#Jessica Pisano

[brettsinger]

Three Jokers and More

This week Mario Pisano returns to the podcast! What was Williamsburg Comedy Club originally called? What are Brooklyn audiences typically like? What's the deal with The Three Jokers? Why is Mark Waid so good? Is World's Finest an all ages book? (Not technically but it feels like it. Your mileage may vary, parents.) Shoutout to Caitlin Cass and her mail order comics. What are some superhero comics you can suggest to someone who isn't familiar with superhero comic books? Who is Riri Williams? What is the Old Man Logan universe? What happens in the original Old Man Logan comics? Who is The Maestro? What characters are in Avengers of the Wasteland? What was on the Wastelanders podcast? Do you have to have seen all of the original X-Men: The Animated Series in order to watch X-Men '97? What cool thing did the Jessica Jones Netflix series do? Who are Brett's top two villains? Why can't they get the Fantastic Four movie right? What was Superior Spider-Man about? Who's a better villain, Green Goblin or Doctor Octopus? What is a SteamDeck? What's happening with Star Wars? What is Gotham Nocturne?

Reading list: Batman Three Jokers World's Finest and spin-offs like Teen Titans Old Man Logan (free with Kindle Unlimited) Old Man Hawkeye (free with Kindle Unlimited) Old Man Quill (free with Kindle Unlimited) Avengers of the Wasteland (free with Comixology Unlimited) Chainsaw Man One Piece Jessica Jones: Alias House of M Superior Spider-Man Gotham Central Gotham Nocturne

Watch list: Logan X-Men '97 Honest Trailers - X-Men: The Animated Series One Piece Marvel Netflix shows: Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones The Incredibles Obi-Wan Kenobi The Mandalorian Tales of the Jedi

Video game list: Marvel's Avengers Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions Mario Super Sluggers Wii Sports

Old Man Logan Universe links:

OId Man Logan universe reading order (Google search)

Another suggestion

Marvel's Wastelanders podcast

On Spotify

Image credit:

By Own Work (screenshot) but it does not belong to me. It is DC's., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=65924174

Check out Comics Who Love Comic Books!

[2000sfm]

hi! mw older fc's and roles you'd like to see filled out??

 bring  us  more  older  fcs  all  the  way  !  we'd  love  to  see  paul  rudd,  adam  rodriguez,  taye  diggs,  monet  mazur,  barry  keoghan,  jamie  chung,  brenda  song,  sobhita  dhulipala,  danny  pudi,  bill  skarsgard,  keith  powers,  jessica  chastain,  laverne  cox,  lucy  liu,  sandra  oh,  paz  vega,  kerry  washington,  charlize  theron,  cillian  murphy,  eva  green,  john  krasinski,  natasha  lyonne,  shu  qi,  melissa  fumero,  paolo  lessa,  drew  barrymore,  ali  wang,  janelle  monae,  oliver  jackson-cohen,  will  sharpe,  octavio  pisano,  casey  deidrick,  ryan  cooper,  rebecca  ferguson,  janet  montgomery,  neve  campbell  &  some  of  the  roles  from  our  already  pre-existing  reboots  would  be  charles  townsend  from  charlie's  angels,  alaric  saltzman  or  jenna  sommers  from  the  vampire  diaries,  dan  scott  +  keith  scott  or  karen  roe  from  one  tree  hill,  jackson  teller  +  gemma  teller  morrow  +  clay  morrow  from  sons  of  anarchy,  sookie  st.  james  +  kirk  gleason  +  jackson  belleville  +  christopher  hayden  from  gilmore  girls,  jessica  dilaurentis  +  ashley  marin  +  ella  montgomery  from  pretty  little  liars,  rupert  giles  +  joyce  summers  +  jenny  calendar  from  buffy  the  vampire  slayer,  samantha  jones  +  miranda  hobbes  from  sex  and  the  city,  dean  +  sam  winchester  +  crowley  +  lucifer  from  supernatural,  derek  shepard  +  jackson  avery  +  mark  sloan  from  grey's  anatomy  !

