Under the cooperation between universities the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv on the initiative of the vice-rector of the international university gave the UB Lesya Ukrainka’s The Song of the Forest It will be translated into Spanish and Catalan in the near future Trump said that Russia has grown more willing to negotiate an end to its war against Ukraine following a sharp decline in oil prices Poland will hold presidential elections on May 18 as the country faces key debates over social policy and national security that could shape its political trajectory The annual report said Russia is using aggressive tactics such as unauthorized airspace incursions and close encounters with NATO ships and aircraft including Iranian-designed Shahed-type drones located about 70 kilometers northwest of Donetsk remains one of the most fiercely contested sectors of the front where Russia has concentrated its main offensive efforts since March (Updated: May 6, 2025 11:41 am)Ukraine's drones target Moscow second night in a row, Russian official claims, ahead of Victory Day parade. Debris from one of the drones reportedly fell on the Kashirskoye Highway The reported attack comes just days before Russia's Victory Day parade and three-day "truce." Vice President Mike Pence said Putin "only understands power." About 800 million euros ($905 million) will be allocated for the acquisition and installation of anti-tank mines to deter potential aggression (Updated: May 6, 2025 9:36 am)War analysis France is sending Ukraine more AASM Hammer bombs — here's what they can do Polish President Andrzej Duda said the United States has tools that can effectively influence the Kremlin arguing that only President Donald Trump has real leverage over Russian President Vladimir Putin The number includes 1,430 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day "To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement" by Benjamin Nathans which covers dissent in the Soviet Union and Russia today by Sonya BandouilThe Lesia Ukrainka monument in front of the museum building PHOTO: KRIM.BIZ.UAThe Lesia Ukrainka Museum in Yalta Lesia Ukrainka was a notable Ukrainian writer The building where the museum once stood now displays a plaque from Soviet times mentioning Lesia Ukrainka but all other references to her have been removed by Russian authorities The museum has been repurposed under a new name with exhibitions focusing on Yalta's history The fate of the original exhibits dedicated to Lesia Ukrainka is uncertain with concerns that they may have been archived This is part of a broader trend of Russian authorities destroying or repurposing cultural institutions in Crimea and Ukraine as a whole Dmitry Rogozin, a Russian official heading the Russian occupation of Zaporizhzhia Oblast, said on June 27 that it is "time to burn everything Ukrainian down to the root" so that "there is no trace left." An unusual and exciting biography in dance has its world premiere Friday and Saturday — Shumka’s Ukrainka! Article contentBorn in Zviahel, Ukraine, in 1871, Lesya Ukrainka became a renowned poet, writer, activist, musician, storyteller and humanitarian in the Ukrainian diaspora. Shumka’s artistic director Les Sereda was inspired to develop a dance theatre work around her story, rife with artistic angst, physical hardships like tuberculosis of the bone, escapes and numerous creative triumphs. Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Along with her prolific poetic, dramatic and literary achievements, Ukrainka explored ethnography and collected data on folk traditions and Ukrainian folk melodies. She recorded 220 of the latter, published work on children’s games, songs and fairy tales and formed a collection, Folk Songs for Dance — making her a pioneer of ethnic studies in Ukraine. “Her health limited her physically but through her writing “She wrote not only of love but also social justice and human rights,” he says of the feminist anti-tsarist “This was at a time when such subjects were frowned upon Now is a time when these subjects are at the forefront.” deep musical roots (Alexander Rodin composes) and of course terrific dancing (Tasha Orysiuk and Paul Olijnyk among the choreographers here) Shumka’s Ukrainka looks like an enlightening experience all around By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc The next issue of Headline News will soon be in your inbox Interested in more newsletters? transmission or republication strictly prohibited This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy You can manage saved articles in your account Pan-African Forum for the Culture of Peace Public access to information is a key component of UNESCO's commitment to transparency and its accountability. Based on human rights and fundamental freedoms, the 2005 Convention ultimately provides a new framework for informed, transparent and UNESCO’s e-Platform on intercultural dialogue is designed for organizations and individuals to learn from shared knowledge or experiences from infl Established in 2002, the GEM Report is an editorially independent report, hosted and published by UNESCO. To recovery and beyond: The report takes stock of the global progress on the adoption and implementation of legal guarantees on Access to Info Addressing culture as a global public good For almost 75 years, the UNESCO Courier has served as a platform for