The Wonders of Multilingualism #5: the poetry of home languages

The Wonders of Multilingualism is the series that for two years has been organised by Kaaitheater and Passa Porta around the human, cultural and political complexity of multilingualism! This time around a table as we share a meal, which has everything to do with the theme The poetry of home languages. 

How does the language we speak at home differ from the language we use in the outside world? Can language help us feel at home in a foreign context? Think about the language we inherit from our parents and the conversations we have when we feel safe. Or the language we invent with each other, the expressions that only a few can understand, as if it were a secret language. It's all linked to the idea of home language.  

Everyone’s home is different. The ideal is a safe haven, but often home is also a place where certain topics are (best) left unsaid. Some have left their home behind for good and others return to it daily.  

This programme with poetry, food pairing, an exposition, performative interventions and more, invites exploration of the phenomenon of home. Just like at home, we sit at the table together.  

As always, this evening is multilingual and not everything will be translated, but we provide balances and count on the willingness of attendees to help each other. Professor Orhan Ağırdağ will provide the talk. Poets Alara Adilow and Haleh Chinikar will appear at the table with us, feeling eminently at home in the language. BAYA collective will take care of the food pairing. And the evening will be moderated by Fatima-Zohra Ait El Maâti (Kaaitheater) and Arno Boey.

• Orhan Ağırdağ will give the talk. He is, among other things, professor of pedagogical sciences at KU Leuven, member of the Young Academy in Flanders and crown member of the Education Council. Together with his research team, he studies social themes in education, focusing on teacher training, multilingualism and digitalisation. 

• Alara Adilow is a Dutch poet of Somali origin. She wrote one of the most striking Dutch debuts of recent years with her poetry collection Mythen en stoplichten (2022). 'An intrepid debut,' said the jury that awarded her poetry collection with the Herman de Coninck Prize 2023 – the most important Flemish award for Dutch-language poetry. She is currently working on her first prose publication and a play. 

• Haleh Chinikar was born in Rasht, Iran and has lived in Brussels since 2007. As an artist and poet, the pillars of her creations are the body, memory, language and textiles. In her work, installation and performance contribute to a shared experience with the public. In November 2021, her book Où est ma maison? was published by Éditions La place. Following the revolts that began in September 2022 in Iran, she co-founded M-A Collective, a collective of Iranian performance artists. She performs both in her collective and in her individual creations. She is also part of Hyster-X writers collective. 

• BAYA is a creative collective that desires to develop an authentic realm that connects creative individuals through collaborative processes. Their name refers to the Algerian artist Baya Mahieddine. They work in a manner which exceeds the focus on the final result and centres the importance of the relationships and growth that are formed in the process. Both on- and offline, they value the idea of enabling an intimate space in which people can get together, chat and connect. 

• Arno Boey (1996) stands between movement and prose, between Brussels and Antwerp, between breaststroke and chest crawl. With his father he speaks French, with his mother Dutch. He used to dream of a magazine full of young writers, poets and sculptors; now his bookcase holds five issues of ZINK, neatly sorted by colour. Together with Paris resident Yelena Schmitz, he mapped out the narrative walking tour 1020 stories in Bockstael.