I love and I work, therefore I am at service to the world         If I get in the way of these things, I am lost Born in Montreal, Canada in 1972, Tanya Evanson is a multilingual, Antiguan-Québecoise Lover, Writer, Oral Poet, Vocalist, Dancer and Director of Mother Tongue Media production company.
	Spanning more than a decade, her writing, spoken word, vocal and dance performance career has taken her from Canadian print and CD anthologies to international television and music festivals. Released in 2004, her debut CD Invisible World, funded by the Canada Council for Arts, features spoken word and vocals backed by some of Western Canada’s best Jazz and World Music artists. Her videopoem Almost Forgot my Bones, also funded by the Canada Council, premiered at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and has been shown at festivals in Canada, U.S. and Mexico where it continues to receive awards. As Mother Tongue Media, she has also produced several literary and music series' and festivals in Canada from 1996 to 2004, namely Under the Griot Tree (Vancouver Roundhouse Performance Centre 2004), Trans-Metaphoria Black Poetics (Sonar, Vancouver 2001),  Tales of Ordinary Madness (Bukowski's Vancouver 2000-1) and Clicking Tongues (Montreal 1996-97).
Upon relocating from Vancouver, Canada to Istanbul, Turkey in 2004, a chance meeting with electronic musician Brifo, formely of Gotan Project, prompted a collaboration of oral poetry and music which resulted in the 2006 CD release of Southfull, now a cult success throughout Europe. After a brief stint as lead vocalist with Turkish Experimental Jazz outfit Mugwump in 2005, Tanya continues to find herself on the stage currently performing as a Dancer throughout Europe with Turkish Electronic-Folk music group Mercan Dede and Secret Tribe and in Istanbul with Inci Turan Jocelyn's African Rhythm and Danse Troupe. She has also recently contributed poetic vocals for Detroit music producer Jerry the Cat's forthcoming Dark River Media compilation as well as Mercan Dede's 2007 final release 800. Courtesy of a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts, Tanya is currently at work on a CD of oral poetry and music due out in September 2008. Further multimedia projects are in creation as Tanya and her husband, Turkish Photographer Temmuz Arsiray, marry words with audio and visual. They divide their time between Istanbul Turkey, Vancouver Canada and the invisible world.