can only find happiness divine when we free all our people still starving peace throw it back to you now thank you amazing so here's a draft stage thoughts war world round sun rise to sunset avian melodies drown in rapid fire ammunition for some violence be a permanent condition we think we know war we think we know occupation we think we know corruption masters of western media we think we know wars are a tugs of war on threads where are avatars don flags of solidarity as we wax ignorantly about the toils of war we praise resistance from a distance glorify heroes prepackaged and fed to us but how does one explain pray for Ukraine to a Palestinian or an Ethiopian or anyone whose lived war for generations to children traveling to freedom with a desperate mother's scroll on their backs empathy until the border comes into focus. See, there is no asylum for those traveling north, only west. We accept the racial hierarchy of resistance, arming only those who prove useful allies. We lift up one casualty, ignoring simultaneously the cries of others. We who are afforded the luxury of cash-shapping our charity, we never get dirty. And so I wonder, when do we rise up from the constant contradiction? When do we take the blinders off? Do we stand a chance against the agents of war? When war comes for us, who will pay? Pray it all away. Thank you. Thank you all so much. It looks like we have five minutes. Amazing, amazing. Amazing, well, I'm so impressed. The war Chernobyl-ing from Paul and the liberty was never saved, served on a silver tray, actually, you had to fight for it. And as in your question, what are we gonna do if war comes to us? And what about the war that's already here in a different way, of course? And I really want to say thank you so much. The last two poems, Paul, also yours, did you just, did you create that in the last days? Yeah, my poem I wrote today. Or yesterday, because that's the kind of person I tend to be like, occasional, right? Something occasional, but it always turns into like, I'm going to go with the energy of what it's giving me right now and today. So you were sitting at home or in a cafe or how did it happen? Yeah, I was very much like sitting at home between, you know, reading and seeing headlines, seeing everything going on with, you know, the shooting down of that warship that marked a pretty big victory on the Ukrainian side for defending, but also seeing, you know, all kinds of things like 900 bodies found at the border and just being like shocked, horrified, mortified, but not surprised, like, because this is what war, the spoils of war is. And even when it's not one walked into willingly, it's one of defense over invasion. It's just seeing a lot of the same things. It triggered a lot of things for me. And so just being really honored with being asked to come into this space today, I felt called, you know, to write something for today, just like I know Siri did with her second piece. So like also big, big ups to my Ramana who both, both her pieces really were moving to me. Thank you. That's the longest poem written, I'm sure on planet Earth, you know, about the crisis in the Ukraine and something, you know, very strong and beautiful and it just show compassion and care as does yours. Siri, when did you write yours? When did it, what was the moment you were sitting down? Oh, so the timeline is similar to Paul's in that oftentimes I spend a lot of time meditating. So I've been meditating on this idea since, you know, we were first asked to participate. And then I think the writing really started between yesterday and today. I was also working like a dog right up until the spring recess. So, you know, so sometimes the poems sort of get written up here, up here, up here until I can sit down and play with words. And I really wanted to make sure that I shared that it was in a draft stage because certainly I believe that the work itself has a lot more growing to do and there's just a lot of complexity in talking about, you know, war and the effects of war that can't always be sort of like really, really visited in a first draft, you know, but I think for me it's just sort of like thinking about my seat in the world as being within a seat of privilege and how I get to sort of look upon. And so that's really what I've been thinking about and marinating on in terms of, you know, just who am I in the world and what does it mean to speak on these issues when I'm not on the front lines myself? I mean, I'm really, you know, looking forward to survivor tales and seeing what folks, what kind of arc it's generated from the folks who are experiencing this firsthand. But I hope that, you know, my hope for the piece was for it to generate conversation about how we wrestle with these experiences when we're not physically in them. Yeah, I think you said resistance from a distance, right? Which is a beautiful way. It says actually also possible or supporting it or, you know, having it on the mind. And I'm sure whoever listened to it, you know, if there are Ukrainians listening still, it is very meaningful. They might see later on that there are fellow poets or, you know, people really took time, the energy and thought and that they showed compassion. And in a way, a joyful, as the Buddha sometimes say, a joyful participation in the Thoros and catastrophes of life. And I think this is of real importance.  I think this is a very beautiful and strong contribution. And I think it's also important for the world to know and everybody, you know, that the Neurican poets' cafe, the history of the spoken word is something significant, it's something important.  And so you're very close to that spirit. We can't believe it how fast that went and we already at our seven o'clock p.m. So maybe we can have our friends from La Mama with us, stay for a second with us to say, so you guys can say hello. And I see the names here coming up from Adam and Martin Sophia, Marina, Verlana, Vanda. And here are your colleagues from the Neurican poets' cafe.  So we're really Paul and J.F. Siri. Thank you so much for joining really, for taking the time and it's a big honor that you both took the time to write a poem for us, a spoken word, utterings, you know, that normally we see it on the stage, poetry needs to be spoken, alive, we need to hear it. And we did hear it, we didn't see it, but we heard it. It does exist on a paper. It's true, but it really exists when we hear it and the rhythm and the speaking of it. So this is really very beautiful and a great contribution. Thank you both. And we go on to our next segment, to La Mama and Yara Arts Group, which we put into sections, but in the big way, they are so strongly connected and I would like to welcome all of you and perhaps, first of all, Verlana, thank you for joining us. Can everyone hear me? Yes, thank you. Thank you for inviting us. Thank you. Will Mia join us? Do you know, will she? She will on tape. We have a couple of tapes. Partly we tape people in Ukraine and because of the connections and also Mia will be with us. So tell us a little bit about you. Who are you and what's your connection to La Mama? I direct the Yara Arts Group, a resident company at La Mama. And today we're gonna be speaking with the rest of New York theater artists about the bombing in Mariupol Theater in Ukraine by Russian forces. And we'll hear from Mia Yu and Nikki Paraiso as well as our current resident artists at La Mama today. And then I'll describe our relationship to Ukrainian community and artists. And we'll hear from Maria Kutnyakova who worked at the Mariupol Theater's community and Valdemar Kliusko who created performance projects in the Mariupol port area. And in the second half, Maria will describe her experiences as she was sheltering in the theater of Mariupol during the bombing. And finally, Yara artists will read poems by Sidhija Don from Kharkiv. And some of our participants will be speaking in Ukraine and I'll be translating then when we're making sort of transitional comments. The wonderful, really, really thank you all for putting this together, this complex program that perhaps helps to reflect the reality and the many angles of that situation. That is so unimaginable in a way for us here but it makes it a bit more real. La Mama, of course, is one of the great institutions in New York founded by Ellen Stewart in the 50s. It was one of the first places to give voice also to global theater artists, I'm thinking, before her, perhaps Asia society had some pop up the others but La Mama was the one that opened the door and we need to have a door always open as Bob Wilson said today, quoting the Bible and I think La Mama is such a door and but I give it now on to you, Valdemar, guide us through the session and we will listen to you and I ask everybody to very, very carefully listen, this is as close as it's good for Lana herself is from the Ukraine, if I understand right and so we will really, really learn something and these artists will share something that is of significance and importance. Okay, and I thought I'd start off with a greeting in Ukrainian to our Ukrainian audiences and a good day. I'm Vilyana Tkach, the artist and director of the Yarmus of the European Experimental Theater of La Mama, who is located in the Ukrainian district of New York. We look forward to the New York theater in the Ukraine. And now, Mia and Nikita from La Mama. Oh, my name is Mia Yu. I'm Nikita Rizzo. And we're here at La Mama in support of the artistic community and beyond in Ukraine through the power of art. La Mama has invited resident artists at Ham Hafez and Sofia Guchinov from its 60th season to read poetry and texts in solidarity with Ukraine. We are so honored to be a part of this event. We thank Frank and the Martin Segal Center and we are proud to be here with our resident company, Yara Arts, who will be connecting with artists working out of Maripole. By Zukraine, you know you. Slava Ukraine. Be Zukraine, you Slava Ukraine. And now La Mama's current resident artist, Adam Hafez will join us from Egypt. Hello, everyone, and thank you, everybody, for this evening. I'm very moved and touched to be invited to speak this evening what's been happening in the Ukraine is heartbreaking. And every time I look at the news, I just don't know what to do and I feel helpless. But I also keep thinking that every life matters and every loss deserves mourning and that mourning has become a privilege into today's world. And as we're gathered here today and as I'm saddened and heartbroken over what's happening in the Ukraine, I must also highlight what's happening in other places in the world, particularly in Palestine, as it is under attack the past 24 hours with over 150 people injured where the Aqsa Mosque, one of the holiest buildings in the world, has been under attack with people just praying, people in a temple praying and being killed. And this made me feel like I should read a poem from the late Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish, speaking of homelessness, the disgrace of war, the silence of complicity and the loss of land. And the poem is called The Passport.  To them, my wound is a showroom for a tourist who passionately collects pictures. They don't recognize me. They don't leave the palm of my hand without a sun because the trees know me. The spinning mills of rain know me. Don't leave me mummified like the moon. The birds follow. The palm of my hand to the distant airport and all the wheat fields, all the prisons, all the pale sepulchres, all the barbed boundaries, all the weaving handkerchiefs, all the dark eyes, all the eyes are with me. But the masters drop them from the passport. Is it my name that brings this honor? Or is it my love for the land I raised in my hands? Today, Job cries the sky's fill. Don't make me a lesson twice. True masters, true masters, honorable prophets, don't ask the trees about their names. Don't ask the waddies about their mothers. From my forehead gushes the sword of light. And from my fingers flow rivers. The heart of every man is my nationality. So rid me of this passport. The heart of every man is my nationality. So rid me of this passport. Thank you, and I'm sorry for your loss. And now another resident artist at La Mama, Sophia Guccinova will join us. Hi, thank you for having me. I'm honored to be here. And also, I don't wanna say happy, but I think it's a great thing that we're all coming together as people in the theater, in America and around the world and in New York to bring awareness and solidarity with the current situation. And all the current situations in the whole world, like my other resident artist, fellow artist said, this is a Ukrainian poet who is currently a refugee now with a newborn baby, because a lot of things that are happening right now, the women and children being separated from the fathers, which is heartbreaking. And her name is Katarina Bobkina. And this first poem I'm gonna read too, the first one is called, Give Me a Brother. Give me a brother who can protect me, who can be there every time I need him, the woman begs. But the earth is silent in the garden, the golden shoots grow lush, but each fruit hangs down ominously on its long stem like a stone. Give me shelter from peering lascivious eyes, so no strange unwanted hand ever reaches me. Hide me in the radiance and reflection of your blue depths. The woman says, but the river quietly flows by. No, the river can't hide her while she's still alive. The woman looks at the sky and says, up and at all. Now fall follows summer before winter comes. There's a time for roses and a time for bitter wormwood, a place for every beast and every weed and grass, only I have no place of my own. And the sky answers, make it yourself. You're on your own now, on your own now. Thank you. And the next poem is untitled. Don't ask me how I am. Ask me something simple. Look how quickly my hair grows now. It seems to have its own special goal. When all this is over, I'll braid it around you. Don't tell me how you are. Tell me something easier. Because