Festival Of Listening

March 15, 2014 - Kelsey Block

The RCAH Center for Poetry was proud to put on the 2014 Festival of Listening.

An estimated 50 people gathered last Thursday at (scene) metrospace to listen to untranslated poetry read aloud by 13 speakers of 11 different languages.

Kegan Cochrane, MSU sophomore, read two poems – one in Icelandic and one in Tagalog.

“It was hard to read because it’s not the same as more modern Tagalog,” Cochrane said of Jose Corazon de Jesus’s poem, Bayan Ko. “It really does do a good job expressing in just a few words why the Philippines should be set free.”

Center for Poetry intern Jenny Crakes noted it was fun to hear all of the different language. Crakes read the poem, A Nes by Sarah Moskovits in Yiddish.

Richelle Wilson, a 26-year-old speaker of Swedish, read Tomas Transtromer’s Kort paus i orgelkonserten. She noted the acoustic pleasure of the poems read.

“I think Swedish is a pretty language,” she said. “It’s got nice lifts and musical qualities.”