Belarusian Solidarity Day “Ode to a Dictator”

On 16 May a festival of civic Ukrainian and Belarusian poetry was held outside the Belarusian Embassy in Kyiv. Ukrainian and Belarusian artists read out a cycle of works under the title “Ode to a Dictator”.

The meeting began with the lighting of candles in solidarity and remembrance near the photos of civic activists who disappeared without trace in Belarus.

This time those marking Belarusian Solidarity Day were joined by Ukrainian and Belarusian poets of the younger generation who have formed as artists in post-Soviet times.

The reading was begun by Belarusian poet Andrei Khadavovych, and then continued by Ukrainian fellow poets Svitlana Povalyaeva, Anatoly Dnistrovy, Oleh Kotsarev, Bohdan Horobchuk, Vano Kryuger and Yury Shelyazhenko.

“We are here so that in a clean and peaceful Belarus people no longer disappear without trace. Our poetry represented beauty and a threat to totalitarianism”, Oleh Kotsarev explained.

The meeting ended with the symbolic passing to the Belarusian authorities of an “orange marker” in the form of a poster about the film “Orange Revolution” by the American film producer Steve York and the 17-volume collection of Joseph Stalin’s works with the wish that the Belarusian authorities learn by others’ mistakes.