All tagged Ukrainian Congress Committee of America
Chicago’s Ukrainian Community staged a demonstration in Lincoln Park, demanding that Russia release the Azovstal Defenders who are currently imprisoned. Not surprisingly, the U.S. Presidential Election cast a long and dark shadow over the event. Here are my thoughts about and images from the event.
On Saturday, Chicago's Ukrainian Community celebrated Ukrainian Independence Day outside the Ukrainian Cultural Center. The war dead were honored, several community leaders spoke, and Ukrainian tweens reprised last year's K-pop performance. Here are my thoughts about and images from the day's celebration.
Chicago’s Ukrainian Community came together today for another demonstration in front of the Wrigley Building. The group staged some arresting street theater with a simulated immolation of three Ukrainian men—the victims of unbridled Russian aggression. Here are my thoughts about and observations from the rally and march.
Chicago’s Ukrainian Community gathered in the Wrigley Building Plaza just hours after Russia bombed Kyiv’s Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital—about as close to a just-in-time demonstration as can you can get. It was an impressive showing. Here are my thoughts about and images from the rally and subsequent march that drew over 500 people on a muggy summer evening.
Members of Chicago’s Ukrainian Community held a rally outside the Wrigley Building on May 18, 2024, the location of Mondelēz International’s offices. The company is the maker of Oreo Cookies and Ritz Crackers, among other well-know snack foods. They continue to operate inside Russia, which is why the Ukrainians were demanding that Mondelēz put humanitarian concerns above profits. Here are my thoughts about and images from the rally and subsequent march.
Chicago’s Ukrainian community commemorated Mother’s Day with a rally in Jane Byrne Park (location of the historic water tower). The moms were out with their kids, handing out flowers to shoppers on Michigan Avenue while pleading Ukraine’s case. Here are my thoughts about and images from the day.
A small, but potent group of Ukrainians took to the streets today, as they have done two other times during the last month or so. Loud chants of “Thank You USA” could be heard as those holding Ukrainian flags and signs celebrated the House approval of the $60 billion Ukrainian aid package. Here are my thoughts about and images from the demonstration.
On Sunday, January 21, 2023, Chicago’s Ukrainian Community celebrated Ukraine Unity Day, as well as the 50th Anniversary of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America—Illinois Division with a banquet at the Ukrainian Cultural Center. Here are my thoughts about and images from the event.
Tonight, I attended the Chicago Ukrainian Community’s annual Holodomor memorial in Jane Byrne Plaza and Holy Name Cathedral. Here are my thoughts about and images from the event.
This past Sunday, I attended an unusually small demonstration by members of Chicago’s Ukrainian Community. Some in attendance were recent émigrés. They were demanding that Russia release 500 prisoners who surrendered following the siege of the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works in Mariupol, Ukraine. Here are my thoughts about and images from the demonstration.
Saturday afternoon Chicago’s Ukrainian Community celebrated Ukrainian Independence Day with a march, followed by a rally along the Chicago River. Flags, K-Poppers, and Ukrainian War Veterans showed up, together with 2,000 demonstrators. Here are my thoughts about and observations from the day’s events
By my estimate 25 or so members of Chicago’s Ukrainian community gathered outside the Civic Opera House tonight to protest the Joffrey Ballet’s performance of a ballet based on Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. While the imagery was great, the message—a condemnation of all things Russian, including Leo Tolstoy—was less than pitch-perfect. Here are my thoughts about and images from the demonstration.
Tonight, Chicago’s Ukrainian community gathered in front of the Old Water Tower to commemorate Holodomor—the 1932-33 famine that killed between three and ten million Ukrainian. Nature did not cause the famine. It was man-made, the author being Joseph Stalin, who used genocide to suppress an Ukrainian independence movement. The Ukrainian community draws the obvious parallels between Stalin and Putin, so this commemoration was really a protest against the ongoing war in Ukraine. Here are my thoughts about the demonstration, together with my images from the event.