international debates on issues that concern the entire pla Lifelong learning is key to overcoming global challenges and to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. Support non-profit journalism and perspectives from around the world. See all those languages? The Lingua project at Global Voices works to bring down barriers to understanding through translation. Scene near Lesya Ukrainka's monument in Moscow Global Voices gathered some of the telegram posts with photos of these memorials sent them this photo near the monument to Lesya Ukrainka flowers keep appearing at the Taras Shevchenko memorial flowers and candles to a “mother and child” monument people brought toys and flowers to the monument of those repressed during the Stalin regime people brought yellow and blue flowers in colors of Ukrainian flag to the monument of people killed during Stalin's repressions a 15-year old girl was detained for bringing flowers to the memorial of famous Lesya Ukrainka flowers were laid at the monument of mother and child activists have also hung portraits of the dead Spontaneous memorials appeared all over Russia: in Moscow, Tver, Krasnodar, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Voronezh, Ivanovo, Syktyvkar, Yekaterinburg, Samara, Ulyanovsk, Kostroma, Vladivostok and Saint Petersburg. As DOXA writes four people were detained and police vehicles started to be stationed near the monument of Lesya Ukrainka in Moscow This post is part of RuNet Echo, a Global Voices project to interpret the Russian language internet. All Posts · Read more » ERROR: SECURITY TIMEOUT - Please copy your message to a backup location Global Voices stands out as one of the earliest and strongest examples of how media committed to building community and defending human rights can positively influence how people experience events happening beyond their own communities and national borders Please consider making a donation to help us continue this work Donate now Authors, please log in » Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" Stay up to date about Global Voices and our mission. See our Privacy Policy for details. 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For more information please read our Fundraising Ethics Policy Special thanks to our many sponsors and funders which saw the powerful boost of women's emancipation Ukrainian culture produced so many strong female writers: Marko Vovchok In the pantheon of Ukrainian writers who constructed the country's cultural tradition She may indeed be the best Ukrainian writer ever One thing is special about her: she did the most to break Ukrainian culture free from the image of provinciality imposed on it by the discourse of the Russian Empire around the turn of the 20th century Lesya Ukrainka set Ukrainian culture free from the image of provinciality imposed on it by discourse of the Russian Empire around the turn of the 20th century She reflected Ukrainian problems in the mirrors of the topics of global culture and history She took stories from Ancient Greece and Rome as well as European conflicts and revolutions while making her characters speak Ukrainian and posing the universal human problems in the Ukrainian language She was born in an era when Ukrainian was banned (yes banned!) from the public use in the Russian empire She was born in an era Ukrainian language has been banned (yes fell a few years after the Valuev Circular of 1863 which introduced draconian restrictions on the publishing of the Ukrainian word Her childhood would see all publishing in the Ukrainian language become illegal with the Ems Ukaz of 1876 shortly after this ban was lifted — and shortly before Russian Empire itself collapsed She spent her whole life writing in a language which the state to which she was subject declared nonexistent But she was not only able to write masterpieces in this language she was able to use it to speak with supreme eloquence about the whole world The breadth of her topics is truly astounding and is equal of any of her great European or American contemporaries She wrote about early Christians in the Roman Empire about the Scottish wars for independence and the French Revolution and of course her native Ukrainian folklore When Ukrainian culture was imprisoned in an artificial provinciality she filled it with the voices of literary culture from around the world But all those global topics were not merely abstract neither to her nor to her people: she wrote about these "ancient" themes by channeling her own experience When she was writing about early Christians she felt herself a member of a "catacomb" people: a community of the faithful persecuted by an empire Her genius was primarily in writing drama: her dramatic poems are works which remain unsurpassed in the Ukrainian cultural canon — making them comparable to plays by Aeschylus the story of the Trojan prophetess who warns her people in vain of their imminent doom — it is the story of all people whose voice has been unheard throughout history but also a story about endangered communities the story of a Greek poet who rejects Roman supremacy can be read as a narration about Ukrainians ("Greeks") opposing the Russian Empire ("Romans") It is also a remarkable attempt of a Ukrainian culture to see itself reflected in the mirror of classical cultures is a story of Scottish elites who betray their nation and assimilate with the English — a mirror of Ukrainian history in which Ukraine had repeatedly lost its national elite to assimilation with neighboring powers this betrayal by the elite is followed by a miraculous rebirth from the energy of its people — yet another analogy for the organic potential of the Ukrainian nation Her Martian the Advocate is a story of a Christian lawyer in the 3rd century Roman Empire who defends his fellow Christians but cannot disclose his own Christian faith he is put in an impossible dilemma of whom to save: his community of the faithful or an individual who seeks shelter in his house Or take her brilliant Rufinus and Priscilla: again a story about a conflict between a young Christian community and the Roman empire which tells us how faith in a new idea (endangered by the Empire) turns people fanatical and makes them sacrifice not only themselves In the Field of Blood (her play about Judas and Christ) shows the perspective of Judas who blames Christ for promising him the "Kingdom of Heaven," but instead leaves him with nothing It is a story of a profound disillusionment which follows unquestioning faith — and how this disillusionment — the result of over-investment of trust of trust — leads to betrayal They travel through different lands and different epochs — but these lands and epochs are mirrors through which Ukrainka speaks to her own nation The leitmotifs of these stories are freedom and dignity — but their key conflicts often between freedom of a community versus freedom of an individual faces a dilemma whom to save: a fellow Christian or the whole community of fellow Christians he is facing a dilemma for which there is simply no right answer It is remarkable how Lesya Ukrainka found a way to tell the Ukrainian story by anchoring it in the European canon: Greek and Roman antiquity It is also remarkable how she brings new life to ancient dramas and their key principle: the struggle of experiences and values which show the deep complexity of life her dramas do with existential experiences what the Socratic / Platonic dialogues did with ideas: they present multiplicity and complexity as the key principles of human thinking and feeling Her plays could be called "Socratic dramas" can reanimate the European literary canon with such power and indomitable spirit deserves deep admiration Lesya Ukrainka's fairy tale play The Forest Song has been released in Italian under the title "Il canto della foresta" by the publishing house Mondadori.This was announced by the publicist and translator of the book The book was printed as part of the Oscar Classici series in the largest Italian publishing house "This will contribute to the appropriate publicity around the publication as it is where Lesya Ukrainka's masterpiece belongs," noted Yaryna Hrusha who also works as a lecturer in Ukrainian language and literature at state universities in Milan and Turin I experimented and included Lesya Ukrainka's 'Forest Song' in the Ukrainian literature program at the University of Milan There was no translation available for me to use during the lecture so I passionately told the students about the beautiful forests in Volhynia and how Kylyna and Mother Lukasheva passionately argued with each other It was a one-time event on my part because without the text although they remembered Lesya Ukrainka's biography well," said Hrusha Lesya Ukrainka's "Forest Song" had to be removed from the university program because there was no Italian translation hugged my first copy of 'Il canto della foresta,' put it in my backpack and went to lecture on the 'Forest Song' at the University of Bologna I didn't have to play the role of a one-man theater because the text speaks for itself," the translator reported She also noted that she would be lecturing on "The Forest Song" by Lesya Ukrainka at the University of Milan The publisher is Italian translator Elizabeta Risari The translation of the fairy tale play and the afterword were proofread by Ukrainian studies lecturer Alessandro Achilli The afterword was written by writer and literary critic Sasha Dovzhik The preface to the book was written by Yaryna Hrusha Currently, the book can be purchased on the publisher's website and on Amazon missiles rained down on Kyiv as the Russian army tried to enter the city one of Ukraine’s foremost literary critics sat calmly in front of her laptop and delivered an online lecture on the Ukrainian modernist writer Lesya Ukrainka a canonical fin de siècle poet and playwright Ukrainka is often reduced to her youthful patriotic verses I never thought I’d be speaking to you from Kyiv on the front line that I’d be sleeping on the floor in the corridor in fear of bombs watching children play in bomb shelters instead of on the playground But I’m amazed by the courage of Ukrainians all trying to help our defenders with such belief and such love this war of Putin’s has made Ukrainians into real Ukrainians Ukrainians frequently speak of the need to become Ukrainians: to consolidate their culture and institutions after centuries of imperial domination Russia interprets as weakness; it views Ukraine as an accident of history Vladimir Putin spent nearly an hour on television trying to convince Russians that Ukraine was nothing but an “anti-Russia” engineered by the West on “our historical land.” Ukrainian national identity is not an accident Ukrainians have struggled to fend off attempts to erase