Manchester City of Literature will be hosting a creative feast coined 'Cooking with Words' as part of UNESCO’s International Mother Language Day.

Working with local restaurant Zouk Tea Bar & Grill, writer, poet and performer Anjum Malik will collaborate with the chefs and incorporate their recipes to cook up new multilingual poetry that responds to experiences of South Asian culture on Sunday 20 February 

Anjum Malik will also be introduced as one of Manchester’s first City Poetsat the opening of the festival, which runs from Thursday 17th February to 8th March, 2022 

Anjum will then perform the new writing during the event, where you can get a ticket to dine and be an audience member for the evening, immersing yourself in the tastes and cultures of International Mother Language Day in Manchester.

Writer, poet and performer Anjum Malik said: "Food brings us together like nothing else. It is truly multilingual. Our differences are forgotten as we sit together, and this is what 'Cooking with Words' is all about. 

"Eating together, celebrating all that we have in common through the pleasure of food as human beings with poems we can relate to like eating with loved ones in the present and in the past. it's about bringing together our senses of taste, hearing, seeing, taste, the aromas and feeling the pleasure of it all."

Alongside Arabic poet, teacher and producer Ali Al-Jamri and queer, neurodiverse poet and muscician hailing from Colombia and Chile,  Jova Bagioli Reyes, Anjum will work across its partnership network, acting as ambassadors for Manchester’s residents, communities, and literature organisations.

This is Manchester's fifth consecutive IMLD series, and this year 2022 the cultural content of the programme is increasing, making international links with other UNESCO Creative Cities, particularly through online platforms, in addition to events across the city at venues including Manchester Libraries, Manchester Poetry Library at Manchester Metropolitan University and Creative Manchester, and many more.

In 2019 and 2020 over 5,000 people engaged with activity across Manchester’s city centre and neighbourhoods, and in 2021, 18 digital events ensured the significance of languages to Manchester was still honoured, even while the nation had to stay at home during the pandemic. 

To attend 'Cooking with Words' on February 20 click here