[thccraft]

mobile muse list

Angela Grimes. 43. ex-psychiatrist fc: evangeline lilly // fandom: twd/tlou - zombie ap.

Belinda Callohan. 43. emergency room nurse fc: emily blunt // fandom: fandomless

Brody O'Conor. 40. tattoo artist/ex-boxer fc: tom hardy // fandom: fandomless

Callum Jacobs. 42. mechanic / vp of mc fc: charlie hunnam // fandom: fandomless

Cassandra 'Cassie' Donovan. 41. bartender/bar-manager fc: sophia bush // fandom: fandomless

Charlotte 'Charlie' Schmid. 40. homicide detective fc: olivia munn // fandom: fandomless/cm/svu

Dante Walker. 42. defense attorney fc: charles michael davis // fandom: fandomless

Dean Fuller. 54. therapist fc: jeffrey dean morgan // fandom: fandomless

Declan Kentala. 43. farmer / ex-bounty hunter fc: jason momoa // fandom: fandomless

Delilah Martinez. 37. elementary school teacher fc: ana de armas // fandom: fandomless

Gregory Gonzalo. 46. mafia don / jazz club owner fc: oscar isaac // fandom: fandomless

Hazel Monroe. 42. criminal defense attorney fc: jessica chastain // fandom: fandomless

Isadora sanchez. 33. personal assistant fc: priscilla quintana // fandom: fandomless

Julieta Ortega. 38. fbi agent fc: martha higareda // fandom: crime

Katalina Chavez. 31 318. vampire fc: nathalie kelley // fandom: to/tvd/supernatural

Lily Donovan. 39. investigative journalist fc: phoebe tonkin // fandom: fandomless

Lucian Gambino. 44. hitman fc: daniel gillies // fandom: fandomless

Lydia Dononvan. 48. cafe owner fc: holly marie combs // fandom: fandomless

Mateo Santiago. 46. drug dealer for Cardenas Cartel / gentleman's club owner fc: edgar ramirez // fandom: fandomless/crime

Matias Jimenz. 41. Bar Owner & Lieutenant of Cardenas Cartel fc: peter gadiot // fandom: crime

Nathaniel Donovan. 42. fbi agent fc: jensen ackles // fandom: fandomless

Noah Matthews. 46. assistant district attorney fc: john krasinski // fandon: fandomless

Olivia Prentiss. 42. medical examiner fc: rachel mcadams // fandom: fandomless

Pilar Sanchez. 35. special victims ada fc: adria arjona // fandom: crime

Rachel Combs. 39. hunter fc: aj cook // fandom: supernatural

Rosa Nunez. 35. money handler for cartel fc: lindsey morgan // fandom: fandomless

Ryder Valdez. 40. con-arist / serial killer fc: jon michael eck // fandom: fandomless

Samara Romanovski. 39. hired cleaner for mob/cartel/criminals fc: megan fox // fandom: fandomless

Taleen Datyan. 35. event/wedding planner fc: angela sarafan // fandom: fandomless

Tristan Fowler. 45. college professor / archeologist fc: tom hiddleston // fandom: fandomless

Victor Arturo. 39. private investigator / bar owner fc: octavio pisano // fandom: fandomless

Wyatt Williams. 41. mechanic / ex-con fc: pablo schreiber // fandom: fandomless

Xavier Cardenas. 41. Bodyguard & Son of Cartel Boss fc: alfonso herrera // fandom: crime

Ximena Cardenas. 33. Weapons Trafficker & Daughter of Cartel Boss fc: eiza gonzalez // fandom: crime

[iamjapanese]

Jessica Pisano（American, b.1977）

Incandescent Sky  2021  oil on panel  38″ × 50″  via

[ojo-rojo]

Jessica Pisano: “The Dance” from the “Bird Dreamscape” series.

https://www.jessicapisano.com/

[crossconnectmag]