here, even the smallest stone has turned into a weapon to defend its own in this war. Don't tell me how this can be true because this is all we have now, these stones. When the bell rings in warning and the shockwave takes your breath away, even the dead rise up from the ground to defend the living. Oh, how they wail with longing, those sirens in the night. Don't try to say it because there is no word to describe it. There is no time, no place, no dimension, no sphere. It all simply happens here and now in markets, schoolyards, suburban buildings. After all this, what can cure us? Maybe it's love. Love can bind together the ripped edges of the wounds. It can feed the powerful rivers and streams. It can wash away the abuse, properly mourn all the spilt blood. But until all this is over, don't talk to me of love. Till the pale light of early dawn replaces the flashes of dark night. Better don't say anything to me at all, just rest. Thank you. Thank you, Sophia, for reading the Catarina's poem, which one of the fifth translated with me. And Catarina lived in Kiev, as you know, and is now a refugee. These are poems she wrote several days ago. And I wanted now to talk a little bit about Ellen Stewart and her relationship with the Ukrainian community because the Lamama of Lamama, Ellen started theater on East Ninth Street in the very heart of Ukrainian community. And because a Ukrainian landlord was willing to rent a basement space to her. An African-American in 1961. She started Cafe Lamama and became the founder of American Experimental Theater. Lamama's second home was on Second Avenue. And then Ellen acquired 74 East Fourth Street, Lamama's main building, which is now being renovated. And in the early 70s, Ellen put the roof on 66 East Fourth Street and turned it into the Amazing Annex, which is now called the Ellen Stewart Theater. And I came to Lamama in 1982 with Amir Baraka's Money at Jazz Opera. And worked there with many wonderful directors, George Ferris, Wilford Leach, and Ping Chang. I directed workshops and performances by Native American artists and Polish artists. And one day I met Ellen Stewart in front of St. Mark's Church. And she asked me what I really wanted to do. And to my own surprise, I said, Ukrainian theater, Ukrainian poetry, finally, she said. And pulled out her little composition notebook we all knew with the Lamama dates in it. And she said, what's the name of your show? And I said, a light from the east, right off the top of my head. Actually, there was no show. I hadn't thought about it a minute before that. But now we had a date, March, 1990. And all my projects started to come together. We made a piece about ourselves and Lech Kurbas, a Ukrainian theater director from the 20s. And we called it a Dock U Dream because we made it from history and diaries and poetry that Juan de Fips and I translated from Ukrainian. And we became Yara's group. And Yara performed the light from the east at Lamama and we received an invitation to bring it to Ukraine. And Ellen urged me to go. And I'd never been. And I decided to take a look first. It was December, 1990, very dark times in Soviet Ukraine. I hated it, quite frankly. And until I met one of the old actors who had worked with Kurbas in the 20s. And it was just like a cosmic moment for me. I started seeing around me the dream, their dream of creating a new world and a new stage. And I decided to make in the light a bilingual project by including young Ukrainian actors in the project. And we returned in August, 1991. Ellen Stewart joined us for the opening in Kiev at the National Theater. And that week, right on our opening, the Soviet Union collapsed and Ukraine declared independence. In 93, Ellen came to open a huge international festival in Kharkiv with us. And in 94, we worked with the view Kurbas Theater and brought them then to Lamama. And we did a joint production. And every year after that, we create a new show that Lamama and Ellen would always ring her bell and say that Lamama was the home of Ukrainian theater in New York. And now I'd like to introduce you all to somebody very special, Maria Kutnyakova or Maria from Marupol, she likes to call herself. And she'll tell you about her city and its theater and cultural life before all this. I'm Maria from Marupol. And I want to tell you about the city life in my native city. So the Marupol drama theater, the building that was destroyed by Russians, it was like almost 70 years history. And long, long time, it was the only theater in Marupol. But after the war that started eight years ago, when Russia occupied Donetsk and Lugansk, the art people in Marupol, they started to do another citrus, independent citrus and amateur citrus. And in last year, we have in Marupol almost 10 citrus, children's citrus with some kids' stories and young people's citrus. They're doing plays, some art stuff, some performances and citrus for aged people. And it was very different content. It was Ukrainian content, so like performances about Ukrainian history, about Ukrainian literature and others. And also it was like content by foreign authors and others. So the Marupol cultural life was very different, but very beautiful. So like every week you could choose where you can go. You can watch one play, another play, you can go for the performances. I was, my hobby was actress in Cetra, Cetra Mania. And we're doing very different projects, also projects with foreign directors, actors. We have a project with Dortmund Cetra. The Cetra are called Kulturbrigaden. And we're doing in a pandemic when it was COVID. We're doing online performance. The Dortmund children was in Dortmund and Ukrainian children in Marupol was in Marupol. And we're doing a Romeo and Juliet play and we call it, it's like online game about Romeo and Juliet. Also we have in Marupol very big Cetra and art festivals. Gogolfest, IT stage and another, it was very big. It was like a week with like a few Cetras from all Ukraine, from the Lviv, Kharkiv, Kiev, Dnieper and another they came to the Marupol and show us their projects. And Marupol actors go to another cities and show our stories. So, if you like Cetra, if you like some art, if you want to see some new art in Marupol, you could choose it where you could go. It's very beautiful stories. Also we have a few very interesting components. The building of Marupol drama Cetra was built 70 years ago. But on this place before was the church that communists, they destroyed the church. And on this place, they built in the Cetra. So it's very special place for our city, you understand? So it's been like really like Cetra church now in Marupol and now it's also destroyed like the same people. So Russian destroyed church. And years ago they destroyed Cetra. And also I want to tell you that have a lot of cultural organizations like Palace of Culture, like Philharmonic and after the wars that started eight years ago, our cultural life was very like really life, really. And we have a new cultural organization, not only the Cetra. We have like contemporary art centers for the painters, for the musicians, not only actors, directors. So we have like a new art life in Marupol last few years. So it was like, I don't know, we have like our cultural life in Marupol was like, hard like was, and I hope that after the war we could rebuild it. Marupol is in Eastern Ukraine. It is a port on the Azov Sea. It has an ancient settlement from the Bronze Age, a fascinating history and a diverse population that included a large Greek community. It had a theater in the 19th century where Russian and Ukrainian troops performed. About history of our Cetra. So in Marupol like 100 years ago was very unique situation. We have a Greek Cetra. In Marupol lives a lot of Greeks and they have their native language, native culture and they want to build their own Cetra. This Cetra work in a few years, but then communism, USSR, totalitarianism destroyed. All people was going to jail or killed by communist people. And this Cetra was destroyed, but it's unique situation in Ukraine, Greek Cetra. They doing like Greek performances on Greek language. So it's very, I think interesting fact about Marupol. Also Cetra history started in Marupol like almost 150 years ago when Marupol was in Russian Empire. We have Cetra and it was Russian Cetra. Because in Russian Empire, you couldn't do like Ukrainian Cetra or something else. So it was Russian Cetra. And so our like drama Cetra in Marupol always telling people that we have like 150 history because it was like the one way of Cetra life in Marupol. Also I want to tell you a story that we have very big factory, metallurgical factory, Azostal. And the people who work on this factory, they also doing a Cetra. So they like one day, they doing some metallurgy stuff on the factory, but another day they going to the independent amateur Cetra and playing like actors, directors and other. And this Cetra call it Narodnyi Teater Zavoda Azostal, like Cetra of factory Azostal. And now the Azostal is the center of Ukrainian army, still in Marupol, they fighting with Russia army. And I think it's very interesting that the people who working on the factory, they also want to do some art stuff. And also. Valde Marklusko has designed Yara shows since 2011 and worked on several performance in our projects in Marupol. In 2019, we did a Google Fest, almost even in April, 20th, I don't remember the first or second year. We did a exhibition at the factory, we had an opera and a ballet. I was involved in the organization of this event. And I lived a month at the factory, physically, solved all the problems. And we created a ballet. The ballet was in sports cranes. I was in charge of the movements of these cranes. We had a musical support for this kind of performance. This performance is recorded, it exists on the internet portal Open Theater. This ballet of cranes was part of Google Fest's large opera project on the dry dock in the port. Valde Marklusko describes how the dock is lowered, the ship comes in and then the dock is lifted above the water and how these movements were used in the opera Miro. And at the factory, we did another opera. The opera took place in the dry dock. This is the place where the ships are repaired. This dock is lowered to the water, it inflates the ship, then it inflates and does repair work. During this opera, the ship stood on the repair ship in the sea. And the opera took place in our country. We had actors from Kyiv, we had technical dancers who danced with the rhythm. I was not in charge of it. And at the end, the entire dock, with the audience, was flooded and water came into it. This was an extraordinary event, not only for Mariupol, I think that for the Ukrainian theater, performance and festival, this is the most powerful project that we could do. From what I recently published, the director of the factory sent a message to us that there is a fire at the factory, there is smoke, something is burning. And the dock where this opera took place, it is flooded. It is now at the bottom of the Azov Sea. We have a video from Mariupol showing the dock on fire and saying that the dock itself is on the bottom of the sea. The other project that Voldemort did was included pinhole photography in Mariupol. One of the projects, they used a trolley as a camera. The people had to stand still for 34 minutes to take a picture of the main square in front of the theater. And this is the famous theater that was bombed. Okay. So we will hear about Maria's war experiences in the Yara segment. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And the Yara segment, which comes next right now. And I, we have a ritual that starts each of our shows always. We always say welcome to the Yara Arts Group dedicated to the theater and all the poetry, music and images that inspire it. And Yara has worked with Ukrainian poets since its founding in 1990 at Lamama, and we have worked with Sidhija Don since 2005 on a show about winter rituals and the protests of Maidan. In 2013, we worked with him in Donetsk on a piece of history, about the history of the city, which the following spring became about the war in Donetsk and in Ukraine. And now this war has intensified, and Mariupol is the center of the struggle today. We continue now with Maria for Mariupol, who spoke with us earlier in the Lamama section about the cultural life of Mariupol. And now we'll hear about the war, how it came to Mariupol, and what she saw and personally experienced. So I was 22 days in Mariupol after the war started. I didn't want to go away from my native city. I believe in Ukrainian army. I couldn't imagine the Russians are so crazy. They bombed us from the airplanes and artillery. They destroyed every building. The bomb came to my house, my apartment. I didn't get how I'm still alive because my neighbors, they died. And to me, my mom and my sister and my cat, we are now okay in physical way. And they destroyed Russians, all the communication in Mariupol. They destroyed lighting, like water, gas. We have no mobile connection. And it's very cold weather in March in Mariupol. So we were in cold. They bombed us every hour. We couldn't go away on the street. You sitting on the shelter, or like me, we sitting on the corridor. We didn't see what's happening in our city. We understand that everything is destroyed. We saw dead bodies on the street. And we didn't understand because we have no information how we could save. And we know that in the center is like a refugee center. Refuge center. So we know that in the drama center in the building is a refuge center for people who didn't have a house after the bomb came to their houses. And we decided that we should go to the center because we have no food, no water. And on our street, it's like street fighting. So we saw the tanks, we saw the snipers. And we understand that we should go away from our house. And when we get on the street, we saw that house near us on fire. I didn't recognize my native city because everything was destroyed. Like on my street, every house was on fire or bombed and some parts was destroyed. And we ran in, we saw Russian tanks with that. And we was very afraid about our life. And we ran to the center. And we hope that now we are in safe place. But on that day, few hours later, Russians destroyed it by bombs from the plane. And I didn't know how. And second time, my family is like, OK. After that, because we have like second bomb on our roof. And we run into the philharmonic. We have an item philharmonic. And the Russian trying to destroy philharmonic by the artillery. But the building is still standing. And we understand that Russians, they didn't fight with the Ukrainian army. They want to kill every citizen, every Ukrainian in the city. So they bombed like kindergartens, hospitals, like citrus, everything. Like, you know, my apartment, we didn't have like any army people near us. They just destroyed. I really don't understand why they do this, want to help us.  