We spread awareness
of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant disaster in 1986 through live play readings and social media.
April 2016
We will tweet the script during the month of April. Follow our Twitter account @VoicesChornobyl .
The Play
Cindy Marie Jenkins adapted her play from 2015 Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich’s book Voices From Chernobyl.
The rights to perform the play are available for free, providing at least 75% of proceeds are donated to a Chernobyl charity. We can help find a charity near you.
why spell it “Chornobyl” instead of “Chernobyl”
Please note that CBC language guidelines specify that the spelling ‘Chornobyl’ is to be used instead of ‘Chernobyl.’ The spelling of ‘Chornobyl,’ which is in the Ukraine, is considered closer to the original Ukrainian than ‘Chernobyl’, which was based on a Russian version. Mar 13, 2011 6:00 PM ET
With Ukraine becoming independent from the former Soviet Union, the Ukrainian government has set about to reestablish its own language and original spellings. Two of the most noticeable differences are Chornobyl (Ukrainian spelling) and Chernobyl (Russian spelling); and Kyiv (Ukrainian spelling) and Kiev (Russian spelling).
Our spelling change was made at the request of Ukraine government officials with whom we work. We also have several members of our INSP staff who are living and working in either Slavutych or Kyiv, Ukraine; and we have several Ukraine citizens working on the INSP program in the United States. All of these individuals have expressed the need to change our spelling to the Ukraine (English) spelling, and not the former Russian (English) spelling.
In addition, the U.S. Department of State, at the request of the Ukraine government, advised our offices in August 1997 to change to the preferred spelling of the country in which the city or nuclear power plant is located. At that point, we changed our web-site spelling to Ukraine’s preference, which is Chornobyl.
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November 12, 2010 at 8:12 pm
My student organization at Portland State University was contacted about hosting an awareness event in April. I would like to just ask for some details about the continued effects of the radiation on the surrounding community and how it effects the national and international community. I think an event would be interesting to do, but I would like to have some more concrete information about the organization and what exactly the goal is before anything is decided. If someone could send me an e-mail, that would be terrific.
Thanks in advance!!
November 12, 2010 at 8:22 pm
Hi Anna,
I contacted your organization on behalf of VFC. I know Tasia because I advised for PSUMUN. I will send you more information later today about this.
Thanks!
Rachel Stoll
rach.stoll@gmail.com
April 2, 2011 at 5:21 pm
Please explain the “Cho…” spelling?
April 2, 2011 at 9:55 pm
Hello Bill,
We spell Chornobyl with an O for our title because that is actually the Ukrainian spelling vs “Chernobyl,” which is closer to the Russian spelling. I cannot find the exact source I used when spelling it originally in 2006, but here is a link to an article which uses the O and explains at the bottom:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/story/2011/03/12/canadian-radiation-fallout-concern.html
Thank you for your interest. Do you have any more questions?
April 30, 2011 at 4:02 pm
As part of the April readings, in the UK we put on Voices from Chornobyl for a charity that brings aid to Chornobyl and takes children out each year to visit the UK. It was a moving event and I wrote a poem that expressed what I felt in being involved:-
VOICES FROM STOCKTON, VOICES FROM CHORNOBYL
Ten voices from front of church,
from a comfortable arc
so many safe miles away from the meltdown;
yet this twenty-five year separation
is no time at all
measured against
the thousands and millions
for ceasium’s decay
and yet,
we stood
bearing witness,
loaning our mouths and our bodies
to say
what could not be translated
but we tried.
We’d rehearsed
a scant few rehearsals.
We’d read,
I’d read,
the words
again and again
but I’d never lived it
till I stood in that fragmentary circle.
I cried
as the words
washed over me,
dry sobs,
head down
hoping no one would notice,
hoping everyone would see.
Over an hour
of relentless desolation
flew by
for we actors,
and the audience.
till we joined
and felt a replacement for what been before
a genuine compassion
we partook of the lamentation of a people
those of the Belarus and of the Ukraine
and who of us,
truly,
did not cry,
deep inside
as we all were made witness
and ate of their pain?
LindaMaceMichalik