Jessica Pisano Fine Art

Inspired by the natural beauty of her hometown of Martha's Vineyard, Jessica Pisano’s interest in art started at a young age. She pursued her passion for the arts at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, graduating in 1999 with a BFA in painting and photography. Pisano participated in a year abroad program to study fine art at the Lorenzo de Medici School in Florence, Italy. In 2002, she earned an MA in Arts Administration from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

As an artist, I have always been inspired by nature — it is my muse. Birds and trees are the main characters in my paintings. I am both interested and intrigued by the comparison and contrast of these subjects, as well as their individual symbolism (...)

Artist website.

It’s easy to keep up with your favorite artists on our Instagram

posted by Margaret from tu recepcja

[creativespark]

Jessica Pisano, The Dance Oil on panel

[supersonicart]

Jessica Pisano, Paintings.

Peaceful, reflective works that allow viewers a sense of ease and guidance through lovely instances of beauty like the flight path of birds by artist Jessica Pisano.  Be sure to continue below to see more of her work:

Don’t miss Supersonic Art on Instagram!

Jessica Pisano: Website

[tuseriesdetv]

Noticias de series de la semana

Renovaciones

Netflix ha renovado You por una cuarta temporada

Amazon ha renovado Jack Ryan por una cuarta temporada

Starz ha renovado Blindspotting por una segunda temporada

HBO Max ha renovado Doom Patrol por una cuarta temporada

HBO Max ha renovado Titans por una cuarta temporada

Pennyworth se muda de EPIX a HBO Max, que la renueva por una tercera temporada

Noticias cortas

CBS encarga temporada completa de NCIS: Hawaii y FBI: International.

Bosé será desarrollada por Paramount+.

Jennifer Coolidge (Tanya) volverá en la segunda temporada de The White Lotus.

Octavio Pisano (Joe Velasco) será regular en la vigesimotercera temporada de Law & Order: SVU.

Fichajes

Emma Corrin (The Crown) protagonizará Retreat. Será una joven detective.

Common (Never Have I Ever, Hell on Wheels) será Sims, el jefe de la seguridad judicial del silo, en Wool. Tim Robbins (Mystic River, Dead Man Walking), Rashida Jones (Parks and Recreation, The Office) y David Oyelowo (Selma, Nightingale) serán Bernard, jefe del departamento de informática; Allison, trabajadora del departamento de informática y esposa de Holston; y Holston, el sheriff del silo.

Harvey Keitel (Bugsy, Reservation Dogs), Laura Harrier (Hollywood, One Life to Live), Grace Zabriskie (Twin Peaks, Big Love), Olunike Adeliyi (Workin' Moms, Flashpoint) y T.J. Atoms (Wu-Tang: An American Saga) se unen a Iron Mike como recurrentes. Serán Cus D'Amato, el primer entrenador de Tyson (Trevante Rhodes); Robin Givens, la actriz y primera esposa de Tyson; Camile D'Amato, la esposa de Cus; Lorna Mae, la madre de Tyson; y Barkim, ladrón y amigo de Tyson.

Michael Peña (Narcos: Mexico, The Shield) se une a la cuarta temporada de Jack Ryan. Se desconocen detalles.

Melanie Lynskey (Castle Rock, Two and a Half Men) será Betty Gore, la amiga de Candy Montgomery (Jessica Biel) en Candy.

