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THIS TIME, ON COLORES!

MARCHING WITH HER FAMILY, SANTA FE ARTIST AND UKRAINIAN KATYA REKA SHARES HER HEARTBREAK AND RESILIENCE.

>>This is the evolution of evil and we have seen it several tims already in the world.

We should learn when to stop.

STANDING UP FOR PEACE, SEEKING SOLIDARITY - RUSSIAN AMERICAN GRISHA GUTKIN LEADS A MARCH FOR UKRAINE AT SANTA FE PLAZA.

DRAMATIC FOOTAGE OF THE WAR IN UKRAINE IT'S ALL AHEAD ON COLORES FINDING HUMANITY Stop the war.

Stop Putin.

Close the skies.

>>Ebony Isis Booth: Katya Reka is an artist living in New Mexico, who grew up in the Ukraine.

You were at the protests in Santa Fe a couple of days ago.

What was going through your mind?

>> Katya Reka: I just wanted people to look at us, to see that we are part of the United States.

We're Americans and we're concerned to the quiet, we cannot cry anymore.

We cannot just scroll through the We have to say something and it's been the same when the firt started happening in 2006, it's been in 2014- the same way.

It's something that - right to speak up about it and that's a Ukrainian democracy is right now.

>>Ebony: Talk about what's happening right now.

What's important for us to know?

>>Katya: Right now, Kyiv is being bombed.

The streets where I grew up, walked - are being bombed.

I went to bed knowing that my friends and teachers woke up from a huge blast, so the reality of it is, for me I can't look away, but I know for a lot of people, it's been three weeks almost and it to become a second-page news - to scroll through it, for it to become another ribbon, mascot, regional conflict.

But it is escalating, my morning starts with live Ukrainian news and that's how it It's running constantly the whole day - it's war.

The war is happening.

And, that is something that I hope nobody will ever get to experience here,the way we're experiencing in Ukraine.

I know people talk to me and they say "I feel you", "How are "Are you okay?

", and the answers that they are hearing are not what Americans are used to hearing from most people.

And - we're not okay.

We're at war.

Even when we're safe here, we're at war.

Our families are at war with Russia and to understand the is not just from the war as an act of aggression, it's the betrayal, the continuous political setups.

For Ukraine to be and behave as a smaller younger brother of Russia and then to have all the weapons taken away, all the treaties signed.

Then slowly in 2014, part of it was trapped away and the world nothing, everybody looked away.

Now you can't really look away.

So, what's happening now is full-blown war that me, my grandparents, my parents, none of us could have ever we would say in the 21st century, actual combat, face-to-face combat cannot happen.

Imperialist land-grabs But it's happening and that's what's going on.

>>Ebony: How do you make people understand?

>> Katya: Understand that not every political activity or even activist's desire to help or solve something can be reduced to a ribbon, or mascot, or meme.

This is not happening somewhere to a small group of people, we're forty-for million people, twenty more million in diaspora worldwide.

In the first few days when this started, I was Kanotop, the town by Sumy and it was one of the first where the Russian flags were seen and it was bombed in the first couple I was talking to her, she was out of the cellar, we have a where all the potatoes and canned goods are stored in the for the winter and that's where she is hiding when there is an She would tell me that, "by the way I got out of the cellar andI plants, and water - because I still have to plant the garden".

understand that people are caught in the war, but they are living with the thought of victory.

>>Ebony: Where are you finding your role as an artist is now?

>> Katya: I am a paper-maker, book-binder, textile artist so a process based art.

It takes time for paper, I grow and from books I plan, and print, and write, for textiles.

When I think about making and becoming an artist, I think it was my grandmother in Ukraine who died She was 95 and she survived the second World War, and she knew how to make everything, or at least so I I learned how to grow a garden, how to knit and crochet any If I didn't know she taught me that you can figure it out.

A big part of my creative practice is plants and growing.

I have a big garden for New Mexico and it's a puzzle for me to figure out how to grow in the high desert.

I think I am here for a reason to figure out and make it grow, because my grandma always said "No matter where you are, you have to put a garden.

This is how you put roots, this is how you figure out where you live and who you are''.

She traveled a My grandfather was in the military and they moved a lot.

I have this story where she told me in Poland, where they lived for 10 years, she had no garden.

They only had apartments for soldiers and she brought soil to the roof and she grew strawberries there.

So I think if she was able to do that, I can figure out a way to make art and ways to grow in the desert.

