By Laura Ferries
Pangea x Kunst Site offers Liverpool audiences a captivating night of multilingual music and poetry, where performances in languages from Catalan to Japanese bridge cultural divides and convey shared human emotions. This year’s event, set at the Kazimier Stockroom & Kabin, promises an enriching experience filled with diverse voices, live bands, and interactive opportunities for guests to immerse themselves in languages from around the world.
On a drizzly evening in November 2023, an enthralled audience in Liverpool sat spellbound and hung off every word of the poet performing in Polish.
Nobody else present understood Polish and yet, something quite astounding was occurring: everyone seemed to feel and understand the emotions being transmitted through the poetic assembly of these unfamiliar words. Passers-by gathered at the entrance of the venue, Sotto on Wood Street, craning their necks to listen in.
Organisers Louise Evans and I stood back and witnessed this magic taking place time and time again with each poet who took to the rainbow-illuminated stage, sharing their verses in a range of languages from Catalan to Japanese.
Somehow, through tones, facial expressions and body language, their messages hit the heart even where the words themselves were not familiar.
The venue chimed with interesting consonants and echoed with unusual vowels. It was then that we realised the key to this mutual understanding that transcended language was in the musicality, an international vehicle for carrying messages and stories.
The event was called Pangea, a multilingual spoken word project now in its fourth year following earlier incarnations under different names.
The first event, held with fellow poet Emma Fullalove, was a bilingual English-Spanish night held at the former Hope Street restaurant, ‘Esto es España’, where the audience of over 70 guests enjoyed paella and sangría whilst listening to sunny Spanish rhymes.
Given the surprise popularity of the event, we decided to go multilingual the following year, with ‘Poetry Beyond Borders’ held at Sotto on Wood Street, then a year later, Louise and I renamed the event to Pangea and held it as a duo at the same venue.
This year, we join forces with Kunst Site, the music promotion organisation founded by Cora Siemens, known for putting on the eclectic ‘Music and Poetry’ nights at Quarry, and the recent ‘Thoughts and Sounds’ – the first spoken word event to be hosted at the Liverpool Empire theatre.
Together, we have sought to expand the event with a need for the appreciation of other cultures and languages being even more keenly felt than ever after the riots of this summer disrupting social cohesion and harmony.
This year’s event will be held at the iconic Kazimier Stockroom & Kabin and we have a fantastic lineup of thirteen poets and two bands performing in fourteen languages! We also have audience participation activities planned that will prompt guests to engage with foreign languages they might not have known or used beforehand.
Kunst Site x Pangea promises to be an enriching evening of arts, introducing people to new sounds and promoting cultural curiosity and unity.
Tickets can be purchased in advance for £9 + £1 booking fee at Fatsoma or you can pay £11 on the door.