Irpin poet Iryna Chupryna has presented her first poetry collection, “Leleka” (“The Stork”), which came out recently. The presentation took place at a music and poetry evening, “The Nightingale Song of Iryna Chupryna”, at the Maksym Rylskyi Irpin City Public Library, library director Olena Tsyhanenko said.

The evening had two parts: the first, for the children’s safety, was held in a shelter, the second in the library hall. Iryna Chupryna’s poems and patriotic songs set to her lyrics — about peace, the native language, an unbreakable people and her home town of Irpin — were performed by pupils of the Mykhailo Verykivskyi Irpin Children’s Art School, where she has taught music since 2007.

The first part of the evening was held in a shelterPhoto: Olena Tsyhanenko / Facebook
The first part of the evening was held in a shelter

The collection is full of personal feelings, anxieties, faith and boundless love for family, people, nature and our Ukraine. In the rhymed lines you can feel the ability to turn into poetry literally everything that lives in the poet’s soul

Serhii Martyniukwriter, author of the collection’s foreword

About the author

Iryna Chupryna was born in the Sumy region, in the village of Duboviazivka, into a family of music teachers. She graduated from a music school in Konotop, the Sumy Music College and the Donetsk School of Arts. She has written poetry since childhood and since 2001 has been published in poetry almanacs, including “Kolos” and “Koromyslo”.

Her songs, performed by her daughter Lana, have been heard at city events and at charity concerts she organises to support the Armed Forces. Her husband is in the military: in February 2022 he defended Irpin with the territorial defence and then continued serving in the Armed Forces.

Presentation of the “Leleka” collection at the Irpin City LibraryPhoto: Olena Tsyhanenko / Facebook
Presentation of the “Leleka” collection at the Irpin City Library

A copy of “Leleka” is now in the city library’s collection. This summer its director, Olena Tsyhanenko, was named an honorary citizen of Irpin.

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