KOBZAR'S CHILDREN

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch, ed. KOBZAR'S CHILDREN: A Century of Untold Ukrainian Stories. Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2006. 

I was looking for a collection of Ukrainian folklore. This is not that, but this is well worth the read. It is a collection of poems, stories, memoirs written by Ukrainian Canadians, covering most of the trauma of the twentieth century from the beginning of immigration to the Orange Revolution in Ukraine. The story which most impresses me stylistically is "It's Me, Tatia" by Brenda Hasiuk which takes us inside a mind struggling with old age and dementia. The most devastating story is Stefan Petelycky"s first person account of "Auschwitz: Many Circles of Hell".

A kobzar is the traditional wandering minstrel of Ukraine. It is also the title of Taras Shevchenko's first book of poems and the title of one of the Leo Mol sculptures in the Garden in Assiniboine Park, Winnipeg.