Razom Lounge at the Ukrainian Festival 2022

Published: May 24, 2022   

A third weekend of May is the time when East 7th Street turns blue and yellow and New Yorkers are heading to the annual St. George Ukrainian Festival. The festival celebrates culture and beauty of Ukraine featuring a variety of traditional food, clothing, arts and crafts, music and so much more.

After three years of quarantine, our famous yellow couch and Face Box were back at the Razom Lounge. Face Box by celebrated cartoonist Sashko Danylenko was a unique opportunity to get a portrait created with the help of unique biological intelligence technology all while helping Ukraine through your donations. While the yellow couch this year hosted congresswoman C. Maloney with Consul General of Ukraine O. Golubov and everyone who dropped by to experience Razom’s atmosphere.

This year Razom Lounge featured the Individual First Aid Kits (IFAK) and guests were able to add a personal note to the heroes at the frontlines that went into a postcard inside IFAKs. As Ukraine is a winner of the 2022 Eurovision song contest, at Razom Lounge one could meet and converse with our volunteers, who were working at the Eurovision’s press center amplifying the voice of Ukraine to the world.

While at the Lounge one could pick up a custom made in a bomb shelter art piece, a sticker, postcard, poster, pin or a t-shirt. And have a blitz game of chess with the young prodigy. Engage in dialogues with the special guests and the Razom team, and so much more.

With the help of 30+ volunteers and everyone who stopped by we were able to raise around $10,000 for the Emergency Response. We thank all the friendly faces and all volunteers who worked many hours under the New York City’s sun – fueled by Veselka‘s raspberry lemonades and Plast NYC cold borshch – for the beautiful weekend full of love and laughter, all for a great cause of standing with Ukraine. We hope to see you at our upcoming events and the Razom Lounge next year. 

Razom Lounge is an annual traditional event organized under our Razom Culture initiative, which promotes Ukrainian culture and spirit in the US and around the world.

Ukrainian Music and Art Help Save Lives

Published: March 6, 2022   

This weekend Razom hosted two cultural events in NYC – a #StandWithUkraine Community Concert and a Private Art Tour at Zimmerli. Somebody may ask – is this time for culture? We believe – yes. For years, Razom Culture has been using cultural diplomacy and promoting unique Ukrainian traditions and customs, music, literature and art in the US and the world. These days, we also turn to Ukrainian culture for support and encouragement. Besides all proceeds from both events certainly go toward the Razom Emergency Response.

After the rally on Saturday, the Ukrainian community and all those who have been working to support Ukraine these difficult past couple of weeks were welcomed at the Ukrainian National Home in the Ukrainian Village for a Stand With Ukraine Community Concert.

Volunteers have been working tirelessly on various important initiatives but we needed to be reminded of our strength and resoluteness to keep going. Music, the international language, is the perfect way to do this. Big thanks to Iryna Kit for crafting a beautiful music program which included Ukrainian Village Voices, Zisl Slepovitch Trio, and Fima Chupakhin Jazz Quartet. The music soothed our aching hearts and gave us the zest to continue helping Ukraine. We are grateful to the great friends of the Ukrainian community Veselka, Two Boots Pizza, and Baczynsky East Village Meat Market Inc. for providing the food to sustain and nurture the volunteers. Thank you to everyone who came out for Ukraine and shared smiles, hugs, and words of encouragement. Together we collected about $8000 from the tickets purchases and donations made during the concert, all while enjoying Ukrainian creative genius. It was a wonderful evening amidst chaos, and the goal was always to remind ourselves of the amazing support Ukraine has all over the world and to give us the courage to continue fighting for peace, truth, and freedom.

Photos by AJ Stetson, Olena Blednova, and Alexei Zagdansky

And the very next day, on Sunday, Razom in collaboration with the Zimmerli Art Museum decided to keep the exclusive curator-led tour of Ukrainian art that was arranged a while ago. The exhibition is dedicated to the period of perestroika and the collapse of the Soviet Union that radically transformed the art scene of Kyiv. It launched Ukrainian contemporary art as a truly global phenomenon and changed the perception of Kyiv from a backwater province into a new art capital, preparing the city for its new role as the emerging state’s capital. The tour was led by Olena Martynyuk, PhD, a Guest Research Curator of the show and a postdoctoral fellow in Ukrainian Studies at the Harriman Institute of Columbia University. Initially, the proceeds from the tickets were planned to send toward further development of programs and exhibitions dedicated to Ukrainian art. But a quick decision was made that all proceeds of $3400 would also go toward the Emergency Response, where are needed the most right now.

Thus, while learning more about and enjoying Ukrainian music and art, we have collected over $11,000, which means more tactical medical supplies will be delivered to Ukraine and help save lives of brave Ukrainians.

Learn more about Razom Emergency Response and our latest updates.

