Viktoria Stepanets, art curator, lead agent of OVO agency, and curator of the “Shot-Down Rhymes” musical-poetic project, spoke about the initiative that brings together servicemen-poets and popularizes military poetry through music.

She talked about this on Army FM.

“The main goal of the ‘Shot-Down Rhymes’ project is to popularize military poetry through music. This way we unite our hero-poets, who are directly serving in the military, with music bands that create songs based on the texts of our servicemen”, — Stepanets said.

She explained the meaning behind the name “Shot-Down Rhymes”:

“These are rhymes of a different nature, rhymed in another way. ‘Shot-Down Rhymes’ are those that grip the soul. Like breath that’s been knocked out of you. It’s military poetry that is very different from ordinary poetry — maximally truthful, honest, carrying values no other poetry can convey because it hasn’t gone through war”.

She noted that the first presentation took place in May last year:

“We presented the book Letters of Love and War by Viktoriia and Pavlo Matiush. During this event, actors recited poems by military poets, and some of them were heard with music for the first time. After that, we began working on the first album”.

Stepanets said that by August 24 last year, music bands had been working on nine songs. The album is now fully complete and will appear on streaming platforms in February. The songs will be released gradually.

“The most exciting part was achieving a real ‘match’. Musicians chose poems that resonated with them and tried to feel the poet. There was almost no direct communication, as the servicemen were at the front.

Communication took place online, by phone, or via messages. Changes to the texts were minimal — mostly for choruses. And most importantly, when the poets heard the finished songs, we received positive feedback. They said the musicians truly felt what they wanted to convey”.

She named the poets involved in the project: Maksym Kryvtsov, Valerii Puzik, Petro Maha, Dmytro Lazutkin, Oleksandr Lysak, Ihor Mitrov.