There are about six thousand known languages in the world. Everyone speaks at least one of these tongues and many speak several. Language can unite but most certainly also divide. Tongues have been spreading stories for ages and will tell us new ones every day.

Through Tongues, a short multi-lingual performance with music, poetry and most certainly stories, we’ll explore together with writers and musicians how we move through our first, second, third and fourth! – tongues.

Robin Block will take us with poetry, soundscapes and song into the language and country of his ancestors, Indonesia. Iranian Dutch storyteller Sahand Sahebdivani is unsurpassed in his craft and for years has been a welcome guest on the Read My World stage. Percussionist Vernon Chatlein dove in the Zikinzá archive for stories and sounds of Afro-Curacaoan culture and Athena Farrokhzad found in Swedish a language to tell the migratory history of her Iranian family.

This programme is directed by Nita Kersten.