Author Archives: Tasha Hutnick

Tasha Blog Post: Forging Connections

A lot happened this week! Bullet journaling again:

  • Planned our Outreach / Social Media Plan (Thanks to Melissa and to Lini for editing!)
    • Of particular note was our discussion on Social Media:
      • We’ll be using Bluesky (great especially for reaching the DH community) and Facebook (plenty of great Ukrainian cultural groups to connect with)
      • We’ll be following WBENA’s lead tone-wise – don’t want to hand them a headache after this project
        • Also, from speaking with Dr. Marcia Ostashewksi, definitely don’t want to put anyone at risk.
          • This is especially poignant watching the news this week, wondering if the tone of our project is going to drastically shift.
        • We’ll cover both history of women in bandura, current concerts, as well as our progress on the site
          • Teryn offered to share resources for social media!
  • Met with Dr. Marcia Ostashewski  (Thanks Melissa for organizing!) – she wrote articles and resources that were instrumental to our proposal, so it was really exciting to talk to her! She was incredibly helpful, including:
    • She put us in touch with Logan Clark, who provided us with the beta version of the Bandura in Canada site through Smithsonian Pathways
    • She provided us with additional resources
    • She stressed the cultural differences between the United States and Canada, including when it comes to reception of bandura. Considering that WBENA spans both countries, these cultural differences will be vital to remember.
  • Teryn’s providing us with some great leads, such as:
    • Setting up a meeting with her uncle, an expert on the bandura and keeper of the kobzar tradition
    • Setting up a meeting with her aunt who is an expert on Ukrainian choral music and Dmytro Bortniansky, the composer of one of the songs that we are researching
    • Offering to put us in contact with Maryna Krut, a Ukrainain pop bandurist – one of her songs also appears in the WBENA repertoire
  • Went to the Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival (sponsored in part by the GC!) this past Friday – Teryn was one of the performers and also played her accompaniment on bandura for one of the pieces
    • Beautiful performances, with a range from more classical sounding to more experimental
      • Highly recommend checking out Pastels by Leonid Hrabovsky / Pavlo Tychyna for an example of the more experimental!
    • Met her aforementioned aunt there, who is very enthused about the project
  • Joined the Code4Lib Slack and the minicomp wax channel per Nicole’s suggestion last class
    • Also per Nicole’s suggestion, asked about the feasibility of a particular feature that we would like to add (waiting for a response)
  • Tomorrow, Alex will be leading the team through our Wax walkthrough in preparation for starting on the backend of the site
  • Song research continues.
  • Lesson of the Week: One step at a time!

Tasha Personal Log Week 4: Data-Datum (DMP)

When it came to data and this project, I once again thought I had things pretty well figured out. Take the information provided in the programs, take the information that we could find about each individual song, combine them each into their own CSV’s, plug them into the site, add the program PDFs, deploy to GitHub, and we’re good to go from there.

Of course, once again, that was only the beginning. Not only did we need to include what types of files were going to be in the project and how they would be named, but also:

  • Who is responsible for backups in case we lose access to Google Drive / GitHub?
  • Are the data file formats sustainable?

I hadn’t thought of keeping a copy of our data on a hard drive just in case (foolishly thinking that this is what the cloud was for) or that data file formats may not be sustainable (despite living through the Death of Flash). We really had to flesh out responsibilities relating to data, how we wanted to name / organize our files, what we were doing for backups, and what do we do if we lost our information.

In so doing, we became more familiar with what ownership of data means as well as why we are doing what we are doing when it comes to the backbone of the site (beyond well, this is what the framework needs). CSV’s and PDF’s aren’t proprietary, so we won’t need to worry about losing access to the data files in the future. Also, by agreeing on our file naming conventions now, we can ensure a cleaner repository in the future. Doing the DMP continued to help us as a team continue to be on the same page when it comes to file organization, our audience, data access, and contingency plans. Having these decisions made early in the game helps us to focus on our research, secure in the knowledge that we are prepared for what comes next.

Women of Bandura DMP

Description of the Data

We have been provided with programs, song titles, sheet music, photos, audio recordings, performance video YouTube links by WBENA. The dataset will be supplemented with song data and history of women in bandura with research of primary and secondary texts as well as oral history interviews. Since WBENA is an active ensemble, the data set will have new items coming in regularly at a rate of one or two programs per year.

