Projects From The Heart - Traditional Dress Fashion Show

Hey, beautiful people!

This past Friday I had a great opportunity - my wondeful friends, creators of Palermo based cultural association Flowerful Embrace, invited me to participate in a fashion show. And not just an ordinary fashion - the traditional dress fashion show.

It was the second time when they organised this type of a fashion show and both times it went great. I love the fact that it unites fashion, diversity and cultural richness and functiones as an amazing tool for social inclusion and cultural dialogue.

Christmas #2, New Year #2 and New Years resolutions

Merry Christmas, Orthodox and Greek Catholic people! Happy old New Year!

I was planning to make a few separate posts on all of those topics but then realised that I will not manage to do it for many reasons. So let's mix it a bit!

It took me a long time to understand what are my New Year's Resolutions, or should I rather say - New Year's Goals. But now I really want to put them in writing to have something to measure this year by later. Some of this goals you might have seen in my birthday post, but that's the plan.

Photo by Tarmo Tõnismann 

#45daysofblogging 41: the magic of chocolate

Day 41 - September 27

This post in going to be a chatty one again.

Yesterday we celebrated two special occasions - I finally finished everything regarding our Human Library project and my friend Anna finished performing in Madame Butterfly. 

So what is the best way to celebrate something? To bake a cake, of course. So that's what we did. She came over to my apartment, we put that famous brownie from 45daysofblogging - day 6 in the oven and just chatted on the kitchen until it was ready. Then one more friend came over and we spend the whole evening on my balcony - speaking, eating brownie and just enjoying our own company.

It was a perfect evening - it didn't take any effort or even preparation (this brownie cooks itself), but it was much more enjoyable and comforting than any big party would be. 

And once again I thought about simple joys of life... Since I first moved to Palermo, I've noticed that I forgot about my typical weekend program I tend to follow in Kyiv (normally sleeping, eating, watching TV-show and then sleeping again). In Palermo I started respecting my evenings, weekends and free mornings so much more - I always try to take the most out of them and spend more time with the people I love. And something as easy as a bar of chocolate turned into a brownie can be a great reason to see your friends and have a nice simple evening together. 

This is the magic of chocolate. Of a cup of coffee and a cornetto on a balcony on sunny weekend morning. Of cooking and eating together. Of being a tourist for a day in your own city - take a guide tour, enter the places you never had time to visit, send a postcard to your distant friends. To go out for lunch and take a walk in the sun afterwards. Invite your friends for a movie night. Make a crepe party and ask people to bring they favorite condiments. 

Just be creative and open to new ideas. Spend time with friends and loved ones. Make surprises. Take opportunities. Catch any interesting experience. Travel to the next city. And just enjoy!

See you.

#45daysofblogging 39: what is Human Library?

Day 39 - September 25

As you already know, I'm writing these posts on the daily basis, but I post them with a bit of a delay, as I still have no internet at home (I don't even want to think about it, but I'm afraid I will have to search for another apartment, if this issue will not be resolved). So yes, when you see words "today" or "yesterday", consider the date on top of the post.

#45daysofblogging 36: BookClub... but not really

Day 36 - September 22

Palermo always knows how to impress me, especially with cool new projects I've never seen before.

For example this event, that now takes place in Palermo every week, each time in a new location.

#45daysofblogging 18: The whole new level of sexism

Day 18 - September 4

I don’t know how I got so lucky, but both of the countries I consider my homes are currently in the midst of sexist scandals. And I really want to address them both, one by one, as I feel personally and professionally touched by both of them. 

So let's start with my motherland. After all the disrespect towards female athletes during the Olympics, Ukrainian media decided to step up to the international ones. One of the news portals referred to the acting head of the Kharkiv regional state administration as “32-year old blond”. In the headline. Yes. 

Living in times of change

*UPD*: Unfortunately, I had to edit this post delete all the nice things I have written before about one of the YouTubers who participated in BlackLifeMatters protests. I just can't keep a rec for a channel, whose creator things that it's acceptable to fight discrimination with discrimination and bash Eastern European women on numerous occasions. I never supported discrimination and will not support it now. I'm absolutely disgusted by the whole situation and don't want to have her name on my blog. 

In my country people love to quote an old Chinese curse: “May you live in interesting times (times of change)”, even though, as far as I know, it’s highly unproven that a Chinese curse like this ever existed. In any case - I never agreed with this. 

We live in times of change and we need to appreciate it. We can see the history being made and can even help make it. For example, I’ve participated in two revolutions and, as horrible, tragic and difficult as it was, I’m happy I got to see everything with my own eyes. To be one of the people that change history is a huge honour and a huge responsibility. But also it’s in some way a blessing, as all your experiences and opinions are your own. 

As I love authenticity in everything, I don’t believe in sterile blogging, separated from real life and serious topics. It will never work for me – I’m a human rights activist, I volunteer a lot and work in the social field, I’m doing my PhD research on domestic violence and it’s a huge part of my life. So, as the result, it is also a huge part of my blogging life too.

* I’m not going to go into details on my experience of blogging during the revolution – for many reasons it was not a nice experience. Let's just say that I had reasons to delete my old posts when I moved my blog to this address. Maybe once I will dedicate a post to it, but for now, I still remember it all too well (including quite ugly comments and accusations I received while describing my life at that time). 

My article about the life of Palermo

A few weeks ago I got an offer to write an article about Palermo and the way it embraces diversity for a Ukrainian cultural magazine. 

Of course I agreed. Palermo became my second home two years ago, and I have a lot of admiration for the way people here find ways to live together quite happily, even in the face of economic crisis, all types of migration and high levels of corruption. 

Sicily is one of the most diverse regions in Europe - not only due to migration, but also to comparatively low prices and developed civil society, that brings here many international volunteers, interns and Erasmus students.

So I wrote an article about all the projects I personally am involved with and the ones I know about, about block parties and Palermo Pride, about Catholic church that invites Muslim community to pray, as they currently have no mosque and works with LGBTQI organisations to organize manifestations against hate crimes, about international volunteers that make workshops on urban gardening for children from underprivileged neighborhoods and many other things that I see with my own eyes every day.

Unfortunately the article is available only in Ukrainian, but if there's any interest in this topic, I'd love to write something regarding this topic also in English. 

You can read the article by clicking on the link:

PALERMO: THE PLACE FOR EVERYONE