A Flower in the Scorched Earth: Ukrainian Poets Tour Italy

Three Ukrainian poets go on a poetry tour in Italy in November 2022. Natalia Beltchenko, Iya Kiva, and Oksana Stomina use verse to speak of the tragedy and hope; of Ukraine’s struggle against the Russian invasion.

The three writers visit Abano Terme, Bologna, Verona, Milan, and Rome and discuss the changes undergone by the structures, styles, and themes of poetry in war settings.

Pina Piccolo, a tour organizer, writer, and cultural promoter, speaks about the intersections of poetry and politics and the challenges of organizing the readings.

What is the general attitude to the war in Ukraine in Italy?

Unfortunately, the general attitude here in Italy is supportive to some degree when it comes to material aid or being ‘compassionate’ to the victims of Russian aggression in a Catholic sense, but leery of getting directly involved in a war that many perceive as a proxy war between the US and Russia.

Many Italians whose idea of Resistance has been cultivated in a totemic, mythological dimension in relation to what took place on Italian soil at the end of WWII, have a hard time applying those lessons to what is happening in Ukraine today. Interestingly, the organization that keeps the memory of the partisans alive (all of the old partisans being dead now, as those events took place in 1943–5) called ANPI, is one the most ardent defenders of the idea that NATO is to blame. They hold a lot of sway on the Italian movement because of the prestige behind the historical process they claim to represent, thus their lack of support for Ukraine has serious repercussions.

Did the feelings about the Russian war in Ukraine change with the new government now in power?

The previous government which was a grand coalition that included all the major parties — both Left, Center, and Right and was headed by Draghi supported Ukraine and was providing arms (though. in reality, Italy did not provide significant military assistance).

After the elections that took place three months ago, the government is in the hands of a coalition of right-wing parties. Giorgia Meloni, who is the Prime Minister and head of the Fratelli d’Italia, the neo-fascist party has committed to continue supporting Ukraine militarily as well as apply sanctions on Russia, but she is also feeling the pressure of her coalition partners Berlusconi, who is a historic ally of Putin and Giuseppe Conte who represents the Five Star Movement aligned with Moscow to lift the sanctions. Paradoxically all of these demands and pressures are also coming from leftist parties.

The Democratic party (a party of the Center with some currents that are vaguely to the left) is riddled with internal conflicts about support for Ukraine, it was in the space between such contradictions that we found some support for our tour, as well as among many other people of conscience who are not necessarily aligned in a traditional political way. Some of the municipal council representatives for culture came to our support and helped secure the spaces to hold the readings in (for example the auditorium in the Main Library in Bologna, the equal opportunities representative in Verona, and in Abano Terme).

What are the challenges of organizing the Ukrainian poets’ tour in this political landscape?

Some of our main challenges came from the various cultural circles who would have to abandon their ‘comfort zone’ if they helped build the tour or came to it. Almost immediately after the invasion of 24 February, many Italian cultural organizations started organizing events ‘against all wars’ uniformly failing to mention Ukraine. Other groups crystallized around identity issues, solidarity with other international struggles proceeded with their work with a business-as-usual attitude and declared their suspicion of the government’s favor for the Ukrainian cause and lack of support for theirs. Within this context, it was a challenge to make people understand the importance of taking sides on the issue or framing the situation of Ukraine as a colonial war project, as the only possible imperialist power is customarily the US and it is hard to perceive Russia (still in the mind of many boomers like me still being associated with the Soviet Union). Anti-Americanism (some of it justified, some of it a cold war heritage) is prevalent at the ideological level, especially among intellectuals.

Do you think the Kremlin narratives are being spread in the information space in Italy?

It is important to keep in mind the relentless pro-Russian propaganda currently and in past years here in Italy. It has penetrated through social media and media outlets like RT, Sputnik, and of course through social media, and most likely through money that has trickled down to the political parties.

Another big cultural influence in Italy is that of Cuba, through the prestige of its antiimperialist struggle and the US blockade. Many cultural organizations and festivals are associated with Cuba and there is a feeling of general benevolence for its government, the Cuban doctors, etc.

Do you feel that culture can influence collective mentality? Do you think that poetry and art can reach those who are “not interested” in politics?

Yes, I am obviously convinced that collective mentality can be influenced by action in the cultural sphere otherwise I would not have embarked on this adventure. It is a difficult process, but I do believe that there are people whose conscience is still awake and though they vacillate because the prevailing public opinion and that of their friends’ is in favor of ‘equidistance’, the brutality of the Russian invasion, the extremism of Putin’s pronouncements and the evidence of what happens to the opposition in Russia does not sit well with them and can spur them to take an inconvenient stand.

We have had evidence of this over the months, as many of the initiatives we have launched in support of Ukraine have found support. On September 7th, we joined the worldwide readings launched by Internationales Literatures Festival Berlin. We had 12 poets reading from the Italian translations of Ukrainian writers.

In the course of organizing this tour, we have seen important media outlets like Internazionale publish a poem by Oksana Stomina and information about the tour. The historic Left newspaper Il Manifesto published an interview with Iya Kiva. Poems by Natalia Beltchenko were published by Nazione Indiana, perhaps the most important online literary journal in Italy.

All these obstacles aside, the plus side though, we had the early support of the MAXXI, one of the most prestigious contemporary arts museums in Italy, without whose support this tour could not have taken place and to which we are greatly indebted.