We will be producing two .csv files and one markdown file. We are digesting two programs in six weeks, initiating at a rate of thirteen songs in approximately four weeks. Next, we will research six additional songs from the second program in approximately two weeks. We expect the selected program and song data to remain static.

For this project we are using .csv, PDF, JPEG, MP3 and WAV, which we may need to convert for accessibility, Markdown, CSS, HTML, and JavaScript files.

Data Storage and Protection

We are storing a copy of the data in Google Drive folders shared with access restricted to the team and WBENA. The ensemble has hard copies of programs and sheet music. Audio recordings are hosted on Soundcloud, and the videos  are hosted on YouTube. If original copies of any of the data items go down, we’ll have the site and the data powering it posted on GitHub.

Data Format and Documentation

We are using the Wax framework which will be hosted on GitHub Pages. The song and program data will be inserted into .csv files which will power the website rendered in CSS, HTML,  and JavaScript. The history of women in bandura information will be synthesized into an article and published via a markdown file.

For research, we have a running document of sources. We will write up an agreement between us and any potential interviewees. We have taken existing collections from WBENA via Google Drive, which has been documented in several email threads.

We are planning on creating a README for our website which will include explanations of the files and code included. The code itself will be clearly organized and commented on for accessibility sake. Tasha will take on the role of implementation as the Project Manager, while ensuring that the team is following the plan.

Our directory set up is going to be in line with the Wax framework. We will use kebab-case in naming our files for readability. For each song and program we will be assigning them their own unique identifiers. Each song will be identified as SONG[#] where the number refers to the order of addition to the .csv file. Each program will be identified PROG[#] where the number refers to the order of addition to the .csv file.

​​Data Access, Sharing and Archiving

WBENA owns the information that will be hosted on the site. They also have final say over what is published and final ownership of the project.

Primary sources of access will be Google Drive and GitHub. The WBENA will have access to both repositories. We will designate one team member to download and host information on their hard drive. We will use Zoom to record and transcribe interviews with WBENA on the history of women in bandura. We will not publish recordings without explicit permission. All recordings that are not published will be turned over to WBENA or the respective party at the conclusion of the project. Recordings will comprise audio/video and related transcripts.

The published data will be public on GitHub and the Women of Bandura website, but only WBENA and the team will be able to edit the data. The site will be officially published in late April 2025.

The data will be retained for the foreseeable future since it is powering a public website. Any data not used in the final site will be returned to its owners. At least one member of the project (the Project Lead) will act as a consultant after the project’s completion.

Women of Bandura Work Plan

Overview

The first phase of the project serves to deploy a minimum viable product of the site. Over the Spring semester (roughly mid-February to early-May 2025), the team will launch the website on GitHub Pages containing two program pages and pages for each song within those programs. An About section will also be provided with a brief overview of the project, any necessary historical or cultural context, names of the contributors, and links to the WBENA site for any relevant information such as the instrument’s history (subject to approval from the ensemble).

The second phase of the project involves adding the rest of the programs and their songs into the already existing framework. The Project Lead will add the rest of the Program PDFs and songs to the framework, not including the context. This phase is intended to be completed by the end of May 2025.

The final phase of the project will include adding the rest of the context to the Song Pages. Only the Project Lead will be working on this phase of the project with 14 additional programs containing songs to research; however, the Ensemble does often keep most of the same repertoire from performance to performance. Given these factors, this phase will likely conclude by 2026.

The Project Lead will stay on to aid the Ensemble in running the site after these phases end. The Ensemble will also have full access to the site’s GitHub repository.

Below are the steps to Phase 1 of the project:

Ongoing Responsibilities

Throughout the development process, we will have weekly check-ins with our liaison Teryn, and we aim to meet with the Ensemble Board at least once per phase / month. We will defer to the Ensemble Board’s schedule as they are preparing for a show in April. We also have a standing agreement with the WBENA outlining expectations for both sides. In addition, the Ensemble will have full visibility into all documentation.

  • Weekly syncs between team members on Thursday evenings.
  • Weekly check-ins with Teryn, to be attended by the Project Lead and any other available/interested team members on Tuesday evenings before class.
  • Team Meeting with outside advisors to consult on research approach, sources and history of women in bandura.

