December 23rd.  Manhattan bar Zinc hosted a Christmas concert/auction dedicated to the festive season. Lovers of antiquity had the opportunity to admire and acquire engravings of the XVIII and XIX centuries from the archives. The program began with the presentation of a poetic page by Ilya Bronstein. In a peculiar manner, which fell to the public's liking, he read his poems in two sections of the concert. In the musical part, classical Brahms' works were performed by international pianist Elena Kushnerova, and the duet "Lara and Lera" - vocal sketches by Larisa Grabua accompanied by Eleonor Osumanov.

December 9th, the Pushkin Society, and other classical painting lovers, held a meeting dedicated to Christmas at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Victoria Kurchenko conducted an excursion through the halls of old Italian masters and introduced everyone to the history of the museum, the formation of Christian traditions, and the legacy of Russian emigration. Particular attention was paid to the icon of Duccio di Buonissenya painted in 1330. At the beginning of the twentieth century, this work was in the collection of Count Stroganov who lived in Rome. In 2004 the museum acquired Madonna for a record price – at that time – of $45 million.

November 25th, Thanksgiving Day was held at the National Writers' Union. The meeting was opened by the member of the Board of Directors, Christine Brownlee, who spoke about the cooperation of the Pushkin Society of America with the writers of New York and about the recent conference, which examined the draft approval of the Russian-language section in Washington.
Then Victoria Kurchenko introduced the translator and writer Albert Rosenblatt, a native of an emigrated Ukrainian family. From his literary presentation the format of creative acquaintance and exchange of opinions was started. Marina Logunova, journalist and author of the abstract picture "The Universe", presented her work as a gift to the National Union of Writers and talked about her reviews on the pages of the newspaper "Russian Advertising".

November 9th. A creative evening of the poet and translator - and Pushkin Society member - Gennady Rusakov who is author of 10 books, recipient of the journal "Znamya" Prize, the Apollon Grigoriev prize, the Russian national prize "The Poet" (2014) and the Russian Prize, was held on at the Brooklyn Library.
Gennady Rusakov read his poems from the last book, told about his meetings with Arseniy Tarkovsky and answered questions. Gennady's poems appeared in French, and he himself repeatedly translated Shakespeare's contemporaries, old and new Italian poets, and French lyrics from several European languages

October 14th. The Pushkin Society and Club Hudson Soirees organized a commemorative evening, dedicated to the 125th Anniversary of an iconic Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva. 

Her emotional, musical-lyrical image was recreated with poetry readings, piano and vocal performances and exhibitions in English and in Russian.

Performers: Inna Yesilevsky, Di Zhu, Nataliya Medvedovskaya, Dina Nesterenko, Zoya Gramagin.

October 1st. The presentation of the anthology of "The Golden Fleece" (Moscow, Russia) was held in the Roerich Museum. There were authors who live in New York and presented their works: Inna Bogachinskaya, Dmitry Garanin, Mikhail Zhinzherov, Galina Itskovich, Irina Kaverina, Leonid Podolsky, Sofia Juzefpolskaya-Tsilosani. At the piano - pianist of international level Victoria Ulanovskaya.

September 18th. The First Forum of New Americans from the former USSR took place in Manhattan with support and participation of the deputy (assembly) Stephen Symbrowitz. Pushkin Society in America and our  Lodyjensky archive center took an active part in the preparation and conduct of this historic event. The forum included an artistic and literary program, a sign language interpreting from English into Russian and vice versa, video presentations and speeches of leaders of public organizations: Regina Hidekel, Dmitry Glinsky, Viktoria Kurchenko, Igor Baboshkin, Pavel Ivlev, Gregory Mesnyaev and others. Resonant was the speech of the legendary dissident Pavel Litvinov, who called on to continue the struggle for democratic transformations in Russia. S. Symbrovitz report aroused particular interest, as voters do not often observe, a dialogue between the state official and representatives of the immigrant community.

July 29th. The Art Salon of Pushkin Society in America opened its door for the Art Exhibit presentation of Yelena Kimelblat series of paintings “Fairy Tales Animals” and a book reading by Dina Perepelitsky of her new book “How we ate our grandma”.  Both events have been dedicated to the loving memory of Dina Paisner.

Dina Paisner was born in Brooklyn in 1919. She was an actress and a model. Dina is a daughter of immigrants from Ukraine. In 2016 she passed away in the age 96.5 years. Good friends of the actress were present on the event. They warmly spoke about Dina and mentioned the difficulties faced by all familieswho immigrated to United States. Spider Duncan Christopher – the producer and director of many theatrical productions, the actor and the dancer spoke about his close friendship and work with Dina Paisner, as well as about her creative journey.

