Author: Olena Jennings

“How Fire Descends,” by Serhiy Zhadan. Yale University Press, 2023. 136 pp. ISBN: 9780300272468 (paperback), $18. In his foreword to “How Fire Descends” by Serhiy Zhadan, translated by Virlana Tkacz and Wanda Phipps, poet Ilya Kaminsky writes, “Zhadan searches for language that connects with and makes legible eastern Ukrainians’ experiences.” The book, with groups of selected poems from a series of collections, is evidence of this search. The poems highlight language, specifically the language of loneliness and the language of war. The included collections were all written since the Russian invasion of 2014. It is impossible to falter when reading…

CHICAGO – The THREADS art project, on view at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art (UIMA) in Chicago through October 22, began in New York with an idea developed by Virlana Tkacz of Yara Arts Group and Olena Jennings. While art often inspires poetry, poetry doesn’t often inspire art. The two women thought they could...

Christopher Walters, the director of the film “The Comedy of War: Laughter in Ukraine,” which was screened at the Tribeca film festival, was in Ukraine during the war looking for some normalcy. Mr. Walters was living abroad in Bucharest, Romania, when he read an article about people living in Kyiv during the war. He was...

NEW YORK – The Ukrainian Museum in New York City is hosting “Undesirable Elements: Ukraine,” written and directed by Ping Chong and Virlana Tkacz. Based on hours of interviews with participants, the show features people telling family stories that are interwoven to create a portrait of a community – in this, case of Ukrainian Americans...

NEW YORK – “Radio 477!,” which was performed at La MaMa in New York City on March 10 to March 19, was developed serendipitously. Director Virlana Tkacz was working in the archives in Kharkiv, Ukraine, when she discovered the score to a 1920s jazz musical written by Yuliy Meitus that was thought to be lost...

“Three Wooden Trunks” by Virlana Tkacz. Sandpoint, Idaho: Lost Horse Press, 2022. 104 pp. ISBN: 9781736432365 (softcover), $20. During the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people felt sheltered within their four walls. The poet, Virlana Tkacz, composed the poems in “Three Wooden Trunks” during that time, looking for inspiration from the objects within her...

Oleksandr Averbuch’s latest collection of poetry focuses on memory and history. The book, written in Ukrainian, is translated as “The Jewish King.” The work addresses the following questions: How do we carry the past with us in our present? Memory is where we say goodbye to ourselves and carry the weight of others’ experiences. The...

“Dream Bridge” by Oleh Lysheha. Translated from the Ukrainian by Virlana Tkacz and Wanda Phipps. Sandpoint, Idaho: Lost Horse Press, 2022. 160 pp. ISBN: 9781736432372 (softcover), $24. The poems of Oleh Lysheha’s “Dream Bridge” translated by Virlana Tkacz and Wanda Phipps (Lost Horse Press, 2022) are framed by the atmosphere where the translations were born:...