"SHATTERED: Artists Inspired by Artists" Launches in New York
- RCI USA
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
About the Event
We are pleased to partner with the Ukrainian Institute of America in support of the launching event of SHATTERED: Artists Inspired by Artists, a visually stunning, deeply moving ekphrastic collection of poetry and artwork responding to the war in Ukraine. Featuring works by women poets from around the globe—including Ukraine, Romania, Canada, the UK, and the US—alongside evocative visuals by Romanian-Canadian artist Oana Maria Cajal, the book is both a lament and a call to action. The event, hosted by La Mama Community Arts Space, brings together compelling poetry readings, a striking exhibition of picto impulses by Oana Maria Cajal – first presented at RCI New York in 2023 - and live performances that bridge cultures and voices in the name of solidarity. Editors and contributing poets like Cristina A. Bejan, Olena Jennings, Ruth Margraff, and Claudia Serea will take the stage, along with actress Carla Francesca from Ego Actus Theatre Co to honor the courage and resilience of the Ukrainians.
Meet the Editors
Oana Maria Cajal is an award-winning playwright, visual artist, screenwriter, and poet. She was born in Bucharest and immigrated to the United States in 1980 with a grant from the American Theatre Association. She attended the Ph.D. Theatre Criticism program at New York’s City University and obtained her M.F.A. in playwriting from University of California San Diego (UCSD). Cajal has written plays that have had successful performances in cities across North America. She returned to graphic art in 2007 with her volume of picto-poems, "Solenodon", and had numerous solo exhibitions in Canada, United States, and Romania. Oana Maria Cajal is a Fulbright scholar and a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Playwriting Fellowship. She is an alumna of New Dramatists New York, a member of Dramatists Guild of America, Writers Union of Romania, Theater Union of Romania (UNITER), the Union of Fine Artists of Romania, Playwrights Workshop Montreal, and Playwrights Guild of Canada. Her play, "The Last Pact", was voted “Best Play of 2011” by UNITER. Her screenplay for the feature film "The White Gate" was nominated for the Gopo Awards, 2015.
Claudia Serea is a Romanian American poet, translator, and editor with work published in "Consequence Forum", "The Southern Review", "Field", "New Letters", "Prairie Schooner", "Oxford Poetry", and elsewhere. She is the author of seven poetry collections, most recently "In Those Years, No One Slept" (Broadstone Books, 2023). Serea won a Pushcart Prize, the Joanne Scott Kennedy Memorial Prize from the Poetry Society of Virginia, and the New Letters Readers Award. She co-edited "Shattered: Artists Inspired by Artists" (New Meridian Arts, 2024), an ekphrastic poetry collection protesting the war in Ukraine. She writes, translates, and edits manuscripts in Rutherford, New Jersey.
Ioana Ieronim is a Romanian poet, essayist, playwright, and translator. She is the author of narrative poetry in "Triumph of the Water Witch" (multiple editions, including in England and Germany) and "Lavinia and Her Daughters", "A Carpathian Elegy", translated by Adam J. Sorkin with the author, published in the U.S. Online volumes in English, i.a. "When Big Is Not Beautiful". "The House of the People" (collage and verse). She translated extensively poetry and drama from Shakespeare to Tony Kushner. She was an editor, cultural journalist, Romania’s cultural attaché in Washington D.C., Fulbright program director in Bucharest. Recipient of the Mihai Eminescu Prize of the Romanian Academy. Member of PEN America and of the Writers’ Union in Romania, she lives in Washington D.C. and Bucharest.
Cristina A. Bejan is a Romanian-American theatre artist, poet, and historian. She has written 19 plays, with productions in the United States, United Kingdom, Romania, and Vanuatu. Her hit play "Districtland" was bought for TV development and Next Stage Press released three of her scripts. Founding Executive Director of Bucharest Inside the Beltway, Bejan performs spoken word poetry under her stage name "Lady Godiva." She launched five published plays at NYC’s Drama Book Shop and her first two books are available in Romanian. A lifelong theatre practitioner, Bejan trained at Northwestern University, Studio Acting Conservatory, Interlochen Center for the Arts, and the DC Coalition for Theatre and Social Justice.
Ruth Margraff has been called a leader in the avant garde for her “audaciously original" (Moscow Times) poetics that provide “layer after layer of richly textured emotion... and imminent danger” (Dallas Morning News). She has been critically acclaimed for her 6 martial arts operas with composer Fred Ho for the Apollo, Guggenheim Museum, LaMama, Brooklyn Academy of Music, CAMI and her work on SEVEN began touring the world in 2008 introduced by Diane von Furstenberg, and in 2010 by Hillary Clinton with Meryl Streep at the Broadway Hudson Theater.