The Ukrainian Cultural Festival is organized by Razom, Yara Arts, Ukrainian Institute of America, Shevchenko Scientific Society and Bowery Poetry Club and will take place November 7th through November 15th in New York.
Over ten days in November, you will have an opportunity to immerse yourself in the world of Ukrainian poetry and prose and check out the best in contemporary Ukrainian cinema.
Meet writers Andriy Kurkov, Oksana Lutsyshyna, Olena Stiazhkina and poets Iya Kiva, Alex Averbuch and Lyudmyla and Boris Khersonskys. Watch “Pamfir” and other contemporary films.
Below is the schedule of events. Please check in often for changes and ticket information.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 7th
DOVBUSH
Presented by Razom
The most ambitious Ukrainian action movie to date, the drama, directed by Oles Sanin, tells the story of Oleksa Dovbush, one of the leaders of Ukrainian resistance known as ‘Opryshky’ which opposed Polish and Austrian administrations. The resistance movement had been active from 16th to 19th centuries. Released in Ukraine in August 2023 the movie became a box office sensation even when the movie showings are interrupted by air raids.
ANGELIKA FILM CENTER, 18 W. Houston St. New York, NY 10012
Time: 7:00 pm
Tickets: HERE
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 8th
BOWERY POETRY CLUB, 308 Bowery, NYC, 7:00 pm
Tickets: $15 cash at the door
How Fire Descends: NY Poets & Artists Respond to Ukrainian Poetry
Presented by Bowery Poetry Club & Yara Arts Group
NY Poets & Artists Respond to Ukrainian Poetry featuring Ukrainian poet Iya Kiva.
Translators Amelia Glaser, Olena Jennings, Virlana Tkacz and Wanda Phipps; and poets: Pichchenda Bao, Bob Holman; Yara Arts Group and Bushwick Book Club react to Serhiy Zhadan’s new book “How Fire Descends”
Of Rage and Longing: poetry by Alex Averbuch
Presented by Shevchenko Scientific Society
Poetry in Ukrainian with English translation. Moderation by Oleh Kotsyuba
Translations read by Sashko Krapivkin.
Alex Averbuch will read from his latest book Zhydivsky korol (The Jewish King, a 2023 finalist for the Shevchenko National Prize), as well as from his upcoming collection, Of Rage and Longing, and answer questions from the audience. Averbuch’s poetry deals with intertwoven Jewish-Ukrainian relations through the prism of his family history and Ukraine’s multiethnic past and present. The book features poeticized documentary materials related to the Second World War: letters by Ukrainian Ostarbeiters sent to their relatives in Ukraine, intertwined with letters by Jewish Holocaust survivors who returned to devastated villages in Ukraine in search of their murdered relatives, as well as poems about the Russo-Ukrainian war currently taking place in his home region of Luhans’k. Unsettling but ultimately liberatory de-specifications of ethnos, language, and sexuality relieve trigger-points in Ukraine’s history through the confessional intimacy of family, shame, pleasure, and the reconciliation of self and other.
A BIT OF BRAVERY: shorts program
Presented by Cooper Union and Razom
The screening, which is 82 minutes long, will present the following movies:
Call me anytime, I’m not leaving home (documentary): dir. Sanjna Selvarajan
Liturgy of Antitank Obstacles (documentary): dir. Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk
Sunflower Field (animation): dir. Polina Buchak
Golden Leggings / ГКЧП (narrative): dir. Arkadiy Nepytaliuk
I Didn’t Want to Make a War Film (documentary): dir. Nadia Parfan
The Diaper Cake (narrative): dir. Anastasia Babenko
Event will be introduced with a performance of Lesya Verba (bandura musician)
Screening is followed by Q&A with creators.
The screening is co-hosted by Razom for Ukraine and Cooper Union and co-presented with Takflix.
