At the Vasyl Stus School of Ukrainian Studies in Chicago, the school community — students, teachers, parents, and guests — honored the memory of the illustrious son of the Ukrainian people, Taras Shevchenko, a prophet and thinker, poet and artist. It has been 212 years since the birth of this national genius, but no matter how many years pass, Taras Shevchenko will always be a spiritual father to all Ukrainians.

Shevchenko the poet was one of the first to elevate "those robbed, blind ones" with his words and "placed the Word as a guard beside them." He defended Ukrainians as a nation. Therefore, through him, each of us realizes we are part of a single free people. The Word of Truth of the great Kobzar remains to this day our highest moral and social law, a powerful call to nation-building not only for Ukrainians but for all oppressed peoples.

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In the 21st century, Shevchenko has once again "joined the battle" alongside our soldiers in the illegal, aggressive, genocidal war that Russia is waging against Ukraine. He is present in this war — amidst explosions and death, when the boys chant his words: "Fight — and you will overcome! God helps you!" And the children in the hall watch the screen, where they see Shevchenko as a comrade, dressed in the uniform of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Every year, the Shevchenko celebration at the school is a moving event. Today, against the backdrop of a four-year exhausting war, it had its special emphasis. For Russia wants to seize not only Ukrainian territories, it wants to destroy our word, and thus — our people! But Ukraine proves to the world every day that our word, like our people, is indestructible! So every child had the opportunity to find their path to the spiritual treasury of the Kobzar, to draw from it the poet's word for recitation, singing, drawing, and to express their emotion and position to everyone. It is very important when families of students, community representatives, and the native church join this dialogue with the Kobzar. Then everyone, especially our children, feels related, blood and spiritually grafted into this dreamed and established by Shevchenko "free, new family," with which no enemies are frightening!

More than 50 poems and excerpts from Shevchenko's poems were passionately read by students of grades 5–10, showing their deep experience of Shevchenko's words. The fate of enslaved Ukraine, the Ukrainian woman, mother, girl, father, and son, worn out by serfdom, aged in servitude and in the military, aches in every poem of Taras. Shevchenko's words are so realistic and profound in their simplicity that children listen to them as the true history of their Homeland, told by the poet himself.

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Everyone was touched by the performance of the poems "Kateryna" and "Topolya" and the colorful, fiery dance performed by the 8th-grade girls. The poet's lines, consciously pronounced by the senior students, impressed with their sharp relevance:

The Poles were, took everything,

Drank the blood!..

And the Muscovites shackled

The whole world in chains!

... Love your Ukraine,

Love her in cruel times,

In the last difficult moment

Pray to God for her!

The choir of the lower grades performed songs to Shevchenko's poems: "Blossomed in the Valley," "My Evening Star," "My Thoughts, My Thoughts," "Learn, My Brothers," "The Dnipro Roars and Moans," without which a Shevchenko celebration is unthinkable.

The extraordinary atmosphere of an authentic Ukrainian event was complemented by performances from our guests: the bandura ensemble led by Motria Poshyvanyk-Kaudil and the renowned bandurist and vocalist Solomiya Stakhiv. The immortal Prometheus from the poem "The Caucasus" passed his fire to the ataman Hamaliya and his heroic Cossacks, which our young Cossack boys bravely picked up, eagerly reciting lines from the heroic poem:

Like black birds in the grove

The Cossacks fly boldly.

No one in the world will escape!

The fire does not burn the hardened!

The highlight of the celebration was the performance of the most musical family of the school: the operatic singing of Vira Boychuk accompanied by the flute, played by her son Danylo, and the violin, played by the grandmother, Mrs. Natalia. From the lips of a modern family, the song that absorbed the macro- and micro-world of the Ukrainian family — "The Cherry Orchard by the House" — sounded and resonated in the souls of the listeners. This song awakens and lights up in our souls the genetic code of our nation: the peacefulness and kindness of the Ukrainian heart, the dignity and diligence of our people, the indescribable beauty of our land.

A special guest of the celebration was Mr. Mykola Horbal — a dissident of the sixties, repressed by the Soviet system, who on the first day of his visit to Chicago could not help but visit the Vasyl Stus School, his comrade. The esteemed guest was sincerely impressed by the heartfelt patriotism of the diaspora children and spoke to them his warm, fatherly, inspiring words.

Great respect and gratitude to the children, teachers, parents, relatives, and guests who made the Shevchenko celebration at the school meaningful and memorable. After all, the most important thing is what will remain in our souls, what will be etched in our hearts and memory. We all felt the great truth of Shevchenko's words, enriched by the deep meaning of his covenants, understood our shared responsibility and calling — to preserve the power of the Ukrainian word in the souls of our children, in our families, and in our schools:

So that the word would take flame,

So that it would melt people's hearts...

And in Ukraine, that word would be sanctified,

That word, God's incense.

Incense of truth. Amen.