Endangered Language Alliance
In 2010, in cooperation with linguists Daniel Kaufman and Juliette Blevins, Holman founded the Endangered Language Alliance. The work, he says, comprises a mission: “We are so in awe of the power of the book that we've forgotten the power of sound and the magic of sense nested in sound. Everybody's fighting for the preservation of species, but who's fighting for the preservation of languages, which are in fact the souls…of culture itself?” The project has so far generated ”On the Road With Bob Holman: A Poet’s Journey Into Global Cultures and Languages,” a three-part documentary DVD focused on West Africa and Israel. Holman is currently in production on “Word Up! Language Matters with Bob Holman,” a 90-minute endangered languages special produced by David Grubin for PBS. Bob Holman features on Welsh artist Gai Toms' 2012 album Bethel, on which he performs an improvised scat
Read more about this topic: Bob Holman
Famous quotes containing the words endangered, language and/or alliance:
“While learning the language in France a young man’s morals, health and fortune are more irresistibly endangered than in any country of the universe.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“You can’t write about people out of textbooks, and you can’t use jargon. You have to speak clearly and simply and purely in a language that a six-year-old child can understand; and yet have the meanings and the overtones of language, and the implications, that appeal to the highest intelligence.”
—Katherine Anne Porter (1890–1980)
“I think that a young state, like a young virgin, should modestly stay at home, and wait the application of suitors for an alliance with her; and not run about offering her amity to all the world; and hazarding their refusal.... Our virgin is a jolly one; and tho at present not very rich, will in time be a great fortune, and where she has a favorable predisposition, it seems to me well worth cultivating.”
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)