I really don't understand. And in March 17, we decided to go away from Rupal by walk. And we go to the little village near the Marupal, Milakina. It's on the, as of sea. And we go from the fields, you know, and we saw Russian soldiers. And they said like, the Ukrainians bombed Marupal. And we said, and he was like, what? Like, you're craziness. And we go to the Milakina and Milakina was also occupied by Russians. Is there no food, no communications, no gas for the cars? So we live in Milakina for days. Then we go to another village, Yalta. And after Yalta, we go to the Burdansk. This is also occupied by Russians. This is the city near the Marupal, but it wasn't destroyed so much. Like Marupal, we live in the sports center in Burdansk for four days. We also hasn't food. We was very hungry and we was very, you know, not good health. And then we have evacuation buses from the Ukrainian government. Buses to the Zaporizhia, this is Ukrainian territory. And from Burdansk to Zaporizhia, a road is 100 kilometers. But Russians, they wanted to stop buses, like every few kilometers. And our road from Burdansk to Zaporizhia was 18 hours, 100 kilometers, 18 hours. We slept in the buses. Not only my family was advocated, it was 3,000 people in 56 buses. But Russians stopped every buses. They watched some clothes. They talking with us and we have a very long way to Zaporizhia. So when I go away from Marupal, I need nine days to get to Ukrainian territory. So it was a very long way. And I was very disappointed about everything what Russians do. And I was like, understand that I'm very lucky because I can get away from the Marupal. But I have relatives still in Marupal. We have no connection. I didn't understand their life or not. I watch news from the Marupal every hour. And I understand that they still bombed Marupal. There's still no food in Marupal. The 75% territory of Marupal occupied, but 25% territory of Marupal is still Ukrainian. Ukrainian army is still in Marupal. They fighting with Russians. And this 25% of territory still bombed.  And they still haven't food, haven't water, haven't some medical help. So like now in Marupal, more than 100,000 people still in Marupal. And you understand, you all see the photos from the Butcher, from the Erpin Gostomel, that territories that Russians occupied, they started to do very crazy things.  And I understand that every citizen in Marupal in danger because Russian soldiers could kill you. Russian artillery could kill you. Russians, planes and other stuff could kill you. So I really hope that Ukrainian army could save Marupal. And all the Russians go away from my city, my country, to the Russia federation and do it what they want in Russia's federation, not in Ukraine. Ukraine is an independent country. And Russia started the war and we didn't do anything bad. So Putin is a new Hitler. And all the world could help us. As I mentioned, Yara worked with Sidi Zhedan, the major poet in Ukraine. And we worked with him in 1913 in Donetsk on a piece about the history of the city in the polling spring. The city was invaded by Russians and our peace-hitting bedrock transformed into a show about the Russian war on Ukraine. The war in Donetsk was brutal. There are 2 million refugees from this area in other parts of Ukraine in just a very short time. And one of the Fips and I translated Zhedan's poetry, including this one with this poem, which will be read by Marina Salander, who appeared in the piece at Oman. Thank you so much, Rolana. And it was translated by Rolana and Wanda beautifully. Thank you so much. I'm still reeling from hearing about Maria's experiences. And so I'm just going to breathe for a moment. Take only what is most important. Take the letters. Take only what you can carry. Take the icon and the embroidery. Take the silver. Take the wooden crucifix and the golden rachicas. Take some bread, the vegetables from the gardens. Then leave. We will never return again. We will never see our city again. Take the letters, all of them. Every last piece of bad news. We will never see our corner store again. We will never drink from that dry well again. We will never see familiar faces again. We are refugees. We'll run all night. We will run past fields of sunflowers. We will run from dogs, rest with cows. We'll scoop up water with our bare hands. Sit waiting in camps, annoying the dragons of war. You will not return and friends will never come back. There will be no smoky kitchen, no usual job. There will be no dreamy life in sleepy town. No green valley, no suburban wasteland. The sun will be a smudge on the window of a cheap train rushing past color pits covered with lime. There will be blood on women's heels, tired guards on borderlands covered with snow, a postman with empty bags shut down, a priest with a hapless smile hung by his ribs, the quiet of a cemetery, the noise of a command post, an unedited list of the dead so long that there won't be enough time to check them for your own name. Thank you. Thank you, Marina. Wanda and I just heard the news from Kharkou today where Zhedan is living, that it's under heavy, heavy bombardment. And now we're going to ask Wanda Phipps, who translates with me, to read several more poems by Siddhi Zhedan. Thank you, Verlana. First, I'd like to read headphones. And this was published in the New York Times last year. Headphones, Sasha, a quiet drunk, an esoteric, a poet, spent the entire summer in the city. When the shooting began, he was surprised, started watching the news, then stopped. He walks around the city with headsets on, listening to golden oldies as he stumbles into burnt out cars, blown up bodies. What will survive from the history of the world in which we lived will be the words and music of a few geniuses who desperately tried to warn us, tried to explain but failed to explain anything or save anyone. These geniuses lie in cemeteries and out of their ribcages grow flowers and grass. Nothing else will remain. Only their music and songs, a voice that forces you to love. You can choose to never turn off this music. Listen to the cosmos.  Think about whales in the ocean at night. Hear nothing else. See nothing else. Feel nothing else, except, of course, for the smell, the smell of corpses. And this next poem is called It's All Up to Us, and Seri Jadan is also known for his love poems, and this is one of them. It's All Up to Us. It's All Up to Us. You touch the atmosphere and disturb the equilibrium. Everything, we've lost everything. We found all the air that passed through our windpipes. What sense does it all make without our pain and disappointments? What value does it have without our joy? After all, it's all about your fingers.  A name spoken once changes the voice, coils around the roots of words. So you struggle from now on with dead languages as you attempt to use them to communicate with the living. You touch her things and understand behind each word, behind each deed stands the impossibility of return. Courage and sorrow push us forward. Love is irreversible, and we can't decipher most dark prophecies and visions. What happens to us is only what we wanted or only what we feared. The question is, what will win, desire, or fear? The night will ring with music and the web of our fingers. The room will fill with light from the dictionaries we've brought. After all, everything depends on our ability to speak the dead language of tenderness. Light is shaped by darkness, and it's all up to us. Thank you. Thank you, Wanda. Thank you for all the work and for this amazing reading. Thank you. We, Wanda and I are now working with Zidhi on a new show, a jazz musical opera about Kharkiv. In Kharkiv, we started last November. We had a workshop and we created the first two acts, and we were supposed to do act three in March, but then the war came to Kharkiv, and we hope to open the show at Lamama in February in 2023. And that said he will be with us at opening night at Lamama. Thank you, Frank. Thank you, Siegel Center. Listen, what an impressive, impressive and strong program. We still have a couple of minutes left. One can feel the heartache, especially of you and of course of everybody. And I think the testimony, it was just heartbreaking to listen to the young actress, what she shared. And it makes it really, I think, so very, very, very real. It will be hard for Mariupol to come back, right, as a city it looks like. This is a true devastation. It will have to be a new city built by the people who want to return to it. So basically everybody except for the 25%, she talked about people have left. There's nobody there learning. Yeah. I mean, there are still many people who need to be evacuated. But there was a small part that was still being controlled. We recorded some of this yesterday because she couldn't. This is when we could do it with her. In terms of just connections where she was, she was in between places. Yeah, incredible. What a moment in time. Also, you captured there. And there's an eyewitness report. And the poet, Sadan, he is now in a city that is Bombarded too, you said. Today it's really been, this is what we heard today from Ukraine because we spoke with Baltimore just about 10 minutes before we went on. That was the artist who was showing us his projects in Mariupol. And he said that he just heard that they were bombing Kharkiv. And every morning, whenever Zhedan posts, he likes to write on Facebook because he's been really trying to gather the spirits of Kharkiv and to keep the musicians and artists together and working to preserve the city there. Because it's a very special city for Ukraine of musicians and artists and people who are committed to this. And he posts a lot every day. And every time I see a post in the morning, I feel so much better because it's just another day. Yeah, you worry about him. This is clear. And one can only imagine really how this time has been for you and will be for you. We spoke today with the Maggie Theater that said, you know, we understood from our community and they spoke about violence against the Asian American community. They said, right now it's really time for us to take care of our community. Maybe we have to do less theater or theater is not what people need most. What do you think? What do the theater artists need? For ones you know in Mariupol, how could they be helped? What would be? What is helpful? Well, I think first of all, they all want to talk about what's going on. I think, you know, and get that news out. And I think it's important to include other people in the projects of talking about all this. So it's not just all of us talking to all of us necessarily. So we're sort of almost feeling the other way, you know, kind of we want to reach out to the world to talk about all of this. And in terms of Mari, one of our first pieces, Ralph Pena was in it and it was a piece about Chernobyl. And I think that has kind of always been what I felt very strongly that it's important to open our community to the world because our community has been so closed, you know, and to really, I so appreciate how much one does put into all the translation efforts to sort of really for us to be able to talk to the rest of the world and through the voices of people like Marina and Sophia and Adam and everyone here today, but also our very diverse company of actors. Because I think it's very important for diverse voices to voice these ideas. And because they become then international, they speak to the world then, I think. Yeah, and also, Sophia, also really thank you for being there. Do you feel that your stay at La Mama is kind of overshadowed by it, or do you think it's a challenge or it's something that one just have to deal with? Or do you feel this is taking away something? I think as an artist, we exist to show what's going on in the world. And it's really hard to, like when people ask me or ask artists in general, is our art political? I don't think art exists without the world around it and what's going on. Like you can't, like whatever you make, whether that's film, dance, visual performance art, whatever it is, theater, it doesn't exist in a vacuum. It exists because of what's going on in the world, whether you're even aware of it or not. So, you know, the world is gonna happen no matter what's going on in any individual artist's life. And as one of the current resident artists, I can't control what's going on in the world. I can only control what I'm doing with it and like the activism and the art I'm creating. And I, of course, like many of us want world peace and I'm choosing to be a part of what's going on to help others, especially like, you know, it's an honor that we are here safe in the United States right now and that we're not dealing with a war in our own front and that the theater artists there are dealing with devastation and their whole life has changed, you know, we're prettier moved from it. And it's hard to even imagine what they're going through but it's important to give them voices and talk to them and, you know, let them know how we can help them as fellow artists, like this is what's going on in your life. Okay, tell me what can I do to be of service for you to get your story out there? Cause journalism, you know, we don't know what's actually being reported. We can only speak to the people who are there and the power that we even have this connection through the theaters being connected is amazing that we can bring their voices cause, you know, they're not worried about putting on a play right now. They're worried about surviving and not being hit by a bomb. And we have the privilege to be able to give them the voice through ourselves as a vessel. So, you know, whatever's going on in the world is going to happen and I'm honored to be here and just, you know, make my art no matter what it's going to be to help everybody in the process. So. Well, thank you so, so much. This was a great contribution. Thank you, Verlana, for putting this together. I can only imagine how much time and work went into that wonder for translating. We are already as segwaying into our next session. I see that some of the North theater collaborators are there. So, join us, come in and say hello to the Yara Asgut but I think it was a very powerful, I think a testimony and especially to hear, you know from basically what's happened yesterday or the day before on the ground from someone who was in the Mario Pole Theater is just, it's heartbreaking I have to say and this young voice, this young face, this young woman, you know what she had to go through and we don't know what she will have to go through.  