Olia Hercules, Volodymyr Rafeyenko, and Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed | Voices of Occupation: Stories of Cultural Survival

Since 2014, parts of Ukraine—including Crimea and Donetsk—have lived under Russian occupation, with the 2022 full-scale invasion expanding that violence to cities like Nova Kakhovka. In this urgent and deeply personal conversation, three Ukrainian voices explore what it means to live with, remember, and resist occupation.

This event will take place in person at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library on the 7th Floor.

Chef and author Olia Hercules, born in now-occupied Nova Kakhovka, shares how food becomes a language of memory and identity in Strong Roots, her first memoir. Novelist Volodymyr Rafeyenko, originally from Donetsk, reflects on exile, absurdity, and survival in Length of Days and Signals of Being. Scholar and translator Natalia Shpylova-Saeed introduces a powerful new anthology of Crimean poetry and prose, preserving voices from a region silenced since 2014. Together, they trace how storytelling—across genres—becomes an act of cultural defiance. The conversation will be moderated by professor and writer Sophie Pinkham.

To join the event in person | Doors will open 30 minutes before the program begins. For free events, we generally overbook to ensure a full house. Priority will be given to those who have registered in advance, but registration does not guarantee admission. All registered seats are released shortly before start time, and seats may become available at that time. A standby line will form 30 minutes before the program.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Olia Hercules was born in Ukraine and lived in Cyprus before moving to the UK to study. After working as a chef for several years, she released her bestselling and award-winning debut cookbook, Mamushka, in 2016. This was followed by Kaukasis, Summer Kitchens, and Home Food. Following the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Hercules co-founded a movement called #CookForUkraine, which has raised over £2 million pounds for humanitarian efforts. Strong Roots is her first memoir.

Volodymyr Rafeyenko is award-winning Ukrainian writer, poet, translator, literary and film critic. Following the outbreak of the Russian aggression in Ukraine’s east, Rafeyenko left Donetsk and moved to a town near Kyiv. That town, situated between Bucha and Hostomel, trapped Volodymyr and his wife when Russian forces invaded Ukraine in 2022. Volodymyr captured that experience in his play Signals of Being that is forthcoming from Harvard. His 2017 novel The Length of Days: An Urban Ballad is set mostly in the composite Donbas city of Z—an uncanny foretelling of what this letter has come to symbolize since February 24, 2022, when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Several embedded narratives attributed to an alcoholic chemist-turned-massage therapist give insight into the funny, ironic, or tragic lives of people who remained in the occupied Donbas after Russia’s initial aggression in 2014.

Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed is interested in memory studies, particularly in contested memory focusing on Ukraine and Russia. She is currently a Preceptor in Slavic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University. Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed is an H-Ukraine review editor and host on the New Books Network (Ukrainian, East European, and Literary Studies channels). As a series editor, she worked with Arrowsmith Press on an anthology of contemporary Crimean Tatar literature forthcoming in 2025.

Sophie Pinkham (Moderator) is Professor of Practice in the Comparative Literature Department at Cornell University. Her writing has appeared in The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker, Poetry, Foreign Affairs, and Foreign Policy, among others. Her story for the Economist 1843, ‘Lost in a Dark Wood’, on migrants in the forest on the Belarusian-Polish border, was awarded a 2023 British Journalism Award. Her first book, Black Square: Adventures in Post-Soviet Ukraine, was published in 2016. Her latest book, The Oak and the Larch, a cultural history of the forest in Russia and its environs, will be out this January.

Books by our Speakers

• Borrow: NYPL Catalog


• This event will also include signing and sales of the books by our Library Shop.

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ACCESSIBILITY NOTES

In-Person

• Assistive listening devices and/or hearing loops are available at the venue.


• You can request a free ASL (American Sign Language) interpretation or CART (Communication Access Real-Time Translation) captioning service by emailing your request at least two weeks in advance of the event: email accessibility@nypl.org or use this Gmail template.


• This venue is fully accessible to wheelchairs.

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All programs are subject to change or cancellation. All programs are subject to recording and photography.

Razom, which means “together” in Ukrainian, is dedicated to upholding the principles of the Revolution of Dignity (Maidan) and actively contributing to the establishment of a secure, prosperous, and democratic Ukraine. We achieve this by creating, inspiring, and collaborating on initiatives that motivate people to think, partner and do. Since February 2022, Razom has contributed over 100 million dollars to support the people of Ukraine, in these difficult times of war,  thanks to the generosity of over 200,000 donors. This presentation is part of Razom's 2025 Ukrainian Cultural Festival.

The 7 Stories Up Series at SNFL is made possible by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).