Ukraine's creative youth to tour North America

NEW YORK - Come March, the independent publishing house Smoloskyp, which moved its operations to Kyiv some two years ago, presents the diaspora with the first-ever North American tour of "Creative Youth of Ukraine." For the first time since the country of 52 million declared its independence in 1991, the Ukrainian diaspora in the United States and Canada will have the opportunity to meet with representatives of Ukraine's future: a group of young intellectuals, artists and activists at the cutting edge of nation-building and the development of a civil society with a Ukrainian character.

The group consists of nine persons between the ages of 20 and 26. All nine have been cited with honorary diplomas by Smoloskyp for their outstanding activities in the realms of literature, culture and civic development. All hail from the eastern parts of the country; six are students at various Kharkiv institutions of higher learning and receive regular stipends funded by Ukrainian communities in the United States and Canada through Smoloskyp.

The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, Ukrainian American Coordinating Council and the Coordinating Committee to Aid Ukraine are jointly sponsoring the tour, while community credit unions and local and youth organizations are pitching in with financial assistance and manpower. The Toronto area appearances are sponsored by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress.

The year 1995 was a milestone in Ukraine's development of a civic society for it marked the emergence of a large group of creative and community-minded youth onto the intellectual and socio-political scene. Talented writers, political scientists, scholars and civic activists organized and conducted numerous seminars, conferences, literary and theatrical gatherings, showing, for the first time in four years of independence, that a new generation is rising - one with a fresh and distinctive approach to the tasks of nation-building, revival of Ukrainian spiritualism and construction of a national literary tradition for the 21st century.

The overriding purpose of the group's tour of North America is to acquaint the Ukrainian community, and diaspora youth in particular, with today's creative Ukrainian youth. Every performance, meeting and discussion is geared to convey youthful perspectives on the state of life and politics in Ukraine today, to introduce Ukrainian Americans and Ukrainian Canadians to contemporary Ukrainian literature and theater, and to give young people in the diaspora a sense of what being active in the building of a Ukrainian outlook on life really means.

At every point in the group's itinerary, two separate events will be held. The first of these will be a presentation-discussion featuring four rising stars of Ukrainian civic, literary and intellectual activism:

The second evening will feature the Kharkiv Student Drama Group in "Arabesques," a play based on the works of Mykola Khvyliovy, Vasyl Symonenko and Hryhoriy Skovoroda.

Prior to the play, its director and producer, Svitlana Oleshko, 22, student and playwright, will present "We Come from Kharkiv: Our Student Drama Group."

The members of the cast, all of whom attend Kharkiv educational institutions, are: Natalia Tsymbal, 22, of Luhanske; Vadym Korobka, 23, of Kharkiv Oblast; Mykhailo Ozerov, 20, of Kharkiv; and Dmytro Turkevych, 21, of Kharkiv.

The UCCA, UACC and CCAU have called on their local branches and on all youth, community and women's organizations to extend a helping hand in order to ensure the success of this tour. Likewise, communities are requested not to schedule events on the same days and times as the youth group's performances and seminars in order to allow the greatest number of people to see and meet with this delegation from Ukraine.

Dates and times of performances, as well as local information numbers follow.

North American tour schedule

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, February 11, 1996, No. 6, Vol. LXIV

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