So, thank you Yara Asgut. Thank you, Lamama and it's wonderful to hear, you know how deeply Ukrainian culture actually has been connected also to Lamama that the first space rented was by a Ukrainian landlord that Alan, you know gave voice to a Ukrainian theater in the New York city and so this is a longstanding tradition and we're learning actually so, so much about that. So thank you all and welcome now to the North theater and I see Kate and Bazid if I say that, say that right and let's go on to our next session and see what the North theater was on their mind. Often, you know, the catastrophe is often they are the ones who on the center of it or a bit more than normal and now things are kind of shifting but they are there, they are standing up also and we love to hear from them. So Kate, tell us a little bit about you and also about your theater. Hi, thank you so much. Thank you so much for having us. My name is Kate, I use she her pronouns calling in from Lenape land here on Manahata and I'm the artistic producer of North theater. We are a theater that supports develops and produce the work by the work of artists of Middle Eastern and North African descent also known as Southwest Asian and North African descent and we're here because we stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine. We, with those impacted and displaced by conflict war and occupation throughout the world and we're really grateful to join our colleagues here today and today we're going to share a couple of offerings from some artists. First, we'll be sharing some poetry and a video offering from one of our artists, Noel Gosaini and following that, Bazid who's here with me on the screen will be sharing some poems by Palestinian poets as well as some of their own work. Bazid, do you wanna introduce yourself? Sure. Hi everybody, I'm happy to be here with all of you and I don't know what to say by way of introduction. I'm a poet and a prose writer and a playwright. I'm an Egyptian immigrant slash settler to Turtle Island and wish the occasion were different but happy to be in this room with you all. Thank you, thank you for joining us. Thank you so much. So I'd like to start by sharing Noel has shared a few words about her piece that she'd like me to share before we watch that. So I'll go ahead and read those and then we'll jump into her piece. So Noel says, how do we cope in moments of atrocity from Ukraine to Palestine and beyond? How do we stand together as humans, as resilient, vulnerable and magical spirits amidst unimaginable violence? Violence that sends waves of trauma into the depths of our bones and across time and space with repercussions for generations to come. I do not have answers. Yet the wisdom of my heart tells me that our creative voices can help heal wounds, help us reimagine new worlds, beautiful possibilities and reconnect us with our heart and our humanity amidst so much unimaginable loss and pain. And so the video I'm sharing tonight turns to the creative voice, a re-imagining of the words of the renowned Palestinian poet Mahmoud Dawish through the lens of my father and I as Lebanese people deeply invested in Palestinian liberation. We created this during the separation we encountered during the peak of COVID while my father was in treatment for throat cancer while I was dealing with a severe injury that led me to temporarily losing my ability to walk. And during the height of the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement in New York City and across the world. The process of creating this video helped us to embody the wisdom, vision and courage of Dawish as we probe and imagine what liberation looks like. Dawish is a poet whose vision and words are spiritually transcended, rooting us in the material world while expanding us into the mystical. I often turn to Dawish as a beacon of light, as a spiritual warrior and as a poet of liberation, particularly when I encounter moments of darkness. And in watching this video tonight Dawish's poem in Jerusalem becomes yet again devastatingly relevant amidst the violent attack of Israeli police raiding the Al Aqsa mosque compound yesterday as Palestinian worshipers gathered for morning prayer during the holy month of Ramadan. May Dawish's words and poetry serve grieving, resistance, healing and openings connecting the struggles for freedom and dignity for the peoples of Palestine and Ukraine and ultimately for the freedom and dignity of all beings everywhere. Again, those words are from Noel Gossani, the writer and artist whose video I will play now. All right, so just one moment as I share my screen. In Jerusalem, and I mean within the ancient walls, I walk from one epoch to another without a memory to guide me. The prophets over there are sharing the history of the holy, ascending to heaven and returning less discouraged and melancholy because love and peace are holy and are coming to town. Hi, Dad. Good morning, Noel. How's it going? Very good, very good. My voice is bad, but otherwise I'm good. Okay, good. So I wanted to talk to you about during quarantine, you and I have been sharing Darwish poetry and when you recorded back to me in Arabic, after I sent you that poem in English, I was so moved by that and I guess I wanted to know a little bit more about Darwish and what he means to you. You know, I started to read Darwish in the mid-late 60s of a crop of Palestinian and literary men, he stood out truly as the poet of the Palestinian resistance. I was walking down a slope and I was thinking to myself, how do the narrators disagree over what light said about a stone? Is it from a dimly lit stone that wars flare up? I walk in my sleep, I stare in my sleep, I see no one behind me, I see no one ahead of me. All of this light is for me. I walk, I become lighter, I fly, I become another. Transfigured, words sprout like grass from Isaiah's messenger mouth. If you don't believe, you won't be safe. And his poetry was adopted by the art resistance movement especially by the popular front for the liberation of Palestine which had his poems on their posters. As a person that witnessed what was being done to the Palestinians in the Holy Land and even in the camps, in the Lebanese camps in Beirut, three, four miles from where I grew up, it was like a knife in my heart and I picked it up as a cause and stayed with me. I walk as if I were another and my wound, a white Biblical rose and my hands, two doves on the cross hovering and carrying the earth. I don't walk, I fly, I become another, transfigured, no place, and no time. So who am I? I am no I in ascension's presence. But I think to myself, alone the Prophet Muhammad spoke classical Arabic. And then what? Then what? A woman soldier shouted, Is that you again? Didn't I kill you?  Thank you, Kate. And now I'll turn it over to Bazin. Thank you, Kate and Noel in absentia. I'm glad we have this piece. I am going to read a few poems today. I think as a member of the Arab community, one of the things that's been particularly difficult about this past period is both watching the disaster of the Russian invasion of Ukraine unfolding and then on top of that having to have this additional awareness of the language of white supremacy that has dominated the news waves as we all sort of hear it discussed. I'm sure some of us have seen some of this coverage. One of the things that I've seen from CBS, for example, says, this isn't a place with all due respect, like Iraq or Afghanistan, that has seen conflict raging for decades.  I have to choose those words carefully to city, where you wouldn't expect that or hope that it's going to happen. With someone being very careful about the words that they're using, what they would have said if they weren't being very careful. And I've just been thinking a lot about Du Bois talking about the double consciousness of the black person in America and sort of seeing how the majority assigns value or doesn't assign value to one's life. So in solidarity with Ukraine, I am going to be reading some poems from Palestine and also just want to bring into the room that Al Aqsa Mosque is under attack. This is now an annual event that happens every Ramadan. I am going to start with reading the poem running orders. So the poem starts with an interview and then the poem will start. So I'm reading from the interview first. What happens before the Israeli military bombs your house? For many Gaza Strip residents, it's a phone call. Sauson Kauera, a resident of her newness, said she was in the house Tuesday when the phone rang. She answered and on the other side was David who claimed he was with the Israeli military. He asked for me by name. He said, you have women and children in the house, get out. You have five minutes before the rockets come. Kauera said in an interview. Lina Khalaf Tufehah writes this poem in response entitled running orders. They call us now before they drop the bombs. The phone rings and someone who knows my first name calls and says in perfect Arabic. This is David. And in my stupor of sonic booms and glass shattering symphonies still smashing around in my head. I think, do I know any David's in Gaza? They call us now to say you have 58 seconds from the end of this message. Your house is next. They think of it as some kind of wartime courtesy. It doesn't matter that there is nowhere to run to. It means nothing that the borders are closed and your papers are worthless and mark you only for a life sentence in this prison by the sea and the alleyways are narrow and there are more human lives packed one against the other more than any other place on earth just run.  It doesn't matter that you can't call us back to tell us the people we claim to want aren't in your house that there's no one here except you and your children who are cheering for Argentina sharing the last loaf of bread for this week counting candles left in case the power goes out. It doesn't matter that you have children. You live in the wrong place and now is your chance to run to nowhere. It doesn't matter that 58 seconds isn't long enough to find your wedding album or your son's favorite blanket or your daughter's almost completed college application or your shoes or to gather everyone in the house. It doesn't matter what you had planned. It doesn't matter who you are. Prove you're human. Prove you stand on two legs run. So that was Running Orders by Lina Khalaf Tuffeha. And now I'm going to read a couple of poems by Asma Azeiza. This one is called Things Sleeping. It is translated by Maryam Hajjew. Look at me, mother. I'm back with more meat and bones and wisdom. These days I can think of death can sleep without being loved. My milk teeth now grind my losses. I come back to find tongues of lullabies severed. Children bellowing in every corner and the moesans call stifled by a strange hand. Return is a movie screen and I no longer recognize the lead. Though she's only come in once, she's tampered with the script a thousand times. Return is a cat who ate its young. Return is my braid which I cut off and fed to time. The one screen garden is now a woman afraid of old age. The well a bed in a hospital and cats are the souls of women who cried on my arm. And I am now your mother. I shield your body with my own from the bullet that your 70 years will suddenly release. The accent I once rode now rests beneath the earth. What happened to the shifting cough and the calf that barely came out? Where is the sling and the bird? Where is the neighbor's boy? What was his name? And what was mine? If I'd only had a single name, I wouldn't have forgotten it. It would have struck me right on the head like a sniper's bullet. Where are the skins I cured with life salt? Where are the supplies for the war that never came? They were devoured by waiting and nights. Where is that northern gate that opens out onto happiness? Where is my uncle Mahmood who used to eat grass and ask God to forgive humanity's sins? My old father who became my son is dead. But where is the young man who was once my father? Where is that body I used to climb from whose forehead I picked the sour fruits of time? Tell him that all the teachings of politics have rotted in my head and that I've replaced them with poems I do not understand. I wanted to repair the verses, but ruined them instead. My mother put a finger to her mouth, signaled me to keep quiet. She pointed at the piles of things sleeping. And now the last thing I'll read is a poem of mine. I wrote it in response to a video that I saw in October 2021. That was documenting Israeli soldiers savaging a Palestinian mother who was trying to protect her son's grave site. That was being demolished to make way for a children's theme park. So this is from October 2021. First, they send in the girl soldiers. They look better. No, no, not the soldiers themselves. I mean, no, no, the optics.  