their culture Russian publishers accepted Ukrainian literature only if it was ethnographic (Serious literature had to be in Russian.) Successive laws in 1863 and 1876 led to the effective banning of all works in the Ukrainian language as well as their near-complete prohibition in public settings Stalin executed a whole generation of writers who had been rebuilding Ukrainian literary culture in the decade prior brutally cutting short the growth of the country’s vibrant avant-garde The story of Ukrainian literature is one of defiance in the face of imperial arrogance Ukrainian writers worked cautiously within the restrictions the Russian empire imposed in order to create some semblance of a literary culture Sometimes they tried to express their Ukrainianness through works written in Russian Others chose outright criticism of Russian imperialism—and suffered for it Others still simply laughed at the hubris of those intent on making Ukraine look insignificant No one used humor to assert Ukrainian identity more than Nikolai Gogol (known as Mykola Hohol in Ukrainian) who despite his origins is known to the world as Russian who wrote folksy Ukrainian-language comedies for a provincial theater in central Ukraine colorful comedies about life in a Ukrainian village—but he wrote them in Russian “Christmas Eve,” a group of Ukrainian Cossacks visits Catherine the Great in St In a comic conversation littered with cultural and linguistic misunderstandings there’s also a flash of politics: The Cossacks demand to know why Catherine destroyed their autonomy (a real event that happened in 1775) the story leaps safely back into comic territory Many Russian readers would have seen in this encounter nothing more than a joke at the expense of the simple Cossacks overawed by the grandeur of the palace and the empress it tapped into the folk tradition of the Cossack trickster who refuses to defer to authority This irreverence toward the empire was the foundation on which the Ukrainian literature of the mid-to-late 19th century was built With writers such as Ukrainka and Taras Shevchenko this defiance was far more overt than with the outwardly loyal Gogol Shevchenko was born a serf and knew that peasants’ lives were nothing like Gogol’s jolly idyll “You laugh full deep,” he scolded his compatriot in a poem addressed to him “while I must weep.” Shevchenko’s attacks on the empire and its repression of minority nations are fiery and uncompromising “From the Moldavian to the Finn / Silence is held in every tongue.” For this stance Ukrainka defied imperial restrictions and stereotypes through work that criticized colonialism and embodied feminist ideas and Babylon brought European and world culture into a literature that had been forced into parochialism Some Ukrainian intellectuals criticized her for ignoring Ukrainian subject matter Yet she did write one play about Ukrainian history a drama in verse set in the 17th century after the Cossack leader Bohdan Khmelnytskyi signed a famous and fateful alliance with Moscow in order to free Ukraine from Polish control a Cossack woman who agrees to marry a Ukrainian noble serving at the Moscow court tries to assuage her fears about life in an “alien land”: “It’s not so much a foreign land and I / Already understand somewhat their speech.” Oksana is not permitted to speak with men as their equal Her foreignness makes her an object of curiosity and incomprehension as Hundorova noted in her lecture from besieged Kyiv as an exotic object to be seen and not heard much in the same way Ukrainian culture had been reduced to a colorful ornament in the imperial cultural imagination of Ukrainka’s own time as Ukraine has been plunged into chaos and conflict: “Ukraine lies bleeding under Moscow’s boots / Is that what you call ‘peace’ A ruined waste?” The play’s message that alliance with Moscow was a tragedy for Ukraine directly contradicted official imperial historiography and it was neither published nor performed until after the collapse of the empire Soviet editions of Ukrainka's works also omit the play Ukrainka became a major inspiration for a new generation of writers and thinkers As global currents such as post-colonialism and feminism began to trickle into newly democractic Ukraine local intellectuals immediately recognized Ukrainka in these “new” ideas one of Ukraine’s foremost novelists and a biographer of Ukrainka independent Ukraine’s first real best seller which recounts the tumultuous romance between a female poet and a male artist in the early days of independence preserving national identity and resisting Russification are not just political intimate matters that dictate her choice of partner and her desire to have a child: And we’ll be able to defend him [their child] forcefully and throughout history held back—just a handful we should be multiplying like crazy and constantly longing for personal and national liberation is frustrated by a man who is unable to emerge from the imperial shadow obligingly performing Ukrainian songs and dances for the czar’s entertainment while the artist in Zabuzhko’s novel is wracked by an inferiority complex familiar to citizens of dominated nations the female characters have a strong sense of Ukrainian identity while their male counterparts serve as a warning against acquiescing to the empire as she spoke about Ukrainka’s ill-fated Oksana Hundorova suddenly dropped her measured