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Laurelle 'Yaya' Richards (1955–2010): folklorist and poet of St. Louis

Laurelle 'Yaya' Richards of Freetown, St. Louis, founded the Cultural Women Association of Rambaud-Saint Louis and recited her folk poems across the island; her collection The Frock & Other Poems was published after her death in 2010.

By SXM Daily · October 22, 2026

Laurelle "Yaya" Richards (1955–2010) was a folklorist, cultural organiser and spoken-word poet from St. Louis on the French side. She founded the Cultural Women Association of Rambaud-Saint Louis in 1990, and her poems were collected in a book after her death.

Illustrative photo: Richie Diesterheft, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Early life and work

She was born in 1955 in Freetown, a hamlet of St. Louis, the eldest of nine children, according to a Pearl FM obituary and Le97150. She left the Marigot Girls School at 16 to help raise her siblings. She worked as a waitress and then in housekeeping at La Samanna, and in 1988, after her husband's death, she obtained a taxi licence; she was still driving a taxi and working at La Samanna when she died, both sources say.

Keeping traditions alive

In 1990 she founded the Cultural Women Association of Rambaud-Saint Louis to pass on traditional cooking, folk and carnival costuming, and knowledge of local plants. Around 2006 she co-founded the Rambaud St-Louis Fête Association and became its president. Schools and cultural groups on both sides of the island invited her to talk about folklife.

Poet

Her poems grew out of those folklife talks. She first recited "The Frock" in 2002, wearing a dress full of stories, and in 2009 she was a guest poet at the Collectivité's Poetry in the Garden series in Marigot, Pearl FM recorded. A review on the Werkgroep Caraïbische Letteren blog notes that she wrote in St. Martin English ("S'Maatin English").

Death and legacy

Richards died on 26 May 2010, aged 55, according to the Pearl FM obituary, and was buried in Marigot on 4 June 2010. House of Nehesi Publishers published her collection The Frock & Other Poems after her death, and it was launched in Marigot in February 2011 on UNESCO International Mother Language Day.

Sources

• https://web.archive.org/web/20241214025813/https://pearlfmradio.sx/2010/05/31/laurelle-yaya-richards-was-herself-a-community-center/
• https://www.le97150.fr/en/society/qui-etait-laurelle-richards
• https://werkgroepcaraibischeletteren.nl/the-frock-other-poems/

Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20241214025813/https://pearlfmradio.sx/2010/05/31/laurelle-yaya-richards-was-herself-a-community-center/