Virlana Tkacz presented "My Shevchenko," a media lecture about her relationship to the works of Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko. Presentation included projections and video from the theatre pieces she created with Yara Arts Group, focusing on the story of the making of "Dark Night, Bright Stars," Yara's theatre piece about the meeting of Taras Shevchenko and American tragedian Ira Aldridge.

Jeremy Tardy, who performed the part of Ira Aldridge in Yara's "Dark Night, Bright Stars" at La MaMa, joined her on stage with a powerful reading of Shevchenko's "Letter to My Countrymen Dead, Alive and Not Yet Born" in an English translation by Virlana and Wanda Phipps.

PHOTOS from Dark Night Bright Stars at La MaMa https://goo.gl/photos/pxm3RjwTRorNLcxm7

Dark Night Bright Stars in La MaMa, New York - June 3-19, 2016
Photos from La MaMa show by: Pavlo Terekhov | Waldemart Klyuzko | Lee Wexler

Dark Night Bright Stars in Ukraine - April 28 - May 11, 2014
photos from: Kyiv | Lviv | Odesa | our visit to Shevchenko Museum in Kyiv | La MaMa workshop in 2014