The NYU Russian and Slavic Studies Department, the NYU Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia and Yara Arts Group present “How Fire Descends,” a live performance commemorating the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The event will feature live performances with music, video by Yara Arts Group artists Virlana Tkacz, Wanda Phipps and Julian Kytasty, including poetry by Serhiy Zhadan performed in English. Yara Arts Group is a resident company of LaMaMa Experimental Theatre in New York.
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Virlana Tkacz is the Artistic Director of Yara and co-translates Ukrainian poetry with African American poet Wanda Phipps. Their newest book is “How Fire Descends: New and Selected Poems by Serhiy Zhadan.” Published by Yale University in the fall of 2023, the book was recently on several “best lists,” including the New York Times and The Guardian.
Julian Kytasty will perform on the bandura traditional songs and will accompany the poetry performances. He is a third generation bandurist following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. He worked frequently with Yara creating and performing music for theatre pieces, poetry performances, and festivals. His work on Yara’s “1917-2017 Tychyna, Zhadan, and the Dogs” earned him a NY Innovative Theater award for best original score.
Serhiy Zhadan is one of Ukraine’s most celebrated writers. In 2022 he received the Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought, the German Peace Prize and nine international literature prizes. His books available in English include: “The Orphanage” and “What We Live for, What We Die For: Selected Poems” from Yale University Press. Serhiy was born in Luhansk, Ukraine's easternmost region and lives in Kharkiv. He has worked with Yara since 2005 and will appear on video. He is current on tour in Ukraine with his band Zhadan & the Dogs, raising support for Ukraine.
Wanda Phipps is a founding member of Yara Together with Virlana Tkacz she has received the National Theatre Translation Award for their translation of “The Forest Song” and an NEA Fellowship for their work on Serhiy Zhadan’s poetry. Her books include “Mind Honey” (Autonomedia), “Field of Wanting: Poems of Desire” (BlazeVOX [books]), and “Wake-Up Calls: 66 Morning Poems” (Soft Skull Press). She curated several reading series at the Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church and has written about the arts for Boog City, Time Out New York and Paper Magazine.
The poster for this event includes a photo by Pulitzer Prize winner Evgeniy Maloletka.
