Three women from Ukraine employ their artwork and words to highlight the struggles of the Ukrainian people and their history with Russia, voicing their concern to protect their culture. Wednesday night, these women came together to bravely share their stories with USC students at Doheny Memorial Library.

Visions and Voices partnered with USC Libraries and the Slavic Languages and Literatures department to host “Voices of Freedom, Voices of War in Ukraine: Readings and Conversations.” The event began with workshops led by three Ukrainian artists, detailing how their art persevered through the Russo-Ukrainian War. Marina Malyarenko, an artist; Sasha Dovzhyk, a writer; and Iryna Starovoyt, a poet, divided the audience into three separate groups to speak on the topics of war, atrocity, national identity and the determination of the Ukrainian people. 

In her session, Dovzhyk explained that fairy tales have changed from just being stories to written accounts of Ukrainians’ defiance and how their ambitions and yearnings remain, even in times of war. 

“The fairy tales coming from Ukraine today are dark but brimming with defiance. They reversed the currents of power and reshaped the world as we knew it,” Dovzhyk said. “They are driven by faith that nothing but the restoration of justice will suffice.“

Dovzhyk utilized vivid metaphors to describe the horrors that she, as well as the people around her, have faced due to Russian imperialism. She focused on the deliberate destruction of Ukrainian lives by the Russian army and how that has affected the psyche of Ukrainian citizens. They have witnessed the loss of their homes, as well as the killing of their loved ones.

“Ukrainians insist that a monster [has] vouched to eat them alive, who has already devoured the ones they love and set their house on fire,” Dovzhyk said. 

Across the world, the public views Ukrainians as strong and unbroken, but Starovoyt disagrees with that sentiment. She acknowledged that the constant fight against the Russian army is exhausting for the people constantly present at the sites of mass atrocities. 

“There is an image outside of Ukraine that Ukrainians are heroes, and they are not broken. We disagree on that because we think that almost each of us now, after 1,106 days of this full-scale invasion,” Starovoyt said. “We all are broken.”

However, that does not mean that Ukrainians have stopped their daily activities. On the contrary, many still go to work because they know that others need them. Regardless of their job, Starovoyt explained that it is essential for everyone to continue their professions, as they offer a sense of calmness and solidarity during times of hardship.

“What is extraordinary about being broken is that we don’t stop. We go on as institutions, as communities, as professions,” Starovoyt said. “For Ukrainians, it was principally most important, and our life was dependent on that, as a society, that nothing actually stops, that people still need a barber, a coffee shop, a place to go and to see some art.”

During the Q&A portion of the event, a student asked how she could be a better friend to her Ukrainian friend from high school. Starovoyt responded with the same kindness and empathy that some of her colleagues provided her with when the invasion first happened in 2022. The compassion of people from all over the world is necessary for Ukrainians to know that they are not alone in this battle. 

“The very fact that there are people who are ready to play their helping hands, to stretch out, to reach out changes everything, so make sure your friend is not alone,” Starovoyt said. “For example, you drop a line if you are in the same city, or [have a] chat and coffee. Everything is important.”

After a brief break, UC San Diego professor Amelia Glaser began a panel with Starovoyt and Dovzhyk, dissecting the effects of the war and why people should be talking about it, especially regarding the attempt to erase Ukrainian culture. From libraries being burnt to writers and historians being killed, Ukrainian art forms must persevere to preserve the history of the nation.

“The fact that Ukraine is now being threatened with erasure, close to a century after World War II, and decades after the supposed end of the Soviet Union, should remind all of us to value and to continue to stand up for the right to have rights,” Glaser said.

Storytelling and poetry have become mechanisms for essayists and poets to truly reconcile with the horrors of war. Both Dovzhyk and Starovoyt have turned their sorrows and pain into an art form that makes sense of the tragedies they faced. Their agony metamorphosizes into beautiful writing.

“Those who are silent or incapable of words always feel the need, the urgency that somebody tells a story of that,” Starovoyt said. “And in this respect, my understanding is that people of [Ukrainian] culture have done successfully since at least 2022 [is that] we have changed the narrative from the modus of tragedy into the modus of epic.”