Showing the road to freedom

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Zoryana Keske and Vaughn Lewis sit outside of Stay Gallery in Downey, on Jan. 24, to support their event of Maidan. Ukraine. Road to Freedom. “This is for the Ukrainian people,” Keske said, “who right now are fighting for their freedom.”

Esther Rodriguez, Parents & Teachers Section Editor
January 28, 2015

On Jan. 24, the Stay Gallery opened their newest exhibit, Maidan: A Road to Freedom. that features photos and posters from various Ukraine artists and photographers such as Matviy Vaisberg, Igor Gaidai, Maxim Dondyuk, and Olexander Glyadeylov.

The showing displayed photos capturing student gatherings turned to violent riots from 2013 in Maidan Square in Kyiv, Ukraine. These riots happened after President Viktor Yanukovych betrayed his promise to sign a trade agreement with Europe.

Erica Montes de Oca, a junior at Warren High School, was shocked at the violence erupting in other places in the world and visited the exhibit to learn more about this rebellion.

“It’s crazy to see all these riots, the crowd standing up, and soldiers dying,” Montes said. “They’re all just standing up for their rights and want freedom.”

Daria Chaikovsky, President of the Ukrainian Art Center, feels the purpose of this exhibit is to show Americans what is going on in Ukraine while sharing Ukrainian culture.

“The goal is to bring the art and culture to the community,” Chaikovsky said. “We want the world to know about this. Ukrainians know about this, but many Americans don’t. They hear it on the news, but not the whole story. They [Ukrainians] are fighting for their rights, for less corruption.”

The gallery was also serving Maidan food and drinks such as mush, bread with various dips and cheeses, and kvas, a fermented drink. It also featured a performance from Ukrainian musician Serhiy Fomenko, known as FOMA. While people admired the various photographs and artifacts, a documentary called Dancing Diplomats played.

This documentary compared the Yatran Dance Company, a group of dancers used as propaganda to secretly inform the public of the corrupt regime, and the Voloshky Ukrainian dance ensemble, a Philadelphia based dance company made to preserve Ukrainian culture in children. It shows the freedom the dancers have in America and how art is a form of sharing culture and beliefs.

Olga Starow, secretary of the Ukrainian Art Center, thinks art is a global language used to communicate people’s culture.

“Through Ukrainian art, Americans can come to know Ukraine and get to know what Ukraine and Ukrainians are like,” Starow said. “We want to show it through art. Through our song, we show our culture.”

Maidan: Road to Freedom was featured at the Stay Gallery until Jan. 28, but is a traveling art exhibit presented by the Ukrainian Art Center, curated by Serhiy Fomenko.

About the Contributors

Esther Rodriguez, Parents & Teachers Section Editor

Entering her second year as a writer for The Downey Legend, senior Esther Rodriguez has high hopes. As a sophomore, she heard about joining Newspaper during the morning announcements and her English teacher, Mr. Kraus, encouraged her to fill out an application and display her knack for writing. This inspired her to apply and see if she could make it, which she did. Rodriguez joined in hopes of improving her writing skills, becoming less shy, and learning to write in more detail. To her, the best part about being on the newspaper staff is finding out about interesting, random things going on around the school. “There are things you would not know just coming to school, but being in Newspaper you learn things that aren’t common knowledge,” Rodriguez said. “We are the eyes and ears of the school.”

In her down time, Rodriguez enjoys reading young adult literature, writing fictional stories, and spending quality time with her cell phone on websites like YouTube, Tumblr, and Twitter. Besides being in Newspaper at school, she is also a new tutor at Downey High’s Writing Center. Writing as much as possible is important to her because she dreams of one day being an author. Along with chasing her aspirations of writing for a living, after she finishes high school, Rodriguez also looks forward to attending a university such as UCLA, San Diego State, or UC San Diego and obtaining a degree in English. Next summer, she will also be going on a missionary trip with church to Japan. Although her head is full of thoughts about the surreal future, for now Rodriguez is focusing on her schoolwork and activities and soaking up her last year as a high schooler.

Dayna Sanchez, Photographer

A part of The Downey Legend staff, sophomore Dayna Sanchez is a photographer. She enjoys taking photos and wants to capture the sports events around school. Sanchez enjoys taking photos to show off her skills. Being a photographer requires a creative eye and patience, which Sanchez has.

In her leisure time, Sanchez enjoys watching Netflix and taking photos of her three-shitzu mix digs named Esme, Darcy, and Charlie. “I need my daily dose of Netflix right before bed!” Sanchez stated. In five years, Sanchez sees herself in college becoming a pastry chef. Her goals for this school year are to participate more in the school events around campus. “This year I plan to be more involved in school”, Sanchez said. “I would possibly join the volleyball team, because my dad got me involved in the sport”. Sanchez still has years of high school ahead of her, but she hopes to become more positive and to stop looking at the negative side of situations that come her way.