Chicago band rocks Ukrainian Sunflower Festival...

but sadly not many people were in the crowd at the time when Ephyra played. I guess it's hard for a rock band to follow traditional Ukrainian dance ensemble Hromovytsia (also from Chicago) at a festival where attendees are hungry for high kicks, fast spins, and holubtsi rather than loud guitars and heavy hitting drums, even when the lyrics are sung in Ukrainian. Sorry for the lame crowd, guys. The lack of audience sure did confuse me because there seemed to be lots of teens, 20- and 30-somethings in the crowd when Hromovytsia danced. Not sure where they all went while you were setting up! (Maybe the cheesy vocal-twins that warmed up for you scared them off??) I loved your driving bass lines, but would have preferred a little more emotion on stage. Please come back to Detroit sometime and play a club or hall show.

Pysanky at the Ukrainian Sunflower Festival in Warren, MI

FTPysanky at the Ukrainian Sunflower Festival, Warren, MI
(visnyk.blogspot.com) more info on pysanky symbols: [...]

Folk art displays draw people to the Ukrainian Sunflower Festival. I took this photo a couple of years ago and was pretty happy with how it turned out.

(I'm trying out some image annotation software called FotoTagger. I think it only functions with Internet Explorer. You should be able to hide or show the tags. Let's see...)

Ukrainian Sunflower Festival Photos

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Photos from the 2004 festivities in Warren, MI

Ukrainian Sunflower Festival of Detroit, Aug. 25 - 27, 2006

Looking for a fun Ukrainian-American festival this summer? Consider the 20th annual Sunflower Festival to be held Aug 25 - 27, 2006 on the St Josaphat Church grounds on Ryan road in Warren, Michigan.

My relatives always enjoys the activites of the festival including live music, dancing, traditional craft demonstrations, and lots and lots of fresh Ukrainian food - varenyky, holubsti, kovbasa, tortes, etc. all made and served by women of the community. There are also rides and games for kids, bingo for the older folks, and Ukie kitsch for all.

I hope to hear the local Detroit band the Polish Muslims play their brand of funky ethno-folk-rock. I have not seen them in years. I'm also interested in hearing Ephyra, a Ukrainian-American rock band from Chicago. According to the band's web site, their "sound is one that consists of modern, progressive rock with a flavor of traditional Ukrainian influence." Could be good!

For a full festival schedule and entertainment line-up, check out the official Sunflower Festival web site.

Wonderful Photos of Ukraine #1

Stefan, who writes the blog Dykun, has some wonderful photos posted of a modern Hutsul wedding. (I think the photo of the trio is stunning.) Take a peek. Check farther down in his blog and in the archives for some authentic video of traditional village work.

Marriage Records Found: Family History 2

I started doing family research a number of years before the big Internet boom when every organization starting putting up web sites and "dot-com" was not commonly seen on the sides of trucks or on billboards. Looking back over these years, it amazes me at how much the Internet has impacted the work of genealogists. I have a few personal stories. Here is the latest:

2 pairs of my great-grandparents were immigrants from Ukraine (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire). They got married in the New World near the beginning of the 20th Century. I've known the cities where they were married for quite some time, but for some reason, never contacted those municipalities about getting copies of their marriage records, which never had. It turns out that both areas have searchable indexes of older marriages online (Rochester, NY : Manitoba, Canada). Quite easily I was able to find references for both marriages. I printed out the online forms, wrote checks, and sent away for copies of both records. Just the other day I was delighted to receive a marriage record in the mail from Rochester, NY! What a nice feeling to add a few missing pieces to the family history puzzle.
Here's the document that I received:

Family History 1

I'm really into researching my family history. I'll start documenting some of the research I've done on my Ukrainian side.

My great Anna Yanyk, who was a 1913 teenaged immigrant from Ukraine to Canada (and then the US), wrote letters back and forth to her sister Donya and a friend in her home village. My family is thankful to have about 10 of the letters she received, mostly from the 1960s. No one knows when she started writing letters or even that she was staying in touch with relatives in Ukraine. Anna died in 1969. Letters were in a trunk among other articles like her green card, her school report card and baptism paper, and my great-grandpa's straight razor and eyeglasses.

This photo was sent from Ukraine in 1965 to Anna Sokoliuk (nee Yanyk) in Detroit. Nastya Korolik, standing on the left, was the letter writer. "Big Marina" is on the right. Both were neighbors from Anna's home village.

Ukrainian American Archives & Museum of Detroit

I was doing some research on Chornobyl recently and ended up with a link to the freshly updated web site of the Ukrainian American Archives & Museum of Detroit. Wow, nicely designed web site from an institution in my own backyard. Living in the area, I have always known about UAAMD and have visited there, but it seemed like there was not much happening at that time (over 10 years ago). Now, things are happening (classes, exhibits, oral histories collected, demostrations, etc.) and the Museum/Archive is outgrowing its HQ. Hoping I could help with the mission, "to educate and inform the general public about the culture, art, and history of Ukrainians, their immigration to the United States and the contributions of Americans of Ukrainian descent to America..." I decided to join. I hope to assist with digitizing historic photos and getting them online for others to view and learn from.