Patton Oswalt (The Goldbergs, King of Queens), Nat Faxon (Ben & Kate, The Conners), Carlos Valdes (The Flash, Arrow), Erinn Hayes (Childrens Hospital, Kevin Can Wait), Patrick Walker, Raphael Sbarge (Once Upon a Time, Murder in the First), Chris Conner (Altered Carbon, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story), Anne Dudek (Mad Men, House M.D.), Brian Geraghty (Big Sky, Chicago PD), Nelson Franklin (Black-ish, Veep), Reed Diamond (13 Reasons Why, Homicide: Life on the Street), Johnny Berchtold, Adam Ray (American Vandal) y Billy Smith (Homeland) serán Chuck Colson, consejero de Nixon (Danny Winn); Bob Haldeman, jefe de gabinete de la Casa Blanca; Paul Magallanes, agente del FBI; Peggy Ebbitt, amiga de los Mitchell; Frank Willis, guardia de seguridad; Charles N. Shaffer, abogado de John Dean (Dan Stevens); John Ehrlichman, la mano derecha de Nixon; Diana Oweiss, la secretaria de John Mitchell (Sean Penn); Peter, el guardia de seguridad de los Mitchell; Dick Moore, mano derecha de John Dean; Mark Felt, director asociado del FBI; Jay Jennings, hijo de Martha Mitchell (Julia Roberts); Ron Ziegler, secretario de prensa de la Casa Blanca; y Ken Ebbitt, amigo de John Mitchell; en Gaslit.

Celia Weston (Modern Family, American Horror Story), Michael O'Neill (Rectify, Scandal) y Gable Swanlund (The Shrink Next Door) se unen como regulares a Echoes. Tyner Rushing (The Terminal List), Hazel y Ginger Mason (The Blacklist, The Post), Alise Willis (Ruthless) y Madie Nichols (The Outsider) serán recurrentes.

Kathleen Robertson (Bates Motel; Beverly Hills, 90210) será Rosenfeld Guoliang, miembro importante del círculo de confianza de Marco Inaros (Keon Alexander),W en la sexta y última temporada de The Expanse.

Natasha O'Keeffe (Peaky Blinders, Misfits), Meera Syal (The Kumars, The Split) y Ceara Coveney se unen a la segunda temporada de The Wheel of Time.

Adam Korson (SurrealEstate, Imposters) será recurrente en Maggie como Daniel, un hombre dulce y autocrítico que ha abandonado el crossfit.

Bryana Salaz (Team Kaylie, Best Friends Whenever), Keyla Monterroso Mejia, Ciara Riley Wilson (L.A.'s Finest) y Shiv Pai (Iron Fist) protagonizarán Freeridge.

Melissa De Sousa (Valley of the Dolls, The Best Man) y McKinley Freeman (Hit the Floor, Queen Sugar) serán recurrentes en Our Kind of People como Alex Rivera, reportera financiera y exmujer de Raymond (Morris Chestnut); y el padre de Nikki (Alana Bright).

Lily Cardone (Bernie the Dolphin) y Lowrey Brown (The Gifted) serán las versiones jóvenes de Irene (Sissy Spacek) y Franklin (J.K. Simmons) en Lightyears.

Djouliet Amara (Guilty Party) será recurrente en la segunda temporada de Superman & Lois. Interpretará a una estudiante de Smallville High con un pasado lleno de secretos.

Kausar Mohammed (What Men Want), Wilder Yari y Theo Germaine (The Politician, Work in Progress) serán recurrentes en 4400 como Soraya, amiga de Jharrel (Joseph David-Jones) que trabaja en el departamento de informática; Jessica, agente de Seguridad Nacional y exnovia de Keisha (Ireon Roach); y Noah, uno de los aparecidos.

Kalyne Coleman será recurrente en Interview With the Vampire como Grace, hermana de Louis (Jacob Anderson).

Pósters

              Nuevas series

AMC encarga Tales of The Walking Dead, antología episódica en la que veremos a personajes nuevos y antiguos.

Apple TV+ ha encargado diez episodios de Shrinking, que sigue a un terapeuta en duelo (Jason Segel; How I Met Your Mother, Freaks and Geeks) que comienza a incumplir las normas y decir a sus clientes exactamente lo que piensa, ignorando su formación y la ética, originando así enormes cambios en las vidas de los demás y también en la suya. Escrita y producida por Segel junto a Bill Lawrence (Scrubs, Spin City) y Brett Goldstein, guionistas de Ted Lasso.