Ruth E. Glass writing for the Washington Post has an article on the rise in the Israeli army of voluntary Orthodox girl recruits. If you hover over her name Ruth E. Glass a helpful little box comes up. It tells you Ruth is a reporter covering for Israel. The Palestinian territories. In other words, colonialism's her beat. Because that's part of how you steal a country, don't you know, right from under its indigenous inhabitants feet proper nouns turned adjective. Israel is Israel is a nation state.  Have you ever been to territories. In the summer. I hear it's lovely that time of year. Keep up with that kind of thing and you'd very likely stand to win the very hummus out of the bowl with its traditional blue and white flower motif. But anyway, this isn't a poem about hummus. It's a poem about the old woman that took an army of them to peel off her son's headstone. The better to make way for a Flintstones ride in the theme park planned in its place whose building plans she alone surrounded by bulldozers and guns was delaying manifest on the Holy Holy Land of proper now nation state. Another article kind of about the same thing shows a photo courtesy of the Israeli defense defense defense defense defense defense forces as proper now nation state Doth consistently me thinks protest too much shows a girl crowned in orange sparks haloing her face a girl from a mixed gender combat unit using machinery to reach missing people under the rubble. Dina Kraft with the cake correspondent on Twitter at Dina Kraft coming at you all the way from load in proper now nation state begins her reportage this way rain is pouring down and the soldiers and helmets and neon orange rescue vests are covered in month. But the search for the missing under the massive piles of rubble continues for the first for the third straight sleepless day. Dina Kraft with the K till about the third paragraph for her to craft this sentence, the missing people the soldiers are trying to rescue or plastic dolls, and the scenario of proper now nation state being under nationwide missile attack, only a drill. If you already know anything about the lead lead this to load as hummus is the hummus. You'll know it was taken not just with the miracle of words sublimated into colonial strategy, but a proper noun massacre, miracle mission possible accomplished in a mosque. This isn't a poem about hummus or plastic dolls or mask mask massacres or people shot dead in their hundreds praying an entire village in insert territory name. It's a poem about the old woman it took an army of them to peel off her son's gravestone to raise the way for God's chosen proper noun children to play. It's a well known fact about people from territories that the mothers having too many of them like sows just don't care about their kids. According to what the settler townies from Crown Heights Brooklyn have to tell you a common rhetoric among proper noun subjects of proper now nation state. Why else do they send them off to hummus then why. Why else there a lot valorize their lifting stone against tank baby faces I level with the tread. Why do so many you'll you late like it's a wedding when their daughters and sons return to them as stillness as future soil for all of harvest as future soil for trees. How ancient and deeply rooted they transmogrify loose earth into ground. There's a book everybody read that I never did all about trees. How they speak a secret language. How scale to the eye of God there is interconnected as mycelium. Another article I have read one time said that if you approach a plant with even just the intention of cutting. It releases a stress hormone detectable in the lungs of its leaves. The thing about life is it gives you about a million metaphors feast on a platter big as the world. It's cheating really a poet barely even has to look. Because now I could say this poem is about how the olive trees in Palestine have been communing with one another in the language of centuries. They are older than the Washington Post. That they know and remember the name of the soil that fixes them rememberance is nitrogen and phosphate nourishment through the earth, or I could say that this poem is about witness that bark and branches bristle with eyes from the river to the sea. Or I could say this poem is about a people is about a people so unbelievably lost and lonely in the desert they'll spend three days unearthing humanoid plastic, all of it without sleep. But this isn't a poem about humanoid plastic. I'm actually going to have to stop there, because I ran out of time. Thank you all very much. Well listen, thank you. Thank you both, Kate and I think there's a very, very important point. I also brought up, you know, the ranking, you know, of human lives, you know, when Syria got attacked, you know, for example, I think America took in 3000 people, I think Germany others a million. But Ukraine is 100,000 they're like good refugees and bad refugees Hungary that you know was fighting docs and else against anyone who came, you know, from the Arab world. And now we Ukrainians can come, you know, or Poland the same a million people enter so what is that isn't a refugee a refugee isn't injustice injustice isn't violence violence against anyone and what we heard through the day from the African American community said we know what's happening there we know the violence we know they're taking away of a home. We used to have no home to be displaced to be taken away from your country or the Asian American community who also said you know we know violence we actually experiencing right now it's it went up 300% in the Trump time because they were appointed to carry off COVID, you know, and then from the Palestinian experience you know of violence and displacement, and, and tanks, and, and all of it so it's really really clear that what happened especially in this theater with 300 people died seeking refuge. Many children we just heard today from one of the actresses what happened to be in there after her home was bombed. You know it wasn't safe in there she had to flee again. And it is shocking what is happening and I think there should be a planetary reaction as the you know racism is a planetary problem by the environment the climate change homophobia, and also you know injustices like these war and I hope we will see a better future and art has to be on the side of life, art is on this right side of justice, and I really want to thank you, Kate and Bazeed for for sharing, and, of course, also from noelle that that strong contribution of speaking to her elder of the community we have to go right away to our next segment maybe stay a second and say hello to a new group that formed the Ukrainian actors of New York. Who are with us notice the Mabu minds I'm sorry it's the Mabu minds and performance space, who are with us, and we're going to have if it all worked out Carl Hancock's work with us and Mitchell, and, and, and so I hope we why we got that right so thank you all for your contribution and, and we move on, and I see Sharon here from the Mabu minds with us. And so, let's move on and to our next segment, and goodbye, Kate, thank you for preparing this by seat for stopping to us and for preparing that beautiful, that beautiful reading Thank you. So here we go Sharon. Hi, I am. I am here as a substitute for Carl Hancock rocks he got, fortunately had something come up and wasn't able to join us today. So, our apologies mod Mitchell, it was in the waiting room I presume she'll be here momentary. Yes, absolutely I am sure I'm sure. Should we wait for her should we know so tell us a little bit you know not everybody knows about the Mabu minds we also have many international listeners, maybe tell us a little bit about the Mabu minds and perhaps also PS 122 now known as performance space where you are and what you do. Yes, so Mabu minds is a 50 year old collective experimental theater company whose founders were Joanna Colitis Lee Brewer, Philip glass, Ruth Malachek, and David Warlow so the company is just celebrating our 50th anniversary, and we're a collective of theater artists who are doing experimental work. And we're located in the East Village at the 122 building, which is where PS 122 was for many, many years now it's called performance night performance based New York. We underwent a massive renovation a few years ago so we're back in the building where and pandemic. We've been doing things for a while too. So we're back and beginning to perform again. Just in next month, actually, we're doing a piece called the Vicksburg project, based on women's lives in Vicksburg, Mississippi, over five different four different periods, 50 year increments. So that's premiering next month. Yeah, so thank you so much for all of our listeners to know PS or PS 122 was also a place for New York artists. It had a very strong local roots in the community many, many artists came out there often performance artists solo performers, and it has a great impact, but then also developed as a place as a host for international and global work. So, mod and Julia welcome both maybe you also talk and say who you are maybe we start with mod. A little trouble getting in through the internet. I've been working with me for 20 years. I'm primarily with my beloved light. Libra and but as we were talking about this event today, we have two brief offerings and then we really would like to augment the voices of Ukraine and in particular we have invited. The representative of an organization that some of you may be familiar with resume that not only is doing incredible relief work, but also interesting street theater that I think will be of interest here about fantastic. Yes. Sharon's going to read first. And then I have a song to offer, not that I'm singing and then Julia. Okay. Yes, what are you going to read.  And it was, let's call it agit prop but I mean it was an amazing piece. And I'm going to read a small section that was written by Paris Ellis who was an alchemist in the medieval times, and essentially the point of the show I believe and I spoke with you about this who is the director and the conceiver of the piece that it's really about the danger of an investigation that could lead to something that unexpected and lead us somewhere quite unexpected. So I'll just read it. And this is offering for in solidarity with the people of Ukraine. I am the poison dripping dragon who is everywhere that upon which I rest, and that which rests upon me will be found in me by those who pursue their investigations in accordance with the rules of the art. My water and fire destroy and put together from my body you may extract the green lion and the red. But if you do not have exact knowledge of me, you will destroy your five senses with my fire. From my snout there comes a spreading poison that has brought death to many. I bestow on you the powers of the male and the female, and those of heaven and earth. The mysteries of my art must be handled with courage and greatness of mind. You would conquer me by the power of fire for already very many have come to grief. I am the egg of nature, known only to the wise, who in piety and modesty bring from the microcosm, which was prepared for mankind by Almighty God, but given only to the few, while the many long for it in vain. I am the old dragon found everywhere on the globe of the earth, father and mother, young and old, very strong and very weak, death and resurrection, visible and invisible, hard and soft. I ascend into the earth and ascend to the heavens. I am the highest and the lowest, the lightest and the heaviest. I contain the light of nature. I am dark and light. I come forth from heaven and earth. By virtue of the sun's rays, all the colors shine in me and all the metals. I am the carbuncle of the sun, the most noble, purified earth, through which you may change copper, iron, tin and lead into gold. Again, that's from Dead End Kids, created in the 1980s and toured throughout the United States. At the time we were dealing with nuclear plants that were exploding, but also it was looking at Los Alamos and Nagasaki and all the devastation that nuclear power brought throughout the world. We know that Russian troops were actually utterly shooting at the nuclear plants in the Ukraine. Russian troops actually went through Chernobyl without any special protection and disregard for their own lives in a way and whoever would have thought that a Soviet or a Russian army would shoot at a nuclear reactor, it's shocking and I guess this piece proved to be timeless. Yes. Well, we didn't expect to have to bring it out again. We may need to. So I'll hand it off to Maude now who has another. I was looking for something to share that was both a salute to, a testament to the spirit of endurance and perseverance, but also bulwark against despair, which I think many of us have been feeling. And this is a song from the piece The Warrior Ant that was a great extravaganza, a cross-cultural collaboration written and directed by Lee and the music is composed by Bob Telsen and you'll hear Sam Butler singing. And there was a 16 foot tall ant. Ratchet, take it away. Thank you, Ratchet. