This three-day symposium shines a light on poetry presented in languages that have been historically disrespected.

Scholars Rachel Sutton-Spence and Simona Bertacco will present a framework within which to view the symposium, and four poets will present their work:

Melissa Castillo-Garsow, a Mexican-American poet, novelist, essayist, editor, and linguist

Alysia Harris, an African-American poet, activist, and linguist

Fernanda de Araujo Machado, a deaf Brazilian poet, actor, translator, and linguist

Margaret Noodin, an Anishinaabemowin poet, singer, and linguist

April 4, 7:30 – 10:30 p.m. - Poetry Readings
April 5, 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. - Workshops
April 6, 7:30 – 10:30 p.m. - Poetry Reading

Martin Haskell, photographer and videographer, will also have a workshop on filming sign-language performances on April 5. 

RSVP to dnapoli1@swarthmore.edu for a workshop. 

Sponsored by the Cooper Series.

The aforementioned poets—as well as photographer and videographer Martin Haswell—will offer the following workshops.To reserve a seat, email dnapoli1@swarthmore.edu.

Workshop – Melissa Castillo-Garsow: “Mama Only Speaks Spanish: Characterizing Across Multilingual, Multiracial, and Multinational Borders”
Participants will complete a series of exercises that explore the possibilities of multilingual texts in terms of characterization and multilayered expression, as well as common stereotypes and criticism of bilingual texts and how writers can defend and advance the work.

Workshop – Alysia Harris: “The Language of Aggression, the Art of Empathy”
This workshop will be broken into two sections. In the first, we will discuss the semantic mechanisms and pragmatic inferences that give rise to microaggressions, as well as how to spot them and change our language to reflect our desire to be more inclusive. The second section will be a series of exercises designed to help us flex our empathy muscles.

Workshop – Fernanda de Araujo Machado: “Respecting Sign Language Poetry”
Participants should have at least a rudimentary knowledge of a sign language. English and ASL interpreters will be present.

Workshop – Margaret Noodin: “Dibaajimowinensan Agwajing: Poems From Without”
In this collaborative poetry workshop, we will discuss how to invert the model of finding poems from within ourselves and instead find them from what is around us: what we are not and what we donot yet understand. Participants will create and put in motion a shared text.

Workshop – Martin Haswell: “How to Make Quality Filmed Performances”
Recording a performance is a translation from one medium to another. In this workshop, we will examine how filming sign-language performances is the way to make that performance widely available—but how do we do justice to the original?

Readings by Velma Pollard, award-winning Caribbean poet, novelist, and linguist