Luba Kushnir said she and fellow Ukrainians have a little extra pride when it comes to taking part in events like the Festival of Nations.
When the Ukraine was under Communist rule, Kushnir said, its citizens sacrificed their culture. They were forced to speak Russian and denied religious and other basic freedoms.
Kushnir’s own parents experienced the oppression of Communism before immigrating to the United States. It was here, thousands of miles from their homeland, that they dedicated themselves to making sure their heritage lived on. Kushnir proudly reports that her nieces, who are 13 and 16, are both fluent in Ukrainian.
Kushnir is part of the Ukrainian National Women’s League, which will sponsor the Ukrainian booth at this year’s Festival of Nations, set for Sunday, Nov. 1, at Empire State Plaza.
We need to promote our culture here in the U.S., Kushnir said.
That could be the slogan for the festival, which will feature 26 countries this year. Festival chairman Manoj Amera said there are two new countries: Bangladesh and Russia, which actually returns after being absent for a few years.
`You can have a glimpse of the world in such a short time at such a small cost,` Amera said.
That glimpse of the world will include native dances, music, ethnic foods, crafts and entertainment. There’s also a Miss Festival of Nations competition.
Amy Borowiec, a 16-year-old junior at Niskayuna High School, is one of the contestants in the pageant and stressed that it’s not a typical beauty pageant. She had to write a biographical essay and go throguh an interview with a panel of judges who asked her, for example, about the intricate costume she wears while dancing.
Borowiec should know plenty about the costume; she has been a Polish dancer since she was a kid, performing the past four years with St. Adalbert’s Polkabration Dancers.
`Every year, someone from our group is picked to be in the pageant,` she said, explaining that this year turned out to be her year.
In addition to dancing and being in the pageant, Borowiec will likely be selling Polish food with her parents. Amera said the food is consistently one of the festival’s big draws. He encourages people to bring take-out containers since there’s no way they can sample all of the offerings.
The Ukrainian booth will be selling stuffed cabbage and potato dumplings, Kushnir said. Beyond food, it will spotlight pysanky, or Ukranian Easter eggs. There will be kits available for people to make pysanky at home, and ceramics and books will also be sold.
Kushnir said the Ukrainian National Women’s League is a humanitarian group, and the Festival of Nations serves as a great fundraiser. There are branches of the league across the country, and they correspond with regions of the Ukraine. This year, the league is focusing on projects that will benefit senior citizens in the Ukraine, with an emphasis on raising funds for substandard nursing homes. Kushnir said her sister recently returned from a trip to the Ukraine to inspect nursing homes, and while some were `so clean you could eat off the floor,` some fell short of the most basic sanitary guidelines.
`It was horrible,` Kushnir said.
In the past, the group sent money to aid victims of Chernobyl, a cause that the league was dedicated to for probably 10 years. Kushnir said General Electric was generous enough to donate an MRI to the league, which was very helpful in treating some of the cancers that resulted from Chernobyl, but it was very expensive to ship the MRI overseas.
`This is a wonderful opportunity to make some money,` she said of the Festival of Nations. `Last year, [Amera] just handed out a $600 check to all the countries.` That was above and beyond whatever profit the countries made from selling their own items.
For Amera, who got involved with the festival as a dancer for India when it started 38 years ago, the best part is the spirit of cooperation that prevails among the countries.
`I get big satisfaction from working together with people from different backgrounds,` Amera said, noting that while there are sometimes disagreements, compromises are always reached. He said he doesn’t have veto power — nor does he want it.
The 38th annual Festival of Nations is Sunday, Nov. 1, at Empire State Plaza from noon to 5 p.m. Admission is $5 for adults and $1 for children 3 to 12. Parking is available in the Empire State Plaza garage for $5 and requires a photo identification.
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