Reading For Odesa
Led by Milan UNESCO City of Literature, Reading For Odesa is a celebration of Ukrainian Literature in the face of the forced closure of Ukraine's Literature Museum due to the ongoing war.
Exeter was one of 14 UNESCO Cities of Literature to join Milan for a day of international collaboration and reflection.
Reading for Odesa is a cultural event that takes place simultaneously in Milan and in 14 other UNESCO Creative Cities of Literature that have joined the initiative: Wroclaw, Krakow, Edinburgh, Exeter, Iasi City, Kuhmo, Lillehammer, Ljubljana, Manchester, Melbourne, Nottingham, Quebec City, Reykjavik, Tukums.
Each city will represent, in a symbolic way, a branch of the Odesa Literature Museum, organising reading events aloud of texts by Ukrainian authors, which will be broadcast in streaming, in the belief that literature can always constitute an instrument of memory and collective conscience, even in times of war.
The program of the Milan event includes readings and stories by Daria Bignardi, Francesco Cataluccio, Gianluigi Ricuperati, Lidia Liberman and hosted by Giacomo Papi. It will be an opportunity for everyone to deepen their knowledge of Ukrainian literature and reaffirm the importance of literature as a tool for dialogue.
Reading For Odesa
Exeter Event
On Saturday 24th February, Devon Ukrainian Association will be holding a rally at Bedford Square at 14:30pm until 15:30pm. They will then move into St. Stephens Church for a short prayer and a set of activities for another 2 hours. Whilst at St. Stephens Church they will be dedicating time to Ukrainian War Time Poetry readings in partnership with Prof Hugh Roberts from the Department of Languages, Cultures and Visual Studies at the University of Exeter. These readings will be also accompanied by children's drawings to be sent to Ukrainian soldiers in the frontlines. The event will be filmed and streamed on Social Media.
They will read short war time poems from the following poets of Odesa: Yury Mykhailik (Юрий Михайлик), Ludmila Sharga (Людмила Шарга), Andrei Khayetskyi (Андрей Хаецкий), Vlada Ilyinska (Влада Ильинская), and Nikita Gerus, 9 year old. (Никита Герус, 9 лет). We will read those poems in the languages they are written: Ukrainian and Russian. Hugh Roberts will read poetry from Maksym Kryvtsov and Artur Dron in English.
It is a joint project between the University of Exeter, Devon Ukrainian Association and Maketank Cultural Lab. This project is forming a translation collective of Ukrainian war poetry with two objectives - first of all, to explore translation as a method of community building, support, and integration, and a second objective to show solidarity with soldier-poets and other activists in Ukraine through amplifying their voices to an English-speaking audience. The Languages, Cultures and Visual Studies team are working on translations of Ukrainian war poetry, including a collection by the soldier-poet Artur Dron’.
“Mary” to “Golgotha”
Hugh Roberts (Languages, Cultures and Visual Studies Professor at University of Exeter) reads a translation of Maksym Kryvtsov's '"Mary" to "Golgotha.
Maksym Kryvtsov was killed by Russian forces on the front line on January 7th 2024, while serving with the Ukrainian Volunteer Corps (DUK). He was 33 years old. We dedicate this recording to his memory.