Tanya Evanson

Tanya Evanson

Tanya Evanson is an Antiguan-Quebecoise poet, spoken word artist, vocalist, whirling dervish dancer and arts educator. She also directs Mother Tongue Media and Banff Centre Spoken Word. Born in Montreal and based in Vancouver, Canada, she performs multilingually across Canada from 1995.

Writing, recordings and publications

Evanson publishes six poetry chapbooks and three studio albums: Invisible World (2004), The Memorists (2008) and Language for Gods (2012). Her work appears in anthologies, international music recordings, and on national television and radio. She also features in the award-winning videopoem Almost Forgot My Bones (2004) and in the documentaries Generation Exile (2010) and In Search of Ecstasy (2009).

Performance work

Her spoken word performances include appearances at Vancouver Folk Music Festival, Calgary International Spoken Word Festival, Edmonton Poetry Festival, Beats Without Borders, Poetry Gabriola Festival, International Vancouver Storytelling Festival and When Sisters Speak. She performs alongside artists including John Giorno, Ursula Rucker, Michael Franti, Ted Joans, Sheri-D Wilson, bill bissett and Bob Holman.

Mother Tongue Media

As Mother Tongue Media, Evanson writes, edits, leads workshops and produces intercultural and interarts events from 2000. These include the Tales of Ordinary Madness spoken word series, the Under the Griot Tree Black History Month arts festival, and ANU 8, 9 and 10 conceptual group art performances.

Whirling dervish performance

She is a classically trained whirling dervish since 2002 and performs and teaches across Europe, Turkey, Japan and Canada from bases in Istanbul and Vancouver. Performance highlights include whirling with Mercan Dede, Natasha Atlas, Ludovico Einaudi and Niyaz at venues and festivals including AKM in Turkey, the Barbican in the UK, Club Paradiso in the Netherlands, Etnosur Festival in Spain and Ars Electronica in Austria.