FX encarga The Bear, comedia sobre un joven chef (Jeremy Allen White; Shameless, Homecoming) que vuelve a Chicago para llevar el restaurante familiar. Con Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Girls, NOS4A2), Ayo Edebiri (Dickinson, Big Mouth), Lionel Boyce (Hap & Leonard), Abby Elliott (Odd Mom Out, How I Met Your Mother), Liza Colón-Zayas (In Treatment, David Makes Man), Edwin Lee Gibson (Fargo) y Matty Matheson (Workin' Moms). Creada y producida por Christopher Storer (Ramy, Dickinson), que dirigió el piloto.

Ryan Murphy y Jamie Lee Curtis quieren producir Outfielder, sobre el hombre que inventó el high five, para Netflix. Se trata de Glenn Burke, de Los Angeles Dodgers, que chocó esos cinco el 2 de octubre de 1977. Burke fue el primer jugador de las Grandes Ligas de Béisbol en salir del armario durante su carrera profesional. Escrita por Robert O'Hara (Slave Play, Insurrection), que también la dirigiría.

Patricia Clarkson (Sharp Objects, Six Feet Under) y Nathalie Emmanuel (Game of Thrones, Four Weddings and a Funeral) protagonizarán Gray, thriller de espionaje basado en una idea original del novelista David Baldacci, escrita por John McLaughlin (Black Swan, Carnivàle) y dirigida por Ruba Nadda (Frankie Drake Mysteries). Producen Baldacci y Clarkson, que interpretará a Cornelia Gray, una espía que lleva 20 años huyendo de los agentes del gobierno que sospechan que es una traidora y regresa a su antigua vida justo cuando se descubre que hay un nuevo topo dentro de su vieja red de espionaje poniéndola a ella y a su red en peligro.

Bess Wohl (Grand Horizons) escribirá para televisión la limited series The Children's Hour, adaptación de la obra de Lillian Hellman (1934) que tuvo versión cinematográfica en 1961 y que trata sobre dos mujeres que dirigen un internado de chicas y son acusadas falsamente de mantener una relación sentimental. La serie expandirá la historia para incluir detalles del caso legal en el que está basada la obra y profundizar en la comunidad que rodea a la escuela y en la mente de la joven acusadora. Produce Jon Robin Baitz (Brothers & Sisters, The Slap).

Fechas

La segunda temporada de Temple llega a Sky Max el 28 de octubre

La decimotercera temporada de Doctor Who se estrena en BBC One el 31 de octubre

Head of the Class llega a HBO Max el 4 de noviembre

La segunda temporada de Saved by the Bell se estrena en Peacock el 24 de noviembre

La tercera temporada de Hanna se estrena en Prime Video el 24 de noviembre

La segunda temporada de Alex Rider se estrena en IMDb TV el 3 de diciembre

La sexta y última temporada de The Expanse se estrena en Prime Video el 10 de diciembre

La segunda temporada de Crossing Swords se estrena en Hulu el 10 de diciembre

Stay Close llega a Netflix el 31 de diciembre

Peacemaker se estrena en HBO Max el 13 de enero

La segunda parte de la undécima y última temporada de The Walking Dead se estrena en AMC el 20 de febrero

Tráilers y promos

The Shrink Next Door

Temple - Temporada 2

Dickinson - Temporada 3 y última

La casa de papel - Últimos episodios

Doctor Who - Temporada 13

Colin in Black & White

Gentefied - Temporada 2

Narcos: Mexico - Temporada 3 y última

You - Temporada 4

The Sex Lives of College Girls

Curb Your Enthusiasm - Temporada 11

Saved by the Bell - Temporada 2

The Expanse - Temporada 6 y última

Hanna - Temporada 3

Alex Rider - Temporada 2

Mayor of Kingstown

Hawkeye

Swagger

Big Mouth - Temporada 5

Peacemaker

[maximumphilosopheranchor]

