DATELINE NEW YORK: Greeting the new year
by Helen Smindak
While most of the Christian world is back to its daily work-and-play schedule, having celebrated Christmas on December 25 and the first day of the year 2000 on January 1, a good part of the Ukrainian community has been busy greeting old calendar Christmas with carols and "Malanka" with New Year merriment. That's especially true in New York, where (at last count) all 13 Ukrainian parishes still adhere to the Julian calendar.
The vocal/instrumental trio from Kyiv known as Ukrainski Barvy (Ukrainian Colors) appeared at the Ukrainian Institute of America with a delightful program of some very old and some traditional carols, along with a sheaf of humorous New Year greetings, The Dumka Chorus, bringing tidings of good cheer to three area parishes, is giving its final concert at St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church in the East Village this very afternoon.
"Dateline" would also like to tell you about two young Ukrainian entrepreneurs who are making their mark in lower Manhattan with a new boutique called the Auto shop. Their story has been waiting on the sidelines for a couple of months while we've been trying to keep up with all the holiday news.
A three-day celebration
"Sow, sprout, rye and wheat/And all good things we eat./May you have good fortune, good health/In this New Year!/May better times be yours/Than you had last year!/May your flax grow knee-high .../And may you Christians/ Never have headaches!"
That's the gist of one of several New Year greetings extended in Ukrainian to hundreds of guests at the Ukrainian Institute of America in mid-January by the Kyivan vocal instrumental ensemble Ukrainski Barvy (Ukrainian Colors).
The Christmas celebration, focusing on Christmas carols and schedruvannia (New Year well-wishing) took three days to complete since it had to cover three sets of guests: institute members and friends on a Sunday afternoon, senior citizens on Tuesday, and Ukrainian and other representatives to the United Nations on Wednesday evening.
Introducing the performing trio and greeting the capacity crowd at Sunday's festivities (there were close to 300 guests) were UIA President Walter Nazarewicz and Washington businessman and philanthropist George Chopivsky, representing the Chopivsky Foundation. The institute and the Chopivsky Foundation are co-sponsors of the trio's current tour in the United States.
As the performers came on stage, singer Oksana Stebelska spoke in the time-honored custom of carolers entering a home: "Have we permission to carol in this house, oh so joyous/To carol, to bring joy/To bring joy, to glorify Christ?" With audience approval, she burst into glorious lyrics with soprano Nadiya Boyanivska and baritone Myroslav Tsupryk.
Providing their own musical accompaniment - Ms. Boyanivska on bandura, Ms. Stebelska on violin, and Mr. Tsupryk on tsymbaly and flute - the trio presented a jubilant round of carols that included Hryhorij Vereta's well-loved "In Bethlehem;" the old Christmas carol "Oh, A Miraculous Birth," based on Kyrylo Stetsenko's arrangement; an ancient chant about the bitterness of slavery, "Little Bird" arranged by A. Avdievsky; and Mykola Leontovych's arrangement of the old Epiphany carol "On the River Jordan." There was a lilting interpretation of "Schedryk," the New Year carol known to the non-Ukrainian world as "Carol of the Bells," and a fine rendition (in English) of a traditional carol from Sussex, England.
The ceremonial lighting of candles on stage and a bevy of traditional greetings voiced in declamatory, caroler fashion transported many listeners to wintry childhood scenes frost-covered windows, hay under the table, a manger scene, a yalynka decorated with homemade ornaments - and a group of bundled-up carolers entering the room. Adding to the illusion, the performers led the audience in a heartwarming carol sing-along before everyone retired to the dining room for a turn at tables laden with hot and cold foods, including varenyky, holubtsi and studenyna.
The program - and the buffet - was repeated two days later for some 40 Ukrainian American citizens from New York and Philadelphia, some of whom had never before visited the Ukrainian Institute and were highly impressed by the handsome edifice and its cultural programs. The group belongs to the Selfreliance Organization of Ukrainians in America, an umbrella organization headed by Natalka Duma of New York that includes senior citizens among its members.
Ukraine's permanent representative to the United Nations, Volodymyr Yelchenko, was among guests at the Wednesday evening concert and stayed afterwards for champagne and hors d'oeuvres. Other U.N. emissaries who attended the concert and reception included officials from Belarus, Bolivia, Hungary, India, Lithuania, Uganda and Yugoslavia.
At each occasion, the mood grew even more warm and lively as members of the Brooklyn-based choral ensemble Ukranska Rodyna (Ukrainian Family) joined the Kyiv trio and guests in an impromptu round of familiar carols.
In the spirit of international goodwill, the Kyiv and Brooklyn ensembles also joined forces on Christmas Eve, January 6, to surprise the Rev. Paul Wolensky, pastor of Brooklyn's Holy Ghost Ukrainian Catholic Church, with a caroling visit.
An annual event
Well-wishing was the order of the day at St. Vladimir's Ukrainian Orthodox Church on Sunday, January 16. The New Year custom punctuated the concert of Christmas carols given by the Dumka Chorus after the liturgy, was reflected in the greeting of St. Vladimir's pastor, the Rev. Ivan Lyszyk, and was experienced later in full heart-warming force when the parish president, Alex Redko, circled dinner tables, "sowing" wheat grains around the church hall as he wished good health and wealth to everyone.