academic tone Her voice became more urgent as she linked the fatal clash of cultures at the heart of The Noblewoman whereby Oksana is consigned to voiceless objectification to accept Ukraine’s existence on its own terms lies at the foundation of Putin’s aggression Those on the streets of Kyiv that day could feel the violent manifestation of that clash As the works of writers from Ukrainka to Zabuzhko show that violence only inspires Ukrainians to find ever more powerful and irreverent ways of becoming Ukrainians This article first appeared in The Atlantic on 10th March 2022 Original article in The Atlantic Dr Uilleam Blacker’s academic profile UCL School of Slavonic & East European Studies UCL Social & Historical Sciences Several people were detained in Moscow at a makeshift memorial dedicated to victims of Saturday’s deadly missile strike on a Ukrainian residential building, media reported late Tuesday were killed and 20 remain missing after a Russian missile struck an apartment building in the east-central city of Dnipro in one of the deadliest attacks of Russia’s nearly year-long war in Ukraine Russia denies striking the residential building Muscovites started placing flowers at the statue of Ukrainian poet Lesya Ukrainka soon after grisly images of the attack's aftermath appeared online. The memorial, which included a framed photo of the destroyed tower block, swelled in size after residents witnessed the flowers being removed early Tuesday According to the independent police-monitoring website OVD-Info authorities detained two people who laid flowers at the monument in western Moscow along with two of their companions A man who came to lay flowers was held at a police station overnight on charges of petty hooliganism, OVD-Info said OVD-Info added that the police had been called by members of fringe nationalist group SERB which is known for attacks on opposition activists and art exhibits The independent Sota news outlet said the memorial had been cleared out by late Tuesday and a police bus with law enforcement officers was posted near the monument early Wednesday Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has designated The Moscow Times as an "undesirable" organization criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a "foreign agent." These actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia The authorities claim our work "discredits the decisions of the Russian leadership." We see things differently: we strive to provide accurate We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. But to continue our work, we need your help please support us monthly starting from just $2 and every contribution makes a significant impact independent journalism in the face of repression Catherine Deneuve, one of France’s brightest movie stars, recited a poem by a Ukrainian poetess while opening the Cannes 2023 Film Festival on Tuesday She said her heart aches for Ukraine and rendered in French “Hope” by Lesya Ukrainka: 🇫🇷 🇺🇦 French actress Catherine Deneuve, who opened the #Cannes2023 Film Festival, noted in her speech that her heart aches for Ukraine. She read Lesya Ukrainka's poem "Hope". #StandWithUkraine pic.twitter.com/8HvojouwGU — UkraineWorld (@ukraine_world) May 17, 2023 “Hope” was the first attempt at the poetry of Ukraine’s great poetess, written when she was just eight. It was her reaction to the enforced exile of an aunt who had been arrested after protesting against the Tsar’s autocracy, according to My Poetic Side Catherine Deneuve, who supports Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression, has already recited this poem on TV5 Monde on the occasion of the first anniversary of the full-scale war Twenty-one feature films will compete for the Palme d’Or in 2023. The festival’s program of short films includes “As It Was,” a Polish-Ukrainian movie directed by Damian Kocur and Anastasia Solonevych The film is about a girl living in Berlin for almost a year since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine and one day she decides to go back to Kyiv There will also be a documentary dedicated to Ukraine, “In The Rearview,” by Polish filmmaker Maciek Hamela A few days after the Russian invasion last year he began driving into Ukraine to pick up civilians and bring them to the Polish border The footage he shot of his many journeys is brought together in the documentary premiering this week in Cannes ACID [email protected] [email protected] FB: @uwcongress the city council supported the renaming of Pushkin Avenue to Lesya Ukrainka Avenue In general, deputies changed the names of eight toponyms that were associated with the Soviet heritage more than 100 toponyms have been renamed in the city Halytska Square instead of Victory Square. Kyivans supported the return of historical toponyms The mayor of Zhytomyr offered to exchange the monument to Pushkin for captured defenders of Ukraine "Let's return the historical names". In Kyiv, they want to change 32 toponyms and are asking for public opinion +380 (44) 465 53 41 +380 (67) 638 76 00 hello@pragmatika.media https://pragmatika.media own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment University of St Andrews provides funding as a member of The Conversation UK View all partners I remember watching FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992) with a sense of horror picking up dandelions and cigarette butts on city