Recently the prestigious journal Micromega, which has a large following among intellectuals, has begun to explicitly take on a position on Ukraine and urge others to leave their comfort zone by providing convincing arguments about the colonial nature of the Russian enterprise and the pernicious nature of Westsplaining.

So we continue with our work, trusting in the power of poetry and personal testimony like the ones that can be provided by our three poets to help change the cultural landscape. In some of our meetings, the poems will be accompanied by visual art forms, like Zarina Zabrisky’s photos, and Vitaukr’s art exhibit in the Milan meeting, and at the MAXXI event a short documentary shot by photographer Niccolò Celesti. His photographs will be projected as the poets read.

In a way, we expect that people who come to the readings are people who are interested in literature or current events, but people who might not be interested in politics in its ‘institutional’ form are not immune to having to deal with the consequences of politics and it’s in that ‘space’ that poetry can penetrate especially when delivered in a way that speaks its truth.

How and why did you decide to arrange the Ukrainian poets’ tour in Italy?

The idea of organizing a national tour of Ukrainian poets in Italy came on the heels of months of publishing contemporary Ukrainian poets in the Italian language online literary journal La macchina sognante. Starting from 26 February until today, we have published over 20 articles containing the translated writings of over 40 writers, both in Ukraine and in the diaspora, ranging from Halyna Kruk to Serhij Zhadan, Natalka Bilotserkivets, Ilya Kaminsky, Iya Kiva, Irene Shuvalova, Natalia Beltchenko, Ella Yevtushenko, Yury Zavadsky, Anastasia Afanasieva.

For the first six months, they were translated into Italian from English language translations available in US literary journals. Many of the poems and prose pieces that we initially published in Italian were translations by Amelia Glaser and Yuliya Ilchuk, Ilya Kaminsky and Katie Farris. Later when we started collaborating with Marina Sorina, a Ukrainian expat who has been living in Italy for many years and is an Italian writer, we could have translations from the original Ukrainian and we added pieces by Oksana Stomina, Inna Romenska, Elina Sventsytska. Marina Sorina then joined in the efforts to organize the tour and was essential to integrating the Ukrainian community in the process.

Though some of the other literary journals like Doppiozero, Nazione Indiana, Inkroci occasionally carried pieces by Ukrainian writers, the overwhelming majority of paper literary outlets, websites and the media, in general, was not at all interested in featuring Ukrainian voices: the worst example being Italian television, talk shows and political opinion commentaries which featured so-called Italian experts eager to ‘interpret’ the situation for viewers. Out there in the mainstream media, it’s generally a Westsplaining fest, corroborated by the occasional Russian spokeswoman or military expert.

This dearth of Ukrainian ‘live’ voices convinced us of the necessity to start ‘importing’ some, hoping to at least make a dent in the consensus among Italians who are prone to keep ‘equidistant’ from the war, wave peace flags calling for improbable ceasefires, and in their vast majority eager to blame NATO for the situation.

Our journal has traditionally given space to writers whose voices are not heard or are silenced. Given that the institutional clearing houses of ideas were not going to do it, we decided to use the writer networks.

Who are the poets you are bringing on the tour?

The three poets we chose are very different from one another not just in geographical terms.

Oksana Stomina hails from Mariupol, Iya Kiva lives now in Lviv but is originally from Donetsk, and Natalia Beltchenko is from Kyiv though she is now in Poland on a residency provided by the Polish government. In the three meetings we have had so far in Abano Terme, Bologna, and Verona they complement each other.

Oksana Stomina’s passionate, yearning voice is rooted in her personal experience as an inhabitant and volunteer of Mariupol, a city that has nearly been razed to the ground by the Russian army, her husband is currently a prisoner of war and she is not ever sure whether he is alive or dead.

Natalia Beltchenko adds a more literary, lyrical touch with her masterful use of poetic language and metaphor, integrating the natural world, objects, and literary figures.

Iya Kiva’s contained fury resorts to distancing and paradox to invert situations, drawing from history both personal, national, and international to expose the core of contradictions she as a person and Ukraine as a nation are facing, even at the level of what language to use to express herself.

What are you hoping to achieve?

With their verse and testimony, the three of them are an ‘explosive’ mix.

We hope the meetings with them will help people here in Italy take sides with the resistance of the Ukrainian people. Not out of ‘compassion’ but in recognition that their struggle and resistance, rooted in the right to self-determination is just and in keeping with the aspirations of people everywhere including here in Italy.

The consequences of their defeat will have negative repercussions for everyone and not only in Europe. Their victory gives some breathing space for the world to confront the big challenges of today like changing the way we live within the environment, the relations between people in terms of gender issues, etc.

Though we have predicaments of our own, not least of late our overtly fascistic government, it behooves us to recognize that our destiny as a people is not at all separate from that of other people of the world, including that corner of the world where a struggle for survival and resistance to a pernicious, autocratic and yes the capitalist system is taking place.

Bilingual poetry readings in Ukrainian and Italian with an on-site interview followed by Q&A offer the maximum room for a conversation. Natalia Beltchenko, Iya Kiva and Oksana Stomina’s poems as well as the writings of over twenty-five other contemporary Ukrainian writers, can be found in the Italian language online literary journal La Macchina Sognante, the digital magazine that has been a driving force for the tour.

Pina Piccolo writes in Italian and English, having lived in California and Italy for many years. She is the editor of The Dreaming Machine and one of the editors of the online Italian language literary journal La Macchina Sognante.