This April, the New York Public Library hosted our first World Literature Festival. Across three weeks, there were a wide range of programs from live storytimes, to book discussions, to author talks. The World Literature Festival is one way that the Library is trying to highlight authors and organizations that reflect our diverse communities, especially in regards to language. 

Having guests who are from different parts of the world—and some who even joined our programs from other countries!—we invited our patrons to hear a conversation and interact with an author in their native languages. From Spanish to Japanese, the six authors, two poets, and four members of community organizations, to many more, the World Literature Festival aimed to bring people together even if we were all still physically apart. 

Now, as part of National Immigrant Heritage Month 2021, we are happy to share the recordings to eight of these World Literature Festival programs, many of which have captions in the original language and in English. 

Each one of these guest speakers brought a perspective of either being an immigrant or someone who has lived in different countries. As mentioned before, language was also an important part of these programs, as many programs were hosted in a number of languages such as Spanish, Japanese, French, Mandarin, and more. 

You will find that the different perspectives and experiences of these authors and poets weave a multicultural and multilingual collage that reflects the New York Public Library’s communities. 

You can find the recordings by following the links below: 

The Languages of Poetry with Dunya Mikhail and T. Urayoán Noel
Audio and Closed Captioning in English

In Conversation: Nicole Dennis-Benn
Audio and Closed Captioning in English

In Conversation: Alexander Stessin
Audio in Russian and Closed Captioning in English
Disclaimer: English captions were generated live on the day of recording and may not be entirely accurate. 

In Conversation: Don Miguel Ruiz
Audio in Spanish, Captions in English and Spanish

In Conversation: Colombe Schneck
Audio in French, Captions in French and English

In Conversation: Ha Jin
Audio in Mandarin, Captions in English
Disclaimer: English captions were generated live on the day of recording and may not be entirely accurate.

In Conversation: Naomi Hirahara
Audio and Closed Captioning in English

Celebrating Indigenous Languages of the Americas
Audio and Closed Captioning in English