Tawhida Tanya Evanson

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.

I believe that the job of the poet--and all artists in fact--is to question, reflect, inspire and predict the future.

I would choose Guanahani, 11 by Kamau Brathwaite.