International Mother Language Day at Forum Library
On Saturday 22 February we marked International Mother Language Day with an afternoon of arts, crafts and performance. With around 200 languages spoken in Manchester it’s an important day to celebrate with our communities. The event was in the creative space on the first floor of Forum library, and it was taken over with stalls from friends and partners of the library, offering fun, creativity and learning.
Afro-Tots ran a lovely workshop called My Family Pictures, people made pictures of their family or themselves and learnt how to say Mum, Dad sister/brother and so on in different languages. It was a busy table with lots of chatter, it was lovely hearing people sharing different languages.
Manchester artist Lydia ran a workshop making word bunting with pipe cleaners, it was a fun art session and people ended up with a lovely bright string of bunting to take home.
The wonderful artist Siu Mo Wong ran a fantastic workshop making Hong Kong neon style signs, she taught people about the history and styles of the signs, as well as some lovely words and phrases in Cantonese, it was a great activity and the signs look amazing.
Our friends at Biffa ran a workstation where people decorated caddy bins with food names in different languages. People had great fun with this activity, being creative and learning in equal measure, and the finished bins looked great.
Our colleagues from the library children’s team ran a workstation making dream catchers, they taught people a simple technique using wooden lolly sticks, wool and feathers to create an amazing looking dream catcher. This activity was enjoyed equally by adults and children.
The staff at Forum library enjoyed running a workshop decorating tote bags with positive messages and words in different languages, this proved to be a popular activity with folk leaving with some eye-catching bags.
As well as all the creative workshops we had some performance, including a beautiful performance of a Poem in Bangla and English performed by Rafiqur and Gulsanara from Ayna Arts. It was a very powerful poem and was one of the highlights of the event.
The afternoon ended on a high with an interactive dance and singing performance from the fabulous Afro-Tots, it was high energy, exciting and great fun.
It was a wonderful event, enjoyed by all involved, with lots to do and learn.
We had some lovely comment from happy customers:
Beautifully organised, all the activity was really good, Thanks for the event, loved it
I had a fab time doing all the different crafts with my Mum, it was great x
