Conversation & Series

Translating the Future: “Language as Polis,” with Madeleine Cohen, LaTasha Diggs & Mary Ann Newman

Tue, Aug 25, 2020

1:30 PM–2:30 PM

Livestream via HowlRound; Register for link below

Watch the recording for this event below:

Join us for Week 16 of Translating the Future as we continue our series of conversations between translators with “Language as Polis,” with Madeleine Cohen, LaTasha Diggs & Mary Ann Newman.

Languages are often identified with the countries where they are spoken, but for many languages there is no one-to-one correspondence with any nation or state; the borders are unclear, contested, or unrecognized. How do speakers and students of such languages define themselves, engage with history, and examine the linguistic and cultural continuity embedded in them? What is the place and role of non-native speakers in these language communities? What does translation mean for them? How do these languages alter or enrich the languages and literatures that absorb or surround them? Join us for a conversation that explores Yiddish, Frisian, Catalan and beyond. This week’s event is sponsored by the Institut Ramon Llull and the Yiddish Book Center.

Click here to register for this event and for the link to the livestream. Free and open to the public, the livestream will start at Tue, August 25th, at 1:30 PM (EDT).

The conversations will be hosted by Esther Allen & Allison Markin PowellTess Lewis. *Viewers can submit questions during the livestreaming at [email protected].

Speaker Bios:

Madeleine (Mindl) Cohen is the academic director of the Yiddish Book Center (Amherst, MA). Her work includes directing a fellowship program for emerging Yiddish literary translators as well as publishing and promoting Yiddish literature in translation. She is the translation editor of the annual Pakn TregerDigital Translation Issue and former chief editor and current president of the board of directors of In geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies. She received her PhD in comparative literature from the University of California, Berkeley.

A writer, vocalist, and sound artist, LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs is the author of TwERK (Belladonna, 2013), a collection of poems, songs, and myths, and the cofounder and coeditor of Coon Bidness and SO4. Her work has appeared in many publications, including Rattapallax, Nocturnes, Spoken Word Revolution Redux, Ploughshares, Mandorla, P.M.S., jubilat, Everything But the Burden, ART21 Magazine, Palabra, and Fence. Her interdisciplinary work has been featured at MoMA, the Walker Art Center, Modern Museum of Fort Worth Texas, and the 2015 Venice Biennale. As an independent curator, artistic director, and producer, LaTasha has produced literary/musical events for Lincoln Center Out of Doors, BAMCafé, Black Rock Coalition, David Rubenstein Atrium, and El Museo del Barrio. A native of Harlem, Diggs is the recipient of numerous awards, including the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, the Laundromat Project, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Japan–United States Friendship Commission, and Creative Capital.

Mary Ann Newman translates from Catalan and Spanish. She has published fiction by Quim Monzó, non-fiction by Xavier Rubert de Ventós, and poetry by Josep Carner. Her most recent translation is Private Life, a 1932 Catalan classic by Josep Maria de Sagarra (Archipelago Books), for which she won the Premi J. B. Cendrós 2017 from Òmnium Cultural and the 2017 North American Catalan Society Prize. She is currently translating another book of poetry by Josep Carner. She was awarded the Creu de Sant Jordi in 1998. She is the founding Director of the Farragut Fund for Catalan Culture in the U.S., the President-Delegate of the Premi Internacional Catalunya, a member of the board of the Catalan Institute of America. She recently organized the first online Sant Jordi NYC Festival of Literature in Translation.

Translating the Future:

Visit Translating the Future page here for the complete conference Program, video recordings of previous events in this series, as well as archival audio recordings, articles, the original program, and more history from PEN’s 1970 World of Translation conference.

This week’s event is sponsored by the Institut Ramon Llull and the Yiddish Book Center. This conference and conversation series is co-sponsored by PEN America, the Center for the Humanities at The Graduate Center, CUNY, and the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, with additional support from the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center.