International Mother Language Day at Manchester Poetry Library

Sarah-Clare Conlon, Literature Editor
Image courtesy International Mother Language Day

International Mother Language Day at Manchester Poetry Library at Manchester Poetry Library, Manchester 21 February 2025 Entrance is free — Visit now

Manchester Poetry Library will be celebrating words written and spoken in all languages this International Mother Language Day, taking place in UNESCO Cities of Literature around the world on Friday 21 February.

International Mother Language Day, which takes place on 21st February each year, is an internationally recognised UNESCO designated day. Manchester City of Literature leads the 53 UNESCO Cities of Literature for International Mother Language Day each year, to mark the fact that around 200 languages are spoken in Manchester at any one time. IMLD celebrates the importance of Mother Languages to promote unity in diversity and international understanding through multilingualism and multiculturalism.

Manchester will celebrate the week of International Mother Language Day 2025 with a programme of 20 events across libraries, museums and language centres – check out the inauguration of the two new Multilingual City Poets, Charlotte Shevchenko Knight and Nóra Blascsók, community group Fuse Manchester’s Multilingual Open Mic at Castlefield Viaduct, a screening of Mat Lingard’s ‘Mother Tongues’ at The Portico Library, the Undertow performance at Manchester Poetry Library, Looking for Languages Trail from Creative Manchester at Manchester Museum and the Multilingual Storytimes at Insituto Cervantes and Z-arts.

From 6pm to 8pm on 21 February, Manchester Poetry Library will be hosting its third Multilingual Open Mic Poetry Session, when audience members are invited to share a poem in any language. You can choose to read your own poems or a poem written by someone else, from the well-known to the not so well-known! This year, the evening – which is entirely free – will also welcome a number of special guests to celebrate the various multilingual projects and partnerships that the Poetry Library has been involved with – watch this space for who to expect.

If you fancy a slot on the open mic, register to attend via the link provided and say which language you wish to read in. Places to read will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. If you’re not sure what to read, the Manchester Poetry Library team is inviting you to just turn up and decide on the night – you might even spot something in the extensive collection, which includes everything from modern European languages to Farsi and Bengali texts – or just stay and listen to all the various voices. Refreshments will be provided and everyone is welcome.

International Mother Language Day at Manchester Poetry Library at Manchester Poetry Library, Manchester 21 February 2025 Entrance is free Visit now

Where to go near International Mother Language Day at Manchester Poetry Library

The Manchester Museum on Oxford Road Manchester
Manchester
Gallery
The Study
at Manchester Museum

Manchester Museum opened The Study on 11 September 2015. A reworking of the entire top floor of its historic Grade II*-listed building, The Study has been reimagined as a space designed to spark wonder, curiosity and a passion for research in all of its visitors.

Manchester Museum Tours at Manchester Museum
Manchester
Museum
Manchester Museum

The Manchester Museum isn’t one of the UK’s leading university museums for nothing – it has six million objects in its stores, including a full size T-Rex skeleton, and that’s just for starters.

Manchester
Bar or Pub
Kro Bar

Kro Bar, Manchester is an independent pub and music venue housed (somewhat ironically) in the former Temperance Society building.

Universally Manchester Festival 6-9 June 2024
Manchester
The University of Manchester

Celebrating its 200th year in 2024, The University of Manchester is the largest single-site university in the UK, and boasts come incredible cultural institutions, found on campus, across Manchester and…

Manchester
Shop
Want Not Waste

Want Not Waste is a student-run, not-for-profit zero waste shop operating out of Academy 1 at the University of Manchester Students’ Union.

Whitworth Park, Manchester
Manchester
Park
Whitworth Park

This 18-acre park opposite the Manchester Royal Infirmary provides a welcome patch of green in an otherwise densely populated and heavily used part of the city.

What's on: Literature

Tom Branfoot. Photo Eleanor Hall, Museum of the Home
LiteratureWest Yorkshire
Poetry at the Dusty Miller

Poetry at the Dusty Miller is a now regular night with invited readers, organised by Carcanet-published Carola Luther and Judith Willson in the Coiners’ Room in the Mytholmroyd pub.

free entry
Okechukwu Nzelu
LiteratureHuddersfield
Polari at Huddersfield Literature Festival

Huddersfield Literature Festival is back with a packed programme this May, and this Polari-themed special caught our eye, featuring writers including Okechukwu Nzelu and Rosie Garland.

from £10.00

Culture Guides

Three men sit next to each other. One's head is bandaged, one holds a torch and one wears a sleepmask.
Cinema in the North

Live scores, midnight movies and the latest from Wes Anderson are just some of our upcoming film highlights.

Theatre in Manchester and the North
Theatre in the North

Eclectic as ever. You'll find inventive reworkings, world-class contemporary dance and Greater Manchester's inaugural Improv Festival in our guide.

Okechukwu Nzelu
Literature Events in the North

If it's inspiring, inclusive events and avant-garde, experimental afternoons you're after, look no further than live literature this spring – we've got you covered.

Sextile
Music in the North

Open air clubs, new festivals and long-awaited gigs. The North West's live music scene is heating up this spring. 

Laura Ellen Bacon, Into Being, 2025. Photo © India Hobson, courtesy Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Exhibitions in the North

Willow weaving, textile collages, digital arts and ecology - all this and more in our exhibition top picks this month

Image by Jonathan Schofield.
Tours and Activities in the North

We've got many a good time in store this month as we round up the best walking tours, cultural classes and makers markets in the land.