Unity & Collaboration

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I was invited to speak at a one-day conference tomorrow (Ukrainian Unity Day) in Chicago’s Ukrainian Village.

The holiday of Ukrainian Unity is celebrated annually on the day of Reunification Act declaration of the Ukrainian National Republic and West Ukrainian National Republic, held in 1919. Officially, Ukraine Unity Day (Den’ Sobornosti) is celebrated since 1999.

I was contacted a few weeks ago by Daria Kaleniuk, a Fulbright scholar from Ukraine studying in Chicago. She and several other Ukrainian students had decided to organize Zlukacamp. This from their website:

ZlUKACAMP is a barcamp-conference, where Ukrainian students in the USA and Ukrainian Diaspora will unite efforts to search the ways for Ukraine to overcome the economic and political crisis. Conference will be held in the format of a barcamp, where every participant can become a speaker.

I’m excited to be a part of the event, looking at ways to bring the Ukrainian and Ukrainian American communities together. My own talk will focus on:

  • Preserving and sharing Ukrainian culture in Diaspora Literature
  • Magic realism as an exploration of the immigrant experience

With an impressive lineup of speakers, all the topics look fascinating and engaging. A sneak peek:

  • How diaspora managed to preserve the Ukrainian heritage in a society that called itself a “melting pot.”
  • Social Scientific Research on Ukraine: Why we should get involved
  • USA/USA program: raising new leadership in Ukraine and promoting Ukrainian language through “Word a Day” project
  • The strategy of return to Ukraine
  • Perspectives and Initiatives of Ukrainian Student Movement in State of Illinois as an origin and USA in general
  • Why and How Ukrainian students in the USA can be involved in projects of Diaspora
  • Crimean Tatar people. Who are they? History, deportation, struggle for life, and current situation. Story of one family.
  • The need and value of archaeological researches in Ukraine

There will also be group work and a dinner gathering. As you know, I really appreciative collaborative work, and I look forward to talking with the students who put this event together and will be in attendance.

I’m not sure where this will lead, but the possibilities are exciting!

If you’re interested in attending, it’s not too late! They will be registering participants at the Ukrainian-American Federal Credit Union Selfreliance (2332 West Chicago Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60622) at 9:30am on Saturday, January 22. The event with be Ukrainian/English (I’ll be speaking in English.)

I hope to see some familiar faces there!

This

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The weekend was filled with some of my favorite people, starting and ending with Kyle Cassidy, who was in town taking more photographs of tattooed veterans for his next book, War Paint. The Tinley Park local paper did a nice little write up here.

After picking Kyle up from the airport, we met with friends at Karyn’s on Green, a lovely vegan restaurant where the Brussels sprouts are heavenly, the fries fantastic, and the service wonderful. We had great conversation that ranged from life-changing effects of world travel to the changing face of time and memory, as well as talk about films, books, and photography. I love lunches like that. I love these people, new and older friends, who enrich my life in so many ways.

Kyle went off to Tinley Park, and we reconnected on Sunday after I ran from a semiannual Board meeting for the Chicago Writers Association to another inspiring meeting of the Chicago Creative Co-op (a.k.a. The Coop).

Most people stuck around to have dinner with Kyle, who joined us after taking photographs in the southwest suburbs. We also met Braden (who had been Kyle’s assistant in Tinley Park) and his girlfriend Tia, who fit in seamlessly with the group.

Another large dinner party gathered around our dining room table, with more lively conversation, followed by a house concert by the sweet and talented Molly Robison (who will be releasing her debut EP Bedrooms & Attics, in Spring 2011).

After folks went home and the kids went to bed, Kyle & I had the chance to chat as the embers died down on the fireplace. It was another moment, perfect and so dear.

This poem from e.e. cummings came my way today(after coming to my attention several time in the last week), this time from Jason Webley’s email and blog post:

i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any–lifted from the no
of all nothing–human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

When I was twelve and oh-so-sad and lonely, or twenty and conflicted about my path, or thirty and tired and overwhelmed, I dreamed of this.

I dreamed of a home where I welcome intelligent, creative people; where I nourish my children with good food, friends, art, and stories; where I share meals with friends, laugh with my husband, write and read and dance and play.

I dreamed of the time and space to do what I love, to talk with people I respect and admire, to encourage people I believe in.

I may have been sad or discouraged or alone, but I always dreamed. Of this.

And I have more. Dreams of new and amazing days.

Just like this weekend.

May your day be amazing in the ways that matter most to you.

Interlude

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One of my intentions for 2011 is to write more: books, blog, personal correspondence. I’m working on edits for S.C. I have a longer blog in the works, but in the meantime I wanted to finish this wee one I began a few weeks ago.

I’d like to share a few albums & artists that I discovered and loved in 2010 (Many of them are not new, just new to me).

For the last seven years, I feel like my musical listening has consisted primarily of children’s music with the occasional beloved album from my youth thrown in for comfort listening. Of mainstream artists, I have NO clue. Any new listening has come from the trusted recommendations of friends, online and off. I don’t own an iPod, and most music I listen to is on my computer or in the car (on old fashioned cds).

So…here are my top ten (in no particular order) new-to-me artists of 2010:

Sxip Shirey

Kim Boekbinder

Lance Horne

Zoë Keating

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky

Mucca Pazza

Hera Hjartardottir

Arcade Fire

Gabriel Yared

Bitter Ruin

It’s a varied list, but each is rich and wonderful in their own way.