Tawhida Tanya Evanson
Biography
Tawhida Tanya Evanson is a poet, novelist, inter-artist and Ashiq whose practice spans literature, spoken word, music, film, performance and education within currents of African diaspora, Sufi mysticism, and decolonial thought. Born and based in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal with roots in Antigua, West Indies, her award-winning novel Book of Wings (2021) and its French companion Livre des ailes (2023) join her poetry collections Nouveau Griot (2018) and Bothism (2017). Over a twenty-five-year career, she has performed at festivals worldwide; produced multiple audio recordings and videopoems; and recently wrote, performed in and produced the feature-length, multi-award-winning Afrofuturist concert film CYANO SUN SUITE (2024). A seasoned arts educator and founder of Mother Tongue Media independent arts productions, she has served as Poet Ambassador in Residence at the League of Canadian Poets, president of the Quebec Writers’ Federation, and director of the Banff Centre Spoken Word Program. She moonlights as a whirling dervish.
Micro-interview
Yes, I read poetry in high school, and it was mainly poetry by musicians because music has always played a central role in my life. When I was fifteen, I listened to The Doors day and night and had several books of poetry by Jim Morrison. I still have my copy of "Wilderness" which contains one of my favourite pieces of his called “Signals.” Also, when I was sixteen, I had to do a school project on a famous Canadian and my father suggested the poet Leonard Cohen. I had no idea who he was and so it was a fantastic discovery. My project had to be presented creatively outside of the standard essay format. So, I wrote an essay about Leonard Cohen, recorded myself reading the text onto a cassette interspersed with samples of his songs, and handed in my first spoken word project. It was 1988 and I still have that cassette.
I started writing poetry after a very heavy depression put me in the hospital when I was fourteen. A friend from class gave me a journal while I was there. I had had other journals before but this one was different--I blackened the pages with poetry. Poetry saved me, and poetry continues to save me to this day. However, it took many years for me to consider myself a poet. In 1996 while I was completing my BA in English Literature and Creative Writing at Concordia University, I started compiling my work and self-published my first chapbook called "Blood In, Blood Out." I went on to self-publish five more. And because I have always presented my work orally as a spoken word artist, it is only after my first studio album of poetry and music in 2004 that I really began seeing myself as a poet and not just an occasional writer of poems. It's not a job one chooses, it is a verdict.
The future is ancient
It begins in poetry and ends in poetry
It expands outward from sound to music, movement, movie and mythos
It is a word reuniting with its human harmonic ritual roots to heal the human being
I would choose Guanahani, 11 by Kamau Brathwaite.
