Name Wordsworth McAndrew Role Poet | ||
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Died April 25, 2008, New Jersey, United States | ||
Education Queen's College, Guyana | ||
Wordsworth mcandrew
Wordsworth McAndrew (1936 – 25 April 2008) was a leading Guyana folklorist, poet, and creative artist.
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Biography
McAndrew was born in 1936 in Georgetown, British Guiana, to Winslow Alexander McAndrew and Ivy McAndrew. His father was a schoolteacher, musician and catechist, who taught in rural Anglican schools. McAndrew was raised in Cummingsburg and, from the age of 12, in Newtown, Kitty. He attended "Teacher" Marshall Kindergarten School, Christ Church Primary School and Queen's College.
Through his work as a radio broadcaster during the 1960s and 1970s, he helped the Guyanese recognize and feel proud of their mythological and folkloric heritage. He studied and celebrated Guyanese language and culture, using all media available to explain and promote Guyanese cultural characteristics.
McAndrew died on 25 April 2008, at the East Orange Hospital, in New Jersey, where he had been living in self-imposed exile.
Legacy
The Wordsworth McAndrew Award, founded in 2002 to celebrate Guyanese who have made important contributions to the country's cultural life, was named in his honour.