Art evening “Ukraine in Verse”

Thank you to everyone who joined the wonderful art evening “Ukraine in Verse”, organised by the Association for the Day of Defenders of Ukraine and the Day of Ukrainian Cossacks!

It was a truly special evening – we did not even expect that so many talented Ukrainians live in Tallinn! The hall of the House of the Blackheads has probably never heard so much Ukrainian poetry… by Taras Shevchenko, Vasyl Stus, Pavlo Tychyna, Lina Kostenko, Serhiy Zhadan, Lala Tarapakina, Olena Levchenko and many other outstanding and lesser-known authors.
Works by classic and contemporary poets were read by Olha Krasnopolska, Serhii Oliinyk, Alina Yemelianenko, Inna Hordiienko, Nataliia Shevchenko, Pavlo Sotula, Anastasia Kozachok, Volodymyr Lapshov, Inna Nazarets, Andrii Anisimov, Olga Zheglova and Liubov Laur…

The evening began with the presentation of the art project by Olha Krasnopolska from Kropyvnytskyi, “Shards of pain and faith: graphic drawn and verse compositions from the ‘pink sketchbook’”. Olha dedicated her poems and drawings to the Day of Remembrance of the Defenders of Ukraine who died fighting for Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. In Olha’s sketches and poems, everyone present felt their own share of pain and loss.

Everyone was deeply moved by the recitation of Serhiy Zhadan’s poem “Take only the most important”, performed in Ukrainian and in Bangla by the Association’s communications director Inna Hordiienko and Shameema, a citizen of Bangladesh. She studies at Tallinn University and the Estonian Academy of Arts and loves Ukrainian literature. She translated Zhadan’s poem into her language and gladly joined the poetry reading at the Ukrainian evening!

Everyone was also struck by the deep and moving poems about the war by poet Alina Yemelianenko, who has held readings of her poetry in Tallinn before and presented the organisers with her own collection.

The poems were accompanied by pianist Hanna Kharchenko, who adorned the evening with her wonderful playing. Wonderful music for “Ukraine in Verse” was also performed by bayan player Taras Muzychko and singers Viktoriia Pakholko, Larysa Kovalenko and Nataliia Tsvik!

Thank you to everyone who came to be inspired by the “great word” of our poets – for it now heals our wounds, helps us endure this terrible war, encourages us to keep fighting for our freedom and to believe in Ukraine’s Victory!
We thank the House of the Blackheads (Mustpeade maja) for its hospitality; Wines From Ukraine, who treated all guests to Ukrainian wines; yesterday’s host Serhii Oliinyk, founder of Stand Up from UA; the company Lara Kraft and Inna Kriachkova, who presented their wonderful Ukrainian jewellery at the event; and the whole team and volunteers of the Association of Ukrainian Organisations for helping to organise and run the event!

See more photos by our favourite photographer Jeliva Photography on the Association’s page on Facebook.