Manchester City of Literature is heading leads a creative lockdown festival of 18 virtual events from partners across the city The two week long celebration is centred around UNESCO’s International Mother Language Day (IMLD), which is takes place globally on 21 February. Manchester’s fourth annual IMLD event
(16-28th February, 2021) is a collaborative celebration of the city’s impressive cultural diversity which sees almost 200 languages spoken, making it the ‘UK’s language capital’ and likely to be the most linguistically diverse city in Europe, according to research by the University of Manchester. The 18 events, suitable for all generations, take in poetry, translation, community identity and international connections, including link ups with other UNESCO Creative Cities, and are delivered by Manchester City of Literature’s network of libraries, cultural venues, community groups, universities, schools, poets and writers.