A FOREST SURROUNDS POETS: UKRAINIAN POETRY IN PERFORMANCE
In English with some Ukrainian
Come to hear Ukrainian Poetry in Performance by Yara Arts Group, a resident company at La MaMa Experimental Theatre. Reception sponsored by Razom for Ukraine immediately following the event.The event is dedicated to Victoria Amelina, who was killed last summer. Tern Kuzma will perform her poetry, while Olena Stiazhkina will speak about Victoria Amelina and the New York Literary Festival she founded in Ukraine.The event is inspired by a recent poem by Serhiy Zhadan:
“It feels like every year in November
a forest surrounds poets – a forest of the condemned…”In “A Forest Surround Poets” Yara artists perform in English the poetry by such cultural giants of the 1920s as Les Kurbas, Pavlo Tychyna, Volodymyr Svidzinsky, Mikhail lohansen, and Hat Khotkevych, accompanied by master-bandura player Julian Kytasty, as well as the wild verse of Futurists Mykhail Semeneko and Oleksa Vlyzko. Then, Yara’s George Drance, Silvana Gonzalez, Susan Hwang, Petro Ninovskyi and Lesia Verba perform a concert version of the third act of “Radio 477!” by Serhiy Zhadan, accompanied by composer Anthony Coleman. The act opens with a scene that draws a connection between the destruction of Ukrainian culture in the purges and the assault on Kharkiv in the first days of the russian invasion and then plunges into Serhiy Zhadan’s newest poetry.
PAMFIR
Presented by Razom
Pamfir is a 2022 Ukrainian fictional feature film directed by Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk, which premiered on May 22, 2022, at the 75th Festival de Cannes.
“Savagely cinematic, charged with feral energy and exploring a story that dances between muddy realism and a mythic, quasi-magical abandon, Pamfir would be impressive even if it hadn’t been made in Ukraine on the cusp of conflict.” – The Guardian
MONDAY NOVEMBER 13th
Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL), 455 Fifth Avenue, NY 6:30 PM
Registration: HERE
The New Ukrainian Novel: Kurkov, Lutsyshyna, Stiazkina
Presented by New York Public Library and Razom
Join some of Ukraine’s most prolific and distinguished writers – Olena Stiazhkina, Oksana Lutsyshyna and Andrey Kurkov – for this evening celebrating the rich literary culture of Ukraine. The authors will discuss their latest works, which illuminate Ukraine’s diverse society and deal with the legacy of Soviet and post-Soviet rule, as well as the present situation in the country.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18th
Bortkiewicz piano works
presented by #PlayUkrainianMusic
Please join us for an evening celebrating Sergei Bortkiewicz (1877-1952), a brilliant Ukrainian composer and pianist, whose deeply lyrical and expressive piano music will take center stage.
Program:
Crimean Sketches op. 8
Three Pieces op. 24.
1001 Nights op. 37.
Performers: Alexander Chaplinskiy, Pavlo Gintov and Anna Shelest.
Sergei Bortkiewicz was born and grew up in Kharkiv, a birthplace of Ukrainian Romanticism and one of the country’s most significant cultural centers. A true romantic, he often drew inspiration from literature and nature, and in spite of him facing incredible hardships, his music never wavered in its pursuit of beauty.
We are dedicating this program to the people of Kharkiv and their courageous stand in the face of the blatant russian aggression. All funds raised from this concert will go to Razom for Ukraine toward their relief work in the Kharkiv region.
Today is a Different War: Poetry of Boris and Lyudmyla Khersonsky
Presented by Shevchenko Scientific Society and Razom
Poetry in Russian and in Ukrainian with English translation. Conversation is in English. Moderated by Marie Howe, the State Poet for f NY.
Boris Khersonsky and Lyudmyla Khersonska write poetry that speaks to the crisis of our times. Widely regarded as one of Ukraine’s most prominent rusophone poets, Boris Khersonsky was born in Chernivtsi and spent most of his time in Odesa, where he practices psychiatry. Born in Tiraspol, Moldova, Lyudmyla Khersonska is an award winning poet. Her first collection in English came out recently in Arrowsmith. Boris and Lyudmila’s joint collection “The Country Where Everyone’s Name is Fear” came out in Lost Horse Press in 2022.