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Слава Квір Україні!*
Review of the Renard Press paperback edition (February 9, 2023)

Why is any of this important? Because an attack on human freedoms always begins with the subjugation of the most vulnerable communities. Once you strip away the rights of sexual and gender minorities, then national, religious and social minorities, these people will be driven into ghettos. After that, various 'socially useless' people follow - artists, scientists, and, of course, women ('children, kitchen, church - and that's enough for them!'). And not long after, the average representative of the 'right' majority will eventually discover that he, too, has been deprived of his freedom. - excerpted from Yana Lys' essay in Queer Ukraine.


This is a real eye-opener of a book in the way it draws parallels between the fight for gender/queer rights in Ukraine to the anti-colonialism fight of the Ukrainian people throughout history. This is the main theme of the leadoff essay is by journalist Maksym Eristavi. Then Yana Lys' 'Transness in Traditional Ukraine Culture' covers Ukrainian transgender history and also gives some wide world examples which will definitely make you rethink things. Such as did you ever think of Joan of Arc as being a transgender person? It seems a valid point, as her wearing of men's clothing and armour was one of reasons she was burned at the stake by the English & the Church. Elliott Miskovicz' time-leaping memoir draws on their renewal of family after a long estrangement and centres around the traditional Ukrainian plucked-stringed bandura instrument. These three essays make up the largest portions of the text of this book. They are supported by shorter memoirs and poems which are each a few pages in length.

1. Ukrainian Queerness by Maksym Eristavi. An essay of Ukrainian queerness and anti-colonialism. Link to the Free Press Eristavi substack.
2. Even if you run from the war...** by Marichka. A prose poem.
3. Transness in Traditional Ukrainian Culture by Yana Lys (aka Yana Lyshka). A more general version of this essay is available online as Transgenderism in Traditional Cultures of the World [in Ukrainian language, turn on web translator].
See painting at https://transunity.life/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/tild3931-6665-4063-b863-63653...
Skomorokhs are a medieval stratum of itinerant artists in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia who were allowed gender-nonconforming behavior. It is known that some of them wore clothes that were considered correlated to the opposite sex. For which they were persecuted by church laws, and in the XVII century they were banned by secular authorities in the Russian Empire. Image sourced from the above online essay, and originally from the 15th Century Radziwill Chronicle.
4. Today I've begun to doubt my life again.** by GoodVampire. A two page essay.
5. There will be no space...** by Alsu Gara. A cycle of two poems.
6. The Emancipation of Ernie by Ernest Huk. A four page mini-memoir of the writer's transition from hipsterism into activism.
7. Family by Oleksandr Bolivski. The Ukrainian artist talks about their painting Family which was stolen (or destroyed) by the Russian invasion. The painting was inspired by Gluck (Hannah Gluckstein)'s Medallion (1936).
See the Medallion painting at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/86/Gluck_-_Medallion.jpg
The iconic lesbian painting Medallion (1936) By Gluck (Hannah Gluckstein) - Artnet, Fair use, Link
8. Fireworks Will Never Sound the Same by Tanya G. A cycle of five poems.
9. Tuning the Bandura by Elliott Miskovicz. A time-leaping memoir of the writer's estrangement with their family and its return during the current war. The piece centres around a family heirloom of the title musical instrument.
10. Queerstitution by Taras Gembik. The writer works in a Warsaw kitchen providing food to refugees. They write about being inspired by the poetry of Lesya Ukrainka.
11. How I Spent My Summer by Dimettra. A five-page memoir of the current war. Unlike the other LGBTQI+ views expressed elsewhere in this book, this essay does give examples of the anti-queer opinions of some Ukrainian armed forces and police.
12. Entry (3rd May 2022) by T. Diary entries as well as a list of How to Be a War Refugee in Ten Easy Steps.

I learned about the publication of Queer Ukraine through my subscription to The Republic of Consciousness Substack, where it was featured in the March 2, 2023 Small Press Newsletter. The Small Press Newsletter regularly profiles publications from a wide range of small presses aside from the RoC’s regular updates on its Book of the Month and the RoC Prize Longlists, Shortlists and Winners.

Footnotes
* Ukrainian: Slava Kvir Ukraini! [Glory to Queer Ukraine!] Slava Ukraini / Glory to Ukraine has been a common rallying cry for Ukrainians in the current Russian Ukrainian War. In the context of this book it seemed appropriate to add the Queer reference.
** The original piece is untitled, but I've assigned the first line or sentence as a proxy title for the purposes of this review.

Trivia and Links

Proceeds from the sales of this book go to a selection of charities supporting LGBTQI+ people in Ukraine. The list is periodically reviewed so that funds go to where they’re most sorely needed, but includes: TU Platform Mariupol (Supporting queer youth), Queers For Ukraine (Supporting people with HIV in Ukraine and delivering much-needed hormones for the trans community) and Insight NGO (Humanitarian Aid for the LGBTQI+ community in Ukraine).

While searching for further information on Queer Ukraine I came across Anton Shebetko's A Very Brief and Subjective Queer History of Ukraine which seems to be an online publication. but can also be ordered in print. Of especial interest is A Queer History of Ukraine: A Timeline (link opens to a 5 page pdf document).
… (més)
 
Marcat
alanteder | Mar 28, 2023 |

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