BOOK: When Luba Leaves Home by Irene Zabytko

I recently picked up a copy of and I’m really enjoying reading When Luba Leaves Home, a series of 10 connected short stories written by Irene Zabytko, published in 2003. I’ve just finished reading the sixth story titled, Obligation. All of the stories are narrated by the central character, Luba, a Ukrainian in her early twenties of the post-WWII displaced persons (DP) group of immigrants who lives with her parents in Chicago’s Ukrainian Village and goes to a nearby university. Luba struggles in her desires to become an American woman while retaining her Ukrainian identity. When visiting another immigrant friend's apartment, Luba remarks, "She had a few Ukrainian embroidered pillows but little else from the Old Country."
The collection takes place in the 1970s, and I’m guessing, may be somewhat autobiographical. All of the 6 stories that I’ve read compelled me to finish reading them in different ways. They all involve Luba & also bring in an assortment of other neighborhood characters so efficiently that as I’m reading, I feel like I’m there in the corner of the apartment or tavern, watching and listening on the periphery of the action. Has anyone else read this book or Zabytko's other book, The Sky Unwashed, which takes place in Chornobyl just after the disaster?

Other reviews of When Luba Leaves Home:
~ Blogger: Pete Lit
~ RebeccaReads.com book review
~ Ukrainian Weekly, August 31, 2003, No. 35, Vol. LXXI

Free Online English-Ukrainian Dictionary (Express)

My Ukrainian language skills are marginal, but I'm always learning, just not as fast as I'd like. I'm constantly on the lookout for good books, websites, or software. Here's a free English-Ukrainian online dictionary that I like and use frequently. When I get letters from Ukraine that I'm trying to translate, sometimes I use the sister site: Ukrainian-English dictionary which includes a virtual keyboard to input Cyrillic letters if you don't have them on your computer. Thanks CyberMova! Anyone else have some good Ukrainian language resources to share?

Travel books about Ukraine

(These reviews are of 2 of the travel books that I read before my summer 2005 journey to Ukraine with my mom. It was my her first trip there and my second.)



One of my favorite travel books about Ukraine is Ukraine: The Bradt Travel Guide by Andrew Evans, published by UK's Bradt in spring 2004. The first 5 chapters of the guide provides readers with an overview of the country, some info on Ukraine's turbulent history, culture, etc. I feel these chapters are quite insightful.

Starting with chapter 6 up to chapter 15, the guide moves through travel in different regions of Ukraine - from Kyiv to the Black Sea to Donbas to Galicia. Each chapter gives a little background, offers suggestions for sights, activities, attractions, places to eat, sleep, etc.

The guide wraps up with some suggested reading and a somewhat limited language section. In my opinion, this book is well worth its price for those people planning a trip to this beautiful country.

Another travel book I purchased was Let's Go: Eastern Europe. This expanded 2005 edition includes a new 52-page section about Ukraine by Aaron Litvin. (The total length of the travel guidebook is 974 pages.)

I previewed the book in a brick and mortar store, and later purchased it from an online retailer. Keeping in mind the fact that you can't write much about a huge country in 52 pages, after a few minutes of carefully reading the chapter about Ukraine, I knew I'd be disappointed. Here are a couple of my reasons why:

The back of the book includes a section called the "Glossary" that provides transcriptions, words and phrases for the languages spoken by the peoples of the countries in the guidebook. For some reason, Ukrainian is not included!! What is up with this? Lets see... according to the CIA World Factbook, Ukraine has about 47.4 million people, 67% of whom speak Ukrainian, that's about 31.7 million Ukrainian speakers in Ukraine alone! This is about as many people in Romania and Hungary who speak Romanian and Hungarian (Magyar) combined. Those languages each have their own glossaries. (BTW, Belarusian isn't included either.)

Each country in Let's Go: Eastern Europe has a section written about its food and drink. The chapter on Ukraine includes "bread," transliterated as "hlib" in the text, followed by the Cyrillic spelling. The problem is that the first letter of word for bread is written with the wrong Cyrillic character. The word that Let's Go printed isn't even an actual word. The same problem occurs with the Ukrainian word for vegetables - incorrectly spelled with Cyrillic characters. Typos or poor fact checking?

Peace Corps Volunteers in Ukraine

I am fascinated by the writings of Peace Corps volunteers in Ukraine. From my experience, these US citizens usually provide unique and honest perspectives on Ukraine. From Ukraine with Love is a blog by Peace Corps-teacher Christopher that I just started reading. I would also suggest a book titled Singing on the Heavy Side of the World. More on that later.

UKRAINIAN INSTITUTE OF MODERN ART

An anonymous reader suggested that people check out the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art web site. They currently have a special exhibit titled Artist Respond: Ukrainian Art and the Orange Revolution, but hurry, it ends Feb. 28, 2006. From a UIAM press release:

• We are pleased to announce that The Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art (UIMA) has joined together with the Center for Contemporary Art in Kiev to bring this exhibition of revolutionary art to Chicago. In December 2005, UIMA will present "Artists Respond: Ukrainian Art and The Orange Revolution" - the first exhibition of Ukrainian Revolutionary art shown in North America.

UIAM looks like another Chicago gem. This reminds me that while I was in Kyiv this past summer, some students set up some of their Orange Rev art on Miadan. I'll do some edits soon and post a photo or two.

Ukrainian Orthodox Church of St. Andrew in Boston

Fellow blogger inter_obriy left a comment to share info on St. Andrew's Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Boston. Their about us page provides some interesting history about early Ukrainian immigrants in Boston at the beginning of the 20th century, the organization of their church, and the post-WWII immigrants. The nifty Church calendar even provides RSS feed. How's that for a Church embracing technology? Thanks for the note Inter_obriy !