International Mother Language Day is celebrated globally on 21 February.
2021 will be the fourth consecutive year that Manchester has celebrated
the event. In 2019 and 2020 over 5,000 people engaged with activity across the city centre and neighbourhoods. The event is always a celebration of the nearly 200 languages spoken in Manchester and of the cultural diversity that is one of the city’s strengths.
The events involve libraries, cultural venues, community groups,
universities, schools, poets and writers. For 2021 we are increasing
the cultural content of the programme and making international links with
other UNESCO Creative Cities, particularly through online platforms.
Events happening between 16 and 28 February will be celebrating
community, friendship – and also the new collections at the brand new
Manchester Poetry Library. Come and be entranced by multilingual
story telling for families, try your hand at Mandarin with the Confucius
Institute, be part of the audience for the ever-popular multi-language
mushaira (a night of song and poetry) and hear how you can be involved in
Manchester Museum’s community translation project. Artist Sumay
Wu will also be creating a special Manchester Audio Cookbook artwork
made up of recipes and stories in different languages.
From 16th-28th February we will be celebrating with a series of events
from a range of partners across the city and beyond.
Head to the Manchester City of Literature website for the full list of events, or download the full brochure of events below –
Join in the conversation with @MCRCityofLit, using the hashtag #MCRIMLD21 and #MotherLanguageDay
