The Ukrainian Cultural Festival is co-presented by Razom for Ukraine and the Ukrainian Institute, Kyiv and produced in partnership with the National Ballet of Ukraine, Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival, Yara Arts, Ukrainian Museum, KISFF, Linoleum Festival, and others and will take place October 15th through October 31st in New York.
Over the course of two weeks in October, 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 Halyna Kruk, Marianna Kiyanovska, Ostap Slyvynsky, Yuliia Iliukha, Olena Stiazhkina, Andriy Lyubka, and Alex Averbuch. Watch “Porcelain War,” “La Palisiada,” and other award-winning films.
Below is the schedule of events. Please check in often for changes and ticket information.
Reach out to UCF@razomforukraine.org with any questions about the Festival.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23
Colors and Rhythms: Alexandra Exter in Ukraine
The avant-garde artist Alexandra Exter lived most of her life in Ukraine. Her homeland’s rich cultural heritage had a great impact on her work. Dubbed the “avant-garde Amazon,” Exter influenced a whole generation of Ukrainian artists. Join us at The Ukrainian Museum for a presentation delving into the important milestones in Exter’s work when she lived in Kyiv and Odesa, Ukraine. The presentation will be followed by a walk-through of our current exhibition, Alexandra Exter: The Stage Is a World, and a Q&A session.
Our guest speaker, Tetyana Filevska, specializes in Ukrainian modernism and Ukrainian contemporary art. She is the Creative Director of the Ukrainian Institute in Kyiv, the author of a number of books, including Kazimir Malevich: Kyiv Period, 1928–1930, the producer of several films, among them Malevich: Born in Ukraine, and the co-founder of the non-governmental organization Malevich Institute. Ms. Filevska curated the public program for the Ukrainian Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale, dedicated to the decolonization of Ukrainian and Eastern European art.
Ukrainian Museum
3:00 – 4:30 PM
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24
A Guide to Decolonizing Ukrainian Art
A Discussion with Tetyana Filevska and Peter Doroshenko
Much of Ukrainian art history and many Ukrainian artists have been mislabeled as Russian as a result of Ukraine’s subjugation under imperial Russia and the Soviet Union.
A new guide for museums that focuses on the decolonization of Ukrainian art and artists is scheduled for publication in the winter of 2025 by the Ukrainian Institute in Kyiv, Ukraine. The project is the result of an initiative that began soon after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, when preserving Ukraine’s cultural heritage adopted a greater sense of urgency. A partnership with the British Council, the Museum Association, ICOM UK, and ICOM Ukraine, the guide facilitates many of the questions that the international museum community has faced in its work since the invasion and includes guidelines on effectively identifying, collecting, researching, exhibiting, and labeling Ukraine’s cultural articles.
Join us at The Ukrainian Museum for an evening of lively discussion about this project with Tetyana Filevska, Creative Director of the Ukrainian Institute in Kyiv, and Peter Doroshenko, Director of The Ukrainian Museum. The Ukrainian Institute’s mission is to promote knowledge and understanding of Ukraine internationally and to develop cultural relations between Ukraine and other countries.
Ukrainian Museum
6:30 – 8:00 PM
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24
“La Palisiada” Film Screening
Join us for a screening of an award-winning narrative feature “La Palisiada” (FIPRESCI Award at the Rotterdam International Film Festival 2023). Philip Sotnychenko’s meta-cinematic investigation into the alienated underbelly of post-Soviet Ukraine is a muted reckoning with a past that must be confronted before its insidious grip on the present can be loosened.
Philip Sotnychenko’s award-winning DV debut feature uncovers the hidden connections between the violence of the past and the present. Shot on raw DV cameras, “La Palisiada” centers around an investigation into the murder of a police colonel in 1996 that ultimately leads to the final execution to take place in independent Ukraine. Twenty five years later, a new generation of young Ukrainians are facing their own personal and political crises, with shocking consequences.
