Northern celebrates National Poetry Month with Voices of the Hi-Line

Montana State University-Northern’s Office of Diversity Awareness and Multicultural Programs is hosting Voices of the Hi-Line, a day of international poetry reading, at Cowan Hall’s Little Theatre Wednesday at 7.

“Voices of the Hi-Line attracts an audience of 60 each year,” Northern Assistant Professor Valerie Guyant said.

Attendees will be able to hear poems, chants and songs in a variety of languages, with most in a language other than modern English.

In 2018, Voices of the Hi-Line featured 27 participants reading from 22 languages. The styles of poetry include wide range of languages such as a Native languages, Spanish, German, Swahili, Greek, Latin and Hebrew. Some readers have read poetry in fictional languages.

“Last year someone performed a poem in Elvish, from ‘The Lord of the Rings,’” Guyant said. “Each year there are some languages that have been presented before and others that are new.”

If people are interested in reading poetry at the event, they are asked to contact Guyant before the event so she can prepare a program that includes the original poem and a translation. However, she has a few people contact her the day of the event and perform as well.

The main goal of the event is to highlight the “depth and breadth of language variety in Havre,” Guyant said. She also said that is why she enjoys the event so much.

This is the third international poetry reading that MSU-N has hosted. Guyant said that the event is hosted in April because April is International Poetry month.

The event is free and open to the community.