"For two decades before his global fame as a wartime president, his reported bravado and need for “ammo, not a ride” accompanied by actual courage, Volodymyr Zelenskyy was widely known in Ukraine and throughout the Russian-speaking world for his artistry, humor, and moral leadership. If the Soviet period had been distinguished for some above all by its bezzhalostnost’— its ruthlessness or pitilessness—and the 1990s by mercilessness of a different sort, as a screen and stage performer Zelenskyy had consistently embodied and articulated humanistic values, telling the truth about politics and everyday life even when the stakes of doing so were high. As a satiric actor, Zelenskyy articulated a way of thinking about national belonging in Ukraine that included space for diverse political identities while promoting patriotism and unity. While to some, Ukrainians’ current unity may seem a crisis response that may not survive victory or an inadvertent product of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s choices, an examination of Zelenskyy’s work as a showman illuminates his sustained efforts to lead Ukrainians and foster societal unity well before Russia’s full-scale war.

Although some observers in the West have interpreted their own discovery of Zelenskyy’s wartime qualities as his “emergence” as a leader, Zelenskyy has long been known as such in Ukraine—albeit in the realm of artistic, rather than political, performance. Years before his formal presidential campaign or presidential leadership, Zelenskyy articulated a vision of Ukrainian political nationhood from the stage. Even as Zelenskyy’s record in governance prior to February 2022 elicited mixed responses from Ukrainians, the ideas about Ukrainian political identity that helped propel Zelenskyy to a landslide victory in 2019 have been resilient in the face of full-scale war. The following pages examine key ideas Zelenskyy communicated as a performer during the eight years prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion, analyzing the content of Zelenskyy’s stagecraft and the concepts and discursive frames he and his troupe Studio Kvartal-95 used in their show “Vechirnii (Evening) kvartal” to build a vocabulary of national unity following years of societal polarization.

Most discussions of Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the context of his wartime presidential leadership note in passing that he is a former comedian, but Zelenskyy was no minor figure in the worlds of Ukrainian and Russian show business. As players in international improvisational comedy competitions (KVN, or Club of the Merry and Resourceful) broadcast on Russian state television, drawing millions of viewers, Zelenskyy and his troupe were familiar to audiences across Ukraine, Russia, and other independent states that had been part of the Soviet Union by the late 1990s.

By 2003, after Zelenskyy’s popularity and talent yielded overtures from Moscow to work as a writer for KVN, which he refused, he and his teammates set out on their own. Zelenskyy created his own production company, Kvartal-95, which would go on to produce dozens of television shows and films viewed on Ukraine television and on Russian state television. In 2021, Kvartal-95’s show Svaty (“In-laws”) was the most popular series on Russian state television and on Ukrainian television, where the series attracted 12.8 million viewers and a 24 percent share of Ukrainian audiences that year.

Ukrainians of all ages followed their show Vechirnii kvartal, which aired at prime time on Saturday evenings. In its final year with Zelenskyy, prior to his inauguration as president, Vechirnii kvartal was watched by 18 percent of television audiences across the country. A musical revue that leaned heavily on political satire, Vechirnii kvartal addressed topics of interest to everyday people, making jokes highlighting the absurdities of contemporary post-Soviet life. Whether playing a hospitalized psychiatric patient pressured to vote for former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych or an apartment dweller waiving a shotgun to threaten a postal worker delivering an electricity bill, Zelenskyy and his troupe invited his audiences to laugh not at the people they portrayed, but at the absurdity of the world as seen through their eyes. There were exceptions, as when they satirized politicians, skewered Russians gloating over the annexation of Crimea, or ridiculed Russians over their stereotypes about Ukrainians. After 2014 Zelenskyy and his troupe used the show to advance ideas about democracy and Ukrainian sovereignty and unity.

