Our guests today are three women from the Central Coast of CA who share their Ukrainian heritage and the pain, fear and anger they are experiencing during the current, ongoing Russian invasion of their country of origin. Our interview was remarkable. You will hear strong emotions expressed; some of the stories and concerns will be troubling. There is death, famine, war and struggle in Ukraine’s history. But there is beauty, art, joy, resolve and strength as well.

RELEVANT LINKS

• PFJ
• Unitarian Universalists San Luis Obispo
• United Church of Christ (Congregational) of San Luis Obispo
• Irina Malkmus (Permanent Makeup Artistry site)
• Irina Malkmus (Fine Art site)
• Irina Malkmus (Santa Ynez Valley Star)
• Modern-Day Xenophobia (by Oksana Yakushko)
• Scientific Pollyannaism (by Oksana Yakushko) 
• American Psychological Association
• “Living with the War” (3/4/22 Santa Barbara Independent by Oksana Yakushko)
• “Stand With Ukraine” (2/25/22 Santa Barbara Independent by Oksana Yakushko)
• “Russian War Against Ukraine Gets Worse”  (3/13/22 by Oksana Yakushko)
• “Terror in Ukraine” (2/27/22 Santa Barbara Independent by Oksana Yakushko)
• The Horror of War… (4/4/22 Santa Barbara Independent by Oksana Yakushko)
• The Ukraine Crisis… (CNN: Fareed Zakaria)
• First Ukrainian Evangelical Baptist Church of Santa Barbara
• Ukrainian National Anthem (YouTube-2/28/22 NY Met Orchestra and Chorus)
• “Prayer for Ukraine” (YouTube-2-27-22 Ukrainian Chorus Dumka New York)
• https://novaukraine.org/ (Reliable org for Donations)
• https://gofund.me/3b6fc1b8 (Irina’s family fundraiser)
• https://www.facebook.com/irina.malkmus.7 (Irina’s FB page)
• MIRAMA09@gmail.com (Irina’s PayPal-how she sends $$ to Ukraine)
• https://www.ukrweekly.com/uwwp/the-price-of-truth-the-story-behind-agnieszka-hollands-mr-jones/ (About the Film, Mr. Jones, available on Hulu)
• https://education.holodomor.ca/about-the-holodomor/ (Story of the Holodomor)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=El5aPt91jeo (Stop the War in Ukraine Rally)

MORE ABOUT OUR GUESTS

Annie Doryk-Cappelli was born in Canada and raised in both Canada and South Florida. She moved to California in the early 1990's and continued her pursuit of painting, illustration, figurative sculpture and documentary filmmaking after attending art school in Toronto, Canada.  You can see her work at https://www.anniecappelli.com/

Annie has deep Ukrainian heritage. Both her parents spoke and wrote Ukrainian, and her father played accordion in a Ukrainian polka band. The family spoke Ukrainian at home until her parents moved permanently to the USA. Upon returning to Canada for college, Annie lived in a Ukrainian dormitory that proved to be quite fun. With the support of a Ukrainian community she met in San Diego, Annie continued her art education studying editing, graphic design and animation.

Wherever Annie went, she took both her culture and her passion for art with her; after traveling extensively in North America, she eventually settled on the Central Coast of California. Since it was difficult to find Ukrainian friends here, Annie put in additional effort at home to practice Ukrainian customs and prepare traditional foods, teaching her son about their heritage. In addition to practicing her wide range of artistic talents, Annie began studying marine algae in 2010 and became a commercial kelp harvester in 2012. She now sells a line of commercial seaweed products. 

Since the war began in Ukraine, Annie has reached out to new friends she has met in the Ukrainian community in Santa Barbara. She continues to utilize her artistic skills to create posters, banners and items to sell at fundraising efforts in the Santa Barbara and Pismo Beach areas. Annie’s hope and inspiration are revived by her new Ukrainian friends with their poignant stories, resilience, humor and grace as they comfort one another at this difficult time.

Oksana Yakushko grew up in Kyiv, Ukraine, and immigrated to the U.S. in the 1990s. She is a licensed psychologist, psychoanalyst, psychology professor, and scholar in Santa Barbara, CA. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, and in 2021, Oksana received the Women in Leadership award from the APA. Her scholarship and clinical work have focused on issues of social justice, including immigration, xenophobia, human trafficking, gender violen