In his opening comments, Alexander Semyonovich Kushner speaks in Russian, with an English interpreter. John Ashbery reads selections of Kushner's poems in English, followed by Kushner reading them in Russian. Yunna Petrovna Morits introduces her work in Russian, after which Carolyn Forché then reads the poet's work in English, followed by a reading in Russian by Morits. Susan Sontag introduces the event at CUNY.