International Mother Language Day at Manchester Poetry Library

About

We'll be celebrating International Mother Language Day on Thursday 23 February - all events are free and refreshments will be provided in the library.

Drop in any time during the day to view special displays of books from the co-curated language programme, including Farsi poetry recommended by the audience at last year's event and a special Bengali poetry display that considers the roots of International Mother Language Day.

Love to Read

From 1pm - 3pm bring along a children's poetry or picture book in any language and share it in the family 'Love to Read' session. Children of all ages are welcome and invited to join in this relaxed session, which will also feature colouring and writing activities in the library. An informal, fun session for all the family. This is a drop in activity, no need to book.

Multilingual Open Mic Poetry Session

From 6pm - 7pm we'll be hosting the very first Multilingual Open Mic Poetry Session. Places at this event are limited, so register to attend. Audience members can opt to read in any language, simply let us know what language you wish to read in when you register. The poems can be your own or written by someone else. Places to read will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

Mother Tongue Other Tongue

Mother Tongue Other Tongue 2023 will be launched online during International Mother Language Day. This poetry competition is free to enter and open to young people aged 8 to 18 wishing to celebrate their mother language or to be creative in a language they are learning. You can find out more about Mother Tongue Other Tongue here.

There is an online information and resource-sharing event taking place on Thursday 2 March at 4pm for those who wish to run the project in their school or other community groups.