Quad Cinema
Doors at 6:30 PM, Screening at 7:00 PM
The film will be screened in Ukrainian with English subtitles.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26
Writer as a Volunteer: How Ukrainian culture aids the war effort. Andriy Lyubka in conversation with Iryna Solomko
Amid the horrors of a full-scale invasion, many in Ukraine believe that Ukrainian culture has undergone a renaissance. New bookstores are opening, theaters are drawing crowds, and art exhibitions are breaking attendance records. During this meeting, Andriy Lyubka will discuss how, after the onset of the invasion, Ukrainian culture became a vital component of the country’s defense strategy. Beyond strengthening national identity and boosting morale, it has provided practical support, aiding the Armed Forces of Ukraine both financially and materially. The writer will present his nonfiction book War from the Rear, and share his volunteer efforts, which have raised over $1.5 million and resulted in the purchase of more than 310 vehicles for the front lines. He will also highlight other significant initiatives within Ukrainian culture and art that actively support the military.
Razom for Ukraine Office, 54 W 21st St, New York, NY 10010
2:00 PM
MONDAY, OCTOBER 28
A Crash Course in Molotov Cocktails: Reading by Halyna Kruk
Halyna Kruk (1974) is an award-winning Ukrainian poet, writer, translator, and scholar. She is the author of five books of poetry/ Two collections have come out in English in the past two years: Griffin Poetry Prize shortlisted A Crash Course in Molotov Cocktails (Arrowsmith Press, 2022) and Lost in Living (Lost Horse Press, 2024) Her numerous literary awards include the Sundara Ramaswamy Prize, the 2023 Women in Arts Award, the 2021 BookForum Best Book Award, the Smoloskyp Poetry Award, the Bohdan Ihor Antonych Prize, and the Hranoslov Award. She holds a PhD in Ukrainian baroque literature (2001). Kruk is a member of Ukrainian PEN; she lives and teaches in Lviv.
Razom for Ukraine Office, 54 W 21st St, New York, NY 10010
6:30 PM
MONDAY, OCTOBER 28
Forever-Forever Film Screening
After transferring from a downtown high school, Tonia (Alina Cheban) befriends a group of badass youngsters, trying to find protection from her past and a place she truly belongs. They spend time together, roaming around Kyiv’s post-socialist suburbs, having fun and getting in trouble.
Soon, Tonia falls in love with Zhurik (played by Zachary Shadrin, whose credits include HBO’s “Industry” and Apple TV+’s “Little America”). When she also falls for Sania (Arthur Aliiev), she finds herself tangled up in an alluring secret love triangle. But Tonia’s painful past still haunts her, challenging this newfound friendship and romance. Will she be able to find her own path or lose herself in this new controversial relationship? Set in the late 90s Kyiv, this is a story of the young and rebellious amid the ruins of the Soviet regime. Those who had to grow up faster due to the circumstances but got lost in the adult world. A story of which we need constant reminding, as some things only exist at the moment, while others last forever.
Quad Cinema
7:00 PM
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29
Ukrainian Virtuoso: the music of Victoria Poleva
On October 30, the American Composers Orchestra will bring to the stage of Carnegie Hall the music of Ukrainian composer Victoria Polevá, one of Ukraine’s most important living composers. Polevá’s “sacred minimalism” has gained particular traction with international audiences since the full-scale invasion; Her Bucha.Lacrimosa for the victims of the Bucha massacre has been performed around the world by the Ukraine Freedom Orchestra as part of their Freedom Tour 2024. The inclusion of her Symphony No. 4 “The Bell” in the season of a legendary American ensemble speaks both to the power and transcendence of her music.
Join the Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival and Razom for Ukraine on October 29th ahead of this important performance for an evening of her piano works, performed by Anna Shelest and Irena Portenko. Following the concert, Leah Batstone, Creative Director of UCMF, will speak with Polevá about her career, her compositions, and the role of music in contemporary Ukrainian culture.
