Taras Shevchenko – the Ukrainian icon

The Gabfest session this afternoon was dedicated to the 204th anniversary of the Ukrainian poet T. Shevchenko. The session started with the demonstration of the video by the Ukrainian Museum in New York. The video “TARAS SHEVCHENKO: POET, ARTIST, ICON” was accompanied by a scholarly essay by George G. Grabowicz, Professor of Ukrainian Literature at Harvard University. The group had a chance to enrich their vocabulary with idiomatic phrases to define the role of T. Shevchenko in Ukrainian culture. The second part of the session was dedicated to the events in 2018 that commemorated Kobzar’s anniversary. We discussed the Taras Shevchenko look-alike contest in Lviv. We watched the videos and discussed the national record in song performance. A song by T. Shevchenko was performed by over 1000 singers. The group enjoyed the iconic tune of “Mighty Dnieper roars and bellows” from a YouTube video with English subtitles. The group was also introduced to some fun facts about T. Shevchenko’s descendants. The Ukrainian General Yurko Tutunnyk (1918) and a modern Dnipro scholar M. Trihub are relatives of the iconic poet. The session was educational for all the participants of the session.
Participants number – 35 persons.

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Conversation about Kobzar with DNMetAU students

03/20/2014 - To the 200th anniversary of Taras Shevchenko's birth

«Ira Aldridge  - Kobzar’s American Friend» for students NMetAU

 
 “Kobzar’s American Friend” presentation for Translation Students
The WOA  Centre was visited by a group of the 2nd year students from the National Metallurgical Academy; the students’ major is “Technical Translation”.
The WOA’s Head Svitlana Usenko introduced the WOA centre and its resources to the students. The WOA staff member Tamara Gavryliuk created a slide show “ Kobzar’s American Friend”.
Prior to the slide show the group discussed the role of Shevchenko in the Ukrainian culture and his importance for the Ukrainian nation.
The PP presentation reminded the students about facts of Shevchenko’s biography with the focus on his painting talent, introduced new vocabulary and art terms. The presentation highlighted the fact of Shevchenko’s acquaintance and friendship with an outstanding African-American Shakespearian actor – Ira Aldridge .The students’ attention was drawn to Ira Aldridge’s portrait by Shevchenko. They read and rendered into English the memoirs of the person who witnessed their friendship.
The 200th Shevchenko’s anniversary is widely celebrated in Ukraine and the information about his friendship with the outstanding American actor has both cultural and educational value.
Number of participants – 6.

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America’s Day at school No. 28

America’s Day at school No. 28 - “Kobzar’s American Friend” presentation
Dnipropetrovsk school No.28 is a specialized school with the focus on foreign languages study (English). The school is located quite far from the DOUNB Library, but it does not hinder its close ties with WOA Dnipropetrovsk; we have been partners for a long time.
The WOA staff was invited to participate in the Foreign Languages Week at school on a day dedicated to the American English.
The WOA’s Head Svitlana Usenko introduced the WOA centre and its resources to the school children and teachers. She demonstrated to the group the authentic maps of the USA available at the WOA Centre – the political and geographical ones. She also briefed the student on her visit to the USA through the “Open World” Exchange program.
The WOA staff member Tamara Gavryliuk created a slide show “Kobzar’s American Friend”.
 
The PP presentation reminded the students about facts of Shevchenko’s biography with the focus on his painting talent, introduced new vocabulary and art terms. The presentation highlighted the fact of Shevchenko’s acquaintance and friendship with an outstanding African-American Shakespearian actor – Ira Aldridge .The students’ attention was drawn to Ira Aldridge’s portrait by Shevchenko. They read and rendered into English the memoirs of the person who witnessed their friendship.
The 200th Shevchenko’s anniversary is widely celebrated in Ukraine and the information about his friendship with the outstanding American actor has cultural and educational value.
Number of participants – 75 persons.
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WOA’s Presentation at High school No. 141

Kobzar’s Days at the specialized school No.141 continued this week. The WOA staff was invited to make a presentation in English for a big group of students.
The WOA Director S. Usenko presented the DOUNB Library and the resources of the WOA centre.
The WOA Staff member Tamara Gavryliuk prepared a slide show “Kobzar’s Testament Riddle”. 
We had a fresh look on Shevchenko’s poem “My Testament”. A local historian D. Synytsia analyzed the text of the poem and suggested a new hypothesis. According to this hypothesis the poet wanted to be buried on a Scythian mound in Dnipropetrovsk region. The slides illustrated the facts that support D.Synytsia’s  view. The students recollected the facts about Shevchenko’s memory in Dnipropetrovsk city and oblast’.
The fresh look on the famous poem impressed both the students and teachers. The school head thanked the WOA Staff for the educational presentation and expressed hope for the further cooperation in the future.
Number of participants – 118 persons.