February to March 2025 – Song Research and Development Education Design

The first month of the project is dedicated to compiling notes for the two programs and approximately 20 songs, split amongst the two researchers. For programs, the researchers will record the name of the concert, its location(s), the date(s), any collaborators if applicable, the performers’ names, the song titles, any other notes, and the PDF file path. For songs, the researchers will record where available the title, composer, original year or period, language, location of origin, genre, themes, tempo, description, YouTube link, lyrics, and soloists. The researchers will also be free to record any other relevant or interesting information that they find for the song. The WBENA has generously offered to share their records available on Google Drive with the team which will be an invaluable source for research. The wireframes will be created, the group agreement will be shared and the team will seek approval from WBENA within this period.

February 24 – March 2

  • Researchers begin research on the first thirteen songs from the Boston program provided by WBENA. Additionally, researchers will flag any information found on women’s bandura history.
  • Frontend Developer gives a walkthrough of wireframing to the team.

March 3 – 9

  • Frontend Engineer and team members who want to shadow/share work draft highest-priority wireframes (home, program, and song pages)
    • Deliver to WBENA for feedback
  • Research on the first song set continues.
  • Submit data management plan by 3/5.

March 10 – 16

  • Researchers will switch songs assigned from the first round of research and do an additional round of research
  • Frontend Developer drafts a walkthrough of Wax to go over with the team
    • share with Backend Developer for feedback and planning
  • Team submits group outreach and social media plans by 3/12.

March 17 – 23

  • Backend and Frontend Developers deliver Wax walkthroughs to the larger team.
  • Frontend Developer and team members who want to shadow/contribute draft lower-priority wireframes (about pages and search page).
  • Adapt wireframes for submission of Project website draft (basic landing page, about page; methods; social media) by 3/19.
  • Choose a second program and assign individual songs to the researchers.

 

March 24 – 30

  • Researchers will switch songs from the second program and do an additional round of research.
  • Team finalizes logo design
  • Social media specialist create outreach content and copy editor review it.

Late March to Early April 2025 – Backend Development

Towards the end of the Research step, the Backend Developer will begin assembling the CSV structure that will provide the data for the site. Towards the end of the Backend Development period, the Backend Developer will work with the Frontend Developer to confirm the information provided and needed for the user interface. The Developers will also generate and briefly deploy sample pages at this time to ensure that the csv is connected properly.

March 24 – 30

  • Backend Developer assembles a rough draft of the program CSV and the song CSV from the existing research notes and presents them to the team for feedback / group code review.

March 31 – April 6

  • Backend Developer to finish filling in the CSV’s with current research data and work with Frontend Developer on sample pages to ensure all necessary data is provided in the correct format.

April 7 – 13

  • Deploy sample pages to test csv format. Make any necessary changes to csv.

Mid-March to April 2025 – Frontend Development and ongoing Development Education

As a part of research and development, in coordination with the WBENA, the Frontend Developer and Project Lead will produce wireframes for the WBENA liaison review. On receipt of the wireframe approvals, some tasks of the Frontend development will be initiated and run parallel to the Backend development, with use of placeholder data.

 

Towards the end of the Backend development step, the Frontend Developer will add higher-fidelity to the site UI/UX, with the Researchers aiding in finding images and other material for site content. The Frontend Developer will also collaborate with the Backend Developer to ensure that all the information required for this design is available to them. The Frontend Developer will then collaborate with the Content Editor to incorporate the content for the site. The Frontend Developer will work under a model of deploying often to production, to ensure that the site behaves as expected.

March 24-30

  • Frontend Developer will ticket out work for implementing the draft version of the wireframes in GitHub.
  • Frontend Developer will develop a workshop and/or written resource on use of GitHub, git, and version control
    • Share with Backend Developer for feedback and planning

March 31 – April 6

  • Frontend Developer deliver GitHub/git/version control resource to the larger team
  • Frontend Developer and team members who want to shadow/contribute can start picking up tickets that are not reliant on data from the backend
  • Team will implement feedback from WBENA on wireframes
    • Deliver an updated draft to WBENA

April 7 – 13

  • Frontend Developer and team members who want to shadow/contribute can begin working on tickets that involve dummy data from the preliminary CSV structure.
  • Based on the work ticketed thus far, Frontend Developer will compile an ongoing, collaborative resource document for frontend coding concepts that may be useful for other team members.