July 1st - Tatyana Sheremeteva spoke at the New York branch meeting of the National Writers' Union (NWU) and introduced the Pushkin Society in America's proposals to open a Russian language section and official website for Russian authors within the union's media resources.

Larry Goldbetter, as well as Alexandra Feiz and Mauricio Niebla, supported the initative. The opening of a Russian language office within the NWU would create opportunities for; enticing new members to join the organization (authors who write in Russian), overcoming language barriers, general involvement in the American literary process in which representatives of various national diasporas - a large new group of U.S. authors - already participate, psychological adaptation of Russian-speaking immigrant writers living in the U.S. to the socio-cultural environment of the new country.

A decision was made to send these proposals to the All-American Council, which will be held on September 16th, 2017, to determine the final fate of the Russian-speaking section.

The opening of a Russian Language Division will result in:

- More Russian language members joining NWU;

- Eliminating the language barrier;

- A group of talented Russian language authors will become successfully involved in the

  literary process in the U.S.

- Psychological adjustment of Russian language immigrant authors to the social and

  cultural environment in the U.S.

June 30th - the Tenri Cultural Center and Gallery, a Japanese institution in Manhattan, hosted an art festival called 'Metamorphosis of Dreams: From the Past to the Future' dedicated to the 218th anniversary of Alexander Pushkin's birth. Participants in the exhibition included; Alexander Garber (Alex Ag), Alexander Shabatinas, Yelena Iosilevich (curator and art director), Yelena Kimelblat, Eugeni Tonevitski, Nina Kossman and Sergei Goloshapov. Musical Pushkiniana was held by; Natalia Medvedovskaya (pianist and musical director), Adam Klein (tenor), Victoria Koreneva (mezzo-soprano), Xenia Antonova (soprano) and Natalia Novitskaya (mezzo-soprano). The evening's sponsor was Vella Wine Bar + Kitchen. Other contributors included the newspaper 'Russkaya Reklama' and Elegant New York magazine as well as the company NYC Lovers "In an embrace with the city".

June 11th - the Pushkin Society in America hosted Alexander Gorodnitsky's concert called 'New, Old Songs and Poems' in the Brooklyn Center of Kings Bay Y. The program included presentations of new books, CDs and films. Alexander Gorodnitsky is a poet and author of classic bard songs such as; 'Snow', 'Above Canada', 'The Wife of the French Ambassador', 'Atlanta' and many others. Gorodnitsky is not only a writer and performer but also a scientist who has penned about 250 papers in the field of oceanology. Creativity, science and civic position are constants in his life alongside with his songwriting.

Alexander answered audience questions on living in Russia, his political views and his perspective of young creative people.

May 21st - a creative jubilee was held in Brooklyn for Pushkin Society president Victoria Kurchenko in honor of her 50th birthday. The New York City's mayor's Culture Committee, the office of Public Lawyer Letitia James, the U.S. National Writers Union, the American Forum of Russian-speaking Jews, and various New Yorkian poetry and writing clubs all sent their best wishes. In the first part of the program, Victoria introduced the attendants to the milestones of her biography, highlighting the most significant to her topics which was reflected in the philosophical lyrics of her poetry and prose. The opening for many became the songs from Victoria's creative piggy bank, such as 'Silver Solitude' and 'Kharkov Waltz' performed by Azat Seitkuliev. 

May 18th - an artistic presentation from a series of exhibitions from Pushkin Society in America artists called 'Faces of the Planet' was held in the Grand Central Library on 46th street in the center of Manhattan.

The literary part was presented by writer Yekaterina Svetov who read excerpts from her book in English. American poet Jacob Miller was the guest of honor and introduced the book he published last year, 'Lines of Canvas', to those present.

Artists Yelena Iosilevich and Alex Ag prepared a demonstration of landscape paintings and photographs which will be fully exhibited on June 1st, 2017.

The presented masterpieces all reflected different genres in time and space.

May 10th - a memorial was held for Yevgeny Yevtushenko in New York restaurant Uncle Vanya. The people closest to him - Marina Troshina, Irina Mashinskaya, Anna Halberstadt, Andrey Gritsman, Victor Persik, Ilya Levkov, Valery Ponomarev - shared their memories of him. Poets recited several works, especially those of Yevgeny Yevtushenko himself. Dimitri Garanin made a presentation of exclusive photographs of Yevtushkeno from the archives of I. B. Gutchin, whose son was present at the event. Pushkin Society of America president Victoria Kurchenko reminded everyone that if he were alive, Yevtushenko would have brought up the topic of Victory Day, and recited his world famous poem 'Babiy Yar'.

