Call to Action
Distribute this issue of My Weekly Resistance widely in your circles with particular attention to your connections in artistic, literary and scholarly circles.
Heed its call to use your voice to bring attention to the war in Ukraine and support for the Ukrainian resistance to Russia’s despicable violation of international law.
This week we feature a document we received from a Ukrainian-American friend who is a theater artist in New York City and founder/director of Yara Arts Group which is housed at La Mama Experimental Theater Club. Since 1974 she has been collaborating with friends and peers in Ukraine (and elsewhere) to create vibrate cultural and artistic work including translations, bilingual theater productions and insightful celebrations of traditional holidays.
Last week she shared this statement from one of her Kyiv based colleagues, Olesya Ostrovska, director at the Mystetsky Arsenal in Kyiv, (Ukraine’s largest artistic venue). Ms. Ostrovska has written her statement for artists and art institutions in the West. We are sharing the whole of this document so that you can hear the English language voice of a major figure in Ukraine seeking moral support for her country.
Dear colleagues and partners, friends!
This morning, on February 24, Russia launched a full-scale war against Ukraine. Explosions are heard in many cities of Ukraine, and the enemy’s tanks and heavy artillery crossed the Ukrainian border from the north, the south, and the east. There already are casualties among Ukrainian soldiers and civilians, including children. By invading the (boundaries) of Ukraine, Russia is attacking the basic, fundamental principles of international peace and security, the pillars of the UN, the very existence of the Ukrainian state.
We should be preparing now the Book Arsenal to be held in May, exhibitions, and cross-sectoral projects — instead our team focuses the efforts to ensure the safety of our staff, our families, as well as to guard our collection, museum objects (paintings, graphics, fine art), including the artworks by Malevych, Yermylov, Bohomazov, Petrytskyi, Zaretskyi, etc., works of modern art, archaeological finds, and the Old Arsenal building, which is a historical and architectural monument of national importance.
At this time, we need your solidarity and support more than ever. Today's invasion has the potential of becoming bigger and even deadlier than anything we have seen since World War II. All this will definitely have a global impact on the whole world and very likely — for generations to come.
Every one of you can help and support us in the following ways:
- Including the information about an ongoing Russian war in Ukraine in your public talks and speeches — during art and literature events, festivals, book fairs, exhibitions; the war that already became a war against the whole civilized world, free thought, democratic values and truth.
- Initiating joint public statements from civil organizations, institutions, and industry associations — writers, publishers, and booksellers, artists and museums; sharing information on the war and the current situation in social media with the hashtag #StandWithUkraine, providing truthful commentaries to international media.
- Sharing the information on human rights and lives of Kremlin’s Ukrainian political prisoners with a hashtag #SolidarityWords. Currently, 127 Ukrainian citizens, including 89 Crimean Tatars, are in prisons or under house arrest in Russia and temporarily occupied Crimea — for political reasons. Moreover, at least 300 Ukrainians are imprisoned for their identity and disagreement with Russian occupation in the territories in Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
- We ask you to share publicly the successful stories of cooperation with Ukraine. In recent years our country achieved essential progress in arts and literature, cultural diplomacy, sharing and promoting European values. We would like to protect this important vector and defend the positive milestones we have mutually achieved.
- Highlight contemporary Ukrainian art and discussing the books of modern writers, who wrote and continue writing about the war in Ukraine, which has been going on for 8 years. On our part, as a leading art institution we are eager to provide you with all the information we have.
- Show your solidarity with Ukraine, support peace and drive attention of your fellow citizens, media and politicians by using the facades of your offices and other available spaces for artistic and symbolic actions showing the colours of Ukrainian flag.
The mission of Mystetskyi Arsenal and one of its main projects - the Book Arsenal Festival is to create such interactions between people, communities, and institutions that empower an individual and society. This mission is clearly not about aggression or its escalation, it is not about the forces of evil and destruction either. Although we are resisting the invasion as best as possible, we are trying to remain calm and do everything we need in order to be prepared.
We believe above all that our Armed Forces, with the support of everyone involved, will stop the enemy and we will be able to meet in Kyiv this spring. We look forward to acknowledging and appreciating together the principles of humanism, freedom, and critical thinking during the events.
We Ukrainians, are a peace-loving nation. We will defend our land, our families, and our right to freedom and independence. We will defend our European choice.”
Olesiya Ostrovska director
Mystetskyi Arsenal,
Kyiv, Ukraine