Exploring in Ecstasy: Poet and language activist Bob Holman at work with LINES Ballet

by Molly Rogers
“There are nine different words in Maya for the color blue…but just three Spanish translations, leaving six [blue] butterflies that can be seen only by the Maya, proving beyond doubt that when a language dies six butterflies disappear from the consciousness of the earth.” – Earl Shorris, “The last word”
In Yaghan, an indigenous language of Tierra del Fuego now spoken by only one person, mamihlapinatapei is roughly transcribed as “a