There is one memory from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that will likely stay with us forever: the video of a Ukrainian elder approaching a group of Russian soldiers who are in full body armor, automatic weapons slung over their shoulders. When she asks who they are, they lie and say that they are simply conducting exercises. She calls them occupants in her country, fascists! They keep trying to move her along, this negligible pest of a woman, but she won’t go away. She tells them to put sunflower seeds [the national flower of Ukraine] in their pockets so that the flowers will grow when the soldiers die on Ukrainian soil.
There is no act of resistance so small that it cannot ripple throughout the world. This post is dedicated to each and every one of them, whether they happen on the streets or in a museum or are still rumbling around in our hearts, waiting to be let out.
(Here’s a post-publication footnote1 about this series.)
A song that seems as though it were written for this moment:
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I’m adding this footnote post-publication to bring attention to important information and context about this series that I didn’t have when I included it in this post. Thank you to artist Bukola Koiki for sharing it with the community; you can read the full comment and exchange below.
Resistance +1. My company, Beyondish, will make a donation to World Central Kitchen for every review posted. They are feeding refugees by the thousands. Support a local (U.S.) chef with a positive review and we will do our best to feed a hungry escapee. Anything we can all do. At any cost.
this post, as all posts you write, is stunning. i need more time to be able to sit with each piece and consider it deeply. thank you for gathering them!
Resistance +1. My company, Beyondish, will make a donation to World Central Kitchen for every review posted. They are feeding refugees by the thousands. Support a local (U.S.) chef with a positive review and we will do our best to feed a hungry escapee. Anything we can all do. At any cost.
this post, as all posts you write, is stunning. i need more time to be able to sit with each piece and consider it deeply. thank you for gathering them!