playgrounds and breathing in the smoke of nearby machine plants So I felt tremendous sympathy for the forest fairies and was devastated by the scenes of mass tree felling by the evil humans I didn’t recognise the dissonance of watching the cartoon in a concrete nine-storey apartment block that had recently risen on the meadows devoured by my city I even loved the polluted city more than my grandparents’ idyllic lakeside home There was more to do on the littered sidewalks glistening with the multicoloured film of oil byproducts But a desire for nature to prevail took root On a family trip to the forest the weekend that followed I refused to cut mushrooms and tried to catch a glimpse of magical life under the ferns and occasional pine trees of the Ukrainian steppe FernGully’s ecological message had prevailed through my concrete-covered childhood Ukrainian nature has had its own eco-stories. In 1911 Lesya Ukrainka, a young Ukrainian woman who’d spent most of her short life in a sick bed, used her imagination to travel into the wilderness of folklore. She wrote a play, The Forest Song an eternal forest nymph who falls in love with a young man from the village and finds herself torn between two worlds Her lover’s family builds a house on the brink of the forest paying with her blood for allowing humans to cut the ancient trees She grows disillusioned with humans as her lover trades his musical talents for household comforts Mavka gives her body to “the one-who-sits-in-the-rock” a spirit of natural vengeance and disasters Her former lover becomes a werewolf and freezes to death under a tree Ukrainka depicted the forest as a safeguard of joy and primordial memory of the land Nature grows increasingly fragile as the old agreements between humans and spirits break I was sure that FernGully was an echo of The Forest Song With one significant difference – in the cartoon the man becomes a positive influence on nature The new animated adaptation of Ukrainka’s play not to mention the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia I feared that the filmmakers might reduce Ukrainka’s story to a Disney-style feel-good tale Spirits became cat-like animal side-kicks and Mavka’s lover became her slightly annoying assistant – and nobody dies in the end What surprised me most was the unexpected success of Mavka both among Ukrainian and international audiences my Ukrainian friends reported roaring laughter and applause from the little French viewers The animation was screened in 148 countries and dubbed in 32 languages The Russo-Ukrainian war has made Ukrainian law recognise ecocide as a crime punishable by a prison term of up to 15 years I sympathise with this innocent manipulation The forests where I tried to find FernGully characters as a child have been heavily mined since the occupation of the Kharkiv region in 2022 Most recently in February 2024 oil byproducts spillage caused by a Russian-Iranian drone, leaked into two of the three Kharkiv city rivers, endangering the water and killing wild ducks and other species The same drone attack killed seven people. Yet, it feels almost impossible to interest a world audience with the alien images of a Ukrainian family burnt alive Sometimes I feel that after the Chornobyl disaster our land is cursed by the ancient gods of nature (Mavkas and mermaids) to eternal suffering Hearing about French children watching Ukrainian Mavka in a Parisian cinema with an understanding that action needs to be taken to make our coexistence with nature more harmonious Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here Ukrainian diplomat in Egypt Yevhen Zhupeyev informed this on his Twitter page "For the first time in the history of modern Ukraine who lived a certain part of her life in Egypt have been translated into the Arabic language," he wrote While citing and using any materials on the Internet links to the website ukrinform.net not lower than the first paragraph are mandatory citing the translated materials of foreign media outlets is possible only if there is a link to the website ukrinform.net and the website of a foreign media outlet Materials marked as "Advertisement" or with a disclaimer reading "The material has been posted in accordance with Part 3 of Article 9 of the Law of Ukraine "On Advertising" No 1996 and the Law of Ukraine "On the Media" No 2023 and on the basis of an agreement/invoice Online media entity; Media identifier - R40-01421 artifacts and fun objects located all over the University of Saskatchewan campus Get to know them a little better with this year’s On Campus News back page feature: Interviews with inanimate objects Who are you?I was born Larysa Kosach-Kvitka in Novohrad-Volynskyi my mother gave me the pen name Lesya Ukrainka— Lesya of Ukraine. How long have you been here?I was unveiled on the U of S campus in October 1976 originally situated near the Arts Building In 2013—the 100th anniversary of my passing—I was restored and moved to this garden space Tell us about your early life.Growing up in a family of intellectuals I was always enamoured with language and literature in addition to my native tongue of Ukrainian a hobby I unfortunately had to give up after contracting tuberculosis much of which incorporated Ukrainian culture and folklore. What inspires your writing?I am drawn to themes of human dignity I was eight years old when I wrote my first poem in honour of a family