Presenting its concert of carols - a well-established annual event eagerly anticipated by Ukrainians in the New York area - the Dumka Chorus stood in front of the iconostasis, the women a portrait in sky blue-embroidered white blouses and long black skirts caught with blue waist bands, the men in black tie.
Artistic director Vasyl Hrechynsky conducted the chorus with finesse through a harmonious program that ranged from the resounding Kyivan chant "God Is With Us," Bortniansky's reverential Nativity concerto "Glory to God in the Highest," the quiet lullaby "Sleep, Jesus, Sleep" and the highly impressive number "Bells in Jerusalem," in which the choristers simulated the sound of pealing bells. No Ukrainian carol fest would be complete, of course, without "Schedryk," and it was performed quietly and lightly, in the style and manner of the original carol.
Yuri Shtohryn, Lubomyr Pavlovich, Basil Tershakovec, Natalia Honcharenko and Mykhail Newmerzyckyj handled solos admirably, and Bohdan Melnyk spoke with heartfelt conviction as he expressed traditional New Year's wishes at two points in the program.
The carnival-like atmosphere that pervades Ukrainian New Year merry-making took over during dinner in the church hall as more than 150 guests broke bread, shared wine, chatted with Mr. Redko as he sowed his wheat, and listened with pleasure to jazz pianist Maksym Baranov as he tickled the ivories, playing some of the melodies that earned him first prize in the third Moscow Jazz Competition recently. Mr. Baranov, a newcomer to this country, plays piano at Café Mozart in the Lincoln Center area and is also serving as St. Vladimir's choir director, temporarily replacing his wife, who held the position before the birth of the couple's first child four months ago.
So convivial was the gathering that no one took umbrage when the public-address system suddenly went kaput, not even the speaker, Mykola Kravets, who heads the New York office of Air Ukraine. While the unit was undergoing quick repair, Mr. Kravets chatted with guests at the head table, including the Rev. Serhij Neprel (retired) of Irvington, N.J., and members of St. Vladimir's board of trustees Ihor Huryn and Valentyn Polywko.
The Auto boutique
Manhattan's Meatpacking District, once the territory of prime cuts, has emerged as the new stomping around of the fashionable and fabulous. With New York's oldest neighborhoods and previously unexplored back streets morphing into boutiques aiming special, anti-commercial quality, the area below 14th Street and west of Eighth Avenue is now the home of the fashion and beauty super boutique Jeffrey and of trendy restaurants, eclectic galleries and boutiques.
Here, at 850 Washington St. (between Gansevoort and Horatio), you will find the Auto boutique, a storefront showroom representing designers of home furnishings and accessories. The owners of the white-walled, 600-square-foot space that opened in September, are two Ukrainians - Renata Bokalo, 25, and Roman Luba, 29 - and their friend and associate Stephanie Pesakoff, 33.
Back in the 1950s the area was the home of the Shevchenko Scientific Society at 302 W. 13th St., with the society re-located years ago in new quarters on Fourth Avenue in the East Village, the Auto shop has, quite incidentally, brought back Ukrainian life to this Manhattan district.
The new boutique highlights the work of several hand-picked designers who create shiny leather goods (handbags, slippers, wallets), minimalist ceramics, one-of-a-kind pashmina shawls, women's wool accessories, wool throws with silk lining, avant-garde pillows and glassware. Operating as a retail store Wednesday through Sunday, Auto also represents the product lines for wholesale dealers by appointment.
Ms. Bokalo, who works full-time for Auto, says the showroom was a sensible outgrowth from the three partners' past experience in the art world, as well as a way to branch out into other interests.
Adds Mr. Luba: "We saw an opportunity to do something different (not just a store, not just a showroom) and, hopefully, to make a difference by offering support and vision to young designers trying to grow their businesses while maintaining their integrity."
Additionally, they saw the benefit of being able to funnel feedback directly from the consumers to the designers, who might not have the opportunity for such contact otherwise.
Ms. Bokalo, a native of Metuchen, N.J., and a graduate of Manhattan's Barnard College, and Mr. Luba, who comes from Philadelphia and has a degree in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania, have known each other since childhood. They became business associates when they worked for Art Department, a Manhattan agency co-founded by Ms. Pesakoff that represents illustrators, photographers, stylists and hair/make-up artists. Ms. Bokalo worked as an illustration agent at Art Department.
Mr. Luba, an art director and graphic designer, was recently selected as one of Print Magazine's 20 under 30 (top designers). He designed most of Art Department's promotional material and all identity, as well as its website, and has designed identity and promotional materials for the Auto shop.
As a newcomer to the area, the Auto boutique has already been reviewed by some dozen New York publications, including Vogue magazine, Women's Wear Daily, Time Out New York, W and The New York Times magazine.
The Auto shop's hours are 2 to 7 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, noon to 7 p.m. on Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. For further information and directions call (212) 229-2292.
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 23, 2000, No. 4, Vol. LXVIII
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