VOICES OF OCCUPATION

Powerful voices highlighting experience of living under Russian occupation

The info on the event is here:

https://www.nypl.org/events/programs/2025/10/24/voices-occupation-stories-cultural-survival

We need to highlight:

• The horror of the occupation and the fact that when Ukraine is being told to give up land, this means giving up people too
• Highlight that collection which is a translation from Crimean-Tatar language will highlight Crimean voices that are living under occupation
• Olia Hercules – the fact that her home in Kahovka is under occupation
• Volodymyr is twice displaced: from Donetsk in 2014 and from Bucha in 2004.

About Razom’s Ukrainian Cultural Festival

This October, Razom for Ukraine presents its acclaimed Ukrainian Cultural Festival, now expanded into a month-long citywide celebration with the theme Against the Grain. From October 1 to 31, audiences will experience daily events spanning theater, film, literature, and visual art, spotlighting the fearless creativity of Ukrainian artists who defy convention and reshape global culture.

The 2025 festival marks a turning point: what began two years ago as a two-week initiative has now grown into a full month of daily events, cementing its place as a platform for cultural exchange and creative resistance. 
“Against the Grain reflects the spirit of Ukrainian artists today,” says Dora Chomiak, CEO of Razom for Ukraine. “They are responding to war, displacement, and trauma, boldly reshaping tradition, transforming vulnerability into power, and driving/maintaining their voices in the global conversation.”

Event Details

Voices of Occupation: Stories of Cultural Survival
Date: Friday, October 24, 2025
Location: Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL), New York Public Library
Registration HERE

Press Contact:
Olga Samofalova
olga.samofalova@gmail.com

Lesia Ukrainka’s Cassandra Makes Its US Theatrical Debut at Razom’s Ukrainian Cultural Festival 

A timeless myth staged in New York City amid today’s battles over truth and resistance

New York City, September 10, 2025 – Renowned Ukrainian playwright Lesia Ukrainka’s prophetic masterpiece Cassandra will receive its first-ever American staging October 10 –19, at Teatro LATEA, presented as part of Razom’s Ukrainian Cultural Festival, Against the Grain. 

Written by one of Ukraine’s greatest literary figures and pioneering feminist voices, the play is set at the end of the Trojan War and follows the prophetess Cassandra, cursed by Apollo never to have her harrowing visions believed. She wages a fraught inner battle to speak truth to power even when no one listens. With the unbreakable heroine of Cassandra, this classic 1908 dramatic poem embodies Ukrainka’s legacy of portraying women not as passive figures but as seers, warriors and visionaries.

The director of Cassandra, Artemis Wheelock, shares:

What draws me to Cassandra is how painfully familiar her isolation feels. Ukrainka shows us the cost of knowing the truth when no one will face it. Directing this play right now is about holding up a mirror to our own silence. What truths are we still refusing to hear? How many lives does it take for us to wake up?

Why Now? Ukrainka’s Cassandra is not simply a retelling of myth. It is a mirror for today. In an era defined by authoritarianism, disinformation, and wars fought both on the battlefield and in the realm of narrative, Ukrainka’s vision feels urgent. Cassandra’s curse – to see what others refuse to believe – echoes Ukraine’s ongoing struggle for truth under Russian aggression.

An audience member reflected at a reading earlier this year:

When I see non-Ukrainians performing Ukrainian art it has a validating effect on me, our art no longer feels invisible and the propaganda lie spell melts away.

This production situates the play in the current contexts, underscoring the dangers of denial and distortion while inviting audiences to confront the cost of silencing reality. Bringing Cassandra to the American stage is an act of cultural recognition.