Area libraries partner with City of Literature for ‘Stories from Ukraine’ project

IOWA CITY — The “Stories from Ukraine” project is a series of videos being shown in area libraries this week that offers a chance to better understand Ukraine, its culture, and its people.

The project is a collaboration among the Lviv Public Libraries, the Lviv UNESCO City of Literature, Ukraїner, and the Ukrainian Library Association. It is presented in partnership with the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature, the Iowa City Public Library, the Coralville Public Library, the North Liberty Community Library, and the University of Iowa Libraries.

The four local libraries will show the videos in their public spaces this week. Each video is between one and two minutes in length, and highlights a town, attraction, or region in Ukraine.

The videos were created between June 2016 and October 2018, and cover all 16 historic regions of Ukraine. The organization Ukraїner sought to capture stories from the farthest corners of Ukraine and to tell them to those who have moved from rural to urban regions or who have emigrated from the county. With the increased interest in Ukraine after the attack by Russia that began in the spring of 2022, the series became an opportunity to teach the rest of the world about the country.

Lviv, in the west of the country, and Odessa to the south, are both UNESCO Cities of Literature. They have asked colleagues in other Cities of Literature around the world to help share their story.