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Aisha Sasha John

Canadian poet, artist, and singing dancer

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 25, 2026
Entity authorityQ29053178 ↗
Source-derived summary

Aisha Sasha John (born 16 September 1980) is a Canadian poet, artist, and singing dancer.

Life

John was born in Montreal, Canada, and studied at the University of Toronto and University of Guelph.

Her first collection of poems, The Shining Material, was published by BookThug in 2011. Her second collection, THOU, was published in 2014 and was a finalist for both the ReLit Awards and the Trillium Book Award for Poetry. Her third collection, I have to live., was published by McClelland & Stewart in 2017. It was shortlisted for that year's Griffin Poetry Prize.

In addition to her work as a poet, John choreographed, performed, and curates as part of the feminist performance collective WIVES alongside Julia Thomas and Emma-Kate Guimond. In early 2017, her performance work Let's understand what it means to be here (together) was staged by Art Metropole at Toronto's Union Station. In June 2017, John presented the aisha of oz at the Whitney Museum in New York City.

Works

Poetry

The Shining Material (BookThug, 2011)

THOU (BookThug, 2014)

I have to live.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Aisha Sasha John” as canadian poet, artist, and singing dancer. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Aisha, Sasha and John.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1980, 2011, 2014, 2017—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1980-09-16, 1980—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Aisha, Sasha and John providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Aisha Sasha John”, the useful work is to connect “canadian poet, artist, and singing dancer” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q29053178. VIAF identifies the subject as 169208930. The Library of Congress control number is no2011143425. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1980, 2011, 2014 and 2017.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Aisha Sasha John”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Aisha Sasha John primary sources, Aisha Sasha John archive and Aisha research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Aisha Sasha John”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Aisha Sasha John” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.