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, but it's also a moment, it's a great idea, a warrior ant, you know, it's kind of small tiny, but it can be very big and you have to be a warrior, but you have to be persistent and preside and in kind of organized as a community. So Maude, tell us a bit, why did you want to bring Giulia along? Because I felt as though it's really, we're here in solidarity, but we want, we want to augment the voices of Ukrainians and she can speak most directly to what the issue is at hand. And the work that this organization is doing is quite incredible. So please, let's hear from Giulia. Okay. Hi, thank you for having me. Thank you for inviting. I am, do represent the Razum for Ukraine, a sexual organization that also located in the East Village, right next to the Selka. That's where we started in 2014. That's where originally we were a response to the, the beginning of the war, which nobody like realizes the war did not start today, it started 2014. And the revolution of dignity that started that happened. But the organization was, were sometimes actually this was more of a piece, like not peacetime but more ceasefire, more quiet time we had like we did a lot of cultural educational project. There was a book club where people were gathering reading books and one of the Ukrainian actually, our Ukrainian author was nominated for Nobel Prize this year. So, all of that was halted and put on on pause when on February 24, the full invasion happened and we mobilized, I can share like, at some point our website or mobilize to do an emergency response right now. And the emergency response besides the sending the first aid setting hospitals, helping refugees in Ukraine moving. We have this taken unto the streets so shown like shown basically we're doing that not just it's not demonstrations per se. I think a lot of flash mobs to draw a lot of attention to the cause to draw a lot of attention. For example, if you if I if you let me share, I can share a screen right now so I'll be more. One second. And in Washington Square Park recently. Yes. Oh, give me a second. I'm trying to to share because I am just. Yeah, we did events that are so doing so do I do this. I should be able to know. I mean, together, right together together together. Correct. Thank you. Now we can share. So this is the, I so let's see if I can get. That's one of the example it was I can go and probably share more pictures from the event that was actually done because as butcher, as you know, the butcher was freed and a lot of cases when the women were rape. came out and that was one of those moments when, you know, people came together and I'm trying to see how I can share more pictures. Because it's. So, then they came to share that they basically are silent. There was silent by Russian soldiers and they were silent by. At the time that they happened to on the occupation happened and it came out and they did like this flash one of this flash mobs came out of this need to. Park right about a week ago. That's correct. And in Washington DC. That was me just because I also, I think, or no, I don't know it in Washington DC. I believe this is was one of the also. In New York when we did the for the kids are who were bombed in my real pulse theater. That was one of the flash mobs that was done in to get attention that 1200 kids were in this mario theater that was bombed and they basically were buried alive at this point. When people came out. So we have this flash mob of to say Mario, well, which would draw a lot of attention but because the siege and the people probably not probably, but we had to draw attention to that cause that's Grand Central Station right that's Grand Central Station. Yeah, this is a grand grand Central Station. They're where. And this is, oh no, I can actually know I see how I can share. Okay. Let me see. There's green. There's I will. Yeah, I can share more of this of this pictures because I just realized. Yeah. So that was for the cause of when the one with the all atrocities that were done by Russians came out in butcher. That was done. That's that's still New York. Right. That was still done at Washington Square Park. Washington Square Park. Thank you. So, again, the person who is actually that our team who is doing with creating this a lot of flash mobs decorated one today and they are at the one of the event. Today is bringing information so unfortunately they could not enough was leading and that she could not be here with us today. She shared with me all this pictures. I'm happy to share with everybody. But I'm, I also can basically tell you how all this project that we used to have on our like you can tell it's on our website. It's rather for Ukraine.org. It's actually where you can donate right there. You can tell like you can donate. You can participate. There's a way of donating your time, but we all have all this different projects which is with the children with the veterans. We had the racism culture. This all right now stop like all with the toy drive. It's all right now stop for one and the only project emergency response, which is where we, you can tell it, we are basically all our efforts are right now on getting was needed to the ground. And in one of the more like very, very important parts of our activity. It's, it's doing this flash mobs and doing the going on the streets taken to the streets and taking it to the streets in a way that we can draw as much attention as as possible to the everything that's happening. So that's Sorry, this is sharing. You were saying that there are different units who are who are handling various parts of the emergency response, you know, working with moving people and sending various essentials that are needed or helping low relocate people. Can you talk about the Yes, we have actually absolutely we have the This is one of just a second. So we have One unit that used to be working with just with kids and needs in Ukraine. They were helping basically kids with SM Atrophy muscle atrophy. So we were the actually it started with a one child with who needed help to get this one shot that was cause close to $2 million with their muscle atrophy and the son was a kid who was A son of the one of the soldiers who came back who was a veteran and one of our volunteer started this program and she Absolutely amazing was able to fundraise $2 million close to $2 million for this shot. So she at this when the war started, she took on that she is a doctor and she took on that part of the project that she they are moving people from Bakhmut, which is right on the line on the front line basically kids on the front line, they're putting down a buses, moving them closer to the more safe places and that's one of the our emergency response and I am looking right now to see if they do have That's hospital team so that that's that the people who are help right there that's that's in basic an update from this specifically that was done published April 9 so we're, you know, we're trying to update us. This is what people who were gotten on the bus and were moved by one of our part of our volunteer teams. So that's that's where we're Amazing we I think we have two minutes left so this is certainly a project everybody who wants to get involved or donated something to consider it's an important work and it's also interesting that you go and use what we would say street theater performance techniques to get the word out and as we are experiencing that theaters who now go and do voluntary work eight work they help communities as the my yeast theater said today, we work now with our communities and we do less theater. So it's complete time of change which we are experiencing the world is upside down and but it's also something is happening and things are are moving we said it earlier that Tony Kushner who was with us once said that New York is a melting pot that never really melted but perhaps was the time of covert with this thing like this war happening. There is something that perhaps will bring and people together and rethink the fundamental values of our life to the freedoms we enjoy and artistic expression. How important it is how great today we had 24 theater companies, everybody could say whatever they want that nobody wanted to see up front, something that's really an act of artistic freedom of engagement for what's right and and we really would like to thank the Mabu minds that they also show that they care, and that the Ukraine is is on their mind and and I hope, month and Sharon and Carl and Mallory and everybody you know that you will be back in the theater that you can perform and do what you love to do most and where you're very effective but that these stories come out and how great is to see to see this picture, you know, of a powerful moment of a woman taking a stand for what she believes in and what is the true, the message and theater is important because we search for the truth. I think we are at our nine o'clock. A moment and we're going to move over to the next group and you group that formed and maybe you all stay for a tiny moment on so you meet them this is the Ukrainian actors of New York. The group forming right now of Tiasa is kind of joining us and Tony and Alex but Sasha Gordon or Sasha Odessa she will change her name to our hometown with us, and they're going to read to us so tell us a little bit. What you will be doing and we would like to say thank you say hello to your colleagues from from the Mabu minds and and maybe Sasha tell us a little bit what we're going to hear from you. So today we're going to be reading from the Paris review, the beautiful article that Ilya Kaminsky wrote, which is a compilation of stories of Odessa poets and writers, and we're going to give the voice to them by reading them and honoring them. And I would just like to add by saying that, as you know our fellow brothers and sisters are dying right now in the arms of pure evil, and our brave armed forces of Ukraine are defending the freedom and democracy of Ukraine, as well as the whole world. So, when we watch this right, we cannot help but ask what can one person do, and we say that a person can do something we can use our voices, and we can use whatever it is that we're good at to bring change to put the spotlight on what's happening. And really, as a group, we have strength because our strength is in numbers. So, don't forget that we're all bringing the victory closer together. And like this event, there are dancers there are singers their theater performances do that, tell our story and keep going, don't be silent and stand with us. Spread the word it's really important for everyone to come out and do whatever it is that they can do everything pounds, everything that lets them know that we're fighting for them just as they're fighting for us. So we're going to start off as one story the first story I'm going to read I'm going to read part of it in Ukrainian, and then I'm going to read the whole thing in English and then my colleagues here from our group, Ukrainian actors of New York are going to continue. So I'm going to start with the first story. Yeah, and it is again, as you said from the Paris review conversations to the tune of air rate sirens and Ilya Kaminsky introduced it and put it together. Thank you. Thank you so much Frank for putting it together this event is really wonderful so thank you for doing that. Thank you. This is from Anna Michalewska. The cats are screaming in the night, trying to out scream the air rate sirens. I find beauty in strange things, graffiti on peeling walls, a street dug up for repairs. I look about greedily. I don't know if I will ever see this for that street ever again. I see photos of Harkiv in ruins, photos of a bombed out cube. Everything is changing too fast. If you want to do something. You need to do it right now. Doing something, anything is medicine at the moment. When I managed to help someone, I can forget about the war. People have discovered this pre-war life already seems unreal and far away. There's so much in it. I didn't appreciate it. Always rushing, searching for new projects, not enough time for basic talk. Now there's so much talk, but it is tense. Truly, this situation brings us back to each other. Thank you. This is Lava Ilinskaya. After a week spent in a stupor, I walked out into Odessa streets to see anti-tank fortifications, barricades made of sandbags blocking the avenues, boutiques and restaurants boarded up, people with guns on the street. I'm writing this in a taxi. We were just stopped at a checkpoint. It's frightening how quickly I've gotten used to this life. The most terrifying thing is the silence. When you know that the whole country is boiling in a bloody broth. Our people are amazing. Never before have I seen such solidarity and care among neighbors. The strange feeling is if I haven't lived before this moment, as if some kind of shell has burst, a carapace that prevented me from breathing in deeply. I don't know what I did before the war. I've never been so aware of being needed or being involved in reality. Hi, this is a poetic reflection from Eugene Deminoch. I have been dividing my time between Prague and Odessa for many years. But when this war started, my family was on a trip to New York. For a few days before our flight to Prague, we did not venture out of our hotel room other than to attend protests. We spent our entire time scrolling through the news and calling our friends and family. Back in Prague, we found we could be of more use. The Czech Republic has already received more than 200,000 Ukrainian refugees. I spend my days between the refugee integration center, the train station, and a community residence for 72 people that my friends are building at their own expense. I cannot write anything. I don't have the stamina, desire or time for it now. For many days I have been grinding my way through a piece of the correspondence between Henry Miller and David Berlich. I would love to publish a few letters from Miller and Ukrainian translation for the first time. And yet my mornings start with calls and letters asking for help. My days are spent in volunteer work. And by the time I am free, it is already late into the night. Elena Andrejchikova. Thank you. Every morning starts with this question. I'm asked and I ask. Family asks, friends ask, colleagues, acquaintances, my lines of defense. I still can't understand how it can be. War in Ukraine? Attacked by Russia? They're bombing our cities? Just days before the war began, I finished my latest novel. It is Dreams About War. Dreams impacted by stories of her grandmother, who was a prisoner in the Salis Pilsk camp. I haven't found the strength to reread the novel yet. I still feel disgusted. One day I will find the courage to rewrite it. I will speak as a witness to how scary it is when air raid sirens wail in the early morning on an ordinary Thursday. How I kept smiling while packing frantically, trying to signal to my son that I was not worried. How a warehouse exploded and burned before our eyes, less than 200 feet away. How we spent a night surrounded by jam jars in a root cellar in Odessa. How my three-year-old nephew had just arrived from Harkiv shuddered, stuttered and cried. How unwilling I was to decide whether I should stay with my husband or drive the kids away from all of this. I left Odessa at night, ate cars, women and children, cats and dogs. Some of us were driving for the first time ever. We were stopped at the checkpoints. No cars were allowed to pass through the night. One woman suddenly exclaimed, I know the password. My husband wrote it down for me before he went to war. We fight our own information war. We wake up every morning and hope that it's all over, that we can live, plan, write novels again. But for now, I just message everyone and you, how are you? Hearing an answer is the only thing that matters. Vidya Brives war entered my life in Lviv. I was there on vacation and urged to go home. I got on a train back. I'm still not quite sure why I went to Odessa. Most people were leaving our city for Lviv or to go farther west abroad to safety. I struggled to get through the crowd at the station in Lviv. People were waiting for trains to western border and trains were five hours, seven hours late. Some folks were sleeping under our suitcases and kids were crying just like they do in movies about war. Today is March 18th, 11th, the 16th day. The war of bullets and bombs has not started full swing in Odessa yet. But you're going to read this later so you'll know more than I do. I envy you. In the beginning I taped my windows, crisscross, so that even if something exploded nearby, the blast wave wouldn't leave my entire apartment covered in shards of glass.  