On the occasion of James Mace’s birthday and as part of the Dialogs series of events, the Lviv Polytechnic National University’s International Institute of Education, Culture and Relations with the Diaspora (IIECRD) organized Natalia Dziubenko-Mace’s meeting with Leopolitans on February 24. Writer, journalist, author and compiler of numerous books, studies and analytical articles, as well as friend, adherent, and wife of the late Mace, Dziubenko-Mace told the audience in her hometown about the cause which her late husband furthered throughout his life and which he tried to make the whole world care about. Mace was an American historian of American Indian origin, who found a place in his heart for Ukraine and devoted his life to researching the Holodomor of 1932-33. The scholar was Den’s columnist and The Day’s editor for years, and all his landmark texts have been published in Den’s Library, including that memorable column which calls for annual commemoration of the victims of the Holodomor by putting a candle in the window on the memorial day.
The meeting was preceded by a flash mob organized by students of the Lviv Polytechnic. Youths printed out what they saw as Mace’s strongest and most apt sayings, feeling that it was another way, modern one at that, to popularize ideas of thoughtful people. Following the event, these posters were placed on the walls of the Polytechnic for everyone to see.
The IIECRD’s director Kliuchkovska said: “Anyone who knows about Mace must tell it to those who still do not understand who we owe the idea to light a memorial candle. We have to return Mace’s name into the intellectual and spiritual space of Ukraine. Therefore, we, acting on the IIECRD’s behalf and supported by the city’s public, will send a letter to the mayor of Lviv asking the city government to rename one of our streets to honor Mace.”
“We often came to Lviv, we had (and I still have) friends here, my parents lived here. We always came back with armfuls of books, for my husband was able to make unique books appear virtually from the thin air. He read his first Ukrainian book in a month and relied on a vocabulary while doing so, the second book took a week, and the third one just two days. His Ukrainian studies collection, which he gathered throughout his life, includes some truly unique items,” Dziubenko-Mace said as she shared her memories.
The letter asking the city to rename a street after Mace was open for signing by every participant of the meeting. Rector of the Lviv Polytechnic Yurii Bobalo and poet Ihor Kalynets affixed their signatures earlier.
“I hope that together we will get such a street, the first in western Ukraine, and the chain reaction will then spread throughout our country. What can each of us do, then? To reach out to one’s classmates, neighbors, family members, friends, those who do not know that name, and tell them about the Great Ukrainian. The Lviv City Council’s street renaming commission will hold a meeting before the coming Day of the City, and we invited the mayor and city councilors to come. We hope that despite their absence here today, they will receive the numerous signatures of Leopolitans collected by us, which express their desire to have a street renamed after Mace. If Lviv fails to do so, other Ukrainian cities will. It is important to ensure that youths get to know these meanings covered by Den. The Lviv Polytechnic’s preparations for this meeting, our students reading Mace’s works, visiting libraries, browsing through Den’s files – it all represents a great victory. Apart from our students and faculty members, we also invited school history teachers. It is important for us to get every teacher to tell their pupils about Mace and what they heard here, to see them encouraging children to read books. Moreover, knowing that I collaborate with Den, teachers asked me to present them the newspaper’s collection of history books. Very significantly, that meeting was initiated by teachers themselves, I mean the Lviv House of the Teacher. We plan to hold this seminar in March. Meanwhile, today’s meeting involved not only teachers of Lviv schools, but also those from provincial towns. So I think that we have sown the seed,” Kliuchkovska told us.