Tuesday, October 29th
Conversation between Victoria Poleva and Leah Batstone
Faust Harrison Pianos
207 West 58th Street, New York, NY 10019
7:00 PM
Wednesday, October 30th
ACO performance in Carnegie Hall featuring Victoria Poleva’s The Bell
Carnegie Hall
57th Street and, 7th Ave, New York, NY 10019
7:30 PM
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30
Weathering the Storm. Ukrainian Short Films with KISFF
HELLO, I’M ON THE HILL | АЛЛО, Я НА ГОРІ
In the destroyed city of Izium, Kharkiv region, the Kremyanets hill has become an “island of communication”, where people can find mobile connection to get in touch with their families after months of Russian occupation.
TOO CLOSE | НАДТО БЛИЗЬКО
Two friends return from a party and stay at the home of one of them. It would
seem like an ordinary cozy evening but suddenly the heroes are caught in an air
raid.
BEWARE OF A GOOD DOG! | УВАГА, ДОБРИЙ ПЕС!
Stepan regularly adopts old dogs from the shelter, who spend their last days beside him and die peacefully. It’s his own way of coming to terms with the end of his life. He dreams die peacefully in old age during the war in Ukraine. But peace is a privilege stolen by the young boy Gogo. What happens when two enemies of different ages but equally lonely meet at the cemetery at night? They’ll smoke, eat a basket of ice cream, and dance.
WALK | ГУЛЯЮ
This is an autobiographical story by Daria Zhuravel, dedicated to childhood and to those who are no longer with us, but whose presence accompanies us wherever we go.
VOICE MESSAGES FROM BAKHMUT | ВОЙСИ З БАХМУТА
A story about an attempt to restore intimacy at a distance of the war, told via the voice messages of a foreign correspondent in a front-line city.
CHORNOBYL 22 | ЧОРНОБИЛЬ 22
During the Russian occupation of the Chornobyl Zone in early 2022, a local informant is clandestinely filming the Russian troops. The workers of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Station discuss their experiences during the Russian military takeover of their facility.
Regal Union Square
850 Broadway, New York, NY 10003
6:30 PM
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31
Book Talk: Cecile the Lion Had to Die.
Olena Stiazhkina in conversation with Irena Chalupa
In Cecil the Lion Had to Die, Olena Stiazhkina follows four families through radical transformations when the Soviet Union unexpectedly implodes, independent Ukraine emerges, and neo imperial Russia occupies Ukraine’s Crimea and parts of the Donbas. Just as Stiazhkina’s decision to transition to writing in Ukrainian as part of her civic stance—performed in this book that begins in Russian and ends in Ukrainian—the stark choices of family members take them in different directions, presenting a multifaceted and nuanced Donbas.
Join the author in conversation with Razom Book Club’s Irena Chalupa for a deeper dive into the book and the process of writing it.
Olena Stiazhkina is from Donetsk, Ukraine. A historian by training with dozens of scholarly articles to her name, she taught Slavic history at Donetsk National University for over twenty years until Russia began another bloody chapter of that history with its 2014 invasion of Ukraine. Stiazhkina is also a writer who has published eleven books of fiction, from novels and short story collections to detective novels (the latter under the pen name Olena Iurska). Her historian’s background and writer’s acumen combine in a body of creative work that is gripping, sharply observed, and tender—yet hilarious, and furious, too. Stiazhkina has received numerous awards for her fiction over the years, most recently the 2023 Lviv UNESCO City of Literature Award for her novel Cecil the Lion Had to Die, a bilingual novel in Russian and Ukrainian. Cecil the Lion Had to Die (translated by Dominique Hoffman) and Ukraine, War, Love: A Donetsk Diary (translated by Anne O. Fisher) are now available in English from the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.
Razom for Ukraine Office, 54 W 21st St, New York, NY 10010
6:30 PM
PAST PERFORMANCES
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15th AND WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16TH
Experience the magic of the National Ballet of Ukraine, one of the world’s top ballet companies and the country’s official ballet company, during their premiere tour of the United States, for the first time in over 30 years since the dissolution of the USSR. Straight from the historic Kyiv National Opera House, these world-class dancers will captivate you with a stunning program featuring timeless classics, including The Dying Swan, Don Quixote, and Giselle. The program tells stories of love, loss, and triumph, leaving you mesmerized by the company’s unparalleled grace and strength. Prepare to be swept away as the dancers defy gravity, their bodies soaring high above the stage with dance movements filled with intensity, emotion, and perfect harmony.