As days went by, I got used to being afraid. So I moved the dresser back to the wall and peeled the tape off. Our cities get bombed. Missiles explode and Russian soldiers walk down the streets and sometimes shoot the locals for entertainment. Those who are leaving Odessa now see that other side of war crying children, 30 hours of waiting at the Moldovan border, not knowing where to live, where to shower or when to return home. I live on the 21st floor. There's no one left around here. Of eight apartments, only one still has inhabitants. My dog, my cat, and me. When I hear the sirens wailing, I walk out on the balcony to see if missiles are coming. So, yeah, Sasha, do you have a second and one more story for us? Yeah, so let's do, we'll do another round. So we have a second set of stories so Cynthia can start and then we'll do another round and then we will have time to talk. Go ahead. Vladislav Ketik, a seagull, all fluffed up, sits at the edge of the pier, chest against the wind. A sharp explosion over the bay interrupts its contemplation of the gray water and it spreads its wings. The seagulls don't know what war is, but after 16 days, the gulls have managed to overcome their confusion and learn not to fly too far when the sky shakes with landmine explosions or cannon fire. Not to hide. And they hear the howl of sirens. The seagulls fly over Odessa streets, which are usually crowded and noisy. A rare pedestrian leaves footprints on the untouched snow. In silence, the famous potenkin stairs climb the slope, buried in bags filled with sand. They hide the monument to the city's founder, Odessa's bronze soul, from the malice of artillery. The seagulls love the sand. The street bristles with anti-tank devices. Will they be able to protect us against modern missiles? Of course not. But there is something coolish khaki in these six pointed crosses known as hedgehogs. Such hedgehogs stood here in 1941, and now time has jumped off the footboard of the past. The gulls circles over the houses and flies once again to the sea. Taya Nedenko. On the first day of the war, people in Kharkiv, Kiev, and Lviv, first among them Russian-speaking and bilingual people, started speaking Ukrainian en masse. Some have already managed to surrender and transition back to their customary Russian. At first with a disclaimer, in order to be understood by all Russian enemies, and then silently, without rationalization. When, hurriedly between air raids, you try to articulate your thoughts and feelings, you involuntarily switch back to the language you've been accustomed to thinking in since childhood. Others keep their oath, not one more word in Russian. And I think they will remain strictly Ukrainian speakers even after the war. The Russian invasion showed what a source of strife regular words can be. Some fear mongers, including those from other countries, accused me of naivete. After the war, they could ban speaking Russian and Ukraine. But I remind them, saying what you think in Russian language is banned only in Putin's Russia. Gana Kostenko. A few days ago, I decided to listen to Rachmaninoff's second concerto. I wanted to clutch it in my hands like a brand so that I wouldn't slip into the sticky mud of hostility toward everything Russian. Rachmaninoff is innocent. He has nothing to do with Putin's crimes. Just as Gata was innocent of Hitler's madness. Yesterday during an air raid, I hid in the bathroom and I understood with clarity that I don't want to sink into hate. I have made a choice for myself and I'm trying to stick to it. Hate is the language of my enemies. It is their source of strength. How else to explain the bombardments of kindergartens, maternity wards, hospitals? I come back to Heine, who said that every new epoch needs a new kind of a reader. Needs new sets of eyes. Nayom Muratov. Has Odessa changed in these first few days of war? No. There are lines of people at the gas station so long that they're blocking traffic on the streets. Lines in stores of people sweeping everything from the shelves, cereals, sugar, salt, matches. This blizzard of movement pulling the city from its usual calm. This human and hero. Checkpoints have sprung up, but cars still weave through the streets fewer now. Passerby go about their business, supermarkets, and some small stalls and kiosks to open. On Monday, classes are starting in schools and universities, but no one knows what will happen next. In times of war, riding goes badly. What can you do? Your mind refuses to make sense of what's happening. Some people have left and those who remain have banded together. My 92 year old mother returned a couple of days ago from the store and in her bag with several cans of preserves given to her by women she didn't know. A city that is preparing its defense does not make the best impression. You can simply pass through the streets of the city center. Everywhere there are tank traps, sandbags, wire gauze. Several times a day, there are air raid alarms, and some neighborhoods have no bomb shelters.  Through all this, the decides are not losing their sense of humor. Across the city walls, there are giant banners advising Russian soldiers to do as Ukrainians on nearby Snake Island and famously suggested a Russian worship should. In wartime, profanity is forgivable. It relieves stress. People are volunteering everywhere, assembling sandbags on the seashore. You're in a desert. The song goes, and that means that neither grief nor misfortune is scary for you. I've written several poems about the war. A poet should be a vibrating string that responds to everything happening around us. I am following what my poet friends are writing and the level of their poetry has risen. The language has become very precise and strong. There are no words nor justifications for what the Russian army is doing in Ukraine, in Harkiv, in Kyiv, in Mariupol, in other cities. Still, the task of poetry is to find words even when they're not. And that was from Anna Struminska. Thank you also so very much. And Sasha, you are Ukrainian, working here in New York as an actor. How does it all feel to you? What's happening in your country? It doesn't feel like it's real. I still hope to wake up from this horrible nightmare that my country is in. Yeah, it doesn't feel like it's too real and unreal at the same time. It's just, it breaks my heart. It's the only thing that I'm thinking about every day. And it's really difficult to think about anything else. That's why I've been focusing everything on helping in any way I can, on fundraising, on spreading the word, on really doing anything I can to help. Yeah, my soul, I am here physically, but my heart is there and my soul is there, so I just hope it ends soon so people are not suffering anymore and dying. Sure, this is a hard time and we can hear, we can really hear and feel, you know, what's going through your mind. And so thank you for sharing. Thank you for putting this reading together. Maybe all the participants, Tiasza, Alex, since they are Tony, tell us a little bit about who you are and how Tiasza. Sure. Hi, I'm Tiasza. I'm an actor, playwright, and I'm the founder of a theater company, Transforma Theater, that's dedicated to creating interactive theatrical experiences, the convergence of science, consciousness and ritual. And I'm originally Slovenian, but just so happy to be invited to participate with this amazing group of people and to give a spotlight on these gorgeous and traumatic and traumatized voices from Ukraine. I think that what really struck me, also Frank, thank you so much for organizing this. So bombing a theater is such a huge gesture. Once you start bombing theater, you're bombing culture, you're trying to get the word out. So one of the maybe most hard hitting pieces from tonight for me was Alex actually read it by Tia about how people first vigorously started talking Ukrainian not giving up their word. And then slowly the Russians started creeping back in for utility and who knows where this is going, but I feel like our role here and our job is to sort of like promote Ukrainian culture and keep the Ukrainian word going and by doing this, letting them know that we're with them doing what we can in their own capacities, but definitely supporting and co-suffering. And also being super lucky that we're here, that we're not there. That's true. And by chance, you know, it would be any one of us could have been born there by just by chance. Alex. Yes, hi. My name is Alex Salzer of Meyer. I'm a Canadian Russian. I came to Canada when I was 13 years old. I'm an actor. And my family is still in Ukraine. I lived both in Ukraine and Russia. So I'm in kind of an interesting conundrum here where like I have a Russian passport. My grandmother lives in Russia. You know, my family is in Ukraine, my dad, my stepsisters, my grandfather, everyone's there. So this kind of divide, you know, is torn between that between like, I used to visit both countries. I used to speak Russian. I went to a Russian school, you know, and it's just so difficult to see all of this. Just like it just absolutely breaks my heart, you know, like I came here at 13 years old but like just to imagine that I used to live there. My family is there as as devastating. The other day I got a call from my, my aunt from my dad and we talked about various things about the war and everything but she, she know she, and this is a perspective that I've never heard of before. And I didn't know this might have been an issue here in America and Canada that like, she, she's in, she's in Turkey and she was saying Alex, you know, are you, you know, you're born in, you're born in Ukraine, right? You're not, you're not Russian. I'm like, no, actually, I was born in Ukraine, but I have a Russian passport. My mom wanted me to have a Russian passport and she said, Alex, don't tell anyone. Don't tell anyone you're Russian. Don't speak Russian. Don't do, and I'm like, Elena, what do you mean? What are you talking about? This is, I've never heard such a thing. I didn't witness this discrimination, you know, like this isn't the Russian people don't want this. They don't want this war. This is the government. This is the Russian military, you know, and she, this, this kind of fear that the Russian people are having to sort of speak their own language I think is very devastating and I just want people to remember and remind them that that this is Putin's war. This is whatever Magalina maniacs person and power, you know, and the whatever is happening on the war side, the military. That's the destruction, you know, like the Russian people are suffering. Also, there's many consequences and like they have many Russian friends who are in Ukraine. So just as a reminder, that's something like a message I wanted to sort of say to And over 10,000, some say 20,000 Russian soldiers and died Cynthia. Who didn't know. Yeah, who didn't know what they were going to know where they were going. They thought they went into some kind of a maneuver exercise Cynthia. Yes, hi, Cynthia. And I'm an actress, a writer and a satirist. My heart is so with Ukraine. Reading these stories and listening to these stories my heart breaks. I mean just breaks. One of the reasons I'm so close to Sasha and close and understanding what is happening in this crazy senseless, insane war where innocent people, innocent people, babies, pregnant women are dying. There is no reason for this at all. And I feel really honored to take part in this tonight. And it's a beautiful thing that you're doing this whole day, because this needs to go out there and everyone in America has to understand what is happening there. Everyone has to give their hearts for that. Thank you for doing that. Thank you. Tony. Tony Namofsky. I am Macedonian, New York based actor. I mean, it's really difficult to say anything to be honest. It was really difficult to read these words, even, even though we are actors and that's what we do to give any sense of truth of life to what was written by these brave people. It's really