Kamasi Washington: Lviv "brought us back to the world of making music"
This week: Jazz jams 'til dawn, a brave Belarusian exile, the green Carpathian wilderness, and Ukraine's no. 1 cocktail crafter
Lviv Now, created by Ukrainian and American journalists, brings you the universal ideas of a vibrant city, a place of culture, freedom, and innovation. Come visit us one day—or simply join the conversation about how we can build better cities and democracies.
SECTIONS: Lviv Live Music | Wealth & Democracy | Food & Drink | Travel & Nature | Soul & Culture | About Us
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Lviv Live Music
Sunrise Jams with the Legends. Lviv’s New Musical Moment
AT FOUR-SOMETHING-O’CLOCK in the morning on a June Saturday, American jazz legend Kamasi Washington walked into Lviv’s LV Café, in a centuries-old cellar. The celebratory jam session had already been going strong, but Kamasi’s presence brought a new electricity. Here was the guy who would play the main stage of Leopolis Jazz Fest the next day – coming to play with the local Ukrainian musicians until dawn.
Caught up in the moment, the American musicians in particular seemed grateful to play before an audience after months of Covid angst. And having missed live music for so long, the musicians jammed until the earth turned.
“I was listening to his concert and crying,” said Lviv saxophonist Andrii Dulysh.
Story by Joe Lindsley. Read more …
SEE ALSO:
«Psychedelic Lullabies»: Unveiling the Hidden Power of Acoustic Sound
Explore eastern European music that mixes strange instruments, old poems, and new ideas: «Mostly, [these songs] are about some ‘inner kid’ living inside each of us. It’s possible to listen to lullabies beyond their functional role». Story by Vitalii Holich.
How Jazz is Like Mountain-Biking: ‘Everything is a Surprise’
Lviv-native Nicko Shevelov is pursuing jazz dreams in NYC: He plays the esteemed Yale Club, chauffeurs an American legend, and, sometimes, fights off assailants. Story by Joe Lindsley.
Wealth & Democracy
«Call me Johnny». A Story of a Belarusian Forced to Exile in Lviv
IVAN, AKA JOHNNY is a Belarusian refugee intent on helping restore freedom to his homeland. Here’s the story of his escape—and the fixed elections and tyranny in his homeland.
“Those who spoke Belarusian were simply marked with a colored spray by the police,” he says “They could have their faces and heads simply poured by paint. Then they were beaten harder than those who spoke Russian.”
Story by Tetiana Bot & Natalia Voloshchuk; translated by Vitalii Holich. Read more …
SEE ALSO:
Ukrainian-Texan tech firm to turn old prison into cool tech campus
Softserv, a global tech firm, will build a futuristic IT-campus at the site of a former Lviv prison with offices, housing, a sports complex, and an English-language school.
Food & Drink
Forest-Foraging Lviv Bartender Will Represent Ukraine in Elite Global Contest
KYIV’S CHEF KLOPOTENKO (see this New York Times story) is advocating for the unique cuisine of Ukraine. And in Lviv, Andrii Osypchuk is promoting the fresh ingredients of Ukrainian Galicia.
This weekend as Ukraine’s football team competes against England in Rome in the delayed Euro 2020 quarterfinal, Osypchuk, who trained in Dubai, will represent Ukraine in the global finals of the annual World Class by Diageo Bartender of the Year competition. The judges meet in London, though Osypchuk will compete virtually from Kyiv.
Here you can read about his vision of locally-sourced cocktails using the produce of Ukrainian Galicia.
Story by Joe Lindsley. Read more …
SEE ALSO:Guide to the Cuisine of Ukrainian Galicia
Pork fat, beetroot, dumplings, mushrooms: From soups red and green to variations on the potato, here’s your guide to the food of Lviv and the Carpathian mountains.
Travel & Nature
A Carpathian Idyll on the River Resistance
narrated by Schubert and fed by Ukrainian gnocchi
“ON OUR DESCENT, I felt the forest power. With walking stick in hand I started running downhill through thick foliage in cool air. Though it was summer I could see my breath. I was swimming or maybe flying.”
Lviv Now editor Joe Lindsley, an American, describes a week of rest, hiking, and feasting on trout and mushrooms amid the streams, garden-laden lanes, riverbanks, and forests of Skole, Ukraine, in the Carpathian mountains.
“ … with what seems to be infinite shades of green: Not even in my ancestral Ireland have I seen such green. Green therapy, the Ukrainians call it.”
SEE ALSO:«A little Provence» near Lviv. A couple created a park of flowering plants and lavender fields
On three hectares of fields, you can find hydrangeas, spirea, hibiscus, Weigela, as well as lavender. Check out the photos to get a feel for the Lviv countryside.
Soul & Culture
Spiritual Burpees: Understanding the world’s nexus of Greek Catholicism
LVIV IS a city of Two Christmases and Two Easters, hovering between east and west, between the old Julian calendar and the modern (since the 16th century) Gregorian calendar. Here, an American reflects on the spiritual ethos of the city.
«Even if you never enter a church here, you cannot escape the bells, the chant, even the smell of incense in the streets. It has the effect of unifying the city, of infusing it with some distinct identity, of making it a place of portals to another world.»
Special Bilingual Print Edition in Lviv: «The Music of a Free People»
Here is the front page of our “souvenir special” Leopolis Jazz Fest print edition. If you’re in Lviv and would like a copy, please let us know via DM on Facebook or Instagram—links below.
About Us
Lviv Now: Showing How Strong a Community Can Be When Creating Quality Changes Together
LVIV NOW is a project of Tvoe Misto (“Your City”), Lviv’s solutions-focused media hub, working with American journalist Joe Lindsley.
Each week, the journalists of Tvoe Misto, led by editor-in-chief Svitlana Zhabiuk and publisher Taras Yatsenko, host problem-solving public forums, one topic at a time, to activate democracy for all citizens. We welcome you to share this newsletter or individual stories with digital nomads, creative people, travelers, entrepreneurs, the Ukrainian diaspora, and more!
“Through the Lviv Now project, we want to tell the English-speaking audience about Lviv as a lively and attractive city, with its unique architecture, history, and entrepreneurial initiatives. We seek to show how strong a community can be when creating quality changes together,” says the director of the media hub Tvoe Misto, Taras Yatsenko.
“We hope Lviv Now will be useful and interesting among the English-speaking audience of scientists, artists, entrepreneurs, journalists and tourists, as well as firmly establish Lviv on the global map of the world,” Yatsenko says. “Therefore, the slogan of our project is "Let's Open Lviv to the world!"
For more stories and to leave comments, please visit our website LvivNow.com. We welcome your ideas and responses.