Manchester City of Literature and partners have introduced Manchester’s inaugural team of Multilingual City Poets, three talented creatives who have been appointed to produce a series of original works on behalf of the City throughout 2022, as part of International Mother Language Day 2022. The City’s new Multilingual City Poets team has been created to work across its partnership network, acting as ambassadors for Manchester’s residents, communities, and literature organisations.

The Launch of Multilingual City Poets took place at Manchester Poetry Library on International Mother Language Day 2022 and included a welcome from Ivan Wadeson, Executive Director of Manchester UNESCO City of Literature, an address from Councillor Luthfur Rahman, Deputy Leader of Manchester City Council, readings from the three Multilingual City Poets, as well as music from Pringle Gulzar, a tabla player based in Oldham guided by faith and celebrating South Asian culture.

New City Poet Anjum Malik is an established scriptwriter, poet, performer, and senior lecturer in creative writing at Manchester Metropolitan University who has written several much-acclaimed original plays for BBC, ITV and theatre. Her first languages were Urdu, American English and Panjabi; born of Pakistani parents in Saudi Arabia; she was multilingual and international before she could walk.

Joining Anjum is Jova Bagioli Reyes, a queer, neurodiverse immigrant hailing from Colombia and Chile. As a poet and musician, they are heavily inspired by the long history of struggle of Abya Yala (so-called Latin America) and so their work deals with themes of decolonization, autonomy, and liberation.

Also on the City Poet team is Arabic poet, teacher and producer Ali Al-Jamri; a writer of prose and poetry and passionate about translation and its role within diasporic Arabic-language communities in the UK. Ali’s Between Two Islands project was funded by Arts Council England and brought poetry workshops to the UK’s Bahraini community.

The City Poet roles carry a civic responsibility, much like conventional Poet Laureate designations, and the appointees will be commissioned to produce five original poems on behalf of the City.

Keep up to date with Manchester’s Multilingual City Poets on Manchester City of Literature’s website.