That's my calming point where I am sowing seeds and I'm planting starts, and I think that is what I can do creatively because it is a I always think about that is what she told me, that "your hands should never be idle even if you're stressed" and it I teach students how to tell stories and how to present them so that they influence, but I have never really told my story, because my story is always as an immigrant from Ukraine, I came here as a All I ever heard is "Ukraine, that's Russia right?

", the second is "Ukraine is Chernobyl, right?"

So after a few years you stop asking - answering those questions and you preserve that integrity that Ukraine is more than being a part of Soviet Union, Ukraine is more than nuclear disasters.

So I know a lot of my friends, a lot of my students do now know my stories.

When we're screaming, when we're on the streets, when we're posting things and you may think that - it's war, we see it, enough.

The news are that's enough.

I think this is the time to tell them.

>>Ebony Isis Booth: What can be done right now?

>> Katya Reka: watch the news, follow what's happening.

Do not break down because of it, because there will We will have to rebuild.

There will be efforts, I know a lot of us will be going back.

This is not how I wanted to introduce my daughter to the country, in rubles.

But, we will be going back.

She is asking me "when are we going to go plant trees and build the houses?"

from what she's seeing.

Don't look away, because the only way to prevent it here, or anywhere else, because we thought that would never happen after what we have seen with Hitler, we thought that would never happen, like we learned our lesson.

But the only way to remember is to look at what is happening and right now, maybe you do not understand all the subtleties and nuances of why But look at what is happening to people, you do not need to understand pain and to understand the devastation You do not need to understand that no matter who those people skin color, origin, religion, that should not be happening The reason why you need to pay attention and study history is think that we can create the other, then punish the others.

For Americans I think this is crucial.

I have been here for twenty two years in America, and the things We are here beyond flirting with homegrown fascism.

We're beyond the flirting stage.

What is happening now in the states-- this was happening in First you can't say it, then you can't be it, then for being something you're not supposed to be.

I am just watch opinion shows, look at the facts reasoning to see.

If we do not remember this will happen again.

We will be silent for too long, we will think "nobody will take greatest country" and that is how it all gets started.

Germany, Russia, any dictatorship starts this way.

Where you just let it slide, you don't stand up for somebody That can pertain to race, that can pertain to Native American to trans and gay rights.

All of it is terrifying for me because all of it is in Russia and people were just silent and they're still silent.

Finding the other and vilifying them.

This is the evolution of evil and we have seen it several and we should learn when to stop it.

>>Ebony Isis Booth: How do we prevent this from happening >>Katya Reka: If we find common points, if we learn We learn how to say "hello" and "goodbye" and we find out what is, what this person's favorite color is, when we know enough humanity.

We will not be able to point and shoot at somebody, or them they are not human because we decided so.

That's what is happening with the Russian army right now.

Ukrainians fight, they thought we were in some combat But the difference between Ukraine and Russia for over thirty years.

Thirty one years we were free people.

We had our problems, we had our protests, But if we didn't like it, we would go outside, stay out there, freeze to death, and overthrow.

Nothing like that happened in Russia.

There was not a generation that grew up free.

They only had freedom in the nineties.

So you're comparing an army of free people fighting for people who are protecting their master, their dictator.

That's the difference.

It's being talked widely about and this is the best way and how to prevent it.

That sense of freedom, you raise it in your children, you teach teach them that they're okay even if people say they're As a mom I always see how do you create space for a loving person them.

By that you carve out that space in the universe for them seek power over someone else.

To feel better about themselves.

>>Ebony Isis Booth: It's a great honor.

So much respect for your resilience and your passion and >> Katya Reka: We are doing things we can.

We are collecting- I know it's gonna be a while before but I know a lot of people care and need to do something be shipped, and it's the little things.

And humor too.

That is how we are all staying- you cannot believe the explosion and I know it's been- we've learned that it's been I know that the obscene language, I understand how it words, they were created in war.

It's a curve, a few hours every day you are just broken somebody else picks you up and you keep going.

I cannot even imagine what people at home are going If I'm that affected by it, how is it when you're there?

Thank STANDING UP FOR UKRAINE Stop the war.

Stop Putin.

Close the sky.

>>Ebony Isis Booth: There are Russian voices opposing the war to ensure that those voices are heard.

Grisha Gutkin was among a rally for Ukraine in Santa Fe this past weekend.

Grisha, why >>Grisha Gutkin: The first, uh, part of the answer is that And the reason that I organized it is, you know, I am, I'm from I came here when I was a 12 year old boy, so I have kind of a my Russian and my American parts of my identity.