member arrested for her political beliefs. Who are some of your favourite writers?My inspirations range from Victor Hugo and William Shakespeare to Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen German essayist Heinrich Heine and French poet Alfred de Musset Together, we are addressing the world's greatest challenges. Join our ambitious vision for the future The University of Saskatchewan's main campus is situated on Treaty 6 Territory and the Homeland of the Métis. © University of SaskatchewanDisclaimer | Privacy | Accessibility A new garden outside the main entrance of the Murray Library is now home to the 16-foot bronze statue of Ukrainian writer and poet Lesya Ukrainka Subscribe to the weekly newsletter of the digest of regulatory changes from Mind.ua a poetic video marathon “I have that in my heart which cannot die” started in IFNTUOG dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the birthday of the great Ukrainian poet The initiators of the marathon are the Students’ Culture and Leisure Center and Myroslava Venhryniuk associate professor of the Department of Philology and Translation of the Institute of Humanities and Public Administration of IFNTUOG invite all university community to participate in the video marathon If you wish to participate, send recorded videos with Lesia Ukrainka’s poems to the e-mail address: ckids@ukr.net © 2020 Ivano Frankivsk National Technical University of Oil and Gas Lesya Ukrainka (1871-1913) is undoubtedly the most significant figure in Ukrainian women’s literature: her works are full of both mythical and historical heroines torn between tradition and modernity; she wrote comparative studies on the European women’s literature of her time; and she has played (and still plays) a major role in feminine and Ukrainian emancipations Ukrainka’s works enjoyed unparalleled popularity during the Russian Empire But they have been the subject of contradictory interpretations The aim of this project is therefore to understand how biographical studies of Ukrainka have transformed her into a mythical figure who is a projection of the dominant ideologies of the three aforementioned eras The project has three aims: 1) to improve the analysis of the status of gender and national issues in biographical studies of Ukrainka; 2) to build a classification of the types of biographical interpretations and the rhetorical comparative and intertextual tools used to construct them; 3) to make our analytical models applicable to other writers We will use a methodology at the crossroads of three disciplines (comparative literature; Eastern European history; Slavistics) and two transdisciplinary fields (women’s/gender studies; post-imperial studies) The project will raise awareness of Ukrainian literature and the works of Ukrainka which continue to have a significant impact on the development of the idea of the emancipation of women and “small” nations Whose Don Juan – progenitor Tirso de Molina’s Unless you have some knowledge of Ukrainian culture born Larysa Petrivna Kosach-Kvitka in 1871 to a proudly nationalist (if half-Byelorusian) father and a mother whose pioneering work in women’s rights she continued written a year before her untimely death from tuberculosis was the seminal play which director Konstantin Khoklov staged in 1938 to bring true Ukrainian drama to the leading Kiev theatre from Kiev State Russian Drama Theatre to the Lesya Ukrainka National Academic Theatre of Russian Drama (to give its full title) This is the company which has been performing two plays about Chekhov and a Turgenev adaptation on anything but a shoestring at the St James Theatre I’m proud and happy to have seen their final offering This is deep and serious work by a fine ensemble of actors and the take of Ukrainka (pictured right) on a legendary figure is essential viewing she makes Don(n)a Anna the powerful figure the woman who wants both the power of her status as the wife of the Commander (read Commendatore if you prefer to think in Mozartian terms) – not his daughter since this version follows the Pushkin line – and the passion of the outsider-lover whose lack of what veteran director Mikhail Reznikovich calls integrated personality renders him ultimately the weaker figure Since she wavers between the two for much of the play the fatal killing which happens minutes in to Mozart’s opera occurs here near the end of the play On an elaborate set designed by Maria Lewitskaya which starts out looking a bit like a tacky Witch’s Den in somewhere like Tintagel or Glastonbury but opens up to enticing Velazquezian perspectives the actors are constantly hedged in by an often obscure symbolism which threatens to smother what they’re so eloquently saying chucking giant chess pieces about or being upstaged by a mute girl in white who mimes playing the violin (to the most frenetic sequence of Schnittke’s frenetic Concerto Grosso No sometimes distracting from eloquent speech but when the actors need to move or dance to it they do so with unflinching physical accomplishment above all why the principals have to repeat their idées fixes on a telephone in front of the water-channel which frames the main stage and I’m still at a loss to know exactly what happens at the end – clearly the Commander as Stone Guest returns but does Anna die as well as Juan (who doesn’t go to hell) But there’s great intensity from the nervy Anna of Natalya