On Wednesday, May 6, Carleton College hosted its 10th annual Poetry Without Borders event in the Great Hall.

Organized by the Language Center, the Humanities Center, the Center for Global and Regional Studies, the Spanish Department, the German & Russian Department, the Department of French and Francophone Studies and the Department of Asian Languages and Literatures, Poetry Without Borders brings together students, faculty, staff and community members  of various cultures and languages to celebrate a shared love of poetry.

For many, Poetry Without Borders symbolizes unity as students with a variety of different language skills put their  hard work and creativity toward a shared showcase of their efforts. 

“I worked for the Language Center as a freshman and I helped staff Poetry Without Borders two years ago,” said Isaac Kofsky ’27. “I wasn’t enrolled in any language classes at the time but I remember being so impressed with everyone’s ability to portray the beauty of poetry in so many different languages. It’s also a really fun and healing experience to get together with so many other people for an event that is purely about appreciating cultures and languages that are not our own.”

This year, there were 29 performances by 48 students, faculty and staff, spanning 14 different languages, including all 10 taught at Carleton. All poems presented at the event were in languages other than English, and many of them carried personal significance to those reciting them in front of attendees.

 This was Kofsky’s second year performing, and he reflected on how his Hebrew skills have improved from last year. He also shared how he enjoyed seeing people come together over their love of language and performing. “This year, I read a [Hebrew] poem by the same writer I read last year, Yehuda Amichai, but I was much more intentional about picking a poem that had Hebrew writing that I liked and a message I could relate to,” said Isaac Kofsky ’27.

Additionally, not all poems are presented  by solo performers. For example, the poems “Russia cannot be known by the mind” (умом россия не понят in Russian) and “Early Departure from Baidi City” (早发白帝城 in Chinese) were read by Russian language students and Chinese language students, respectively.,

Learning languages and practicing poetry recitation has also strengthened the academic community of language-learners. 

“One of my favorite things about the event is the group presentations. It’s often language classes that get together and perform a poem or a song,” said Kofsky. “This year there was an original rap song written by a group of students in the Japanese program, and it was a highlight of the event.”

Some students were required to participate in reading poetry as part of their language requirement, but they still reflected fondly upon it.

“My Russian 103 class required all students to participate. I probably would have participated even if it wasn’t required,” said Brady Reneau ’29. “It’s such a captivating event, so many powerful words in all the various languages spoken at Carleton.”

Reneau also noted how the poem he performed taught him not only about the Russian language, but also Russian history and culture.

“[My poem] is basically trying to describe the state of Russia through the four lines of the poem, but struggling to explain it to those who don’t understand it,” he explained. “This is one of the most widely memorized poems in all of Russia, so the decision [to share it] was quite easy.” 

According to the event program, the first Poetry Without Borders event at Carleton was organized by German Professor and German and Russian Department Chair Dr. Juliane Schicker, who coordinated a similar Poetry without Borders event at Penn State, where a professor had brought the tradition from California State University, Long Beach. Carleton first hosted Poetry Without Borders in 2016, and its positive reception has kept the event running for a decade and counting.

Schicker also performed at the event, reading “Prometheus” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in German.

Students have explained how language programs at Carleton have allowed them to find their place in the college’s academic community, and Poetry Without Borders is an extension of that support. By working with foreign language faculty, students found themselves able to connect with non-English works  and  foster their performance skills in a second language.

Language Associates, whose one-year teaching experience at Carleton is coming to a close next month, also participated in performances. Russian Language Associate Gulzada Xan read a poem with Russian 103 students and recited another in Kazakh. French Language Associate Calixte Bintein, German Language Associate Jennifer Wilkes and Arabic Language Associate Yara Jaber all read poems in the languages they teach at Carleton.

Because poems carried cultural significance and are related to controversial current events, the program and information reflected these nuances and the complex intersection of literature and current events.

Russian students, for example, read three poems by Alexander Pushkin, who is a major figure in Russia’s literary traditions and is arguably the nation’s most famous poet. However, with Russia’s war in Ukraine and Vladimir Putin’s acts of violence in and out of Russia, the program included a reflection on the juxtaposition of literature and politics.

“His [Pushkin’s] work has been repeatedly coopted and distorted for political purposes, first by the Soviets, who tried to brand him as a revolutionary, and now by Putin, who has weaponized his legacy to such an extent that Ukrainians refer to the Russian invaders as ‘Pushkinists,’” said a note in the program.

After providing this context, Carleton Russian speakers noted they did not support Russia’s war in Ukraine, but still wanted to honor the language: “Carleton Russian students and faculty unequivocally condemn Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine,” said the program note. The note also offered a quote from Russian-Swiss writer Mikhail Shishkin that banning Russian culture in the West is not a feasible way to combat Putin, rather it only bolsters his actions.

Reneau reflected on this sharing of culture, “There are ideas that cannot be expressed, at least not easily, in English that can be expressed much more easily in other languages,” he said. “The language a person speaks shapes how they perceive the world around them, and by learning more languages, I can perceive it in many different ways.”

Kofsky is already anticipating his third year of performing. “Now that I am done with the Hebrew program, I have many more skills in the language than I used to. I hope to perform again next year, and who knows? Maybe I’ll write my own poem,” he said.