Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences to Host ‘Mother Tongue’ Multilingual Performance Sept. 28

Content

The Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences will host an original multilingual physical theater performance of “Mother Tongue” on Saturday, Sept. 28 at 7 p.m. at Bowker Auditorium in Stockbridge Hall.

“Mother Tongue” is inspired by the experiences of members of the First Generation Ensemble of The Performance Project, their families and communities from Congo, Tanzania, Bhutan, Nepal, South Sudan, Darfur and locally from Holyoke and Springfield. 

The 90-minute performance weaves together movement, music, dance and stories in Arabic, Swahili, Nepali and English. The piece incorporates themes of language, culture, identity, diaspora, hypermasculinity, xenophobia, transphobia, racism, the school to prison pipeline and revolution.

The event is free for UMass Amherst faculty and staff members, and for all students from any school or college. Members of the general public may purchase tickets and choose their own purchase price between $10-$25, and the recommended age of attendees is 12 years and older.

With support from the Fine Arts Center, the Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences department is sponsoring the event with the hopes that members of the campus community and those who work with students will learn important lessons from the cast members about their experiences and find it useful in their work.

The department also encourages educators who offer extra credit in classes for discipline-related events to consider allowing attendance at this performance to qualify for extra credit. If that is not possible, it asks that they simply encourage their students to attend.

For more information and to reserve or purchase tickets, visit The Performance Project website or the UMass Amherst Fine Arts Center events webpage. For questions, email Sarah Poissant at sfp [at] umass [dot] edu (sfp[at]umass[dot]edu).