Dolya charismatic Juan and Olga Kulchitskaya's superseded Vladimir Raschyk’s Commander (pictured above with Dolya) is both powerful and young – a crucial point when in contrast to their contemporary dress the guests at his party are ossified figures from the court of Velazquez’s Philip II executing several dances of death across the front of the stage and constantly underpinning the action in routines well choreographed by Alla Rubina now 77 and perhaps the leading force in Ukrainian theatre is making his clearest point here about the tension between conventions of honour and status on the one hand and impulsive youth on the other I’d like to have heard the often beautiful delivery of the text without the admirable English narratives in my earpiece but better that than the inadequate intermittent précis we got in the Globe to Globe Festival: if supertitles are too expensive this is a good second best and took me back to the days of National Film Theatre 3 when in order to keep the screen pure of subtitles I apologise for proselytizing about this wonderful ensemble – 24 actors all consummate in movement – towards the end of the company's run in the intimate surroundings of the St James Theatre with a full house mostly consisting of attentive young Ukrainians the more we’re likely to root for this troubled but courageous fledgling democracy More information about text formats We urgently need financing to survive. 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And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday Simply enter your email address in the box below View previous newsletters Companies FILM.UA and Animagrad started to work on the first feature-length animated film based on the classic work by Lesia Ukrainka - "Mavka our literary classics will be presented to the audience with such bright The Forest Song" is an amazing and exciting film for the whole family which is based on an ancient mythological thinking of our people in a precise and poetic form reveals the universal picture of the world Forest Song" will not just adapt a classical piece They will create a new work by changing the plot The story will be complemented by modern stories and images and will please not only with the new comedic characters as well as splashes of ethnic motifs in the patterns and costumes and careful work on the soundtrack of the picture Forest Song" will open a unique world of original and amazing Slavic mythology to the viewers worldwide full-length animation for the family audience is one of the strongest trends in the movie business Examples of foreign and Russian colleagues suggest that investments in such projects For FILM.UA Group creating animated features is a new strategic direction we have a package of animated films in development The company's plan is to release one film each year - says the producer of the project Irina Kostyuk The idea to create a story based on the Slavic myths and classic play by Lesia Ukrainka belongs to Sergei Sozanovsky and Irina Kostyuk Ukrainian and Slavic theme is now a worldwide trend Unique authentics in conjunction with the universal image is a key to success both on the local and international market "The combination of the modern and the eternal action and fantasy - should work out and make the project unique Our images are not similar to any other in the animation and the story is very original That is why there will be interested viewers worldwide Mavka is our unique and luxurious fairy tale character and she deserves the same remarkable embodiment and love of the audiences around the world Snow White and other heroines of the fairy tales and legends This is a story about love: the love between Mavka the young guardian and mistress of the forest and a simple village blacksmith named Lukash The two protagonists come from such different worlds one from the world of magic and nature and the other from the world of everyday human grind – that their happiness seems doomed from the start But love overcomes all obstacles and conventions "We feel sure in ourselves as we've already created Mavka and we know what it will be in artistic terms A journey of thousand miles begins with a single step and we have already walked through a sufficient path to understand that we'll succeed" - said the director of Animagrad Yegor Olesov studio artists' have developed a truly unique character Mavka is a personification of nature itself and will change the color of her eyes and hair She'll also wear luxurious garlands of fluttering butterflies "We have an ambition - Mavka should be a new favorite image of girls from all over the world" on account of which such successful projects as "The Jungle" and the animated film "Wolves and Sheep" The prototypes of all the major locations of the cartoon are real Ukrainian natural reserves: Ukrainian Venice - Vilkovo village famous Ukrainian designer Olga Navrotskaya will make the costumes and the soundtrack to the film will be written by Ukrainian stars of contemporary music Official website: mavkamovie.com comedy Run time: 85 minTA: family Format: 3D stereoStyle: 3D animation Sound: Dolby DigitalLanguage: English UkrainianBudget: $5 million Production: Animagrad and FILM.UAScenario: scenic artist SAKHAR + 1kgStatus: In developmentCompletion: End of 2017 tеl.: 0 800 308 028, +380 44 501-39-71 fax: +380 44 546-68-97 e-mail: info@film.ua Developed by Argentum IT Lab