Manchester celebrates International Mother Language Day with packed events programme

International Mother Language Day, which takes place on Wed 21 Feb, brings a packed programme of events to Manchester dedicated to celebrating diversity and multiculturalism.

Most of these events are free to take part in and are suitable for families, with many taking place during February half term.

Highlights include the Multilingual Open Mic at Manchester Poetry Library, the Looking for Languages Trail from Creative Manchester at Manchester Museum and Multilingual Storytimes at Insituto Cervantes and Alliance Française.

Also part of the programme, a new exhibition, Threads, will launch on Mon 12 Feb, featuring multilingual writing and material from 10 UNESCO Cities of Literature.

Textiles, including camouflage nets from Odesa, Ukraine will be on display alongside traditional dress from Granada, Spain and artwork from the likes of Wrocław, Melbourne and Reykjavík.

Local Manchester writers Keisha Thompson and Hafsah Aneela Bashir have contributed new original writing to the exhibition, which you can view in the Histories Hub at Manchester Central Library until Sat 23 Mar.

Deputy Leader of Manchester City Council Cllr. Luthfur Rahman says, “This year the events taking place in Manchester showcase a huge variety of languages in libraries, museums, language centres, galleries and a variety of community spaces too, allowing people in Manchester to engage with languages all over the world. We have a number of new organisations to the IMLD programme for 2024, which shows Manchester’s ongoing commitment to language diversity and multiculturalism.”

You can find out more about all the upcoming events and how Manchester is celebrating International Mother Language Day this year here.