From the stage, Zelenskyy and his troupe told stories that follow Aristotelian conventions, leading the audience through a narrative arc that ended in catharsis. At the same time, they suffused that dramatic form with social reflection more typical of modern theater. In contrast to dramatic theater, in which the viewer closely identifies with characters on the stage, and different from modern theater’s critical distance from the action on the stage, Zelenskyy engages each member of his audience not with the characters, but as a character. This move involves the viewer as a political subject, making possible an emancipatory politics that ordinarily is rendered impossible by the structure of dramatic form. In other words, Zelenskyy tells a compelling story—but still prompts the viewer to leave the theater primed to act to improve the world.

As a showman, Zelenskyy articulated a political vision that consistently emphasized not only freedom and ambition but also responsibility and brotherhood--sisterhood later would become a theme of Zhinochyi kvartal, a show also produced by Zelenskyy’s company. Zelenskyy preached not loyalty to a leader but fidelity to the idea of Ukraine—and proceeded to offer a vision for that idea that viewers of Vechirnii kvartal absorbed and engaged with on Saturday evenings and when Zelenskyy and his troupe toured Ukraine and Ukrainians’ vacation destinations around the world. (..)

Beyond the halls of academia and government, over time many other Ukrainians also internalized the trope of “two Ukraines,” the idea that the history and geography were in some sense destiny and their single state might really be two countries, as Riabchuk had once put it. After all, there were real historical regional variations and disagreements, and evidence of contemporary division was present in everyday life. For example, in the years immediately following the massive demonstrations of Ukraine’s Orange revolution, which coalesced in response to documented electoral fraud, members of the same family often couldn’t agree about whether protest was a legitimate path to political change.

If a split approximately along the Dnipro had been the dominant framework Ukrainians and others long had used to organize Ukrainians’ ideas about their relationships with their compatriots, Zelenskyy and Studio Kvartal-95 offered a different way of seeing Ukraine and the world. Both drawing on and articulating a form of national patriotism that was emerging in Ukrainian society following Russia’s 2014 invasion, Zelenskyy and his troupe supplied their audiences a language and framework to think and talk about modern Ukrainian political nationhood that broke through dominant tropes of polarization. Like the Ukrainian professional historians who worked on the “historical front” during the same period to provide a framework for a decolonial and constructivist politics and history that emphasized change and fertile engagement among groups rather than an essentialist nation, Zelenskyy and Studio Kvartal-95 worked on an artistic and entertainment front to shift how their Ukrainian audiences saw themselves and each other.

From the stage, Zelenskyy and his troupe cultivated a way of thinking about Ukrainian identity that included a diverse range of people and articulated values that were patriotic and liberal—yet included elements of religious culture and broad humanism that appealed to a wide range of Ukrainians. Their approach provided language and a national concept that russified Ukrainians, who did not think of themselves as nationalists, could use to identify as patriots. (..)

In contrast to the binary thinking that dominated Russian official discourse and some analyses of Ukrainian politics, Zelenskyy used an approach to discussing the recent past that reflected a growing understanding in Ukraine of the country as a multicultural polity. In their songs, Zelenskyy and his team reframed Ukrainian identity to focus on recognition and validation of ways of belonging that often did not map onto the categories of analysis social scientists usually used to examine identity. Through lyrics and other elements of performance, Zelenskyy and his team disaggregated elements of the seemingly bipolar world of Ukrainian domestic politics to articulate ideas of Ukrainian identity that focused on a diversity of possible personal and group identities. (..)

As president, Zelenskyy took the approach he used on stage further, invoking identities that cohered not only around language or region, but also around individual beliefs and everyday practices that did not always seem political. In his New Year’s presidential greeting in 2020, Zelenskyy articulated a plural vision of politics that expanded the categories Ukrainians used to identify themselves and that others use to identify them. Elevating regional identities, he spoke Ukrainian but also pronounced sentences in other languages spoken in Ukraine: Russian, Crimean Tatar, and Hungarian. He then led his viewers through recognizable identity categories and experiences, alighting upon a variegated societal taxonomy. Setting aside concepts ordinarily used in political analysis, Zelenskyy recognized and elevated Ukrainian citizens as individual humans:

