Orpheus and Eurydice in NY: Olena Boryshpolets and Friends

Olena Boryshpolets’ poems cover a vast landscape, from the Ukrainian steppe and the Black Sea, now filled with Russian mines, across the Baltic Sea and across the ocean to the United States. Her journey since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has taken her from her home in Odesa to a temporary stay in Pittsburgh, where she writes poems that weave in the past and tell us about a terrible war in the middle of Europe, the fate of Ukrainians, and her love for her hometown. Orpheus and Eurydice in New York (Poets of Queens, 2024) is a ray of sunlight that brings hope in times of discord and despair. Within each poem are simple, sometimes everyday things that keep a peaceful person on their land when enemy Russian shells are flying overhead. "My mother dances in our house in the Ukrainian village..." she writes. Olena's poems are full of light, color, and love. This bilingual book offers a comprehensive look at her vivid poems.

BOOKS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE AT THE EVENT.

DOORS 7PM, EVENT 7:30PM.

Olena Boryshpolets was born in Odesa, Ukraine in 1980. Poet, writer, journalist, actress, culture manager, member of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, co-founder of the Organization "Creation Without Borders". After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, in Poland, she and other Ukrainian actresses told European audiences about the war and its consequences in the Polish-Ukrainian play “Life in Case of War.” Since March 2023, she has been a visiting scholar at the University of Pittsburgh and a writer at City of Asylum in Pittsburgh. She is the author of the book of short stories Ukrainian Detox.

Oleksandr Frazé-Frazénko is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, musician, and activist. his feature documentaries and fictional short films gathered numerous international awards and nominations throughout the years. during the first year of Russia’s war against Ukraine, he stayed in Ukraine, got involved in a volunteer movement, and worked for BBC and other media.

Olga Livshin (she/her) grew up in Odesa and Moscow. Her poetry and translations appear in the New York Times, Ploughshares, and other journals. She is the author of A Life Replaced: Poems with Translations from Anna Akhmatova and Vladimir Gandelsman (2019). Livshin co-translated Today is a Different War by Lyudmyla Khersonska (2023) and A Man Only Needs a Room by Vladimir Gandelsman's poetry (2022).

Lesya Verba is an interdisciplinary artist (singer, actress, artist-designer, songwriter, bandura player, muralist, activist) - easily changes images and plunges into the atmosphere from the music of the Art Deco era, progressive urban jazz and a feminine mixture of cultures. In 2020, the album of author's songs "Gold" was released in alliance with the poetess Marianna Kijanowska (winner of the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine). For more than 30 years she has been reconstructing the rituals of the south of Ukraine, soloist of the ethno-theater "Zoretsvit" (Odesa, Ukraine). Lesya imigrated to America in 2021. Since 2021, she has been a member of Yara Arts Group, (La MaMa theater) director Virlana Tkacz. Since 2022 Lesya is a member of an international theater group “Anomalous Co.” director Kathryn Mederos Syssoyeva (performance “beyond Doomsday Scrolling”)