Poetry Marathon on International Mother Language Day 2023

21 February: The Translation and Linguistic Rights Committee (TLRC) of PEN International is proud to launch the third edition of ‘Video Poem Marathon’, a project aiming to give visibility to the work of writers expressing themselves in indigenous or minoritised languages.

Starting on February 21 (International Mother Language Day), and until March 21 (World Poetry Day), PEN International’s TLRC will publish poems written and recited in a variety of unknown but incredibly rich world languages.

According to the UN, today at least 43% of the estimated 6000 languages spoken in the world are endangered, with a language disappearing every two weeks. Only a few hundred languages are fully given a place in the public domain, and only less than a hundred are used in the digital world.

The empowerment of all indigenous or minoritised languages – long forgotten from mainstream trends, yet very much alive – together with their speakers and their writers, is a small but crucial activity. For once, the main stars are these too often neglected languages, with the mainstream ones looking at them from the periphery. This is a collective work to make silenced languages heard. Urtzi Urrutikoetxea, Chair of the PEN International’s Translation and Linguistic Rights Committee

Originally launched in 2021, ‘Video Poem Marathon’ has so far seen the participation of most PEN Centres and the submission of videos in more than 100 languages. Participating languages to this year’s edition include Wiradjuri (Australia), Kalaalisut (Greenlandic), Meskwaki (Iowa, USA), Ñuu Savi (Mixtec, Mexico), Sesotho (South Africa), Chiyao (Malawi), Karen (Myanmar), Bahasa Sug (Philippines), and Hazaragi (Afghanistan), among others.

Please follow the video poem marathon on the Translation and Linguistic Rights Committee’s Facebook page.

The project is part of the subthemes Opportunity and Connect not divide.