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This series of brief virtual events for the VCU Libraries community highlights timely subjects, celebrates achievements, practices creativity and more. Community Zooms offer opportunities for learning and conversation. They are organized and hosted by the VCU Libraries Development Office.
Sessions are held Thursdays at 12:30 p.m. and last approximately a half hour to 45 minutes each. Attendees may join via Zoom.
To receive a link to join the sessions, please complete this online form. For questions or accommodations, please contact the VCU Libraries Development Office at libdevelop@vcu.edu.
URL
Please complete this online form to receive the URL.
Upcoming Sessions
Becoming Baba Yaga: An Ancient Slavic Tale Colliding with Modernity
April 10, 2025
12:30 p.m.
Whether you know Baba Yaga as a Slavic witch, an earth goddess or a monster in modern media, she is a force with secrets to divulge. The roots of her stories stretch back over a thousand years, and her chicken-legged hut is only the beginning of her intrigue.
Darkness, fear and instability sometimes inundate our daily lives, but folktale figures like Baba Yaga reflect the dichotomy of our existence—the hope and the horror, the magic and the mundane. She is at once an old hag and an enchantress, a demon and wish granter, a feminist and nothing more than a fairytale. Yet her multifaceted presence ripples through the present day. Stories that linger have something to teach us, and Baba Yaga’s tales don’t disappoint. Understanding ourselves, our complex world, and our place within history are only a matter of turning to a bony-legged old woman who lives deep in the Eastern European woods.
Author Kris Spisak, a graduate of the College of William and Mary (B.A.) and the University of Richmond (M.L.A.), fully believes that well-written words and well-told stories have the ability to change the world. She wrote her first three books—Get a Grip on Your Grammar, The Novel Editing Workbook, and The Family Story Workbook—to help writers of all kinds sharpen their storytelling and empower their communications. Her award-winning debut novel, The Baba Yaga Mask, was inspired by her family’s experience in the post-WWII Ukrainian diaspora and has been called “A complex, poetic tale” by Kirkus Reviews and “edu-tainment at its best” by the Historical Novel Society. Her fifth book, Becoming Baba Yaga: Trickster, Feminist, and Witch of the Woods, described as “A delicious read” by Atlas Obscura and a “nuanced work of feminist literary criticism” by Foreword Reviews, is a nonfiction exploration of the complex origins of this Slavic folktale character and her lingering lessons for empowering us all. Kris is an active speaker and literary historian, and she is looking forward to sharing her next story.
These Community Zooms are at a new time of 12:30 p.m., so grab some lunch and join us online!
Guidelines
Prior to joining a session, attendees are encouraged to check that Zoom is working properly on their computers or devices by testing it at https://zoom.us/test.
At the start of every session, attendee’s microphones will be muted. This allows everyone to hear the organizers and presenters clearly. Attendees will be invited to unmute their microphones and speak at different times during the session.
If you have questions or comments while others are speaking, you can type them in the chat.
As at physical events, attendees are asked to help make sessions inclusive of all participants by using respectful language and allowing others to speak, even if they disagree with viewpoints being expressed.
VCU Libraries reserves the right to remove attendees from sessions for disruptive behavior.
Be advised that VCU Libraries will record all sessions for its private archives but may make use of the recordings for future projects, including publicity.
For special accommodations, or to register offline, please contact Ryan Pander, event manager, rbpander@vcu.edu or 804-828-0593.
