This year, this tradition will be expanded to include other poets, specifically women, who lost their lives, or had their voices silenced, in the Stalin Purge. For the first time, these voices will also be heard in English. Among them, poet Hanna Breskaja, who died around 1936 after her husband was executed; poet and activist Valiancina Kazloŭskaja, who was executed in 1938; poets Nataľlia Višnieŭskaja and Janina Hiermanovič, who were also spouses of the executed poets (and ultimately stopped writing for the fear of prosecutions), and the most known of them all, Jaŭhienija Pfliaŭmbaŭm, who wrote, as the Soviet saying goes, “into her desk”.

Belarusian-American poet Lena Zycinsky, who is working on translating all of these voices into English, will give introductions and read her translations. There will also be a traditional recital in Belarusian by the members of the public.

The event is organised by the Francis Skaryna Library and the Anglo-Belarusian Society.