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Belarusian musician and activist Siarhei Douhushau was in Chicago in March 2019 on a U.S. tour presenting folk art and music from his Eastern European home. Nadzeya Ilkevich, then a second-year graduate student at Ohio University, caught wind and lured her friend and fellow countryman to Athens, Ohio鈥攁n Appalachian foothill college town of about 40,000鈥攖o perform traditional Belarusian songs using flutes and a hurdy-gurdy, which is a hand-cranked hybrid of a violin and small piano.  

Brett Hill was at Jackie O鈥檚鈥攁 popular 鈥渦ptown鈥� brewpub鈥攖hat night. Hill is the frontman for Hill Spirits, a modern Appalachian folk quartet based in southern Ohio.

鈥淲e asked Siarhei if he wanted to jam the next night,鈥� Hill said. 鈥淔ortunately enough, he did want to. 鈥� The evening was spent feasting, drinking, singing, shouting, and growing to learn of each other鈥檚 traditions for the first time.鈥� 

Among the Madness, Someone Yelled, 鈥淪lavalachia!鈥� 

That evening, the namesake was born as both an Appalachian-Slavic folk ensemble and a cross-cultural folk alliance. 

鈥淎s a cultural manager, this is the kind of collaboration I would like to see continue,鈥� Ilkevich says.

She immediately expanded the project, adding Maria Chichkova, of Torban Folk Band, from Lviv, Ukraine, to the Slavalachia lineup. Torban is a traditional ensemble that creates new arrangements around traditional Ukrainian a capella songs. 鈥淭his is our traditional song transformed for a modern listener.鈥� 

According to Chichkova, traditional music in Ukraine is alive and well. But in Belarus, the health of traditional music, along with Belarusian culture, has long been tyrannized by centuries of Russian encroachment. Ilkevich says most families speak Russian as the primary language. The 2009 Census says about 70% of the population speak Russian at home. 

鈥淒uring Soviet times, and before Soviet times, the Russian government鈥攁nd I鈥檓 not accusing the people鈥擺was] trying to absorb鈥� the Belarusian language and culture, and replace it with theirs,鈥� Ilkevich says. 

People grew disconnected from their traditional and folk music as these customs were increasingly portrayed through a Soviet lens, Ilkevich says. 

Ilkevich says the situation in Belarus has only deteriorated during dictator Alexander Lukashenko鈥檚 26-year reign. He is partial to the Soviet influence, she explains. 鈥淗e changed the flag and symbol of the country. He tried to remove [the] Belarusian language from [schools].鈥�

But in 2020, the political tension hit a climax when Lukashenko  of what opposition leaders called a fraudulent election. Citizens poured into the streets in August last year for weeks of demonstrations, and neither the United States nor the European Union recognizes Lukashenko as the legitimate leader. 

But Ilkevich says the uprising amid a pandemic has stoked a fire of curiosity about Belarusian folk traditions among the people. 

鈥淭hanks to the revolution, we have a [real] boom of traditional culture,鈥� she explains. 鈥淧eople started speaking [our] traditional language. They started being interested in their roots, to value the land they are from. Not just the culture, but even the land is endangered.鈥�

Douhushau has been at the cultural front lines of the revolution. He says the COVID-19 pandemic is back-seat fodder compared to the revolution in his home country. 鈥淭he pandemic became a good excuse for the current government to manipulate.鈥� 

He sarcastically says the borders are closed in Belarus because of COVID, but the government is allowing concerts to continue.

Douhushau explains the uprising in Belarus initially started with people rallying around a foreign song and a generic flag of white stripes, but has shifted toward the traditional songs and the historic flag of the country鈥攕ymbols and songs of a country before Russian influence.

鈥淲e find our identity in a traditional culture. Everything is in there: our songs, our language, our genetic code,鈥� Douhushau says. 鈥淭raditional song accompanies all the people鈥檚 protests and uprisings鈥攖he most powerful, the most emotional and the most influential.鈥� 

From Slavic Traditions to Appalachia鈥擜 World Away

Two months before the world locked down and seven months before the Belarusian revolution began, Appalachian musician Brett Hill and his Hill Spirits bandmate Benjamin Stewart flew to Eastern Europe. The January 2020 trip was the first full meeting of Ilkevich鈥檚 Slavalachia brainchild. 

Ilkevich, Chichkova, Douhushau, Hill, and Stewart met in the airport in Lviv, Ukraine, where Chichkova held a sign with Slavalachia inscribed on it. 

鈥淲e were trying to film, but the guards wouldn鈥檛 let us,鈥� Ilkevich remembers. 鈥淪iarhei started playing flutes, and the guards kicked us out.鈥� 

During this trip, Hill says, he started to understand how Slavic traditional music and Appalachian traditional music were closely tied to one another. They are less about sonics and more about connections to their respective cultures-at-large.

Over the following weeks, members of Slavalachia deepened their connections with one another and each other鈥檚 respective folk traditions. They traveled around Eastern Europe, practiced in small villages near the Bia艂owie偶a Forest of Belarus, deep in the Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine, and ultimately played their first live concert (remember those?) at Lviv鈥檚 Dzyga, a major cultural center. 

Douhushau opened. Hill and Stewart played next and even taught a Georgian men鈥檚 vocal choir a moonshiner song. 

鈥淭hey just loved that stuff 鈥�. It just lit the room on fire. Absolutely lit it on fire,鈥� Hill says.

