Language is My Second Language: Mother Tongues, Father Tongues, and Those-in-Between
Any time a group of people forms through the mutual adherence to a code, the strength of that group partly derives from the exclusion of those who don’t know or don’t practice the code. In this workshop, we will discuss texts and poems in translation to explore the dimensions of speaking and listening that transcend language’s coding function: the moments when speech is instinctual, receptive and tentative rather than self-affirming or group-affirming.
Our conversation will also constitute an act of composition, translation and other creative means chosen by the participants who can contribute as they wish throughout the workshop as an alternative to “conversing” in the strict sense. In this way, “participation” is something we will interpret broadly, or re-interpret altogether. We will pose questions as to answer the meaning and function of mother tongues, father tongues, those that are invented and remain in-between or on the margins.
Readings may include Anne Carson's Float, poems by Lorca (in translation) and others.
Languages may include Spanish, English, Turkish, Kurdish, Arabic, invented ones, and silence.
Öykü Tekten is a poet, translator, archivist, and editor. She is also a founding member of Pinsapo, an art and publishing experience with a particular focus on work in and about translation, as well as a contributing editor and archivist with Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative. She lives in Granada with her tabby cat from Brooklyn & travels with Anatolians to earn a living & is now visiting Gran Canaria in search of a cave dwelling.