Join us for an exciting event with young people from the UK on a literary and poetic journey as we celebrate International Mother Language Day! Young poets will recite or perform their poetry in English or their mother tongue.

Featured young writers:

• Amal Mohammad Yousaf and Donia Fellag from Whalley Range 11–18 High School
• Hopwood Hall College
• Kunza Khan is from the University of Salford
• Sameeha Mahmad is from Woodford County High School in London
• Kaya Askander and Daaniya Faisal from Withington Girls School
• Ayesha Nadeem, Hasna Raza, and Huneza Ali from Levenshulme High School
• Mukhtar Omar Mukhlis, King Edward’s School, Birmingham
• Kamal Sadiq from KD grammar school for boys

The pupils will be introduced by Miss Donna Johnson and Mr. Neil A. Johnson, co-headteachers of Levenshulme High School, Manchester.

Professor Yaron Matras will introduce the main language communities, with a focus on the language of the city’s Muslim populations. He will discuss how information on languages is compiled, what functions languages have, and what multilingual spaces exist in the city. Yaron Matras is a linguist specialising in multilingualism and minority languages. He founded and led the multilingual Manchester program.