May 6th - a creative evening was held at the Sheepshead Bay Brooklyn Public Library for Michael Zhinzherov in honor of his 70th birthday. Victoria Kurchenko - and Brooklyn Literary Club's Zinovy Korovin - presented the guest of honor with memorable gifts and respective certificates. Evening participant and musician Anna Nemtsova dedicated and performed her songs to Michael, simultaneously giving a nod to the upcoming Victory Day. The literary portion of the evening was introduced by the host with original love poems to his wife. Humorous plays and texts about emigration, politics and parodies were presented for judgement by the audience.

April 29th  - a musical and artistic evening with bard Mark Belitsky was held in the 86th Street Brooklyn Public Library. Other than songs composed of his own poetry and music, his concert also consisted of sketches depicting meetings with various famous people. Communication with the attendants, which was held in Russian as well as English, was accompanied by answers to questions and discussions of the translated song titles, which were originally in Russian. In Pushkin Society of America's exposition, exhibits from the new project 'White Emigrant Chest' were shown for the first time. Works of artists' Marina Kashirskaya and Yevgeni Tonevitski were supplemented with archival finds.

April 28th - the board of directors of the Pushkin Society of America held a meeting. Inna Grubmair, our representative in Europe, attended it via Skype and Alexander Grinberg attended it via a conference telephone call. Current issues were discussed and a calendar of events for the rest of 2017 was solidified. Victoria Kurchenko acquainted the team with new archival finds showing three XIX century engravings and 1930's artists' paintings, which were decided will be used to conclude a storage agreement with one of New York's museums and displayed in future exhibitions. Elena Iosilevich, the organization's art director, was thanked for organizing exhibitions for our artists spanning from April through September in the 46th Street Manhattan Public Library. Dmitry Garanin announced his plan to hold a poetry contest, '45th Caliber', of which he intends to be one of the judges. Like last year we will contribute two $100 prizes to the winners whose works most resemble traditional Russian poetry.

March 21st - the New York City Supreme Court held the annual celebration of women's movement in history month under the patronage of the office of Scott M. Stringer, city auditor. Marina McDonough, director of public relations for the Pushkin Society, was invited as an honored guest and participated in the forum. Speeches about how exceptional this event was were made from the podium and dedicated to the centenary of the suffragist movement in the United States. Scott M. Stringer awarded memorable diplomas to women who made a great contribution to the prosperity of the city. In the 1980s the United States began to not only celebrate March 8th's International Women's Day as a national holiday, but began to extend the celebration for the length of a week starting March 7th, 1982.

March 20th - Victoria Kurchenko, Boris Borukaev, Natali\a Piller and other colleagues of our Russian-American cabinet paid a visit to the New York Senate, and met with the representatives of the Chamber of Legistry, as well as the Culture Committee office headed by Dan Quart. Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Democratic party leader, held a meeting in her office where the issues of Pushkin Society activists' participation in the activities of the National Women's Club were discussed.

March 18th - a bilingual program of art exposition, titled 'Serge Hollerbach and Sergei Rachmaninov', was held in a Manhattan library on 67th Street.

S. L. Hollerbach - painter, graphic artist, essayist - spent his presentation talking about interesting people he has met in his life, shared his thoughts on the essence of creativity and gifted the Pushkin Society in America with one of his paintings, which once opened an exhibition. Elena Iosilevich, art director, presented her own works and those of Anna-Nina Kovalenko, Natalia Max, Yelena Rykoff and Alexander Dudorov.

The second department was dedicated to S. V. Rachmaninov, who has had friendly connections with many Society members in the 1930s. In the foyer the composer's autograph, the text of a letter addressed to B. L. Brazol, concert adverts and newspaper articles about 'Rachmaninov's Days' were on display.

Natalia Medvedovsky - composer, pianist and director of the music program - spent her presentation by drawing attention to the history pages of our salons and introduced the singer Tatiana Poletsky; a Moscow Philharmonic soloist and winner of numerous European singing competitions. Tatiana performed some of Rachmaninov's romances and invited everyone to the next program.

March 11 - an evening of creativity dedicated to author and composer Sergey Evelev was held in the Sheepshead Bay Brooklyn Public Library. The audience was delighted by his talented and diverse performance. There was singing, poetry reading, commentating on the texts and short stories full of soft humor and irony.

February 21 - a musical program by Sofia Yusefpolskaya-Tsilosani, Galina Itskovich, and guitarist Kirill Ulanovsky was held in café Uncle Vanya. A single script transformed two poets' creative evening into a real work of theatrical art, which interwove aesthetics with intellectuality. Sofia Yusefpolskaya-Tsilosani presented her new book 'Wanderings'. She is also the author of a collection of poems titled 'Blue Fire' and a book about Arseny Tarkovky; 'The Pulse of Time: Immortality and the Word in the Poetry of Arseny Tarkovsky'. She is also co-author of 'Arseniy Tarkovsky: White Day', a bilingual novel. Her poems, scientific articles, short prose and translations in Russian and English are published in many magazines and almanacs such as Dictionary of Literary Biography, Slavic and Eastern European Journal, Poetry of the Women of the World and others.