April 14 – 20

  • Development work continues, and team members will update the collaborative resources document
  • Frontend Developer continues to create tickets that respond to updated wireframes and project requirements as-needed

April 21 – 27

  • Researchers aid Frontend Developer in finding images for site content.
  • Frontend Developer will consult with Researchers and Content Editor to incorporate higher-fidelity copy into the site and make adjustments

April 28 – May 4

  • Team to conduct final testing and prep for project launch dress rehearsal.

April 2025 – Women’s Bandura History Research

At this time, the team will turn their attention to researching the history of Women playing Bandura to publish on its own page at the request of the WBENA. This time has been chosen since the WBENA will have finished their March concert series, and the team will have assembled the back-end for the song pages. This research will be inserted into its own static page featured in the About tab.

Mar 31 – April 6

  • Researchers to interview WBENA representatives to collect information on the history of women playing the bandura.

April 7 – 13

  • Researchers to continue with WBENA representatives interviews.
  • Researchers draft history content..

April 14 – 20

  • Researchers collate information with any history flagged from academic sources during the research phase.
  • Copyeditors review and finalize history content.

April 21 – 27

  • Frontend developer deploys the text in the relevant section of the About tab.
  • Conduct final test runs.

 

May 2025 – Revisions, Testing, and Deployment

After the completion of Frontend Development, the team will take the WBENA through the MVP of the site and resolve any edits provided. Once the WBENA is comfortable that the outcome has stayed true to the approved wireframes and okayed any minor deviations, the team will test all pages and links locally before deploying the site and testing all pages and links publicly for bugs or errors.

April 29 – May 13

  • Team gives WBENA walk through of site for final approval.
  • Incorporate necessary edits recommended by WBENA and test run by May 5.
  • Project launch dress rehearsal on May 6.
  • Team incorporates feedback from rehearsal, makes necessary edits and retests.
  • Public project launch at the GC Digital Showcase on May 13.

Hutnick Bio and Contribution Statement

Anastasia Hutnick (she / her) is a CRM Specialist by day, Digital Humanities Master’s student at the CUNY Graduate Center by night. So far, her graduate school career has included crafting an interactive map of Eurovision winners, turning both Alice and Wonderland and death planning into their own respective video games, and now working as the Project Lead, Wax Backend Developer, and Assistant Researcher for the Women of Bandura project. In between, you may find her playing the bandura, crocheting, or listening to her cat’s endless words of wisdom. Looking to the future, expect to see more from her in video games, digital archives, memory studies, death positivity, and Ukrainian cultural preservation.

Tasha Personal Log Week 2: The Sound of One Hand Typing

Going to bullet journal this week.

  • Lesson of the Week (TM) – Life happens and we move on, or: Don’t get tendinitis
  • What We Accomplished:
    • Finished the project proposal!
    • Shared the project proposal, project Google Drive, and proposed agreement with Teryn, our WBENA liaison
    • Received the last three program folders and some recordings from Teryn, with more to come
      • We’re going to start with the Boston / Providence tour from last year
    • Set up the team Asana board – gotta love that feeling of moving tasks from To Do to Done!
    • Started pooling resources for song research
      • Finding English language resources can be tough
      • Finding resources on these specific songs at the jump can be tough – Teryn agreed to send us the sheet music and any other documentation that they have, so that should be a great starting point.
        • (My Nancy Drew senses are tingling!)
      • Going home to DE to pick up some books this weekend
      • A trip to the Ukrainian History and Education Center library in South Bound Brook, NJ may prove useful in the future as they do have a large collection of sheet music and literature (though most of the literature is in Ukrainian).
    • Lini pitched some awesome logo ideas and copied the shared WBENA files to our Project Drive
    • Alex is planning on setting up our programming lessons, including our first official team Wax deep dive
    • Melissa reached out to 3 potential project advisors (with one reply so far!)
  • Coming Soon
    • We’re going to wireframe the home page, individual program page, and individual song page as a team tomorrow
    • We’re also going to assign out songs to research tomorrow!
      • I feel like I’ve said this a lot in the past few weeks, but – And so it begins!

