NEW YORK CONFERENCE TO MARK UKRAINIAN WORLD CONGRESS 40^TH ANNIVERSARY

        November 12-19, 1967, New York City was the venue of the First World Congress of Free Ukrainians. Among the highlights of this seminal event in the history of the Ukrainian Diaspora was the coming together of Ukrainians from some twenty countries, the election of a coordinating body, a mass rally at Madison Square Garden, and a demonstration before the United Nations and the Permanent Mission of the USSR to the UN. The event was widely covered by global, national and local media.

      Forty years have elapsed and the World Congress of Free Ukrainians has amended its name to the Ukrainian World Congress, amended some of its purposes in view of Ukraine’s independence and has expanded its outreach to an additional twenty countries, which were previously closed or only recently became venues for Ukrainian settlements. On Sunday, November 18, 2007, 2:00 PM, a conference will be held in New York City at The Ukrainian Museum on East 6^th Street. The keynote address will focus on how the WCFU was received within the USSR and will be delivered by the renowned Ukrainian poet,  Dmytro Pavlychko. Comments will be offered by representatives of those organizations or their successors which constituted the initial Congress’ Presidium: Michael Sawkiw from the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America and Ihor Gawdiak from the Ukrainian American Coordinating Council (formed after 1967 but representing a segment of the initial Presidium), Iryna Kurowycka from the World Federation of Ukrainian Women’s Organizations and the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America, Slava Rubel from Plast, Bohdan Harhaj from SUM, and Orest Popovych from the Shevchenko Scientific Society. Additional remarks will be made by Myroslawa Rozdolska from the New Ukrainian Wave, people who resided in Ukraine at the time of the First Congress and today are a vibrant part of the Diaspora. The conference will conclude with a film about the WCFU/UWC and a reception.

     Seating is limited at The Ukrainian Museum. Please purchase tickets in advance by mailing your payment at $25.00 per person to the Ukrainian World Congress, 225 East 11^th Street, New York, New York 10003. 

September 26, 2007                                         

Contact: Askold S. Lozynskyj

(212) 254-2260

Askold@verizon.net