Language City: The Show—Coming in 2 Weeks!

Get ready for Language City, an outdoor performance about the past, present, and future of New York — the world’s most linguistically diverse city. The project is a collaboration between ELA and Gung Ho Projects, premiering at Little Island, Manhattan’s extraordinary new park, on August 14, 15, 17, and 18 at 6:30 pm (note no…

New Shopify Store Live!

Thanks for your patience as we slowly edge our way into the modern world! Check out https://elalliance.myshopify.com/, where it’s easy than ever to donate any amount to ELA or give to get one of our maps, t-shirts, or storybooks. It’ll soon be integrated into this site as well. Shoot us a note at info@elalliance.org if…

ELA in the NY Times

In “The World Capital of Endangered Languages”, New York Times journalist Alex Carp follows ELA’s work documenting and mapping endangered languages in New York and beyond. Citing LANGUAGE CITY—the new book about the city’s languages and ELA’s work by co-director Ross Perlin—the piece also features (literally) moving portraits of speakers of a dozen languages from…

LANGUAGE CITY events

Free upcoming NYC and virtual events for LANGUAGE CITY, the story of NYC’s linguistic diversity and ELA’s work—with more to come! Tuesday 2/20, 7 pm: Strand Bookstore (Manhattan) w/Thomas Dyja (SOLD OUT) Wednesday 2/28, 6:30 pm: Gotham Center for NYC History (virtual) w/Nancy Foner (SOLD OUT) Sunday 3/3, 7:30 pm: Topos Too (Queens) w/Maru Ponce Wednesday…

International Mother Language Day & Language City

Happy International Mother Language Day! We’re celebrating with the launch of ELA Co-Director Ross Perlin’s new book Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York. The book is about the past, present, and future of the most linguistically diverse place in history, New York City, as told through ELA’s work at the…

Get an NYC language map for $20!

For a limited time only, we are offering maps which have experienced some wear and tear, but are still very much legible, for just $20 to cover our expenses. In perfect condition these go for $50. See the image below. Note that the corners of the maps may be bent, and some of the surface may…

9/5 at 6 pm: Metathesis and Unmetathesis in Amarasi

On 9/5 at 6 pm at ELA, Owen Edwards of Australia National University will be talking about Amarasi, an Austronesian language of western Timor. Owen will provide a complete analysis of synchronic CV -> VC metathesis in the language. Metathesis and unmetathesis realise a paradigm of parallel forms, pairs of which occur to complement each other throughout the language.

Next event June 13; no May event

Our free event series Unheard Of! Languages and Literatures from Around the World continues. There’s no event on May 16 has been cancelled, but the last event of the season (NYC Poetry in Every Language) will be live at ELA on June 13, 6:30 pm (3 W 18th Street, 6th Fl). Details and free RSVP here:…

Teaching Endangered Languages Against the Odds

Join us on April 4 at 6:30 for Teaching Endangered Languages Against the Odds, part of our continuing event series Unheard Of! Languages and Literatures from Around the World. It’s free and open all to all — just let us know you’re coming by RSVPing here. The location is ELA’s office in Manhattan at 3 W 18th Street (6th…

NYC Events Next Week!

Next week comes the next installement of our free event series Unheard Of! Languages and Literatures from Around the World. It’s free and open all to all — just let us know you’re coming by RSVPing here. The location is ELA’s office in Manhattan at 3 W 18th Street (6th Floor), close to Union Square and a…

International Mother Language Day Bonanza

Come celebrate International Mother Language Day (2/21) live at ELA in NYC! Throughout the day, we have three in-person events throughout the day. RSVP here and drop in for any or all. 1:30-2:30 pm: “Why and how should we protect multilingualism?” A panel discussion hosted virtually by Manchester City of Languages as part of the Muslim Arts &…

Unheard Of! NEW 2023 SEASON

Save the dates! Announcing the return of ELA’s long-running event series “Unheard Of! Languages and Literatures From Around the World”—one per month, Tuesday evenings, live in NYC, free and open to all, about, in, around, and for Language.  

Special Year-End Offer

With #GivingTuesday next week and the holidays coming up, give the person you love who loves languages a unique gift—by supporting our year-end Facebook fundraiser! (You can also give with a credit card via Paypal or by mailing us a check.) Donate just $40 ($10 off) to get an all-color, full-scale (24” x 36”, standard-frame-size)…

Collections Volunteer Wanted

ELA is looking for a short-term, part-time volunteer to help catalog and organize its print and digital collections, with any needed training and supervision provided. This will take place in person at our 18th Street office in Manhattan, beginning as soon as possible, with flexible scheduling but some weekday availability preferred. No experience required, but…

Powwow in the Bronx

On September 25, ELA was invited to table at the annual Bronx Native American Festival in Pelham Bay Park. For over 25 years, master of ceremonies Bobby Gonzalez has led the celebration, inviting a number of musicians, dancers, and storytellers to share traditions from a wide range of Native cultures. Indigenous representation ranged from Taino…

La Lucha Continua

In July, ELA launched a slew of new programs run by and centered on East Harlem’s Indigenous community, where Tu’un Savi (Mixtec), Mam, Nahuatl, and other Indigenous Latin American languages are spoken. Health—and particularly health literacy—has been at the heart of these programs, which are all about the connections between health on the one hand…

ELA @ This is NY in Queens

On June 15, ELA was at Queens Borough Hall with the founders of the Queens Night Market, the Queens Historical Society, the Queens Library, students from Newcomers High School, and a number of other groups as part of the inaugural Festival of NY. We showed the language map, introduced ELA’s work, and met an amazing…

Biking for Indigenous Languages

On May 1, ELA Co-Director Daniel Kaufman and long-time ELA collaborator and Tu’un Savi (Mixtec) speaker Ismael Alvarez take on the grueling 40-mile Five Boro Bike Tour for the cause of Indigenous languages. Support our small fundraiser here: https://gofund.me/75117eee Every dollar raised will go to compensating speakers of Ismael’s mother tongue, Tu’un Savi (Mixteco), to record, transcribe and translate…

2021 — a year of languages

Let’s be realistic. When a year begins with an attempted insurrection intent on replacing the few remnants of democracy with a fascist ethnostate, it leaves a lot of room for improvement over the next 11 months. Under such circumstances, just keeping the lights on can feel like landing on Mars! For the second year in…

#GivingTuesday — Through the End of the Year

To say thank you for your donations, we have gifts at special prices through the end of the year: language maps, t-shirts, and storybooks. Children’s books, recordings with elders, free public events, digital mapping, public health messages in Indigenous languages by and for Indigenous communities — these are just some of the things that ELA…

Closing Celebration for “Mother Tongues” and “The Migration Codex”

Join us this coming Saturday October 16 from 1 pm to celebrate the closing of two artist installations at the ELA house on Governors Island: Mother Tongues by Yuri Marder and The Migration Codex by Cinthya Santos Briones. Meet the artists and come hear music and poetry in the Indigenous languages of Mexico! Mixtec music master…

September and October on Governors Island

Early fall is one of the most beautiful times out on Governors Island, and ELA will still be in residency at our house in Nolan Park (building 4A) through October. But with a twist: with summer crowds thinning and NYC taking more precautions around Covid, we’ll be more in residency-mode with fewer events and without…

Closed this weekend

It’s been a busy summer! ELA’s house on Governors Island will be closed this weekend (August 7-8) for a little R&R, but we’ll be back next weekend (August 14-15).