The Ukrainians went third, and the full supergroup鈥攁ll three acts鈥攑layed out their inaugural set to close the first official Slavalachia showcase.

Ilkevich, the manager and producer of the project, was thrilled. 

鈥淭hey were jamming. Some other musicians came to the stage. The concert was one hour longer than we were supposed to have. It was big!鈥�

Hill witnessed the health of Ukrainian traditional music as a major component of Ukrainian culture, but in Belarus, he saw the opposite. Instead of being celebrated, in early 2020, traditional Belarusian music wasn鈥檛 really known by its people.

鈥淎ppalachian traditional music finds itself between these two in terms of their stages of cultural health,鈥� he said. 鈥淎ppalachian folk music is not going anywhere, but it has not earned respect that it might have even 100 years ago, when Bascom Lamar Lunsford was performing for the Queen of England.鈥� 

In other words, Appalachians aren鈥檛 exactly sitting around the dinner table singing traditional songs like Ukrainians might, but no dictator is trying to sweep their heritage under the rug like in Belarus either. 

鈥淚 still get messages from Ukrainians鈥� asking when we鈥檙e going to come back and perform more of that music,鈥� Hill says. 鈥淸The result has been] my musical project, Brother Hill, being about three times as listened to in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Eastern Europe than in the U.S.鈥� 

鈥淭hat solidifies it, too. The foreigners dig this Appalachian music a little more than the Americans do!鈥�

Before Slavalachia, Douhushau says, he knew nothing of Appalachian music. 

鈥淚f I was searching this on the internet, I would never be interested in it. When I met [Appalachian musicians] personally, it opened this music for myself. I started to understand it and feel it. We started to improvise with that music and that opened my soul towards it.鈥�

Chichkova echoes that she had zero previous knowledge of Appalachian music, but she says there is familiarity with her Ukrainian traditions. She hears it as music of the mountains, of nature, and 鈥溾��about people and relationships. We are very connected to each other. And now our music is connected. 鈥� The spirit is the same. 鈥� All traditional music speaks one language.鈥� 

Before the Americans Returned to Ohio, Slavalachia Began Carving its Next Cross-cultural Exchange

But then, Ilkevich says, 鈥淐OVID f*@!ed everything up鈥攂eautifully!鈥� 

Plans were in the works for the next collaboration in the U.S. when the virus essentially shut down the world. Athens, Ohio, Mayor Steve Patterson invited Torban to showcase Ukrainian music in venues throughout the college town where Douhushau had played the year before. She says the city of Lviv was ready to sponsor the trip to promote Ukrainian culture abroad. The Americans started scheming their return to Ukraine to record an album with Douhushau as the full Slavalachia outfit.

Even with COVID, the project has not been fully put on hold. 

During 2020, the musicians had what Hill calls a light-medium success recording remotely in response to Lukashenko鈥檚 controversial re-election in Belarus. Musicians half a world away used digital platforms to continue communicating and practicing, even recording tracks that were sent back and forth鈥攖racks that were a direct response to the political uprising in Eastern Europe, a resistance piece.

鈥淲e utilized a song that I have been singing since I was a little boy, called 鈥榃hich Side Are You On?鈥欌�� Hill says, a song widely known for its use during various protest movements throughout history, especially in Appalachia. 鈥淢y father was a union man, his father before him was a union man, workers, carpenters, elevator operators鈥� This song is a song that reigns true in hills of Appalachia or streets of Belarus.鈥� 

Filmmakers in Ohio, Belarus, and Ukraine gathered footage, and a music video for the song was cut and released in support of the uprising. The video, like the song, was cut and assembled from three remote locations. It鈥檚 been viewed nearly 9,000 times.

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Despite kicking out one track, the musicians are much more eager to play together in person rather than in a virtual space. They have recently put the videoconference practice on hold. 

鈥淯nfortunately, a monitor does not give energy,鈥� Chichkova says. 鈥淚 like to feel live bodies. 鈥� I think it鈥檚 normal because it鈥檚 an energy.鈥�

Ultimately, the hybrid of styles among these differing folk traditions presents an opportunity for tangible collaboration and ongoing camaraderie, Hill says of Slavalachia. 

鈥淭he point of Slavalachia is to band together, make super dope music that has never been鈥攁s far as we can tell鈥攎ade before by the fusion of these three traditions, and also help support each other鈥檚 not only musical projects鈥� but support each other鈥檚 folk traditions.鈥� 

Hill says he hopes to travel to Ukraine to perform once coronavirus restrictions begin to loosen up鈥攁nd when Douhushau can find time to travel during the Belarusian revolution. 

For now, Ilkevich is awaiting a transfer from Lviv to Prague, where she will continue to work in cultural promotion in the Czech Republic. One of the many productions on her post-COVID to-do list is Slavalachia. She wants to keep filming and compile the footage into a documentary鈥攈er husband is a documentary filmmaker. 

鈥淚鈥檓 keeping everybody together and watering Slavalachia-land for them to grow.鈥� 

This article was originally published by聽,听an independent, nonprofit digital news publication incubated at the Media Innovation Center at the West Virginia University Reed College of Media.聽.

Editor鈥檚 Note: Two characters in this story speak English as a second language, and one speaks only Belarusian. Quotes have been edited for clarity but retain accuracy and authenticity.