Poetry has a unique power to express an overflow of human emotions. It finds words for the unspoken and unspeakable. It brings comfort to those who suffer and gives a voice to those whose ability to speak up is suppressed. In the time of the war, we often feel we cannot find the words to speak of the atrocities that we witness, of the tragedy that people experience, and of our own helplessness to stop it. And yet, poetry gives us a channel for our pain, our dismay, our rage and our sense of solidarity and responsibility.
Through this evening of anti-war poetry and music, created in partnership between The Voice of Russia & Russian Democratic Society and in collaboration with Pushkin House, we will give the stage to actors, musicians and our audience to express through verse what they think and feel about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The members of the event audience will also be welcome to recite an anti-war poem. Please send the proposed poem together with your name and contact details to: contact@thevoiceofrussia.org
Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that all those who get in touch will have a chance to use our open mic, but we will try our best to include as many poems from the audience as we can.
This is a multilingual event with poetry in English, Ukrainian, Russian and Belarusian.
You can find the programme for the event here.
ABOUT THE CHARITY
70% of the ticket proceeds will go to the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Ukraine Appeal.
Artwork by Katerina Muromtzeva.
This event is a part of the project Verses by The Voice of Russia: https://www.thevoiceofrussia.org/verses/