One could write that we met with a young talented poet, or director of a charitable foundation, or a fashion designer of cool clothes. But it would be too banal, but still would not reveal the true essence of the person, because we met a courageous dreamer with progressive feminist views – Yulia Kruchak
“I grew up in an incomplete family, I was raised only by my mother. She worked as a teacher at school once, and since childhood I also dreamed of being a teacher. And she even had her two years. We lived with my mother together, at the age of 17 I joined Zhytomyr State University, in philology, because I had no other choice. When you live in a small town, you go to all the circles that it has: in the school of arts, the theater circle, on the dance, even on burning. And all my childhood, I dreamed of escaping into a big city to have the right to choose. Not where mum will say, not where there is an opportunity, but to decide for yourself. When I arrived in Zhytomyr, I realized that there was actually a bit of a choice. It was an attempt to escape to Kiev, in Chernivtsi, lived in Lviv for some time, but still returned to Zhytomyr, because this city is very comfortable for life, for living with family, for bringing up children »
“In my childhood I did not give toys, gave books. Therefore, this love of the book I have since childhood. At school I wrote a poem, gave all teachers on holidays. And then, when he entered the university, we published a magazine “Filio + logos”, which was coordinated by Galina Levchenko. This was my first post. I also went to Exia, met with normal poets. It’s not like school was taught how to write, and how it should: correctly, competently. I worked hard on skill. Then there was Kiev, the publishing house Smoloskyp, a prize from the publishing house, an annual forum for publishers. And somehow it was dragged into this wakeboard. ”
“When a little child appeared, there was no opportunity to travel to all literary events, and I fell out of the events a little, and now I can not complete the book. Now I finally found Iryna Lysenko’s Zhytomyr illustrator, but I still can not complete it, although almost three years have passed since the prize ”
“I adore Swedish poetry and all their literature in general. All Scandinavians, contemporary Israeli poetry. In it the spirit of freedom given to people from birth, the spirit of independence, struggle, nobody afraid of anyone. It is a movement forward, when a person does not depend on the opinion of others. And we have a completely different literature, another culture. And these twenty years ago of independence, have not yet grown into our consciousness. Maybe this is literature from school couples and sounds like slave literature, literature of a disadvantaged woman. And European literature seems to be different. Therefore, I think we have a place to grow”
“If you change the curriculum now, then the list can be expanded to infinity. We have very cool contemporaries: Yulia Stakhivska, our Zhytomyr, by the way. I would add Natalia Tkachyk and Galina Kruk. In high school – Natalka Bilotserkivets, she has an extremely beautiful intimate lyric poetry. It is very difficult to give children love for literature, for poetry, when they read poetry, in which words are simply rumored ”
“My mother was a discriminated woman. I saw her throwing all her life on herself, as she herself stepped down the quarry stairs, and she always said: “This work is for men.” I saw that a woman can really do everything, and her husband does not need to feel harmonious and happy. If only he did not interfere. Then, in my life, I was faced with the fact that mostly men are employed, and women are denied that a woman with a child can not even get a job at all. And there are many such moments that show that women’s place in Ukraine, unfortunately, is still in the kitchen. We now have a bunch of levers, a bunch of instruments of influence on power, a society to show that a woman – a full member of society – has the potential to influence the life of society ”
“Womanhood is a term that has nothing to do with the concept of” woman. ” Femininity is a useful tool to meet the male eye. It can not be said that women are becoming, or something like: “You are a woman, because you have a difference in the structure of the body.” Or “female wisdom”, “female energy”. In fact, all these concepts have nothing to do with reality. I look like it’s really comfortable with me. It is definitely more comfortable for me to wear a skirt, I have one or two pair of trousers. I love to look after hair and skin, and this does not describe me in any way. I do it for myself, not for my husband. He, incidentally, treats me very well and shares them. There was even a period in my life when I had to work, and he was sitting with a child in a decree. I am extremely grateful to him, especially since there was such an avalanche of condemnation! And from the side and friends, they said: “Oh, you took the man under the heel.” It was very difficult to survive, and I am so admired by him that he understands that he shares my views. You know, I’m not going to go for a man, but we go together. This is the ideal partner relationship ”
“I hate sexist, I just can not stand. This is such a common practice among men: pointing to women what to do, who to meet, how many mother children, which work to walk. And again, I hate people who are only looking for a benefit in everything: they do not go to the job they like, but to the one where they pay more. To one that benefits humanity or soul, but only for the sake of profit. We are now very concerned about it, unfortunately. And so I am very tolerant ”
