Shana Yardan

Shana Yardan (10 April 1943 – 2 November 1989) was a Guyanese poet and broadcaster, whose work contributed to wider understanding of experiences of Guyanese women, the impact of British colonialism and the natural world.

Biography Yardan was born on 10 April 1943 in Mahaicony, Guyana. She attended St. John Baptist School in Bartica and St. Joseph High School in Georgetown. She began to write poetry in the late 1960s, and she was published for the first time in An Anthology of Voices of Guyana, which was edited by Donald Trotman. In 1972 she and other Guyanese women poets published Guyana Drums, an anthology of their works. She died in New York from cancer on 2 November 1989. In 1980 Yardan was described as the "most important woman poet in Guyana" by Arthur J. Seymour. Her poetry explored themes such as gender inequality and discrimination, She addressed her Indo-Guyanese heritage and the impact of colonialism in her work; one such poem is Earth Is Brown. This piece also deals with the legacies of being the descendant of indentured Indian servants. Other works addressed kala pani – the idea that Hindus are prohibited from crossing seas and oceans.