Latest news for today in Ukraine
Editor’s Note: To see the full list of events, please check the calendar. To let us know about the upcoming shows, exhibitions, concerts, movie screenings, festivals, and parties, please send an e-mail to [email protected].
Aprize Music Awards
The online Radio Aristocrats are throwing a party to celebrate local music and award Ukraine’s best album of 2019. The media outlet known for supporting the Ukrainian underground and groundbreaking music has been awarding the prize since 2016. For this year’s awards, the Radio Aristocrats team listened to over 600 albums released in the country in 2019 and formed a long list. An international jury then selected the best album from the list. The awards party will feature performances by some of Ukraine’s most promising artists. They work across genres, demonstrating the diversity of the scene. The lineup includes ethno hip hop diva Alina Pash, alternative and grunge rock band Teampache, indie trio Tik Tu and experimentalists Electromed, who blend hip hop, jazz vocals and electronic beats.
Aprize Music Awards. Caribbean Club (4 Petliury St.) Feb. 28. 7 p.m. Hr 350-500
‘Richard Jewell’
The new biographical drama follows the story of a U.S. security guard, Richard Jewell, who went from national hero to national villain within days. During the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, Jewell discovered a bomb in a park while serving as a security guard of the athletic event and alerted authorities. Despite saving countless lives, he was falsely suspected of planting the bomb by the FBI and vilified by the media. The film received positive reviews for its directing by the renowned U.S. filmmaker Clint Eastwood and for performances by U.S. actors Paul Walter Hauser as Jewell and Kathy Bates as his mom. The cast also features star actors Sam Rockwell, Jon Hamm and Olivia Wilde. The movie performed poorly at the box office, which some connect to controversy sparked by a wrongful depiction of a journalist exchanging sex for information on the Jewell case from an FBI agent. The film will be screened in English.
Richard Jewell. Zhovten (26 Kostiantynivska St.) Feb. 29. 2:20 p.m. March 1. 1:50 p.m. Hr 95
‘Several Stories and Objects’
The young Ukrainian artist Lesia Khomenko is known for raising socially important issues in her work. Her recent exhibition, called “Several Stories and Objects,” is no exception. Khomenko portrays people affected by Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. The new exhibition focuses on the tension between Ukrainians who were born in Crimea but had to leave the peninsula due to the annexation and Russians who can’t enter Ukraine legally as they have previously traveled to annexed Crimea. In her abstract paintings, Khomenko explores the conflict between them. The exhibition will be held at Kyiv’s Voloshyn Gallery until March 22.
“Several Stories and Objects.” Voloshyn Gallery (13 Tereshchenkivska St.) Feb. 28 – March 22. 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. Free
Eli Keszler
The inventive percussionist and visual artist Eli Keszler will let drums and percussion speak volumes at the Closer club in Kyiv. A U.S. musician with roots in hardcore punk rock and free improvisation, Keszler is known for a rapid and intricate style of drumming as well as the use of abrasive audio feedback. “I find myself attracted to things that are so slow they seem fast and so fast they seem slow – when you have so many hits that they eventually turn into a long tone,” Keszler says about his music. A prelude to Closer’s party in the Wordless series, Keszler’s show is intended to “shake out the noise accumulated in the head” to receive new musical information. During his first performance in Ukraine, Keszler will present his eighth album “Stadium.”
Eli Keszler. Closer (31 Nyzhnoiurkivska St.) March 7. 9 p.m. Hr 250-400