HOLODOMOR WEEK

It seems that not much has changed since I wrote the following after the 50th commemoration of the Holodomor in 1983:

http://www.infoukes.com/history/famine/tracz/

FOR REMEMBRANCE DAY

 

I have posted this last year, but it's so relevant to Remembrance Day that I'm doing it again.  

http://www.infoukes.com/genealogy/tracz/remember.html

SHE'S BACK!

Pryvit -- Greetings, dear friends.

I'm back from a wonderful trip to Ukraine.  Still trying to get back to Winnipeg time, and to recuperate from my wanderings.

Was in Lviv, Kolomyia, Kosiv, Stryi, and Kyiv, with other stops along the way.  Attended the Publishers' Forum in Lviv (one of the largest book fairs in Europe after Frankfurt).  Ran into many old friends there.  Saw the monastery and shrine at Hoshiv, visited the Stepan Bandera Museum in Uhniv, and saw the Kvitka Cisyk Museum and School in Lviv.  Spoke at the Ivan Honchar Museum in Kyiv (great crowd for my folk medicine lecture).  Met with the person in charge of an art album on 18th c. sculptor J.-G. Pinzel  -- I translated the text into English -- and found out the volume will be for the upcoming Pinzel exhibition at the Louvre!

Enjoyed walking (very much), dining (all kinds), drinking -- love the Ukr. beer, shopping -- some lovely stuff, including books.  One big disappointment -- lost my camera after the first week -- dropped it as I ran for the marshrutka (mini-bus).   ARGHGHGH!   All those photos lost!  Got a new one, but mourn the ones from that first week.

Now to get back into the routine.  Have many projects and ideas.  Much writing and translating.  Will keep you posted. 

My first classroom session at McNally-Robinson two days after I returned was good.  Full house.  Nice to see familiar faces.  Check out my previous post on the next sessions - coming up later this month and on through January.

OFF TO UKRAINE!

As I mentioned a while ago, will be off to Ukraine for a while.  I'm thrilled, expecially to be at the Lviv Publishers' Forum (site only in Ukr.), the Hutsul Festival, and in Kyiv -- speaking again at the Ivan Honchar Museum.

You can click on the English version of the site.   This is such a vibrant and elegant museum and cultural centre.  And the people there live and breathe their heritage. 

If I have a chance, will post from Ukraine.  If not, will have much much material to write about when I return.  So looking forward to being there!  

ORYSIA'S COMMUNITY CLASSROOM COURSES AT MCNALLY ROBINSON BOOKSTORE

Hoping that the Winnipeggers and Manitobans will join me for some or all of these classes at the wonderful McNally Robinson Bookstore at Grant Park.   You can register by phone or online.  

 

UKRAINE IN SEPTEMBER

Have to find time to post more often, right?  Too much stuff going on.  Recently finished a translation (Ukrainian into English) of an introduction to an album on a unique and prominent sculptor of the 18th c.  Maybe the book will be ready for the Forum of Publishers in Lviv in September.  Will post more info once I get it.

It just so happens that my trip to Ukraine coincides with this Forum (one of the largest bookfairs in Europe after Frankfurt).  What serendipity!  What could go wrong - books and Orysia!   Oy!  Anyway, really looking forward to the Forum, to being in Ukraine, and to meeting people and wandering the streets.   The last -- just love to do that.  Will start out early morning, have a coffee and/or breakfast on some patio and will watch the world go by.  Then, will just go off madly in some direction -- observing, photographing, reading the historic and cultural plaques on so many buildings, stopping for a coffee or beer, more wandering, deciding where to have lunch or supper.....   Just delightful.  I love it.  Will do the same in Lviv, Kolomyia, Kosiv, and Kyiv.  And there's so much more territory to cover in Kyiv!   Will also be presenting a lecture at the Ivan Honchar Museum in Kyiv - sometime at the end of September. 

This time, as before, will gather information and photographs for a number of articles - on travel, folk arts, restaurants, and whatever inspires me.  I think many non-Ukrainians "discovered" Ukraine during EuroCup, and are interested in learning more.  It is still a hidden gem for travel.

Will keep youse guys posted on my adventures.  And maybe I'll run into some of you there!

AGAIN -- PLACE OF BIRTH, OR ETHNIC ORIGIN

Another example of identifying someone by place of birth rather than ethnic origin --  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19280545

BBC calls Ayn Rand "Russian-American" -- only ten paragraphs down does the article say:   
" Born into a Jewish family called Rosenbaum in St Petersburg, she was just 12 when she witnessed her father's pharmacy being seized by the Bolsheviks." 

The family was not "Russian" (even though they were Russian citizens), but was Jewish.  That's where the credit should go.  So many prominent people get misidentified by just place of birth rather than their family's origins and ethnic background.  Important.  

I wrote about this in previous posts, e.g., 
http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8444814993454276150#editor/target=post;postID=1645205368523626549



And the most recent:   Associated Press writes that Koch was "the second of three children of Polish immigrants".   Koch had a different opinion: 
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/koch-epitaph-father-jewish-mother-jewish-jewish-article-1.1253155