Poetry Reading from Ukraine – Iya Kiva, Oleh Kotsarev, Maria Galina

Two weeks ago, Ukraine – and Europe – changed dramatically. Following a year of troop buildup on Ukraine’s borders and a sharp uptick in the severity of its public rhetoric, the Russian Federation began a violent, full-scale invasion of the territory of Ukraine on 24th February that it has justified as a special operation for the “demilitarization” and “denazification” of a neighboring state. Since then, the international community has overcome its initial shock in order to rise in solidarity with the Ukranian people and in support of an end to the war. In that spirit, we have invited three Ukranian poets – Iya Kiva, Oleh Kotsarev, and Maria Galina – to read their poems and express their responses from their shelters in Lviv, Uzhgorod, and Odesa, firm in the belief that, even in times of violence and conflict, poetry can pay witness to our enduring humanity, strength, and solidarity with each other.