UNWLA Cultural Impact in Numbers - 2022
The chart reflects UNWLA National and branches, and is based on our preliminary financials.
Concerts Honoring Lesia Ukrainka
The idea of celebrating the 150th anniversary of Lesia Ukrainka’s birth with concerts came up in 2019 when the president of the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus of North America (UBC), Anatoli Murha, proposed a collaboration between the UBC and the UNWLA. The concept was designed by UBC conductor Oleh Mahlay. Five successful concerts took place in September-October 2022 in Michigan, Ohio, Washington, D.C., New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
The first half of each concert (Seven Strings) showcased Lesia Ukrainka’s poetry set to music. It also featured priceless recordings of Lesia Ukrainka’s own voice. To create a compelling narrative for the concert, the creators paired the recordings with photos and a narrated story of her life. The final show in Philadelphia was live-streamed to over 2,000 people worldwide.
A special guest at the New Jersey concert was Lesia Ukrainka’s great-grandnephew, who attended with his family. This outstanding concert series provided new insight into the woman who stands at the core of the Ukrainian literary canon. It also cemented a wonderful partnership between the UNWLA and the UBC — a partnership that we trust will be ongoing.
CINEMAAID Ukraine
In the summer of 2022, when the Ukrainian film community announced a fundraiser to support Ukrainian filmmakers, the UNWLA responded to the call. The UNWLA co-sponsored film marathon “CinemaAid Ukraine” began with film screenings in New York City and expanded to communities in Florida and Los Angeles.
Over $3,000 donated to CinemaAid Ukraine supported 11 families with monetary grants. Additional grants helped a family whose father, a filmmaker, perished in the war and a family of caretakers for their disabled son. Another $1,000 supported local communities in the affected regions. For example, CinemaAid Ukraine volunteers purchased a furnace for a large family with young children living in the newly liberated Chernihiv region. With relentless russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure in the winter of 2022/2023, a generator purchased by CinemaAid coordinators supplied electricity to an operating room in a local hospital in the Uman region. Both local, internally displaced people and Ukrainian defenders are treated in this hospital. Finally, donations funded over 1,000 pounds of pantry items delivered to an orphanage in the Kyiv region, where 40 children evacuated from Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Kyiv, and Kharkiv currently live.
Digitization of the Embroidery Collection