“Everything can be forgiven for a person, even a betrayal: every person has the right to mistake. I would probably never forgive betrayal of beliefs. It is very important that people around you who support you help you. Then it’s easier to go to life: easier to create, easier to work, inspire »
“Somehow it happens that in my life lately only my people. Motherhood, the birth of a child shed extra people. The circle of friends has narrowed, the environment has become smaller, and it’s really good ”
“It was feminism that led me to design work. I noticed that men’s clothing and footwear are usually much more comfortable, comfortable and functional. I have a problem with the selection of shoes, and I bought for several years, for example, men’s sneakers. Even when we bought our costumes, I also noticed that in pocket men’s suits are deeper, and women do not even have a cell phone. And then he decided to create clothes in which every woman can feel comfortably everywhere: both on a walk with a child and at work. This is a dress in which you can change the image by adding a few details. These are jeans, which can be easily transformed with paints, beads ”
“Jeans are clothes worn mostly by men. Women’s jeans are not very suitable for the women: they are tightly pulled by the waist (it is not useful), it’s a low landing, uncomfortable pockets. And men’s jeans – these are jeans of dreams, they are free and comfortable, they have cool fasteners that do not mumble. From here we went to jeans to show that denim clothing can be cool, comfortable, stylish, fashionable, you can wear it for a holiday, and for a walk. ”
“I have never had a huge amount of money in my life, so I can not say:” How good it is to have a lot of money. ” Though I lived very modestly, but I never regretted the impression. My husband and I traveled a lot, we can pay half-pay for a trip to a movie or a cafe, we walk a lot with a child, drive it somewhere. And so to collect, invest in something or buy road technics … We do not have such. Material things are not so important in human life, because all things are day-to-day: today it is, tomorrow is not. And memory, impression, people – it’s all that will be with you all my life, this can not be sorry for money ”
“Five years ago, our close friend, a musician, fell ill. We had a shock, a panic, it was very sudden. We are all people of creative professions: who the artist, who sings, the designer. In addition to writing or drawing, we can no longer know anything. We were not able to raise money, we could not fundraise. And then we began to exhibit our works at foreign auctions, find prosperous people in Zhytomyr, just went to them with a request: “Buy us a book, a picture. Please, please. ” At that time, by 2014, we managed to raise UAH 80,000. It was a huge sum! And our friend went to be treated to Israel. Thank God, it’s a success. He currently lives and works in Poland, teaches children at the music school, still in “ArTherapy”.
“Last winter I woke up in the morning and realized that I have no strength to continue to work in ArTerapiya in the future. So much was given to our own resources and forces, funds, people are connected, but we decided to pause. First of all, many volunteers went from us because people do not know how to work for free, they do not understand how it is. Several trips to the oncological hospital, and people said: “God, how hard.” I understood them, because I was already somehow tempered inside, I did not miss everything through myself. And people who get acquainted, help, and then find out that this person is gone, tolerated everything very painfully. Therefore, we are currently holding an annual “ArTherapy” festival and working only with donors. We have several warranties for the year that we are constantly engaged in. We do not keep pages in social networks, we do not hold monthly shares, as it once was, we decided that we will do more ”
“I really hope that after this year’s” ArTherapy “festival, which will take place in October, we will still find a classy team of people who will be with us from the beginning to the end. It is very difficult when there is a “leak of personnel”, although we have systemic contacts, and contacts and partners around the world. Here they support all our undertakings, but when they come to Zhitomir and see passivity … You knock on the door, knock them out of the forehead, and they do not break out. And then they just ride from us ”
“The ideal volunteer is the” perpetual motion “. As we used to be. We could sleep in the camp in October, until it was equipped, to eat once a day. But after the festival we were so happy, so exalted, that when the final words were said, each of the 20 team members wept because this is the point of life. Of course, such a volunteer is perfect ”
“I really want to have more children, because motherhood brought many new colors to my life. I hope that I will have more children, and in my old age, with my husband, we will go to some kind of plantation somewhere near Zhytomyr. But this will definitely be in Ukraine, somewhere here, near. And there will be a small house with my own studio, where I can sew quiet clothes, embroider beads, and the husband will grow lambs, cut and do clothes too ”
“No, I’m not an idealist, I’m a dreamer. And all my dreams come true ”
Translated by Aliona Matushevich
