Throw a Language Party!

Connection and belonging

Language Parties are a format for storytelling where members of the local community gather to share stories in the original languages, followed by interpretation into the common language.

As you browse these pages we trust that you will sense the hearts of the people who have brought these shows to life.

We welcome • We listen • We connect

WE WELCOME speakers of all seven thousand languages

By creating safe spaces for sharing oral wisdom, we enrich our common life

WE LISTEN with our eyes, ears, and hearts

By embracing our diversity, all can belong without assimilating, without forgetting who we are

WE CONNECT through our diversity

By building strength and leadership, we engage with our troubled world and our divided communities

What storytellers say

“Language is our identity, it’s who we are. Even if we don’t speak that language, it’s still within us. When your language comes out, you feel yourself.” –Carine (Lingala)


“It was very meaningful to have strangers genuinely listening to our stories. We could feel that the audience was wanting to know, wanting to listen.” –Bobbie (Cherokee)

What storylisteners say

“Even without understanding the spoken words there is connection and understanding.”

“Important for current times to defuse widespread and growing intolerance to difference.”