Editing Openai/6874b524-4134-8013-b5e6-0601c853d841 (section)

==== 2024: ANNIVERSARIES, AMBIGUITIES, AND A CHOICE ====

This year marks:
* 90 years since Yakob’s blacklisting
* 100 years since Israel’s first poem was published
* 80 years since Franka last danced a full solo

A large state-sponsored concert is announced at the Grand Kremlin Palace:
* Titled “The Resilient Note: Russia’s Artistic Triumph,” it promises orchestrated performances of Yakob’s “most patriotic works” and “never-before-seen” dances inspired by Franka.
* Invitations are issued to Western dignitaries. A promotional trailer includes stock footage of Russian tanks and ballet side by side.

Simultaneously, a network of underground studios, digital archivists, and émigré artists coordinate an international counter-event titled “Ashes Without Applause.”
* The event spans six cities—Warsaw, Kyiv, Berlin, Tel Aviv, Toronto, New York.
* No new works are created. Only existing pieces are performed—unaltered, unadorned, and in their full original complexity.
* Franka’s Unmarked Movements is danced by a Syrian refugee in Berlin.
* Yakob’s Elegy for Stravinsky is played in Kyiv, in a school once shelled during the war.
* Israel’s Night Without Flags is recited aloud in a synagogue in New York—accompanied by silence.

No press covers it in Russia.

But the livestream is watched by over 300,000 people.