Nana Sula Spirit — Queen Mother Mami Sula Janet Evans — is a singer, songwriter, author, producer, and priestess of Mami Wata who has lived in New Orleans since 1996. Born and raised in New Jersey and a Rutgers graduate, she was initiated in Ghana in 2007 and is the founding priestess of the Temple of Light – Ile' de Coin-Coin in the Musicians Village, a medicine queen with the Mandingo Warriors – Spirit of Fi-Yi-Yi, and vice president of the Congo Square Preservation Society.
As a musician Sula is a singer-songwriter with the world beat/reggae band Zion Trinity and lead singer of Mojuba, a band devoted to sacred orisha music. In 2014 she authored and produced the groundbreaking book-and-CD project Spirit of the Orisha — a Yoruba song-preservation initiative featuring 38 sacred chants with English translations — and her debut solo album A Journey Within was written, arranged, and produced by her in Tanzania in 2016.
A lifelong educator and cultural preservationist, she has taught sacred music at Ifa University in Washington, DC, founded the Na'Zyia Doula Collective — the first doula collective of color in Louisiana — and shares sacred music, healing practices, and temple wisdom through workshops and performances around the world.
