We are excited to share with you our series Razom Says Dyakuyu. “Dyakuyu” means “thank you” in Ukrainian. Our work supporting Ukraine and getting humanitarian aid on the ground where it is needed most, would not be possible without the generous donations made by donors. With this series, we are highlighting some of the amazing donors and unique fundraisers that have supported Razom.
Razom is deeply grateful to Yara Arts for organizing “Mariupol,” an exceptional exhibition of award-winning photographs and video from the first days Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. And shout-out to the artists behind camera lenses – Evgeniy Maloletka and Mstyslav Chernov from Associated Press! It is thanks to their work that the world learned about the truth of what was happening in Mariupol.
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“There were no funerals. No memorials. No public gatherings to mourn those killed by russia’s relentless attacks on the port city of Mariupol that became a symbol of Ukraine’s ferocious resistance. The mass grave trenches told the story of a city under siege.
The world would have seen none of this, would have seen next to nothing at all from Mariupol as a city under siege, if it wasn’t for Mstyslav Chernov and Evgeniy Maloletka, the Associated Press team who race into the city when the invasion began and stayed long after it had become one of the most dangerous places on Earth. For more than two weeks, they were the only international media in the city, and the only journalists able to transmit video and still photos to the outside world.
According to Chernov, on 11 March they were taking photos in a hospital in Mariupol when they were taken out of the city with the assistance of Ukrainian soldiers. They managed to escape from Mariupol unharmed. The documented devastation in Mariupol was described in Chernov’s AP article “20 Days in Mariupol: The Team that Documented the City’s Agony” (March 22, 2022, AP). Mstyslav Chernov, Evgeniy Maloletka and Vasilisa Stepanenko received the Knight International Journalism Award for their work in Mariupol from the International Center for Journalists.
Moscow hated their work. The Russian embassy in London tweeted images of AP photos with the word “Fake” over them in red text. A top Russian diplomat held up copies of photos from the maternity hospital at a U.N. Safety Council meeting, insisting they were phony. But their photographs and the people who they met speak to what happened in Mariupol”.
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On Sunday, November 20 at 5:00 PM Howl! Arts will host an event “Music and Spoken Word for “Mariupol” created by Yara Arts Group with poet Bob Holman, bandura master Julian Kytasty, Yara Artists and Daria Kolomiec. All events are free. Donations will go to Razom for Ukraine.
MARIUPOL – the exhibition runs from November 9 to 20, Wednesday to Sunday 11 to 6 Howl! Arts/ Howl! Archive (HA/HA)
250 Bowery, 2nd floor, New York City www.howlarts.org 212-500-6804