Women of Bandura Project Proposal

Abstract

The bandura, a large, lute-like instrument, is Ukraine’s national instrument and a symbol of resistance. The bandura developed from the kobza, a smaller lute-like instrument over the centuries. After the massacre of the kobzars – nomadic​,​ often blind​,​ musicians and storytellers who played the bandura or its predecessor – by the Soviets in the 1930s, the instrument was brought to the United States​​. Since then, ensembles have formed across the country, and bandura communities continue to this day. This project aims to explore modern Ukrainian American musical identity by digitizing musical programs from the Women’s Bandura Ensemble of North America (WBENA) from their founding in 2015 to today in an archive. This archive, powered by the Wax framework, will include recordings where available as well as tags for composers, country of origin, themes, tempo, genre, presence of religion, and language. The team will be working closely with a member of the ensemble for acquisition, publication, and context of the programs and will proceed in publication of this archive only with tacit approval from the Ensemble Board. This website will also include a section on the history of women playing the instrument, meditating on the intersection of gender, diaspora, and Ukrainian identity in a time in which that identity is under threat. 

 List of Participants 

  • Project Lead / Backend Developer / Assistant Researcher – Anastasia Hutnick 
  • Frontend Developer / (Internal) Dev-Ed Lead – Alex Millatmal 
  • Researcher / Assistant Content Editor / Development Shadow – Lini Radhakrishnan 
  • Researcher 2 / Content Editor / Social Media Specialist – Melissa McDonald   
  • WBENA Liaison – Teryn Kuzma

Enhancing the Humanities 

Brief History of the Bandura 

The bandura is a large wooden stringed instrument, played similarly to a harp or a lute, that is native to Ukraine. The instrument has typically fifty-five to sixty-five strings, though it may have as few as twenty in the Classical style (“About the Bandura”). It derives from its instrumental ancestor the kobza, a smaller, more lute-like instrument. The kobza has been prominent in Ukrainian culture since at least the 15th century, with mentions of a lute-like instrument as early as the 6th century (“The Bandura”). Through the kobza and bandura, musicians (typically blind men) would carry on Ukraine’s independent identity through songs of its folklore, history, Chumaks (merchant, typically of salt), Cossacks, and legends. Due to these instruments’ pivotal role in perpetuating Ukrainian culture, any group that would conquer Ukraine would attempt to suppress or restrict kobzars / bandurists (Berezutskaya, 498 – 502). 

In this vein, the Soviet Union targeted bandurists in the late 1920s to 1930s. In 1929, the Bolsheviks began the “purges”: shooting, imprisoning, and exiling several bandurists to Siberia for their “counterrevolutionary” efforts in performing traditionally Ukrainian historical and folk songs. In 1930 – 1932, many bandurists died along with millions of other Ukrainians during the artificial famine, the Holodomor, enacted by the Soviets (Berezutska 55). Throughout the 1930s, Soviet persecution of bandurists continued, including the famous 1935 kobzari conference in Kharkiv, in which the Soviets executed the attendees (“The Bandura”). As a result, some bandurists fled to Western Europe and then the United States. In Detroit, Michigan, the first North American kapelia (ensemble) began from these Ukrainian emigrants. From here, the North American history of the bandura officially began (Ostashewski 126). 

Ostashewki argues that although the bandura is a “traditional” instrument, it has been retranslated, even physically reconstructed, and is now played in new contexts, with new repertoires, and by women. She goes on to say, “its nationalist image essentially portrays what it means to be Ukrainian” (Ostashewski 128). In order to justify his invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin said “it should be noted that Ukraine actually never had stable traditions of real statehood” (Hayda).   

The Women’s Bandura Ensemble of North America 

​​​​​This project will publish the programs of the Women’s Bandura Ensemble of North America (WBENA) from its founding in 2015 to the present on its own dedicated website. The ensemble is comprised of twenty-one women from seven different cities across the United States and Canada. The WBENA was chosen to examine the song choices of a North American bandura ensemble as well as the song choices of an all-female bandura ensemble, as the bandura is largely considered a male-coded instrument due to the kobzars traditionally being male (Ostashewski 143).  

Meanwhile in Ukraine, the Soviets institutionalized the instrument by only allowing bandura to be played in the conservatory. In so doing, the bandura would not perpetuate Ukrainian cultural sovereignty, but instead would be used to perform Neo-Classical music. Women became the main performers of this style, as men playing the bandura at this time would have risked persecution. After Ukraine became independent in 1991, Ukrainian folklore and tradition became a cornerstone for its reclaimed national identity. This focus on tradition can intertwine strongly with gender expectations, especially with the bandura. At this time, while women were playing the bandura, many people expected women to follow certain themes, such as courtship, seasons, nature, and work in the fields, and not play dumy – or epic poetry. Opportunities for women to play bandura beyond the conservatories or coeducational camps were scarce (Ostashewski). 

