Manchester Multi-Language Mushaira 2019 Project Outline for Facilitators UNESCO International Mother Language Day Background: Mother Language Day has been observed internationally for nearly 20 years. It celebrates the right to speak in mother languages. It originated through the campaign by Bengali speakers who sought to have the linguistic and cultural rights of an entire population recognized and respected. People died defending this right. In honour of the campaign, on the 17th of November 1999, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared February 21st as International Mother Language Day. It was ratified by the UN General Assembly a decade later — “to promote the preservation and protection of all languages used by peoples of the world”. For further information: https://en.unesco.org/commemorations/motherlanguageday What is a Mushaira? Definition: Mushaira - poetic symposium. This is an Urdu term, used to describe an event where poets gather to perform their works. A mushaira is a beloved part of the culture of Pakistan and North India and it is greatly admired by participants as a forum for free self-expression. A mushaira can be a small gathering of friends or a huge event. Traditionally, a mushaira is a poetry performance in South-East Asian languages. Mushairas can be quite lively and interactive; think of a poetry-slam, with audiences calling out for the poets to repeat their best lines and giving loud vocal praise on the spot! On page 11 of the Mushaira Resource Pack, you will find a fun exercise demonstrating the way an audience member can interact with a poet. For further information: https://asiasociety.org/blog/asia/whats-urdu-poetry-slam-mushaira Our Mushaira: Building on our successful and inclusive Mother Languages Day events of the past, we decided to create a project open to all across Manchester. Last year we worked with nearly 3000 children across 8 schools including one in Mumbai! Our mushaira has the potential to bring far more people together. Through it, we celebrate poetry, language diversity and come together as a city-wide community through our creativity. We are delivering this project in conjunction with: Manchester Library Service, Manchester Metropolitan University, the University of Manchester, four poets, two artists, the Whitworth Art Gallery, schools across Manchester and hopefully, YOU! Our mushaira will be multi-language, with original poetry created around the unifying theme of food and food- cultures. Poets will be asked to perform their work in their mother-language or any language of their choice. You can get involved by creating and sharing poetry in the lead up to the day and sharing it online via Twitter #MCRmushaira. Free activities will also be happening during the day on 21st Feb in libraries across Manchester and, in the evening, we will host a live ‘Manchester Multi-Language Mushaira’ event in Longsight. (Places will be limited.) To see last years Mother Language Day celebration… https://manclibraries.blog/2018/03/07/international-mother-language-day/ Participating and Resources: Everyone is welcome to take part in the Multi-Language Mushaira. If you work in a school, language college or organisation, community group or library you are welcome to bring the people you support into the mushaira project. Poetry should be in a range of languages. For people who are bilingual or multilingual this may be an opportunity to shine. However writing and performing in English is absolutely fine too. There are many learning opportunities that could be explored through this project. In schools this might mean working in an English, French or Spanish class. If you are delivering the project at a language school it could be a nice opportunity to develop writing skills as well as spoken language, or to discuss cultural food traditions. You might use the project to introduce different poetry styles and forms from around the world. How about a Haiku? The project can suit whatever your purpose and the people you work with, as long as the poetry is food related! We have created some additional resources to get you started: See the ‘Message From Mushaira Creative Crew’, which is a message from pupils from our school inviting you to join them. And have a look at the ‘Mushaira Resource Pack’. You can use it as a whole, or lift any useful aspect from it as a PowerPoint or to make photocopies for worksheet. In it there is a section on poet Anjum Malik, including examples of her work. There are also poetry starter activities and examples of poetry styles from around the world. What to do? • Have a look through the documents we have made to help you. • Decide how you might best use them and if you want a specific style, language or learning outcome. • Show your participants the ‘Message From Mushaira Creative Crew’ either as a photocopy or PDF. • Allow your participants time to write their poem. • Allow your participants a chance to read out and practice their poem. • Allow your participants the opportunity to share their poetry with the world by joining the ‘On-Line Mushaira’. You can help them to share their work in two ways… 1. Film them performing their poem on a phone or other device and upload it to your organisation’s Twitter/ social media using the hashtag #MCRmushaira. If you are working with children you will need consent to do this. If anyone is too shy to perform you could photograph a written version of their poem and put that online in the same way, or get the group to perform a piece together. 2. Give them a copy of the ‘Poetry Pod’ details from the Mushaira Support Pack. This will tell them which libraries they can record their poem in on February 21st. Additional Idea: As well as writing and performing poetry, you could also get involved by creating art. We are working with four schools and the artist Alice Kettle to make picnic rugs for everyone to sit on at the Longsight event. You might want to adopt this idea yourselves and create your own rugs and cushions for your poetry area. Our other creative activity is simple and low-cost enough to be open to anyone: We are making ‘poetry clouds’ to decorate the ceiling of the Mushaira. Using paper plates, to follow the food theme and any art materials you have in red and green, which is the palette for the mushaira, participants can write their poetry on their plate or any key words and phrases. We are using ‘to eat’, ‘to live’, ‘to share’, ‘to give’ and the words ‘eat’, ‘share’, ‘talk’, ‘care’ which we are translating into as many languages as possible. Or get people to draw their favourite meals or decorate their plate however they please. Fix the plates together to clouds that can act as a backdrop for the filming of your poetry or to decorate your space. There is instructions for this in the ‘Mushaira Resource Pack.’ For further details, participation or supporting documents please contact Emma Martin (Creative Lead) [email protected] 07599071852.