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Text Box: How to be Small By Kateryna Babkina I’ve often imagined New York. My image of this unreachable city was made up of many layers -- from movies, memoirs, painting, songs and poetry. The New York of Brodsky, O. Henry, Scorsese, Luc Besson, Makhano, Foer, Morrison, Warhol, Limonov, or the New York in TV shows like Sex and the City, Mad Men, or in stories my friends told, or acquaintances of my friends, or friends of my acquaintances, who had been here for so long. That’s the source of my imaginary New York. It was a whole, compact, intense space. But this doesn’t really exist – this is the first thing you learn about this city. This city is just a child, which licks off the last of the colored pain from a wooden toy and you are this toy. But the child has grown and devoured itself twice over. There are thousands of cities in this city. A person who comes here from a place where space is divided into much smaller parcels fails to see the whole that is New York. I didn’t even try. It is hard to come to terms with other things such as the endless circles and spheres that never seem to intersect. For instance, I saw a student show – the set designer, director, actors, prop masters and God knows who else put so much energy into it, but why? How can they come to terms with the fact that what they have made can be seen by a hundred people at the most, even if it is shown several times. The director of one of the cultural institutes of a European nation who used to work in Ukraine, shared this insight on the difference between New York and Kyiv: in Kyiv if you want to surf, you have to make your own wave, in New York it is almost impossible to reach the cresting wave, but if you reach it – it will carry you forever. How do you take in the fact that you may never reach the cresting wave that will take you into the Greater World. How do you come to terms with the fact that the film you shot will be seen by only several hundred people, that the poem you wrote will make only a hundred hearts skip a beat? How can you keep breathing calmly, and know that the stars may never line up in your favor, and still believe in what you do as much as you do? This is what New York teaches you: to be small in the beginning. KinofestNYC was small but all the interested residents of the East Village showed up. Little cultural events that take place at the Shevchenko Society and the Bowery Poetry Club, about which West Harlem really doesn’t give a damn. There are small gatherings listening to Russian or Spanish poetry, or the music of Leonard Cohen or Rodriguez, where instead of thousands you have three hundred select guests. Those in the Know and those who are Willing. Munch “Cry” seemed so small at MoMA, even though every tenth tourist was taking a picture of it. This was too much, but the rest of them drifted by the figures drawn in swirling lines. The hotel where Scorsese shot Taxi Driver seems small, it’s a cheap hotel and the people walking by don’t look up. The house where Andy Warhol lived seems small, as does the church where Isadora Duncan danced. And the list goes on and on. And this is what I think. It’s not so bad being small in the middle of something so big. To learn to believe in yourself in a crowd of 12 million and to pay attention to what you are doing in this giant town – this is a special life skill. Outstanding. I am here –with KinofestNYC and Video Poetry with Yara Arts Group, with Bowery Poetry Club, with readings organized by fans on the Brooklyn rooftops, and I understand that in relationship to New York I am small, smaller than I previously thought. And I am fine with that.

Text Box: more, who appeared in Yara’s Koliada: 12 Dishes, was in the show.
Romana Soutus,who has been working for Yara for the past year and will be taking part in Yara’s Fire. Water. Night, enjoyed the wild experience of playing the Devil in Fordham University’s production of Robert Frost’s A Masque of Reason this past April 8-10th.

Text Box: Jessica Hecht, who appeared in Yara’s Light from the East and Explosions, will be in the new play by Richard Greenberg The Assembled Parties. The play is directed by Lynne Meadow of the Manhattan Theatre Club and is now in previews for a limited run on Broadway.
Tamar Ilana, who appeared in Yara’s Midwinter Night, is currently in Seville,

Text Box: Spain, singing for Bulerías and dancing Sevillanas in the streets! She will also guest in a Turkish Classical Music concert in Madrid, Spain on April 13.
Andrew Pang, who appeared in Yara’s Virtual Souls, directed and adapted Strindberg’s Dream Play. The play was produced by the National Asian American Theatre Company at HERE March 22- April 13 Siho Els

Text Box: 306 East 11th Street #3B New York, NY 10003

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Text Box: Kateryna Babkina is a writer and journalist who lives in Kyiv. Her books of poetry include: “St. Elmo’s Fire,” (2002) and “Mustard” (2012). Her collection of short stories “Leloo After You” was published in 2008. Kateryna studied journalism at the Taras Shevchenko Kyiv State University, and works as a freelance journalist. Recently, her work has appeared in Le Monde and Focus magazine. Kateryna is the co-author of numerous anthologies and almanacs. Her poems have been translated and published in journals in Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Germany and Sweden. In 2006 Kateryna co-founded the Videopoetry/Videoprose Project. Videos based on Ukrainian and European poetry directed by Kateryna were screened in Poland, Lithuania, Russia, Spain and Ukraine. She was Yara’s guest artist this April.