Department of Foreign Languages

 

A Symphony for the Senses: A Poetry Reading in Fifteen LanguagesPoetry Reading in Fifteen Languages:  a Symphony for the Senses

 

Kalamazoo/Portage is certainly a melting pot of culture and language. To prove it the Portage District Library, Foreign Language Department of Western Michigan University Michigan Festival for Sacred Music and  the Fetzer Foundation are collaborating to bring together area residents from fourteen different areas of the world to select a favorite poem which can be one they have written themselves.  The audience will have a list of languages and readers, but no translations so that the rhythms, movement and intonation can flow over them evoking their own feelings and meanings. 

The languages will include: Chinese, Spanish, Russian, Latvian, Portuguese, French,  German, Japanese, Bengali, Arabic, Farsi, and Rwandan, Irish, and American.  Cosponsored with Western Michigan University Foreign Languages Department, Michigan Festival of Sacred Music and  Fetzer Foundation.