JUNO-nominated artist, Tara Kannangara is a second-generation, Sri Lankan-Canadian force of nature, making music that is deeply personal, genre-bending and culture blending. Tara has been featured on CBC's The Signal, The Sunday Edition and NPR Tiny Desk with Lido Pimienta. Her work has been presented at major festivals across North America including The Montreal Jazz Festival, The Washington DC Jazz Festival and The Smithsonian. She is a founding member of #thisisartschool, a coalition of artists championing equity in arts education. Tara and I chat about her time off during the pandemic and how that helped her reimagine her relationship with music. We discuss her social activism and equity work. Tara shares how her teaching methods have changed, specifically with how she approaches criticism. We chat about the subtleties of the definition of jazz, practice routines, and Tara’s plans for the coming year.