Ryan Persadie
Board Member, Caribbean Equality Project
Ryan Persadie (he/him/his) is an artist, educator, and writer based in Toronto, Canada. Currently, he is a doctoral candidate in Women and Gender Studies and Sexual Diversity Studies and a Senior Doctoral Fellow in Caribbean Studies at the University of Toronto. His aesthetic and scholarly work investigates queer Caribbean diasporas, transnational feminisms and sexualities, performance, and Afro-Asian intimacies. His writing can be found in the Stabroek News, Gay City News, MUSICultures, the Middle Atlantic Review of Latin American Studies, the Canadian Theatre Review, the Caribbean Review of Gender Studies, and the Journal of Indenture and Its Legacies. He also works with and organizes multiple community groups, including the Caribbean Equality Project based in Queens, NY. Ryan Persadie is the director and producer of the short film “GYAL” (2022).
Outside of academia, Ryan also performs as a drag artist, where he goes by the stage name of Tifa Wine (she/her). In drag, she draws on lessons passed down from soca and chutney music, and traditions such as Carnival, whereby drag becomes a transgressive medium to center the experiences, voices, and histories of queer and trans-Caribbean agitators and anti-colonial trouble-makers (often drawing upon the spirit of fearless and unruly Caribbean women who continue to remind us what mashin’ up de place can feel and looks like). Tifa Wine has performed across Canada, the US, and the Caribbean and can be found on Instagram @tifa.wine.
