajkumari Cultural Center, an Indo-Caribbean arts and culture organization in Queens.

In 1998, the Queens Museum hosted a memorial for Chitra and Pritha's brother Gora Singh, a classically trained dancer and a co-founder of the Rajkumari Cultural Center.

Kokila Bahadur Oral History Interview
Kokila Bahadur, a retired registered nurse, speaks with her niece Gaiutra about coming to America alone in her late twenties, when she was a married mother of two. She came as a nurse trainee at the Jersey City Medical Center in 1966, the year of Guyana's independence.

Kokila Bahadur Guiana Midwife's Certificate
Kokila Bahadur was working as a midwife on a sugar plantation in Guiana when she saw an ad from the Jersey City Medical Center seeking nurse trainees. This is her Guianese midwife's certificate.

Kokila Bahadur Guianese Nursing Certificate
Kokila Bahadur came as a nurse trainee at the Jersey City Medical Center in 1966, the year of Guyana's independence. The first in the Bahadur family to immigrate, Kokila Bahadur sponsored her husband, children and many dozens of other relatives through provisions of the 1965 Hart-Cellar Act, the immigration law that profoundly changed the demographics of the United States.

Guyana Stamps
Kokila Bahadur came as a nurse trainee at the Jersey City Medical Center in 1966, the year of Guyana's independence. The first in the Bahadur family to immigrate, Kokila Bahadur sponsored her husband, children and many dozens of other relatives through provisions of the 1965 Hart-Cellar Act, the immigration law that profoundly changed the demographics of the United States.

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