Razom Book Club. Dom’s Dream Kingdom

Published: February 9, 2022   

On February 7th, Razom Book Club gathered to discuss Victoria Amelina’s book “Dom’s Dream Kingdom” (Дім для Дома), and the following afternoon they met with Victoria Amelina virtually.

“As if we’ve been reading the same book for several years,” said Irena Chalupa, “a book about memory, how to prevent forgetting.” Indeed, in the book Dom’s Dream Kingdom, the Tsiliik family, who live in Stanislav Lem’s old apartment at 4 Lepkoho Street, do not know how to talk to each other about the past. How to tell about the fact that people who are no longer in Lviv used to live in this apartment, how to remember a family history that you want to forget so much, how to find out who you are, if your parents have been trying to forget for many years.

This is how Yana Zavada, another member of the Razom Book Club, described the conversation: “In our book club we have already read about the heterogeneous Donbass in “The Death of Leo Cecil Made Sense”. Now it was a topic of heterogeneous Lviv (some in the club were very surprised by this, by the way). In these literary parallels, I see a movement towards each other. We are the one country. Cool. Original.”

In the words of the novel:
“The house where you are remembered is scattered like the wreckage of frozen rivers above the Earth. I can now say “my city”, but it is as absurd as saying “my air”. Even the air we breathe has already been someone’s and will be. Our air while it is with us. Our house, our home while it is with us. And we are all always in this home – each at our own depth.”

These topics were discussed with to Victoria among others, such as why she is not writing now as much as she is preparing for the New York Literary Festival and what she is planning to do in Poland with the Conrad Scholarship that Victoria won earlier this year. will begin in April. We invite you to watch this conversation, and if it inspires you, then read Victoria Amelina’s book “Дім Для Дома”.


Learn more about Razom Book Club and join the Facebook group to stay informed about the upcoming readings and meetings with Ukrainian authors.

Mondegreen to be published in English

Published: April 23, 2021   

It is unbelievable, but our Kickstarter campaign to publish Rafeyenko’s book in English has reached the initial goal amount of $5,500 — just two days after we launched it! 

We THANK everyone so very much for incredible support of this important book. 

Kickstarter campaign will still run for another month as per the site’s rules. The amount collected will cover the absolute minimum necessary to complete the translation, but the overall cost of the translation and rights to the book are a lot higher. And so every cent we collect above the initial goal amount will still go towards supporting the work of  Volodymyr Rafeyenko and towards fully covering the cost of the translation so that the writer and the translator can continue their work!  

Volodymyr Rafeyenko had to leave his home city of Donetsk immediately after the occupation by Russian-sponsored forces has begun. He started writing about the traumatic experience right away, too: first in the novel ‘Longue Duree’ (Dovhi chasy), which appeared in Russian and in Ukrainian (in Marianna Kiyanovska’s translation), and later in ‘Mondegreen.’ 

Volodymyr left his home when he was 45, having to abandon everything he had worked to achieve, and beginning from scratch in Kyiv. In one of his interviews, he compared the process to what Johann Sebastian Bach must have experienced when he had to bury four children from his first marriage, and then seven children from his second marriage. That experience of excruciating pain always accompanies Volodymyr, who now lives at a fellow writer’s dacha in Bucha near Kyiv, where he continues to write and from where he teaches literature courses online.   

We believe that it is incredibly important for the world to learn more about such experiences that many Ukrainian citizens have gone through as a result of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Your contribution allows us to change the way the world perceives Ukraine — and it will hopefully generate more support for our young democracy. There are many facets to Ukraine’s history and culture, and not all of them are tragic. With this campaign, we’re beginning with what’s very critical right now, but we hope to be able to count on your support in the future, too, when we campaign to translate and publish other works of Ukrainian literature in English. 

Please stand with us as we do it.  

You can learn more and contribute to the campaign at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/razomforukraine/mondegreen-by-volodymyr-rafeyenko

Passionate about Ukrainian modern literature? – Join our Razom Book Club.

And learn more about and support Razom Culture which promotes awareness of Ukraine’s vibrant art and culture through a variety of collaborations and events.

Meet and Greet with Ievgen Klopotenko

Published: April 14, 2021   

On a rainy Sunday of April 11th, Razom was honored to host Ukrainian chef Ievgen Klopotenko and Veselka’s chef Dima Martseniuk at a very special Razom Meet & Greet.

You may know Ievgen Klopotenko, who is also a Master Chef Ukraine winner and a successful restaurant owner in Kyiv, because of his ongoing effort to have borshch recognized as part of Ukraine’s cultural heritage by UNESCO. Ievgen actively works to revive centuries-old Ukrainian recipes, modernize them and show Ukraine’s rich heritage through food. He favors local ingredients in a true farm-to-table approach.

