Nova Nomada performance series showcases emerging Ukrainian American art (01/30/00)

Nova Nomada performance series showcases emerging Ukrainian American art

NEW YORK - Nova Nomada, a new series showcasing New York's emerging Ukrainian American art underground, concluded its first year with a performance at Ukraine's Consulate General in New York. The event held on December 9, 1999, was hosted by outgoing Consul-General Yurii Bohaievsky.

A select audience of Nova Nomada supporters listened intently to a moving prose piece by Kristina Lucenko and the sophisticated poetry of Christine Turczyn, two Ukrainian American writers working in English. Virlana Tkacz read her Ukrainian translations of Japanese and Buryat poetry, while Julian Kytasty premiered two pieces for bandura and electronics.

The evening closed with Nova Nomada's house band, Staroviry, who performed musical renditions of two poems by Zynovy Berezhan. After the reception Consul Bohaievsky asked the group to sing "Oy Hila, Hila," his favorite song, and everyone joined in.

Nova Nomada was initiated last spring by Ms. Tkacz, who directs the Yara Arts Group, Mr. Kytasty of the New York School of Bandura, and Eugene Hutz, who heads the popular downtown band Gogol Bordello. They decided that New York needed a new type of Ukrainian event series, geared not toward the "hromada," but the community's nomadic offsprings.

Nova Nomada's Night No. 1, at the Big Bar on Seventh Street featured three premieres: "Bicycling in Transylvania," an ethno-electronic music piece by Staroviry; "Dirtboy 13," a storytelling performance by Mr. Hutz; and readings of "Ukrainian-Hamerican" poetry by Ms. Tkacz. The event packed the Big Bar and the group had to find a new venue for its events.

The Ukrainian Sports Club offered its premises and the series continued with Night No. 3 - "Kupalo Freakout," which featured Kupalo scenes from films by Tarkovsky and Kusturica, as well as a screening of Andrea Odezynska's short film "Dora Is Dysfunctional." Ms. Odezynska was on hand to introduce the film and talked about her experiences filming the comedy.

Night No. 4 - "Kupalo Freakout" (Julian calendar) was an outdoor extravaganza celebrating the pagan Slavic midsummer night. The audience became participants in old rituals as they searched out magical moments hidden throughout the lush Community Garden on East Sixth Street and Avenue B. As persons entered they were asked to write a fortune and to hang it on the "hiltse," or fortune tree.

Then they walked past a rock formation where Katie Takahashi recited water incantations and told fortunes, accompanied by a sound installation of ancient Kupalo songs electronically processed by Alex Kytasty. Freshly picked wildflowers lay on the table at the gazebo, where Irina and Genya from Kyiv helped everyone make their own wreaths.

Then the participants wandered throughout the garden. Nestled on benches hidden under a trellis of the grapevines they could hear a simultaneous reading by Tom Lee and Taras Los from Gogol's short story "St. John's Eve" in English and Ukrainian, accompanied by the music of Mike Andrec.

Standing in front of a video projection of Yuri Ilienko's film on Kupalo, Mr. Hutz read his original stories to the accompaniment of the bandura. The audience was encouraged to pour buckets of water on Mr. Hutz at the end of each story and enthusiastically did so.

In another secret corner Yara's choreographer led the participants in a candle dance to hypnotic voice improvisations on the traditional Ukrainian song "Hold a Candle." Tristra Newyear, Eleanor Lipat and Julian Kytasty sang Kupalo songs in a traditional style known as "bily holos," or white voice. The end of the evening had everyone reading their fortunes to the light of candles floating on water.

Nova Nomada returned to the Sports Club for Night No. 2 (somehow the numbers got out of order). The evening featured readings by Maria Rewakowicz and Mr. Hutz, and the debut performances of the Experimental Bandura Trio. After a break in August the new series continued with Night No. 5, which featured Ms. Lucenko reading from her new essays, Mr. Hutz reading excerpts from his novella and Ms. Tkacz presenting "Summer in Siberia, IV," a talk with slides by Siberian photographer Alexander Khantaev.

Night No. 6 featured Staroviry, who cook up a unique brand of East European flavored ethno-electronics. The group combines the talents of Julian Kytasty (traditional instruments, vocals), Alex Kytasty (electronics, sound design) and Mr. Hutz (vocals, percussion and general lunacy) to serve up a spicy stew of swirling flutes, driving beats, wailing Gypsies, howling wolves and much, much more. For Night No. 7 Antin Trofimov screened two music videos he recently shot with Kyiv's hit rock band Mandry and an original short film called "Angelus."

The Mandry music videos were especially interesting in their use of old documentary footage from the 1930s.

"Angelus" portrayed the hard physical labor the elderly inhabitants of one village in Ukraine still endure to earn their livelihoods today. Although the reality it documents is very harsh, the short is shot in a poetic lyric style that is the signature of the best of Ukrainian cinema.

The director, who is visiting New York for a few months, was a student of the great Ukrainian director and cinematographer Mr. Ilienko in Kyiv.

For Night No. 8 Nova Nomada was invited uptown to the Bohemian National Hall. Ms. Tkacz read her poetry, while Mr. Hutz read excerpts from his novella. Then Sayan Zhambalov performed original works written in the Buryat shamanic tradition, while Meredith Wright read the English translations of Sayan's work. Sayan was joined on stage by Battuvshin and Namgar Lkhasaranova from Uragsha. They performed traditional Buryat music to Sayan's poetry and also did an excerpt from an ancient epic song.

Two days later Nova Nomada presented Night No. 9 or "Music From the Opposite Ends of the Steppe: a Buryat-Mongolian-Ukrainian Musical Dialogue." The evening opened with Uragsha, Sayan, Battuvshin and Namgar performing traditional music and throat singing.

Then Tristra Newyear sang her own version of a Terek Kozak song. Afterwards Julian Kytasty performed a traditional duma on the bandura and played several pieces with Mongolian musician Battuvshin, who joined in as a throat singer and performed on the flute and horse-head fiddle.

Messrs. Hutz and Kytasty teamed up for an unforgettable version of "The Wagons Arrived and Brought Nothing," which they later repeated at the Consulate. Then all the participants came together to sing the "Yoxor," a traditional Buryat round dance and "O Hila, Hila," the song the consul general would later request.

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