Programming subject to change.
New York City Center
7:30 PM
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15
Yara Arts Group’s “Slap!” album launch followed by new poetry from Serhiy Zhadan and Friends
Join Yara Arts Group for the launch of their “Slap!” music album with Bob Holman, Susan Hwang & Julian Kytasty, from their show “Slap!” about the Ukrainian artist David Burliuk. This music album performance will be followed by a second event with new Ukrainian poetry from Serhiy Zhadan and Friends.
Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery
7:00 PM – Slap! album launch
8:00 PM – Poetry from Serhiy Zhadan and friends
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16
“Slovo House. Unfinished Novel” Film Screening
“Slovo House. Unfinished Novel” is a dramatic story about Ukrainian writers from the era of the Executed Renaissance who were gathered under the roof of one building and forced to work for the benefit of the Soviet system. The film depicts how the communist paradise turns into a communist hell. In 1927, Soviet Ukraine, by order of Stalin, the “Slovo” cooperative house was built in Kharkiv.
The most outstanding Ukrainian writers live in comfortable apartments. All of them became participants in an experiment aimed at deriving a new type of Soviet writer and establishing total control over the creative process in order to create a single artistic method of socialist realism. However, not every writer agrees to glorify Stalin’s cult. Unexpectedly for the residents of the “Slovo” House, an unknown young writer named Volodymyr Akimov moves in with them. Who is he? No one knows. With his arrival, strange events begin to happen in the “Slovo” House, events that its walls still remain silent about.
Quad Cinema
7:00 PM
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16 AND THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17
Yara Arts Group presents Julian Kytasty, performing traditional and new music on the bandura, including music from Yara’s “The Magic of Light”
Yara Arts Group will present Julian Kytasty, Master of the bandura, a traditional Ukrainian instrument, performing original and traditional music, including music from Yara’s new theater piece “The Magic of Light.”
The Renee & Chaim Gross Foundation
526 LaGuardia Place
7:00 PM
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17
A Ukrainian Dictionary of War: An Evening with Ostap Slyvynsky
You must register by 5pm on October 16, 2024 in order to attend this event.
Please join the Ukrainian Studies Program at the Harriman Institute for A Ukrainian Dictionary of War: An Evening with Ostap Slyvynsky.
Ostap Slyvynsky will present poetry and prose from the recently published, award-winning The Winter King (Lost Horse Press, 2023), translated by Vitaly Chernetsky and Iryna Shuvalova and the forthcoming A Ukrainian Dictionary of War (Lost Horse Press), translated by Grace Mahoney and Taras Malkovych. Also, in conversation with the Harriman Institute’s Mark Andryczyk, Mr. Slyvynsky will discuss his work today as a writer, scholar, and Vice President of PEN Ukraine.
Ostap Slyvynsky is a Ukrainian poet, translator, essayist, and scholar. He authored five books of poetry: Sacrifice of Big Fish (1998), The Midday Line (2004), Ball in Darkness (2008), Adam (2012), The Winter King (2018), as well as The Dictionary of War (2023), a documentary book based on a testimony of participants and witnesses of the Russian aggression against Ukraine. His books have been published in the USA (The Winter King, Lost Horse Press 2023), Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Slovakia, and Macedonia. He is also known for translating the works of Derek Walcott, William Carlos Williams, Charles Simic, Czesław Miłosz, Olga Tokarczuk, Georgi Gospodinov, and many others.
Columbia University
Harriman Institute Atrium
12th floor International Affairs Building, 420 W 118th St New York, NY 10027
6:30 PM
**This event is SOLD OUT**
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18
Amid all losses: Ukrainian poets as witnesses
When poets confront war, their writing transforms to both document and bear witness. Whether in Ostap Slyvynsky’s Dictionary of War, Yuliia Iliukha’s My Women or Alex Averbukh’s documentary poetry based on online conversations of Ukrainians living under Russian occupation, real people emerge with their stories, offering a harrowing account of what it is like to endure a violent invasion.