Ievgen spoke about Ukrainian self-identity, the role of food in Ukrainian history, and broke some myths and stereotypes about Ukrainian cuisine – it is not only about boiled stuffed dumplings (varenyky), cabbage rolls (holubtsi) and beet soup (borshch). He absolutely captivated the audience with his high energy, passion, and knowledge. Everyone was mesmerized!

It has been a while since we were able to meet in-person like this, so thank you to everyone who RSVPed, masked up, and showed up. We hope you enjoyed meeting Ievgen and Dima and we hope to host many more events like this in the future.

We’re also grateful to Andrew Stasiw for allowing us to host this event at Saint George Academy, a center of Ukrainian life in New York.

And although the rain forced us to spontaneously move the scheduled rooftop event indoors, we especially thank Maryna Prykhodko, Dora Chomiak, and all of the amazing volunteers who helped make this event run as smooth as possible, while adhering to all safety guidelines! We get things done when we work RAZOM.

Our special Thank You to Volodymyr Shahay and Olesia Pryshlyak for capturing all the unforgettable emotions in such wonderful photos.

Learn more about and support Razom Culture that celebrates and promotes awareness of Ukraine’s vibrant art and culture through a variety of collaborations and events.

Koliadky in the 21st Century

Published: January 5, 2021   

We were very excited for the amazing concert that took place on January 2nd – Koliadky Reimagined: Ukrainian Carols in the 21st Century. Traditional folk met contemporary classical music in this stunning survey of Ukrainian Carols (Koliada) across generations. Ukrainian Village Voices were joined by musicians from the Aeon Ensemble. They performed centuries-old carols passed down orally and contemporary imaginings of these works by Ukraine’s finest living composers. The concert was broadcast live in both HD and 360° Virtual Reality so audiences could enjoy a completely immersive experience.

“I have to say I am loving every aspect of this – the programming, the performance, the music, the mix” – shared Dmytro during the concert. And we definitely forwarded these words to the artists, volunteers and everyone who made this happen. 

Huge thanks to all of you who could join and so supported the bigger goal! The concert was part of a larger fundraising series to help with the production of a centenary concert celebration of Shchedryk’s first performance on the grand stage of the Carnegie Hall in 2022! All proceeds from the tickets are going toward our big vision and huge goal – learn more about and support the 100th anniversary of Shchedryk. 

Learn more and support RazomCulture. Let’s share the incredible Ukrainian culture with the world!

Kino na Dakhu: 2 days, 3 Ukrainian movies, One roof top in NYC

Published: September 15, 2020   

We had a fabulous time at our first in-person event in many months and the two nights of our Films on the Roof / Кіно на даху mini- film festival!

Thank you to everyone who joined us Friday and Saturday nights – thank you for getting tickets, wearing your masks, distancing yourselves, being so kind and respectful, and even volunteering to help clean up afterwards. We were so happy to see our Razom community is as strong as ever. The location was perfect; the sounds of New York and the view of St. George Church complimented the gathering so well. And the films! We are so proud to have the Razom premiere of the film Mr. Jones on the Friday night. The film was moving, beautiful, and so important. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s on Amazon. And the screening of Hutsulka Ksenya and Julie Blue was just the following night, when we even got to hear from special guests Roxy Toporowych, writer and director of Julia Blue, and Maks Lozynsky, who played Yaro in Hutsulka Ksenya! It was an unforgettable experience. We laughed, we cried, we delighted in the treasures of Ukrainian and Ukrainian-American cinema. And all that on the Ukrainian Cinema Day.

Lots of thanks to the Razom Culture leader Leah Batstone for organizing the event, and to our volunteers – Maryna Prykhodko, Dora Chomiak, Mariya Soroka, Olya Yarychkivska and many others – for helping out. A big shout out to the St. George Academy for hosting us, and Streecha for the delicious kompot!

Learn more about Razom Culture initiatives and make sure to check our Culture Calendar for the upcoming events!

Razom Book Club with Dotsya Prototype

Published: July 21, 2020   

When many of us are still staying at home for the quarantine measures, Razom Book Club keeps reading on and just had its fourth online meeting. This time the Club read and discussed the awarded book Dotsya (“Доця”).

Literature

The Earth is Blue as an Orange

Published: February 20, 2020   

Razom was honored to support a talented group of the Ukrainian documentary The Earth Is Blue As An Orange, that was chosen for the participating at the Sundance Film Festival and the MoMA DocFortnight 2020 Festival of International Nonfiction Film and Media.

continue reading →

Absolute Zero: Meeting with Artem Chekh

Published: February 13, 2020   

We are thankful to everyone who found time and joined the Ukrainian Studies Program аt Columbia University and Razom for an evening with Ukrainian writer and veteran Artem Chekh.

Literature