NEW YORK – Serhiy Zhadan, the best-known writer of the post-independence generation in Ukraine, will be in the U.S. for the conference “Kharkiv: City of Ukrainian Culture” at Columbia University on March 12-13.
Mr. Zhadan, 40, born in Luhansk and now a Kharkiv resident, will read from his works at The Ukrainian Museum in New York on Friday March 13 at 7:30pm.
He calls himself a “post-proletarian punk” and is a poet and novelist whose work speaks to the disillusionment, difficulties and ironies following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Mr. Zhadan’s readings fill large auditoriums, and he performs with rock groups. He recently had a cameo role in the new Ukrainian film “The Guide.”
In March 2014, Mr. Zhadan was assaulted and seriously injured by pro-Russian protesters in Kharkiv. The attack created an international reaction, and Mr. Zhadan was the subject of an article in The New Yorker magazine. He was also an activist in the 2004 Orange Revolution, after giving up university teaching.
Mr. Zhadan has a long relationship with New York-based Yara Arts Group, and his work figures prominently Yara’s new production, “Hitting Bedrock.” In addition to writing a new poetry cycle for the piece, he and Yara Director Virlana Tkacz jointly interviewed Donetsk residents in the summer of 2013 and later, after the onset of violence. Many of those they interviewed are now refugees, and their dreams are interwoven with Mr. Zhadan’s poetry and monologues, to create “Hitting Bedrock.” Ms. Tkacz and poet Wanda Phipps received a National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Translation Fellowship to translate Mr. Zhadan’s work.
Mr. Zhadan will also read his work in Philadelphia on Sunday, March 15, in a program with Frank Sherlock, the poet laureate of Philadelphia. Mr. Sherlock, a recipient of the 2013 Pew Fellowship in the Arts for literature, is the author of several poetry collections. Last March he accepted an invitation to read Shevchenko’s “The Testament” at a Ukrainian rally at the Liberty Bell; he surprised the crowd by also reading Mr. Zhadan’s powerful poem “LukOil.”
The joint reading at Vox Populi Gallery, 319 N. 11th St., at 7 p.m. will bring into dialogue the poetry and arts community of Philadelphia.
“Kharkiv: City of Ukrainian Culture” is presented by the Ukrainian Studies program at Columbia University, and is free and open to the public. For information contact Mark Andryczyk at 212-854-4697 or [email protected].