On November 22, participants of the virtual project “On the Wave of time, throughout life” attended the literary and musical evening "The Writer of a Big Soul", dedicated to the day of memory of the Belarusian prose classic Kuzma Chorny (1900–1944).
The event was traditionally held in the agricultural town of Timkovichy, Kopyl district, in the writer's homeland. It was in these places that the future novelist studied and was brought up. The Evening titled "The Writer of a Big Soul" was organized by the Kuzma Chorny Literary Museum and the Timkovichy Rural Library as part of a joint educational project "To love your land, you must first know it". The meeting was held at the Kuzma Chorny Timkovichy Secondary School, so the main audience was high school students, teachers, and representatives of the Kopyl regional newspaper “Labour Glory” were also invited.
Sergey Usyk, Director of the State Museum of the History of Belarusian Literature, addressed the audience with a welcoming speech, who noted the importance and necessity of holding such events for the education of young people.
During the event, the chief bibliographer of the National Library of Belarus (NLB), Yulia Amosova, introduced students to a virtual exhibition dedicated to Kuzma Chorny in the framework of the project "On the wave of time, throughout the life”. Interesting facts from the writer’s life and work, photos of his family and friends, photos of Kuzma Chorny's personal belongings, his manuscripts and drawings were made publicity. Students learned that the project provides an opportunity to read digitized lifetime editions of the writer – books from the NLB funds, which are almost 100 years old, without leaving home. A valuable exhibit of the project was presented to the audience – an audio recording of the prose writer's voice, dated 1942, digitized by the library from a magnetic tape preserved in the collections of the Kuzma Chorny Literary Museum.
Tatyana Lavrik, the head of the Library Science Department of the Minsk Regional Library named after A.S. Pushkin, supported the topic of the project activity. She presented students with a new project "Writers born in their native land", which is implemented by the library together with public libraries of the Minsk region and a number of partners. Tatyana Anatolyevna invited students to take part in the online reading contest "Under the Venus star" organized by the library, dedicated to the birthday of Maxim Bogdanovich.
The audience was impressed by the performance of Lyudmila Nizhevich, the head of the Kuzma Chorny Literary Museum. Lyudmila presented the letter and postcard of the writer, which he sent during the Great Patriotic War to his sister Maria in Timkovichy. The letters are imbued with Kuzma Chorny's concern for the life and health of his relatives, filled with hope for an early meeting. Nikolai Ivanovich Khilko, the former director of the Slutsk Gymnasium, donated to the Kuzma Chorny Museum valuable exhibits preserved thanks to the writer's sister. Now the letter and postcard can be seen not only in the museum exhibition, but also in the photo gallery of the virtual section dedicated to the writer within the framework of the NLB project "On the wave of time, throughout life". We remind you that 11 articles by Lyudmila Nizhevich are available in the project, digitized and posted with the author's permission. From them, everyone can learn about the life of the museum from 1994 to the present day.
Postcard of Kuzma Chorny to his sister Maria Karlovna Romanovskaya (reverse side of the postcard). Moscow. 06.08.1944
Kuzma Cherny is known as a novelist, author of short stories, novellas and novels, but in the writer's legacy there is also the only poem "Native Field" about free labor on the free land, published in 1923. This poem was performed by Arseny Drozd, a 6th form pupil of the Timkovichy Secondary School.
The exhibition of books by Kuzma Chorny from the collections of the Timkovichy Rural Library was prepared by Olga Radkevich, the head of the Timkovichy Rural Library, the host and one of the organizers of the evening "The Writer of a Big Soul".
A warm atmosphere was given to the meeting by musical performances of: Veronika Zenko, a teacher in the cymbal class of the Timkovichy Children's Art School, who performed "Lyrical Tune" by the composer R. Telepnev and "My Native Land" by I. Luchenok.
A pleasant addition to the visit to Kuzma Chorny's homeland was informative excursions to local libraries organized for project participants "On the wave of time, throughout life": the guests visited the Timkovichi Rural Library, the Kopyl Central District Library named after A. Astreiko and the Kopyl Children's Library. Colleagues from these institutions left impressions of true professionals, dedicated to their work.
Sculptural portrait of Kuzma Chorny by Zair Azgur in Timkovichy secondary School
We would like to thank the entire team behind the event "The Writer of a Big Soul," as well as the cultural organisations Kopyl and Timkovichy, and wish them continued success. Our obligation, a good deed that improves us, is to work to keep our countrymen's memories alive.
The article is provided by Yulia Amosova, chief bibliographer of the Information and analytical Department.
Photography by Tatiana Lavrik (the first one shows participants of the event with colleagues from the Kopyl Children's Library).
