Lyubko Deresh held a series of events in Brazil. The author’s itinerary covered several cities, including Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Salvador, Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba, Irati and Prudentópolis. The Ukrainian Institute reported this, having supported the project’s implementation together with other Ukrainian and Brazilian cultural and academic institutions and partners.
Deresh’s programme began on 3 September in Ribeirão Preto with the opening of a Ukrainian book shelf at the library of the University of São Paulo (USP) Faculty of Law. On the same day, the author took part in a public event as part of the Ribeirão Preto International Book Fair.
On 5 September, the writer took part in the São Paulo International Book Biennial—one of Brazil’s largest book events. In the discussion “A World at War”, alongside Patrícia Espírito Santo and Henrique Cymerman, moderated by journalist Jamil Chade, he spoke about the cultural and humanitarian situation in Ukraine and the challenges facing Ukrainian culture during Russian aggression.
In Salvador, Lyubko Deresh joined the Ukrainian Film Days at the Goethe-Institut, where, together with film producer Oleksandra Kostina, he spoke about the role of culture during wartime. He also delivered a lecture for translation students at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) devoted to intersemiotic translation, using the novel “Medusa’s Gaze” as an example.
In Rio de Janeiro, meetings were held at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) focusing on the legacy of Ukrainian-Brazilian writer Vira Vovk and the possibilities for working with her archives. Among the new ideas is the creation of a puppet production based on her dramatic works in collaboration with the Lviv Puppet Theatre. A separate discussion took place after a screening of Sergei Parajanov’s “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors”, as well as a presentation of the novel “Where the Wind Is” at the Janela bookshop.
The next part of the programme took place in Curitiba, Irati and Prudentópolis. Lyubko Deresh delivered lectures for students at FASBAM, the State University of Paraná and Unicentro on reading, contemporary Ukrainian literature and culture during wartime. The meetings also discussed Russian propaganda and ways of countering it.
Ukrainian books and translations were donated to the libraries of universities and cultural institutions: copies of the novel “Where the Wind Is” to FASBAM, Unespar, Unicentro and other libraries, and translations of Maksym Kryvtsov’s poetry collection “Poems from the Firing Slit” to libraries in Irati, Prudentópolis, FASBAM and the Museum of the Millennium of Ukraine.