finally tonight...
While some Ukrainians are
fighting on the frontlines in
the war against Russia, others
have taken a different approach.
Ukrainian folk group dakhabrakha
is using a multi-city tour of
the U.S. To raise awareness of
their war-torn homeland and
fight back in their own way
against Russian aggression.
Special correspondent Mike cerre
has our report.
♪♪
Mike: Dakhabrakha is not their
fathers' Ukrainian folk band.
With their global rhythms and
instruments, theatrical
influences and costumes, and a
mix of blues, trance and opera
that give old Ukrainian folk
songs new relevance.
Dakhabraha loosely translates
into "Give and take," and
they're taking on their
generation's greatest threat to
Ukraine's culture.
The day the Russians invaded,
the group took what they could
and fled like thousands, now
millions, of other Ukrainian
refugees.
They're giving back to the
Ukrainian war effort by
continuing to tour and perform,
drawing attention to the war and
assault on their culture.
Dahkabrakha pianist, vocalist
and percussionist iryna
kovalenko fled Ukraine with her
husband five years ago.
Iryna: He said that history
tends to repeat itself, and he
was convinced that it's a matter
of time when Russia will start
the war against Ukraine.
Mike: When not touring with the
band, she lives in the Seattle
area where her daughter Sophia
was born.
Iryna had been working to get
her mother out of Ukraine and to
Seattle, since they last were
together near kiev, the day the
war broke out.
>> Fill the silence with your
music.
Fill it today to tell our story.
Mike: While Ukrainian president
zelensky was remotely rallying
the music community at the
grammys, dakhabrakha was kicking
off their U.S. Tour in a series
of performances in the New York
area.
In Seattle, kexp's darek Mazzone
first introduced dakhabrakha to
American audiences with this
2015 studio performance.
It quickly went viral on
YouTube, catching the attention
of major festival bookers from
bonner room and south by
southwest.
Darek: It transcends many
things.
They are definitely representing
their culture.
They're representing their
nation, but they're also a
theatrical band.
They're also a band for the time
where they're not trying to
emulate a western style.
They have created their own
particular vibe.
>> Hello, we are dakhabrakha and
we are happy to greet you from
dak theater in kiev ,Ukraine.
Mike: Traditional Ukrainian folk
singers by training theatrical
, a artistic director
transformed them into an avant
garde, performing arts group.
>> One of the labels I like most
that I've heard is this punk
folkloric.
Mike: San Francisco's jazz
center's artistic director
Randall Klein was one of the
first U.S.
Music venues to regularly
feature them over the years.
>> When you get to the end of
the concert and they're talking
very explicitly about, you know,
the problem they have come of
Russian problem they have, you
know trying to really squash
their culture, you know, you're
totally there with them.
And you know, this time you
really will be there for them.
>> Peace and love.
No more.
Stop Putin, thank you so much.
[Applause]
Iryna: Our mission is to ask
people for help.
Every country we are going to
come ask people to help.
Right now as Ukraine is going
through this but also afterwards
we will have to rebuild our
country.
Mike: What do you want to the
audience to feel?
Iryna: That Ukraine is a country
has a place on this Earth to
exist.
Mike: They've previously
performed the soundtrack for
this 1930's silent film
memorializing the suffering of
the estimated three to five
million Ukrainian farmers who
died during "The holodomor,"
starting in 1933 when Stalin
confiscated Ukrainian food
supplies during Russia's famine.
The now destroyed eastern
Ukraine city of mariupol was
where dakhabrakha played in the
city's annual weeklong music
festival in venues throughout
the city.
Iryna: It is a clear message
that it's a war.
It's not a conflict.
A lot of places and people still
call it.
It's a genocide against
Ukrainians.
Mike: They have joined forces
with other Ukrainian pop stars
in exile like jamala from
crimea.
She won a eurovision song
contest with her song about the
Russian forced deportations in
crimea in 1944.
Darek: I'm super curious to see
how that's going to be part of
the arsenal of the Ukrainian
culture, of Ukrainian people, to
push against the war that's
happening right now.
Iryna: I believe that our songs,
our art will be our weapon.
Mike: The combination of the
music, the war, and Americans
looking for an emotional release
and ways to get involved in
Ukrainian causes has sold out
their cross country tour.
Each show ends the same as their
shows before the war, with a
message that Americans can
finally comprehend.
[Applause]
>> Peace and love, no Russian
aggression!
Thank you so much!
Mike: For pbs news weekend, I'm
Mike cerre.
♪♪