Galina Itskovich, while a psychiatrist by profession, is a writer by vocation. Her translations, poems, journalism pieces and short stories in Russian and English has been published in such magazines as Slovo/Word, Southern Lights, Emigrant Lira, Garden, Steps, Golden Fleece, Forum, Poetica, Asian Signature and collections like Contemporary Jewish Writing and Poet of the Year 2015 Finalists.

The "open mic" included performances by Michael Zhinzherov, Yevgeny Breido and children's poet Igor Kalish. The evening was hosted by Natalia Mizuri.

February 19th - the second edition of the 'Cabaret and Art Auction' program was held in the Kitchen at Cobble Hill, a central Brooklyn restaurant. Larissa Grabois delighted the visitors with her small concert by performing songs in six different languages, regaling them with interesting stories about Alexander Pushkin's life and taking everyone on a verbal tour of the history of chocolate.

The items brought for the auction included the monotype piece titled 'Fur Coat' by Elena Golovanova-Starenko, and the graphite and jakle pieces 'Fantasy & Fiction' and 'Time to Return' co-created by Yevgeni Tonevitski and Marina Bozin. The visitors were most intrigued, however, by the "live art" piece on the long female cardigan, embellished with Swarovski crystals (a designer piece by Yevgeni Tonevitski).

February 10th - Omar Faruk Osman, Secretary General of the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), arrived in New York City. He said that Somalia is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists. The Committee to Protect Journalists ranked it as the worst offender in its 2015 Global Impunity Index, which spotlights countries where journalists are killed and killers go free. Omar and his union have been fighting to protect journalists and for a free press under the most challenging conditions.

February 5th - club Zinc in Manhattan held a presentation of Boris Ostrovsky's book of poetry titled '600 Meters'. Besides the author, actor and television presenter Dmitry Khukhlaev contributed by reading some of the texts on stage and commenting on them.

The book itself, published by the Pushkin Society in America, has very diverse contents. It includes poetic reflection on love, the drama of life and nostalgia for times past.  The core of the collection is the military prose. Immersing the reader into a different reality, where the reader walks along the edge of the front lines.

Boris Ostrovsky has made his book available in our online store.

February 1st - the members of the National Writers Union, including the trade union association 'UAW Region 9A', held a meeting with New York City mayor Bill DeBlasio.

Writer Tatiana Sheremeteva, and Pushkin Society in America leaders Victoria Kurchenko and Boris Borukaev, presented the Russian language section.

UAW head of the New York branch Julia Kushner, whose parents emigrated to the U.S. from Ukraine, opened the meeting. As a leader she supports and protects the interests of the many public and non-profit organizations at Bernard's College, Columbia University, New York University, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and many others. Julia Kushner's objective is to promote and develop the artistic potential of professional creative groups, to protect constitutional rights and freedoms, further progress the women's movement and assist the general public in gaining access to higher education.

January 28th - the American Writers Union celebrated Tatiana's Day, the annual celebration of the Pushkin Society in America associate with the history of Russia and the opening of the Moscow State University.

In a small introduction, Victoria Kurchenko drew attention to the place the name Tatiana holds in Russian people's mentality, and how it became a symbol of one of the most famous works of Pushkin's 'Yevgeny Onegin'.

Program leader and participant Tatiana Sheremeteva read an intriguing excerpt from the unfinished novel 'The Familiar Taste From Childhood'.

January 17th - a job fair was held for Downtown Brooklyn, organized by the office of Leticia James, New York public advocate. Russian-language cabinet representatives from the Pushkin Society of America focused on notifying those in search for work and distributed information about the event, which was held for the first time in the Brighton Beach area, the "capitol" of the Russian speaking community.

January 13th - the Board of Directors held a celebratory meeting devoted to an upcoming commemorative date (the 180th anniversary of Alexander Pushkin's death) in the Roerich Museum. A round table discussion was held about the two titans - Pushkin and Roerich - with the participation of museum staff Natalia Fomin and Natalia Mizuri, specialists on museum document completion, and their director Guido Trepsha.

January 4th - the Russian-American Cabinet met at the office of Letitia James Public Advocate for the City of New York. The meeting was devoted to preparations for the Job Fair of South Brooklyn, which will be held on January 17th at 6pm in the following address: 3300 Coney Island Avenue, Brooklyn, N.Y., 11235.