incredible. And I always remember this. I'm going to paraphrase probably you're going to correct me what Brecht used to say that in the future. They will not say the times were dark, but they will ask why were the poets silent. So we're not silent. This is a way of finding a voice and making whatever difference we could make, even not being maybe physically present there with the people who are suffering. Yeah, that's one of the poets from the Neurican poets cafe said is resistance in a distance. It was part of her, her spoken word rough riff and I think there's something, something to it. So really, I think this is also what you did tonight. So really thank you all for, for joining taking the time staying up so late. I know it's a holiday weekend and and yes, Alex since Tony and of course Sasha, you know, we heard from you and how close this is to your heart. And I think the entire day, I can't believe we are coming to our last segment really does show that there is a support for the arts and for the atrocities and this kind of criminal acts that have been committed war crimes against national conventions against war conventions against Geneva conventions. And we all hope that this dark days will be over as soon and but if we don't speak out nobody will. So it is important. I think it's a very, very strong voice that we we show today. We're going to go now to our next segment that we have with us an organization. It's called theaters, theater without borders, like these doctors without borders perhaps a little bit more famous sister or brother organization, you can still stay and say hello and theater without borders for decades also has engaged in regions of conflict brought people together, created a safe havens for for theater people and so we started with pen pen America the writers organization and we now going to go to theater. Without borders I hope they are with us and I'm going to ask them to to join us if they're here if not maybe we take the stay a little bit longer. With this conversation. I don't see them yet entering I'm sure they are still preparing. They're also they're showing a video okay I just hear they're here. So, they're on video so we are going to move over to the session so thank you all for joining taking your time. They think this was an important statement and also to Elia Kaminsky's thank you he wrote us and said it's okay to use the material. Congratulations also on the Paris review to put them put this beautiful essays and together in such a short time thank you all and we move over now to theater without borders thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Frank and everyone behind the scenes who made today possible. We are honored to be with you at the end of this day. I'm Lisa Schlesinger playwright librettist theater activist and a core member of theater without borders. I would like to introduce Leal shocker, my collaborator. Leal has appeared as a soloist performer, composer around Europe, the Middle East, North and South America and Asia with collaborations and commissions from West Eastern Divan Orchestra, Avignon le Cern festivals and the New World Symphony among others. Leal works regularly with Zoukak theater in Beirut Lebanon her her home. And she's a winner of the Silk Road Seeds inaugural 2020 award Leal's most recent composition is in the presence of absence, a staged performance or string ensemble with our car or archival recordings from piano recitals by Edward Said. We are here on behalf of theater without borders, a global all volunteer grassroots virtual community that shares information and builds connections between individuals and institutions in international theater and performance exchange. It was co founded by Roberta Levito, Catherine for you, Eric and Deborah Brevort. Theater without borders has recently partnered with the Department of Theater Arts at the University of Iowa, where the archives will now be held in the university special collections library. On behalf of the theater without borders collective, we stand in solidarity and offer unconditional support to Ukraine and Ukrainian people. The school presents a musical excerpts from ruinous God's suites for sleeping children and opera in progress ruinous God's is an operatic dreamscape of resignation syndrome, a rare trauma response to the state of living in the limbo of displacement. The resignation syndrome originally diagnosed in Sweden is now recognized globally. It affects children who are displaced by war and global conflict, and who in most cases are denied asylum. Children literally embody the future. What does this mean for the future ruinous God's draws on myths and fairy tales to tell the story of an 11 year old girl who was forced to flee her home. As well as the distorted map of displacement and the liminal realm of not home.  The next piece we will play from this work in progress is at the very beginning of the opera. It's an invocation to the story goddesses to wake up the story and the characters to welcome the audience for safe passage. A song in Assyrian. In the, in the second excerpt from sweet three, we meet the character of crow in the camps. I'll read a bit of crow's text. From this hell, I heard the boy say out amid a field of soggy tents. I stole his grandmother's grandfather's knife from under the pillow. We're in migration. The egrets pigeons wandering tatlers in me gathered under the hibiscus tree, bathing in dirt, rinsing in a bowl of water, someone left on the stoop. Sometimes mortals tangle with gods. We're bored in hell, so we steal and sing. Heaven is the first bird song at dawn. Can you hear it? Under all those engines, special Air Force operations, flying over 135 countries. How could you possibly hear us? Look up. This is what they make in America. Just war. What will I do with your grandfather's knife? Sometimes mortals tangle with gods. Look up. This extract is scored for soprano, dulcimer, bassoon, and trinquentet, compromised of viola, violin, shallow bass. Two violins. Of soggy tents, I stole my grandfather's knife from under his pillow. The excerpt will play this evening. We'll just call the rabbit. And I'll read a bit of the text. It never stops snowing where I live. I found her in the snow. Snow white rabbit in the snow. We are leaving soon. I have a white rabbit tucked under my arm. Don't tell no one. I found her in the snow. Snow white rabbit in the snow. In sleep, things get mixed up, but only because they're more true. Sleep is death's brother, don't you know? So things are going to get real. I just wanted to say that it's scored for soprano voice. A piano prepared with dulcimer hammer, two cellos, and flutes. Of soggy tents, I stole under his pillow. How beautiful is that and what a great ethereal ending. And I was thinking all those displaced children in the Ukraine, one of them for sure had a white rabbit that lost or had to take with him or her. And we all imagine what that means to a child and what it stands for.  It is stunning. When will it all come together? Has it already been presented? Please. Go ahead, Lisa. Please. So it is right now. It's going to be actually produced into 2024. So we are right now in discussion with the producer. And right now we are discussing the first phase of development, which will happen at the beginning of 2023. Incredible story. There's a very famous children's book in Germany, but Hitler stole my pink rabbit. And one of you are aware of it. And it tells the story of that. And it's very, I think if I remember, it ends, you know, you will never get it back and you will also never get rid of that idea of that person, you know, who took it away. It will get paler, but even a bit more ghostly. But this is such a beautiful work. And I think it's also such a great moment to end these 12 hours on that music that we will take with us in this space you created that is full of poetry, but also sadness, but also hope and enlightening enlightenment, I think. So thank you all for doing what is a very short question, perhaps for Lisa. And what is, what is theater without border doing at the moment regarding Ukraine or in general. Gathering our people all over the world and cat for you is out. And so is Jessica Litvak and Roberta Levito all working on making connections and since the very beginning, in fact, perhaps that may be why they're not here this evening. Yeah, no, there really is a truly amazing it's a great organization is something to, to join to support also for new generations to come in and take it on like doctors without borders this theater without borders had made a real difference in people's lives and border together I can't believe we had the end of our session and it's so wonderful that we have both of you with us here we had 12 hours. We had 24 New York theaters and companies with readings and conversations. Abrams Art Center, BAM Booking Academy of Music CUNY Stages here Art Center, Howl Round Commons, La Mama, Mabou Minds, the Mayi Theater Company, Neurikin Poets Cafe, Penn America, P.S. 21, Sancton's Warehouse, Park Avenue, Armory, the National Black Theater, North Theater, the Play Company, the Public Theater, the Shed Tone Page, Theater Without Borders, a limited company. Ukrainian Actors of New York, Gyara Arts Group, the Water Mill Center and Robert Wilson, and we're with us as a stunning array that I think represented the complexities of the world. Nothing is black and white, which is so hard to understand and we just grabbed just a tiny piece of it and we I feel even so we listen now for 12 hours we scratch the surface of what is this really means for the people who they are people who lost loved ones people who died. What it means for the world and in a year or five or 10 years from now, and we will know much much better what it really was all about but it feels like a change in the world as if tectonic plates are moving and in front of our eyes and this all after corona and we often do wonder do they even wear masks is Russian soldiers, you know, do they keep their social distance when they shoot the Ukrainians you know I mean it's just incredible to saying we all know that their vaccination is not working so well and how many of them also you know will will be victims you know of a failed policy it was a stunning, stunning display of artists engaging I think with the world was the real producing imaginary work imagination, real work symbolic work. And I think it's something we can all be proud of that the New York theater community came together and that organizations like pen and theater without borders came and to show solidarity and we hope that for some people in Ukraine who were able to hear that it was transmitted that it is also meaningful it was a big big event for our little center to pull off and I really would like to thank our people who helped us actually our team in India and Bombay, who stayed with us all night it's seven o'clock in the morning it is the three people who who made this happen. The whole round and gave us the key to the house and add it to a rabad. And the wonderful time be sure where with us all these 12 hours made happen, made it look all easy and I know this is always easy when things go right and we take it for granted but it was flawless is a stunning was all these people that coming in and out almost I don't know how many we had us in close to 100 artists were involved it is an incredible and think that it happened and we can only hope that also for you the listeners. It was as meaningful as it was fast the organizers we put a lot of care and work into it on the other hand it was done very fast within two weeks. But it is a stunning what we put together and what a New York theater community can do when they put their forces, energy and imagination together and it's a really wonderful that we had you at the end I think the sounds. The violence and the songs and the voices will stay with us and I think it set the right tone and it provided me for the moment at least with a safe space also listening to it or. I felt at home and this is home is what people said to do is what was taken away and this is the worst thing you can do so thank you all for for for joining us. And who was also on our side is the paper planes agency. They tweeted full hours for 12 hours from India also they created our digital identity, and on a very short notice and, and we really are thankful it's almost unethical to ask someone to come on in such a short time and make all that happen but they did. And again, Tanvi Shah thank you for making this happen for the connection I think it was a very successful one and we hope it contributed to have a little bit less suffering in the world but also to show that we care that this is important to us that our heart reaches out and that we are outraged of all of it but especially those people who died in a theater a safe space a sacred space to us, including children and as someone said today. It was written on the building very big their children in this building, and it was one single strike 300 people died and I think it was good that we had the ending of this also dedicated. And to the children and for all the children in the world who suffer such a so thank you all I'm going to now click my bread leave button, everybody for listening thank you for taking the time.  We need great art we also need great audiences and but writers say also we need people to listen to in after all it's for an audience that's how it is created it's not just for the artists and this is what missed. So it was missed for terribly in the time of Corona and audience so this was the most important part is that people were on the other side listening. Thank you all again, and thanks for how around BJ, and the for hosting us again, and to all our listeners stay safe where mask it's not over yet numbers are up again. And let's all hope that such horrible things will not happen on our country here, and but we all have to work on democracy that's always to come and to make sure the democratic forces prevail. Thank you so much, and, and bye bye.