By Tamar Jacoby
It was an unmarked, unprepossessing building on the outskirts of Zaporizhzhia, a dusty industrial city in the heart of Ukraine that is all but sure to see intensified fighting when Kyiv’s anticipated counteroffensive begins. The wounded soldiers were crammed into a warren of tiny rooms, but the trio of musicians, also fighting-age men in fatigues, found places to stand between beds and began playing—first a rousing song with dirty lyrics making fun of Russians, then a string of haunting ballads full of melancholy and longing.
The hospital was the first stop on a two-day trip I took earlier this month with Cultural Forces, a collective of Ukrainian entertainers now devoting themselves full-time to boosting morale on the front lines. A world away from the Hollywood stars who entertained mass rallies in World War II Europe and Vietnam, Cultural Forces sends a handful of soloists—on my trip, an acoustic guitarist, a violinist and a keyboard player, plus two amateur poets—to play in gritty, intimate settings like hospitals and mess halls.
