mother tongue media | tawhida tanya evanson

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. Her current work-in-progess is Annihilation Ghazals. She moonlights as a whirling dervish.