Who am I? An agronomist from Cherkasy, a former photographer who defends his country in the east? A former physicist who washes dishes in Italy, or a former chemist who builds skyscrapers in Novosibirsk? Someone who has lived abroad for ten years and loves Ukraine over the Internet? Someone who lost everything in Crimea and started again from nothing in Kharkiv? Someone who learned Ukrainian because it’s normal to know the state language. Someone who doesn’t want to? Someone who pays her taxes? Someone who breaks the traffic laws? Someone who has a dog? A redhead? A Muslim? Someone who is hearing-impaired? Someone who hates olives? A liberal? An excellent student? Someone who didn’t watch Game of Thrones? A sanguine temperament? A vegan? A Capricorn? Someone who doesn’t offer his seat on the subway? A blood donor? Someone who refuses to use plastic?

Zelenskyy went on to add, “This is each of us, Ukrainians, as we are. Not ideal, not saints, because we’re just people, living people, with our flaws and eccentricities.” Responses to the address brought an avalanche of appreciation within and especially beyond Ukraine, as many remarked on the contrast between Zelenskyy’s warm, human thoughtfulness, and individuality and the uniform, cardboard character of the greetings distributed by the Russian, Belarusian, and Kazakhstan presidents. (..)

Having produced performances that tried to break apart the dualities that dominated Ukraine’s polarized politics, focusing instead on a diversity of constituent identities, Zelenskyy and Studio Kvartal-95 used two key focal points to gather individual parts into a coherent whole. For Zelenskyy and Studio Kvartal-95, those focal points were interlocking foils: the actions of Ukraine’s own oligarchic political class, which treated Ukrainians as background players, not agents of change, and Putin’s political regime and its war against Ukraine. Focusing on issues about which Ukrainians of different political, linguistic, and other stripes could agree, Studio Kvartal-95 used these two themes to articulate the idea of a united popular front. (..)

Performing mainly in the Russian language for russified Ukrainians, Zelenskyy and Studio Kvartal-95 articulated for their audiences an idea of Ukrainian national identity that broke through long-standing societal polarization and interference from Russia to create a space in which Ukrainians could find an idea of multicultural patriotism and community, a mirror image of the robust civil society that had developed in Ukraine during the same period. While others have noted Zelenskyy’s ordinariness, describing him as a reflection of the society in which he lives, this article has highlighted the ways Zelenskyy and Studio Kvartal-95 intervened and led in Ukrainian mass culture, providing a vocabulary and concepts for articulating an inclusive vision of Ukrainian political nationhood.

The ideas Zelenskyy and Studio Kvartal-95 articulated from the stage did not attempt to sort out a shared national past through power-laden competition among different groups’ versions of history. Instead, setting their audience’s eyes on a shared horizon, they abandoned the analytical categories social scientists use to sort people’s identities and recognized the possibility of fostering unity by validating a great diversity of possible taxonomies that could be used for thinking about belonging. In Zelenskyy’s vision of politics, recognition of diversity also included an embrace of agonism, a radical acceptance of messiness and disagreement in democratic society, a willingness to look with humor and understanding upon human frailty, and a recognition that strength is to be found in variety: that a social fabric woven of many different visible threads can be more flexible and resilient, and more resistant to damage than an undifferentiated weft."

Jessica Pisano, "Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Vision of Ukrainian Nationhood". Journal of Peace and War Studies, 4th Edition (October 2022).

[dadalux]

Jessica Pisano  

[polkadotmotmot]

Jessica Pisano

[spinmeround]

Jessica Pisano

[dcv2matutino2020]

Casavalle “Sentidos” 

Equipo: Abigail Tejera, Luana Soares-Netto, Florencia Pisano, Christopher Gauto, Jessica Romero

Visita del 22/09

[iamjapanese]

Jessica Pisano（American, b.1977）

1. The Dance   oil on panel   36″ × 36″   via   2. Above a Garden of Gold  oil + gold leaf on panel   48″ × 48″   via