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by Tania Hernandez (Author)
"On first meeting, you may not suspect that Tania Hernandez is a bawn Jamaican. A mix of various ethnicities, she embodies the Jamaican motto 'Out of many, one people.'
But if her appearance doesn't immediately signal her Jamaicaness, there can be no doubt when the flavour and colour of the island dialect rolls off her tongue. At her performances, where she channels the spirit of the late Jamaican folklorist Louise Bennett-Coverley (Miss Lou), Tania has audiences mesmerized. Through poems, riddles, stories, and songs, she weaves the textured, poetic, and complex tale of the Island.
One Pot delivers the same exuberant storytelling and poetry. Blended with recipes that marry traditional Jamaican and worldly cuisine, it mek yuh belly bus' with good food and lively tales.
The pages are perfectly seasoned with catchy phrases and cultural witticisms told in the inimitable language and style of Miss Tania Lou (stage name).
Dis book noice, yuh see!"
-Grace Cameron, editor and publisher JamaicanEats magazine, www.jamaicaneats.com
Tania Hernandez, lovingly known as Miss Tania Lou, is a Jamaican-born Canadian who has been performing cultural songs, stories, poems, and skits for over 20 years in Canada, at schools and private functions. She has delighted crowds at the Heritage Singers 40th Anniversary Celebration at the Toronto Centre for the Arts; at "Miss Lou's Room" at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto--a space dedicated to Jamaica's cultural icon, the Hon. Dr. Louise Bennett-Coverley; at the farewell ceremony for Jamaican High Commissioner to Ottawa, Her Excellency Janice Miller; and for the Consul General to Toronto, Mr. Lloyd Wilks. In 2019 she performed at "This is Your Festival" in Gage Park, one of Ontario's largest festivals.
Of herself, Tania says, "I provide nostalgia of the good ol' days when there was no TV, or just a black-and-white television. Many people would tell Anancy and other stories in their yard, listen to "Dulcimina," Ranny, and Miss Lou's show on the radio, watch "Ring Ding," go to pantomimes--maintaining a rich, vibrant Jamaican-Caribbean-African heritage whilst they "buss dem belly wid laugh."
Tania is a wife, mother, grandmother, mentor, special education teacher, and recording artist who loves reading, jog-walking, sight-seeing, and cooking.
