Terrance Vann speaks with TAHIRA, a 2023 Individual Artist Master Fellow in Folk Arts: Oral Literature. They speak on TAHIRA’s journey to storytelling and how her family helped evolve her into the cultural leader she is today. TAHIRA’s three-decade career as a professional storyteller and teaching artist began “unexpectedly, but with a clear intention.” The Masters Fellow was a new mother in 1992 who wanted to give her child “what my late father had given me,” an unapologetic sense of pride for my culture as an African in the Diaspora.” She had previously taken for granted the generational wisdom received from him and “struggled” to recall what the family patriarch had imparted to her. Among her many awards are Philadelphia’s Hometown Hero Award (2022), Delaware Public Media’s Collaboration Award (2021), and New Jersey’s Governor’s Award for Distinguished Service in Arts Education (also in 2021).

To learn more about TAHIRA, visit her website at https://www.tahiraproductions.com/ or her artist profile at https://arts.delaware.gov/iafrecipients/2023_iafs/tahira/