Love Speech | Wordshop with Maó and Karólína

Maó Alheimsdóttir and Karólína Rós Ólafsdóttir invited us to rethink the sayings we grew up with and reflect on what we wanted to say in a new way. We had so much fun during the process! We started by assembling a group playlist of songs that brought us back to distant memories: the perfect setting to bring us back in time and start digging up some forgotten sayings. We chatted, exchanged sayings in our native languages and worked as a group to develop new ones.

The workshop created a space for innovative phrases and idioms. By activating memories, the senses and different languages or ways of speech, we generated new vocabulary for a familiar feeling or a new feeling with familiar vocabulary. We explored one’s relationship to an acquired language, one’s mother tongue, and the relationship between the two languages. When one thinks about home a landscape appears, as well as images and memories, and in the same way there is landscape inherent in a language. What is just like something else? What is like the thing I want to say?

The workshop was part of the Love Speech library project. A project that emphasizes lived realities, emotional literacy and ownership of the Icelandic language. As the title of the project implies, the emphasis is on playing with words and all those involved in the project are therefore encouraged to create new Icelandic words. The words are then collected in a new dictionary which is kept in the Reykjavik City Library and available to consult on location. In addition to the object of the dictionary, we are creating a platform to discuss what is dear to us - our experience of communication.

Join us for our open mic event on June 15th!

More information:
Martyna Karolina Daniel
martyna.karolina.daniel@reykjavik.is