AUSTIN, Texas – In the old days, a kobzar was an itinerant Ukrainian bard who played the bandura, sang to his own accompaniment and traveled from village to village throughout Ukraine. “Kobzar” is also a title of a collection of poems by Taras Shevchenko, Ukraine’s most famous poet; the “Kobzar” is the cornerstone of classic Ukrainian literature.
Modern-day kobzar Andrii Gorobets is originally from the Donetsk region of Ukraine and is a post-doc chemistry fellow at Michigan State University. This volunteer has been travelling throughout the United States as part of the Razom project Traveling Kobzar, with a copy of Shevchenko’s “Kobzar,” striving to connect communities here directly with the living history of Ukraine’s struggle for dignity, freedom and a better tomorrow.
Serge Taran
In Dallas-Fort Worth on June 4, modern-day kobzar Andrii Gorobets (fifth from right) gathered with Ukrainians at St. Sophia Ukrainian Catholic Church.
The Kobzar project started off with Ruslana bringing the “Kobzar” to the ATO (anti-terrorist operation) zone in eastern Ukraine. In keeping with the tradition of the itinerant kobzar, Ukrainian soldiers, volunteers and average people passed this book along from town to town: Kyiv-Debaltseve-Sloviansk-Artemivsk-Kramatorsk-Shchastia-Pisky-Shyrokino-Novoaidar, etc. Some of the ATO soldiers who wrote in the book said they hope they will still be alive.”
Now the book is in the U.S. and, after New York, the Carolinas, Florida, and Louisiana, it continued its journey through Texas, making stops in early June at the Ukrainian American communities in Houston, San Antonio, Austin and Dallas/Fort Worth. Afterwards it traveled to Arizona and California.
Ukrainian American communities in Texas gathered to meet Mr. Gorobets, to hear about the history of the project, view the PowerPoint presentation, read the entries written in the Kobzar, and write their own thoughts, greetings and wishes about Ukraine in the traveling book. It was a very moving experience for all.
Iryna Petrovska Marchiano, who is originally from Ivano-Frankivsk, said of the Kobzar project’s visit to Houston: “It is impossible to describe how it felt seeing the book being read by young students of the Ukrainian School in Houston. In their eyes you could see their discovery of Shevchenko, rediscovery of the ‘Kobzar,’ rediscovery of Ukraine, the way it is today in 2015. We are grateful to Razom for Ukraine and all the volunteer carriers of the book for making its journey possible.”
Tatiana Kharchenko of San Antonio, who is originally from Pavlohrad, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, commented: “We all understand how strong we Ukrainians all over the world are. We have the same goals, we are praying for peace in our country, but we stand strong when it comes to the fight for Ukraine’s freedom.”
Dr. Steve Sokolyk of Dallas/Fort Worth said: “It’s a great message of unity. The most moving part was realizing that some of the inscriptions were by soldiers at Debaltseve. We wondered how many hadn’t made it out alive.”