21.07.2024 / Read. Watch. Listen. Go. Give.
Something new from a Kind of Refugee
Between translating poetry, translating prose, hosting (albeit very modestly) friends* from abroad, I have not been too prolific on a Kind of Refugee. With only four hours of electricity at home guaranteed per day, I've become a nomad in my own city—me and my computer on a quest for a cafe with a generator and wifi whenever I need to finish an assignment. I take refuge in the virtual space that grows around my focused thinking when I'm reading or watching or listening to something that's captured my attention.
Welcome.
READ
"Is Democracy Doomed?" asks Claire Berlinski in the first of a three-part reflection in The Cosmopolitan Globalist. This 2019 essay, rich in references and broad in scope, revolves around a study by political psychologist Shawn Rosenberg claiming that "citizens typically do not have the cognitive or emotional capacities required [for democratic governance]" and thus "democracy is likely to devour itself."
Are we watching a live demonstration play out in real time in 2024?
WATCH
Jon Stewart's fiery July 9 episode of The Daily Show, where he sounds the alarm on the dire prospects for next US president, offers a sliver of hope—in the form of common sense—that all is not lost if we face the facts. Comedy works when we have a common reference point. What a relief that this popular TV personality is living in the same reality as I am and is equally alarmed. Just after 11 minutes I cried.
LISTEN
https://newbooksnetwork.com/a-kind-of-refugee
In late March, John Vsetecka, historian and scholar of Soviet Ukraine, spoke to me about A Kind of Refugee for the New Books Network. We talked about the power of family history, including war trauma that is passed on to future generations. Studying the Feldenkrais method and dance surprisingly prepared me for war by enlivening my capacity to recognize the resources I have for encountering any new challenge. These movement practices train your ability to see that no matter the circumstances, you have a choice in how to respond.
GO
"How Do You Dance in a War Zone?" is a multimedia exhibition that came out of a question a British artist asked Ukrainian choreographer Viktor Ruban. The powerful photographs and 12-minute video work by image makers Maria Falconer and Paul Hill, featuring nine Ukrainian contemporary dancers in sites around the country in summer 2022, channel the sounds, sensations and complex feelings that these dance artists experienced in the first months following russia's full-scale invasion.
The exhibition, which premiered in the UK in 2023, is currently on view in Ukraine. Go see it in Kyiv at the National Art Museum of Ukraine through August 17 or in Lviv at the Hnat Khotkevych Culture Palace from September 7 – October 12.
GIVE
American medic Kevin Cohen, now a member of the Hospitallers medical battalion, has been evacuating wounded soldiers and civilians from embattled areas of Ukraine since summer 2022. On his trips back to the US he packs massive bags full of medical supplies, especially those that are hard to find in Ukraine, and then he hauls them on planes, trains and buses back to the front.
He is currently raising money to buy 120 tourniquets ($22 apiece) for Ukrainian mortar crews. Please help by sending a contribution via PayPal to: kevin.cohen@gmail.com (pick the “friend to friend” option)
*The idea for this digest of things to read and watch arose in conversation with Vladislav Davidzon during his visit to Kyiv.
Dear readers of "A Kind of Refugee:" greetings! My name is Kevin Cohen. I am a medic in the Ukrainian Volunteer Army, Hospitallers Medical Battalion. I am also a long-time reader of the "A Kind of Refugee" blog. In a war where the enemy wields disinformation as a weapon, the only defense that I know of is the truth. That's why I read the blog, and that's why I support it financially, too.
I want to thank you for *your* support of our work here in Ukraine. The medical supplies that your contributions have purchased can keep a lot of Ukrainian mothers from crying. On their behalf: thank you, again.
The genesis of "How Do You Dance in a War Zone?"--what an interesting story. I am in the Ukrainian Volunteer Army, and I love to dance whenever I am in Kyiv. Invariably, some Ukrainian will apologize to me for the fact that there is dancing happening in a time of war. I tell them one true thing, which is that when we are not at the front, we do not want to talk about it--WE WANT TO DANCE. I do not tell them another true thing, which is that by the end of the war some of the guys who are dancing today will be missing a foot, so they MUST dance now, as much as they possibly can, while they can. And how many people do *you* know from the Kyiv dance community who have already given their lives to defend freedom, democracy, and the lives of our grandmothers and children...