Razom for Ukraine Office
54 W 21st St, New York, NY 10010
6:30 PM
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19
My Women by Yuliia Iliukha: NYC Launch
Join us to celebrate the U.S. Book Launch of Yuliia Iliukha’s My Women, translated from Ukrainian by Hanna Leliv. It will be held at dear friend books on Saturday, October 19th @ 7:30 pm.
Winner of 128 LIT’s 2023 International Chapbook Prize, My Women is an urgent and poignant story collection of women confronted by the countless brutalities of war. It locates the voices and devastating experiences of those who have been silenced, those who have lost loved ones, those who have fought and persevered, and those who have broken down. Through poetic repetition, the nameless protagonists, My Women, bring succinct and emotionally charged stories that evoke life during war in Ukraine with an intensity that is at times excruciatingly difficult yet deeply moving.
Dear Friend Books
343A Tompkins Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11216
7:30 PM
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20
Water Drops on Burning Rocks
Nina Murashkina and Xavier Escala’s exhibition
Rukh Art Hub presents “Water Drops on Burning Rocks” — a new art show in NYC, featuring works by prominent Ukrainian and Spanish contemporary artists — Nina Murashkina and Xavier Escala. The exhibition will be on display from October 20th to October 27th at Mriya Gallery, — an art space showcasing Ukrainian artists in the US.
“Water Drops on Burning Rocks” is an artistic manifesto of multidimensional sensuality where candid and vivid canvases are balanced by the eloquent and tranquil silence of the sculpture, forging a space of an unrestrained experiment. The delicate harmony of contrasting artworks that are brought together, like water to a burning rock to form a mist of new, ethereal essence, creates a novel, multi-spectral creative realm.
Organized by Rukh Art Hub and Mriya Gallery
Supported by Razom for Ukraine
Mriya Gallery
Opening Reception 10/20 @ 5:00 PM
MONDAY, OCTOBER 21
Ukrainian Animation Shorts with Linoleum Contemporary Animation and Media Art Festival
Together with LINOLEUM Contemporary Animation and Media Art Festival, we are bringing you a program of 10 Ukrainian Animation Short Films.
Comma
Sonia Leliukh
Ukraine | 04:00 | 2023
A person with an overwhelmed mind is waiting at the station. They attempt to piece together a coherent story from fragments of newspapers, exploring how one can survive and continue walking the dog amidst large-scale disasters.
Growths
Elina Pupina
Belgium, Ukraine | 07:19 | 2023
A young woman in search for her cultural identity is facing the pressures of oppressing neighbouring countries’ imperialist agendas. Sometimes it is difficult to stand free from the ties of others in order to identify your inner self and grow. Will she be able to go through this difficult path of self-exploration to gather all the pieces of her cultural background to free herself?
Touch
Anastasiia Martyniuk
Ukraine | 01:26 | 2024
A story about the unpredictable journey of human birth and the courage it takes to overcome loneliness and find intimacy.
Wheel Of Freaks
Maksym Danylko
Ukraine | 06:30 | 2023
On his birthday, Yellow is surrounded by a peculiar gathering of guests. Suddenly, mysterious figures materialise, each embodying different aspects of his past life. Through chalk animation depicting cold icicles, the story of Yellow’s existence unfolds before his eyes.
The Town On The Sand
Vladyslav Kalenskyi
Ukraine | 05:50 | 2024
The Russian occupation attempts to invade the imprinted memories, where the light in Ukrainian cities is preserved.
“Naukova—Derzhprom”
Anastasiia Bondar
Ukraine | 01:31 | 2024
“Naukova – Derzhprom” is a fiction film depicting the author’s longing for her beloved city of Kharkiv during her forced displacement. Through symbols and visual metaphors, the film captures the sense of loss and the journey of rediscovery in new surroundings. Central to the narrative is a pendant adorned with the image of the city centre, a gift from Anastasiia’s mother. More than a mere object, it embodies memories of home and family, serving as an anchor that prevents her from becoming lost in time and space.
