Lexicons of Migration: Histories, Texts, and Human Lives in Translation

OPEN TO THE PULIC | As part of the Mellon-sponsored Consortium on Forced Migration, Bennington Translates will host an international conference focused on linguistic rights and freedom, and on translation in times of crisis, conflict, and upheaval. We will host literary translators who have helped protect, even liberate, poets and novelists persecuted by their governments. Writers, translators, and protectors of “small,” endangered and/or forcibly marginalized languages and literary traditions will be major participants. We will also have presentations on recording, saving, revitalizing languages on the verge of extinction. And we will celebrate multilingual, multi-modal readings, performance, and exhibitions.

Friday, November 4

8:00-9:00 pm | A Life in Translation” Public Interview with Ros Schwartz, led by Marguerite Feitlowitz
Deane Carriage Barn

9:00-10:00 pm | Rebetiko: Songs of a Greek Subculture featuring The Bennington Rebetiko Ensemble
Deane Carriage Barn

Saturday, November 5

9:30-10:45 am | “New York: The Most Linguistially Diverse City in the History of the World” with Ross Perlin and Mariam Ghani
CAPA Symposium

11:00 am-12:30 pm | “Translating Ukrainian Literature in the Shadow of War” with Alexandar Mihailovic (Moderator), Vitaly Chernetsky, Amelia Glaser, Katherine E. Young
CAPA Symposium

12:30-1:40 pm | Buffet Lunch
CAPA Gallery

1:45-2:50 pm | “Contemporary International Writing in Arabic” with Osama Alomar, Sawad Hussain, Thomas Leddy-Cecere (discussant)
CAPA Symposium

3:00-4:30 pm | “Black Italy: Translating Blackness, Considering Gender” withBarbara Ofosu-Somuah and Candice Whitney
CAPA Symposium

4:30-5:45 pm | “Music as Translation: From the Sacred to the Political”
CAPA Symposium

• Joseph Alpar: “Musical Adjustment, Language, and Religious Propriety in Turkish Ḥazzanut”
• Maria Sonevytsky:“Instrumentalizing the Politics of Aesthetics in a Time of War: Ukrainian Popular Musicians at the Cultural Front”

8:15-9:30 pm |  Poetry Readings: Osama Alomar and T. Urayáon Noel
Deane Carriage Barn

Sunday, November 6

9:30-10:45 am | “Building Community Around/With Translation” with Aron Aji, Hanna Leliv, Katherine E. Young
CAPA Symposium

11:00 am-12:30 pm | Film Screening: The Bridge, Laura Kunreuther
CAPA Symposium

12:35-1:25 pm | Buffet Lunch
CAPA Gallery

1:30-3:30 pm | “Students Voicing Collective Action”
The Symposium (Breakout Groups in CAPA Design Labs)
Undergraduate writers and artists, editors and producers, activists and researchers gather to share work and explore future possibilities for collaboration. 

Confirmed Participants:

• Literary/Arts Magazines, Websites, Intitiatives
• (M)othertongues (Bennington)
• Sui Generus (Bard)
• GANAS (Bennington)
• Sarah Lawrence Refugee Project
• Afghan Refugee Resettlement Project (Bennington)
• ScholarshipBard Translation & Translatability Program
• Bennington Translates (Individual students presenting works-in-progress)

All Students Welcome!
You need not be a member of a project to attend.