Allied Editors 10

– Monologue by Linor Goralik –

The below media, which includes an audio introduction to the Online Magazine R.O.A.R (Russian Oppositional Arts Review) by Editor and Author Linor Goralik, as well as annotated links highlighting content in the magazine, provides a unique example of how artists and writers are forging meaningful alliances across vast distances in the digital age. I first learned of Goralik’s defiant work on R.O.A.R in a New Yorker article published October 9th, 2022. Intrigued by the concept of a new publication, directly reacting to the war in Ukraine and tyranny in Russia, with a mission to “close forever” once hostilities abate, I grew eager to make a connection. I wrote to Goralik letting her know I thought the project presented a fascinating premise for editorial curation, highlighting urgent voices while immediately historicizing every participant. I suggested that R.O.A.R reminds one of “The Good Fellowship Club” in Leon Uris’ Mila 18, Where a Jewish writer, loosely based on Emmanuel Ringleblum, seeks to preserve the diaries of those suffering in the Warsaw Ghetto. Goralik kindly found time to entertain my call and later to provide a monologue for our Allied Editors Series. Her recorded words below speak volumes about the brilliant voices she is laboring to liberate against all odds. 

– Jeffrey F. Barken 

 

 

 

 

1. A wonderful Ukrainian-born poet, Olena Maksakova has sent us her works speaking very directly about the pain this terrible war is causing her. Olena studied Russian literature in Ukraine, at Kharkiv University. Reading her work is nearly unbearable, but it was a huge honor for me to publish.

2. This essay, written by a fantastic 15-years-old female author, our youngest contributor by now,  has touched me very deeply. She tells the readers about the oppositional meetings in Moscow she has attended with her parents, whose anti-Putin and anti-war views she shares.

3. This amazing sound project by the sound artist Tema Titanian. The author describes his work this way: “I gathered here all the New Year addresses of Putin’s, synchronized with the Kremlin clock chiming. I very much hope this artifact would not have to be brought up to date ever again. It is curious that in the addresses of 2021 and 2022 (they are the longest in the whole history of him governing) the original chimes are significantly fastened. He distorts not just space, but also time.”

4. One of the most amazing entries we have received through email was a poetry collection by a practically unknown poet whose name is Maria Sher. She seems to be a deeply religious person, and her poetry is as much antiwar as it is spiritual. For me, to discover her for myself was a God’s true present. Unfortunately this content has not yet been translated, but Russian readers are invited to visit.

–  Linor Goralik

Linor Goralik is a Russian-language writer, journalist, and cultural critic. She has published prose, poetry, flash fiction, plays, children’s books, a science-fiction novel (2004, co-authored with Sergei Kuznetsov), and a monograph on Barbie (2006).