From the Past
Hanna Palamarchuk
Czech Republic, Ukraine | 01:16 | 2023
Memories surfaced through the smell of borscht, which once on a sunny day my grandmother cooked. They are never accurate, they are fast as lightning, but they carry in themselves a light nostalgia and calm. Moments that you want to remember forever: a song sung by mom, a clear sky above your head and the certainty of tomorrow, because there is still a whole summer of fun ahead.
DEEP LOVE
Mykyta Lyskov, 14:00, 2019
Deep love has finally happened in Ukraine.
TROIA
Andrey Naumenko, 02:34, 2022
TROЯ (Troіa) – these are the episodes of everyday life in the sleeping area of Kyiv called “Troieschyna”. Here I was born, raised and I live here now. Here you understand that clothes don’t make the man and events can have unexpected endings.
THE WAR THAT IS ALWAYS AROUND
Iryna Harkavets, 01:34, 2022
Experience from Russia’s war against Ukraine and its aftermath in the form of PTSD. An animated film about surviving horror and coming home. First use of neural network animation in a short film along with classic animation.
Regal Union Square
Doors open at 6:00 PM
Screening starts at 6:30 PM
MONDAY, OCTOBER 21
The Voices of Babyn Yar: A book talk and reading by Marianna Kiyanovska
With this collection of stirring poems, the award-winning Ukrainian poet honors the victims of the Holocaust by writing their stories of horror, death, and survival in their own imagined voices. Artful and carefully intoned, the poems convey the experiences of ordinary civilians going through unbearable events leading to the massacre at Kyiv’s Babyn Yar from a first-person perspective to an effect that is simultaneously immersive and estranging. While conceived as a tribute to the fallen, the book raises difficult questions about memory, responsibility, and commemoration of those who had witnessed an evil that verges on the unspeakable.
About Marianna Kiyanovska: Award-winning Ukrainian writer, translator, literary scholar, and public figure whose works have been translated into eighteen languages. She is the author of more than a dozen books of poetry, prose, and literary translation. A winner of the Vilenica International Literary Festival and the CEI Fellowship (2007), she was also awarded the Gloria Artis Medal for Merit to Culture in Poland (2013). In 2020, she was recognized with the prestigious Taras Shevchenko National Prize in Literature for The Voices of Babyn Yar. She is the Laureate of the Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Prize and was named the European Poet of Freedom (both in 2022). The English-language translation of The Voices of Babyn Yar has won the 2022 Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for a Translation of a Literary Work from the Modern Language Association (MLA) and the 2021–22 Translation Prize from the American Association for Ukrainian Studies (AAUS). This book was also shortlisted for the 2023 Best Literary Translation into English Prize from the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and Eastern European Languages (AATSEEL)
About Emily Hamilton (Moderator): Emily Hamilton is the producer of three documentary films, Why Ukraine, Slava Ukraini and Glory to the Heroes, by Bernard-Henri Lévy on Ukraine’s extraordinary resistance since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022, and is the Executive Director of Justice for Kurds. Previously, she was the Director of Development and Communications at the Cultural Services of the French Embassy. Emily serves on the board of the Albertine Books Foundation and The Octavian Report.
Razom for Ukraine Office, 54 W 21st St, New York, NY 10010
6:30 PM
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22
“Porcelain War” Film Screening
Amid the chaos and destruction of the brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine, three artists defiantly find inspiration and beauty as they defend their culture and their country. In a war waged by professional soldiers against ordinary civilians, Slava Leontyev, Anya Stasenko, and Andrey Stefanov choose to stay behind, armed with their art, their cameras, and, for the first time in their lives, their guns. Despite daily shelling, Anya finds resistance and purpose in her art, Andrey takes the dangerous journey to get his young family to safety abroad, and Slava becomes a weapons instructor for ordinary people who have become unlikely soldiers. As the war intensifies, Andrey picks up his camera to film their story, and on tiny porcelain figurines, Anya and Slava capture their idyllic past, uncertain present, and hope for the future.
Regal Union Square
Time: 7 PM
Note: The film will be screened in Ukrainian with English subtitles.