And, um, you know, when the war broke out in Ukraine, at first, saddened.

And for a while, I just didn't know how I could After reading a message from Navalny, who is a jailed Russians to come to the streets every Sunday and protest the Russia, but Russians everywhere throughout the world.

I you know, I thought that this is something that I could do.

Uh, just a couple of days ago I think almost 100 And you know, we want to just keep it going and promoting the Ukrainian people.

And I think Americans are definitely But, uh, it's important to note that not all Russians >>Ebony Isis Booth: Grisha, how do you talk about what's >>Grisha Gutkin: I mean I talk to different people.

I talk to my wife about it all the time also.

She's a very deeply caring person, so it's, it's very So, we help each other process it.

Um, just talk about the happening.

Then there are people that I have in Russia, including Uh, they've been difficult conversations because you know, events.

You know, she obviously thinks, she's Its, you know, its brother killing brother and all that.

But she.

where we don't kind of see to eye to eye, is who, is She doesn't see it as a war of aggression.

She sees it as, you know, what official propaganda says.

Uh, and so I, you know, as one of the examples to counter that, what happened Mariupol and the maternity ward that got bombed?"

"Well, the way that they showed it to me, to us, is that, were, there was a blogger/actress who actually yeah, it wasn't really a maternity, I mean, it used to taken over by, uh, the fighters.

And, uh, yeah, the people that escaping it, they were actors."

Uh, and that kind of, I haven't was just kind of dumbfounded.

So yeah, so that is to say, you is, I'm trying to educate her on what's actually going on.

battle.

Uh, I think, you know, and she is, I think part of the kind of staying silent because, they don't actually And if they do get some, you know, um, facts that are they're afraid, you know?

I've been posting on the Russian like a Facebook of Russia and, you know, I've been posting, of, you know, western media sources about the events of the And, I, like my mom told me, I'm, I'm even afraid to like I don't know, I don't know what might happen, if they'll come I don't think that would actually happen, but there It was really nice to talk to people at the rally because up and they cared.

Just trying to figure out what we can do.

You know, it's just, you know., I'm not a politician.

I'm not, military.

I don't have a lot of sort of influence over these, But I'm doing what I can to just show support.

It was really nice that people of Ukrainian descent came them and hear their stories and just kind of connect with them know, that you know, I'm Russian, but I'm, you know, I'm You know, I'm just a fellow human.

>>Ebony Isis Booth: What are we, or, what are you >>Grisha Gutkin: That's a good question.It might be a little you know, I like to um, I like to see the facts be a little bit So, I do see, um that, you know, the western press has fully people of Ukraine, but with the Ukrainian military, and is not things that are, you know, maybe, that maybe the that's not, you know, up to par.

Um, there was a yesterday, Donetsk, which is, the capital of the you know, proclaimed that is not controlled by the Russian forces.

And there was a landed in the middle of the city, in the middle of the day.

children.

And just horrific.

And there's hardly mention It may be that the Russians actually, you know, shot the Uh, and you know, if that's the case, you know let's, But the fact that it's just not being reported is a little bit.

I think it lends the propagandists on the other side like "Oh look.

Western media is biased they're not covering, suffering on the Ukrainian side.

They're not covering the So those kind of things I wish I'd see a little bit more of >>Ebony Isis Booth: What can be done right now?

>>Grisha Gutkin: I'm sort of anti-war in general, um so, I the military strategy.

But I think what we can do is just, Ukrainian people.

Help people that are in need.

There's like battling the propaganda.

And especially Russian-speaking with your folks back in Russia, you know, I know it's hard to But I think it's our duty to kind of let them know what's Because they're the people that are ultimately responsible And if they, you know, decide that, you know, they had enough its like 20 years of dictatorship.

Then they can can do.

[Protest chants.]

>>Ebony Isis Booth: Grisha, one last question.

What must be said that hasn't been?

>> Grisha Gutkin: I don't know.

I mean I've been, I've been kind of living in the news for the So, I think I've heard everything.

I don't know what the viewers have heard and read.

Just what from my perspective I would just say that you know, Russians, like most people in the world, just want peace.

And uh, the thing that we really have to battle is I think that's what's causing the Russian people not to So, I think yeah, we must fight misinformation wherever it is.

You know, the truth will set us free.

RESILIENCE AND THE TRAGEDY OF WAR.

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