ORGANIZERS AND CONTACTS: Claudia Serea cserea120@comcast.net and Maria Lisella marialisella@aol.com with
As the current Queens Poet Laureate, I often organize events not only in Queens but beyond our borders and this event: Multi Cultural Voices for Change will take place on Saturday, September 28 from 2-4PM at the Mulberry St. Branch of the NYPL, as part of a global event that joins some 700 planned events in nearly 120 countries for 100 Thousand Poets for Change while celebrating National Translation Month with the Italian American Writers Association.
A grassroots organization that brings communities together to call for environmental, social, and political change within the framework of peace and sustainability. An event that began primarily with poet organizers, 100 Thousand Poets for Change has grown into an interdisciplinary coalition with year round events which includes musicians, dancers, mimes, painters and photographers from around the world.
The other two co-sponsors are the Italian American Writers Association that has been conducting a democratic forum for writers and has been hosting one of the longest literary reading series in New York City for the past 28 years; while the other sponsor is the National Translation Month, founded in 2013 by poet, author, educator and journalist, Loren Kleinman and by Romanian-born poet and translator Claudia Serea, one of the two co-hosts for the day.
Among the featured poets and translators are: Nicos Alexiou (Greek), Luigi Bonaffini (Italian), Paolo Javier, former Queens Poet Laureate (Tagalog), Olena Jennings (Ukrainian), Maria Lisella (English) and Raquel I. Penzo (Spanish).
A bilingual Open Mic will follow with translators reading in French, Russian, Hebrew and other languages.
–Maria Lisella