Culture, in particular folk culture, preserves our distinct cultural heritages that were passed down from generation to generation. They can be found in our dialects, folklore, handicrafts, customs, cuisine. These are our voices, tastes, smells, experiences, sounds from the past, our intangible, nonmaterial connections to the past, to our predecessors.
By Chris Wilkinson There is an odd symmetry to the fact that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart鈥檚 life and music is most often identified with Vienna and Austria, while his son, Franz Xaver Mozart鈥檚 musical career took place in the obscurity of Galicia and Lviv. The son headed off to the most […]
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By Chris Wilkinson It was a voice destined to be heard by millions, a siren鈥檚 call that was heard across the world. In opera houses from Odesa to Ottawa, Naples to New York she performed before adoring crowds entranced by the strains of her sonorous vocals. She filled the halls […]
A few years ago when I was was in Chicago, I found this Ukrainian (English and French) children’s dictionary at home. It was published in Canada鈥攖hough I’m not sure what year. The book includes a lot of examples of words that are used in the diaspora, but which are no […]
There are several differences in the Ukrainian alphabets used in the diaspora (specifically the community that has its origin from Galicia) and in Ukraine, in particular, how the alphabet is called, the聽 pronunciation of the letters, the melody used to sing the alphabet (or the lack thereof a song), as […]
Music is a wonderful way to be in touch with one’s heritage, and so it’s no wonder that Ukrainian music flourished in the diaspora, producing many notable bands who have kept the communities in touch with their cultural heritage. Indeed, it was these recordings of Ukrainian folk songs that really […]
In the Ukrainian diaspora we call a bicycle a “rover”聽鈥撀爐he word which was commonly used in western聽Ukraine before the war. Now in Ukraine the name “velosyped” is more widely used, but people in western Ukraine, esp械cially in villages, still often say “rover.” (For more about the diaspora language, click聽here.) The […]
Ballada o 艢w. Miko艂aju is beautiful song about the sad fate of the Lemkos (a Carpathian ethnic sub-group), who were forcibly resettled from their ancestral homeland in 1944-46 to the Soviet Union, and in 1947 under Operation Vistula to western and northern Poland. Remnants of their homes, churches, and cemeteries still remain in […]
When I moved to Ukraine, I had to learn a whole new Ukrainian vocabulary. It turned out that I had grown up speaking a Galician/diasporic Ukrainian, which used many dialectisms, Polonisms, and archaisms. To keep track of the differences between the two lexicons, as well as to document the way my […]
My parents in Chicago have some neat posters from the late Soviet period announcing various artistic and cultural events in Kyiv. Poster from 1987 Performance of Kupala rituals at the Folk Architecture Museum in Kyiv Organized by the Ministry of Culture of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic 袦褨薪褨褋褌械褉褋褌胁芯 泻褍谢褜褌褍褉懈 褍泻褉邪褩薪褋褜泻芯褩 […]
Late last year I had the opportunity to immerse myself in the atmosphere of Lviv’s interwar music scene at a live performance of a young band from Warsaw, which plays famous tunes from Poland’s 1920-1930s musical heritage. Warszawska Orkiestra Sentymentalna (Warsaw Sentimental Orchestra) comprises a group of young musicians united […]
A folk band from Przemy艣l 鈥斅燢rajka, together with Ukrainian musicians聽鈥斅爎eleased a new album dedicated to the lands that lie along the current Polish-Ukrainian border. “The album contains traditional music from the Polish-Ukrainian borderland, from the regions of Kholm, Lubaczow, Przemy艣l, to the Carpathian mountains and valleys. These lands were once […]
