The Fifth Multilingual Kalevala and Folk Poetry Marathon

Monday, March 2, 2009
4:00-9:00 p.m.
Deutsches Haus, Columbia University
420 W. 116th St.
(between Amsterdam Ave. and Morningside Dr.)

You are cordially invited to join us for the collective multilingual event of readings, with musical and theatrical performances and  audience participation centered around the Kalevala, the Finnish  folklore epic. The Kalevala has been translated into sixty languages.  Come by for a few minutes or stay for hours. If you would like to read  or recite or sing a brief passage (3 - 4 minutes) in a language of  your choice, please let us know, or please just drop by and enjoy!  Copies of The Kalevala, The Kanteletar and original folk poetry in  Finnish and in translation into other languages will be available at  the Marathon and beforehand, at 307 Hamilton Hall, Columbia University.

You are also invited to present folk poetry from other traditions!

For reservations and further information, contact Lasse Suominen: ls2756@columbia.edu or call 212.854.7859.

Performances by the following artists:

Ulla Suokko, bass flute,  birchbark flute, kantele, voice; Taina Elg, reading (4 – 5 p.m.); 

Tuomas Hiltunen, performance (after 5 p.m.);

KAIKU (Jaana Kantola &  Paula Jaakkola & instrumentalist), vocal performance, (around 6 p.m.);  and others to be announced.

Finnish Delicacies provided by the Consulate General of Finland in New York.

Free and open to the public.

Presented by the Program in Finnish Studies, Department of Germanic  Languages, Columbia University, with support from the Consulate  General of Finland, the Finlandia Foundation NY Metropolitan Chapter,  the Finland Center Foundation, and FAWN, the Finnish and American Women’s network.

We have translations available in the following languages: Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English (in five different  translations), Estonian, the Savo dialect of Finnish, French, Georgian, German, Greek (Ancient and Modern), Hebrew,Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Latvian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Sanskrit, Serbo-Croatian, Slovene, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tamil, Tulu, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Yiddish.