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Zaynab Wilson is a soulful singer, drummer, strummer, improvisor, and composer whose roots run deep in rhythm, community, and creative freedom. Raised in a family and community steelpan band, and performing since age six, her musical mosaic is steeped in a celebration of her Afro-Caribbean heritage.  


As a drummer, Zaynab has a Bachelor of Music from Humber College and has performed and toured with various Canadian and international artists like Lorraine Klaasen, Alysha Brilla, Jason Wilson, Martin Carthy, Dave Swarbrick and Pee Wee Ellis, at notable festivals such as Woodford Folk Festival (Australia), Hillside Festival (Canada) and Celtic Connections (Scotland). Since the debut of her original music project in 2018, Zaynab has toured in Canada, the US, and Australia. Her recent EP, A Way Home, earned a 2025 MusicNL R&B Artist of the Year award and praise from Caribbean Beat magazine for its heartfelt take on diaspora, heritage, and home. For 2026, Zaynab will receive her Bachelor of Music Education from Memorial University and is working on her first full-length album with the support of the Canada Council of the Arts.

LAWNYA VAWNYA

HQ: 4 Clift’s Baird's Cove, St. John's, NL 

Mailing: PO Box 1052, STN C, St. John's, NL , A1C 5M5

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We respectfully acknowledge the land on which we gather as the ancestral homelands of the Beothuk, whose culture has now been erased forever. We also acknowledge the island of Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland) as the unceded, traditional territory of the Beothuk and the Mi'kmaq. And we acknowledge Labrador as the traditional and ancestral homelands of the Innu of Nitassinan, the Inuit of Nunatsiavut, and the Inuit of NunatuKavut. We recognize all First Peoples who were here before us, those who live with us now, and the seven generations to come. As First Peoples have done since time immemorial, we strive to be responsible stewards of the land and to respect the cultures, ceremonies, and traditions of all who call it home. As we open our hearts and minds to the past, we commit ourselves to working in a spirit of truth and reconciliation to make a better future for all.

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© 2026 LAWNYA VAWNYA

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