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Partnership is not challenged by Distance

Dnipropetrovsk school No.141 is a specialized school with the focus on foreign languages study (English and German).The fact that the school is located quite far from the DOUNB Library (in the “Parus” residential  area – the western city suburb ) does not hinder its close ties with WOA Dnipropetrovsk;  we  have been partners for a long time.
For the 200th anniversary of Taras Shevchenko, the iconic Ukrainian poet and a talented painter, the WOA centre provided the school teachers with the educational material in English. The WOA staff member Tamara Gavryliuk created a slide show “Kobzar’s American Friend”.
 The PP presentation reminded the students about facts of Shevchenko’s biography with the focus on his painting talent, introduced new vocabulary and art terms. The presentation highlighted the fact of Shevchenko’s acquaintance and friendship with an outstanding African-American Shakespearian actor – Ira Aldridge.The students’ attention was drawn to Ira Aldridge’s portrait by Shevchenko. They read and rendered into English the memoirs of the person who witnessed their friendship.
The WOA’s presentation was demonstrated by the teachers of English to 216 persons (203 students, 13 teachers).

Friendly Visit

To the 200th anniversary of Taras Shevchenko's birth
«Ira Aldridge  - Kobzar’s American Friend» for school students. 

On March, 7 the staff of Window on America center Dnipropetrovsk (Ukraine) were invited to school #39. Our long time partner, the English language teacher Victoria Platonova invited Svitlana Usenko to talk about Taras Shevchenko’s biography facts.
She conducted 2 lessons for the students of various ages (approx. 30 students, 7 grades). Svitlana Usenko informed the students and their teachers about the books and resources of the Oblast Scientific Library named after the Slavic apostles Cyril and Methodius.
All the participants of the event were acquainted with the "Window on America" Center. The Center will be useful to all English language learners.
Svitlana Usenko offered to the following interactive presentations with vocabulary tasks were offered to the attention of the students.

The following activities were offered to the attention of the students:
•    Slide show «Ira Aldridge  - Kobzar’s American Friend»
•    Slide show “Kobzar’s Testament Riddle”
The presentations were both educational (enriched vocabulary) and enjoyable .
Number of participants – 30 (teacher of English – 1, pupils – 28, librarian – 1).

One Book Display

To commemorate Taras Shevchenko’s 200th Anniversary the WOA Dnipropetrovsk presented a bilingual edition (in Ukrainian and English): “Taras Shevchenko. Selected poems. Paintings. Graphic Works” by “Mystetstvo” Publishers (Kyiv, 2007) – 608 p.

Shevchenko’s poetry and paintings has long been the world culture heritage. His poems are translated into many languages, but most of all – into Russian, English, German, Hungarian, Belarusian, Spanish.

The displayed edition presents the English translations by Ms. Vera Rich.

Vera Rich (1936–2009) was a British poet, journalist, historian, and translator from Belarusian and Ukrainian. Her translations of Taras Shevchenko’s works were commissioned for the century of his death (1961) and received excellent reviews, both in the West and in the Soviet Ukraine. For this work, Vera Rich was awarded an Honorary Diploma in Shevchenko Studies by the Ukrainian Free Academy of Sciences.

The poetry is illustrated with reproductions of the best paintings and graphic works. They successfully reveal the diversity of Taras Shevchenko’s talent – both poetic and artistic.
In the preface to the edition academician Ivan Dziuba (National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine ) describes the main stages of Shevchenko’s life and career .The preface allows the foreign readers to understand why the poet received from the Ukrainian nation the title “Kobzar” – a bard, a professional poet in Ukrainian. His original book of poems with the same title became a bestseller soon after publishing.