Today, the bandura endures and is played across the world by people of all genders in multiple styles. Yet, the tradition of bandura speaks to the enduring strength of Ukraine’s identity and sovereignty. The instrument survived countless invasions and spread throughout the globe. The bandura connects people of Ukrainian descent to their heritage, and continues to pass down Ukraine’s unique history to this day.   

Overview of Project 

For this project, PDFs for each program will be uploaded to the site and more information provided on each document and song performed via Wax, a Jekyll based website framework. The website will contain collections for both the Programs and Songs generated by a csv file with relevant information obtained by the project’s Researchers. Wax was selected because it is free to use, can be deployed for free through GitHub Pages, and is lightweight given the project’s relatively small file footprint.  

This framework fits the four questions of minimal computing posed by Roopika Risam and Alex Gil. Minimal computing refers to the Digital Humanities concept that a project’s software should reflect only what the project requires. Given that the team has three months to finish phase one of this project, we would do well to work within a set of clear boundaries without excess features to slow down our progress. For context, the four questions of minimal computing are “What do we need?”, “What do we have?”, “What do we need to prioritize?”, and “What are we willing to give up?” For this project, the team needs to be able to relatively quickly assemble two small static databases and generate pages for each item on both databases. The team has a Project Lead who is familiar with the Wax framework as well as sixteen PDF documents of concert programs. The team must prioritize both efficiency in their timelines and clear and open communication with the WBENA. Given Wax’s quick ability to generate pages and deploy via GitHub Pages, sharing the results of the site will not be difficult. Finally, the project does not require an expensive, dynamic database given that the ensemble performs a few times per year, so we are willing to give up that functionality. 

For each program, the website will provide a PDF that the user can flip through as well as the date(s), location(s), performers, and if applicable collaborators. Each program will also list the songs performed (roughly 10 – 15 per performance), each of which will have their own page detailing where applicable the composer, the year / period published, the country of origin, language, genre(s), tempo, lyrics, and themes.  

Though the information tags are considered guidelines for the site’s database, the team will not be beholden to standardization in song identification where necessary. A song may not have one origin, may have nuances in its themes that cannot be replicated, etcetera. While the Wax framework requires some efficiency, the project requires the team to avoid reductiveness and respect the nonscalable aspects of songs harkening from a centuries-old oral tradition (Rawson and Muñoz). As such, the team will craft the csv structure at the end of the Research Phase, constructing the table to reflect the team’s findings.  

The first phase will focus on deploying the website with two programs and respective song pages populated as a minimum viable product. Throughout the process, the team will meet with the WBENA and present wireframes of the webpages for their approval. The team will draft an agreement that assures WBENA of transparency at every stage of the project to avoid any inaccuracies/ misrepresentations in the content and will include decision making processes as well as conflict resolution strategies to ensure the project stays on track. As Christen and Anderson advocate in “Toward Slow Archives,” the team will focus on their relationship with the community of origin (the WBENA), ensuring that the ensemble has the right to refusal concerning what is published about their repertoire, their history, and their performances (107). The team aims to collaborate with the ensemble rather than to speak for them.  

Environmental Scan 

Currently, we have not found a digital archive of a series of programs with background information on each song performed, regardless of whether these programs were for a bandura ensemble. The existing site for the WBENA presents the history of the bandura, information on its founding, introduction to its members, and a brief log of their past and upcoming performances. The closest archive to Bandurapedia at this moment appears to be the website for the CD recording of the bandura concert “Songs of Truth” by Julian Kytasty. For this website, The Word & Image Studio in partnership with The Centre for Cape Breton Studies at Cape Breton University published a brief history of the bandura, program notes and lyrics in Ukrainian and English for each of the songs on the CD, a brief biography for Julian Kytasty, videos of his performances, educational materials for bandurists, and a blog for the site’s ongoing development. Bandurapedia, like “Songs of Truth”, seeks to provide more context to songs played on the bandura by a particular artist / group.  

Unlike Songs of Truth, Bandurapedia has a larger scope and seeks to encourage more interactivity between the songs covered. Bandurapedia ultimately seeks to record the songs and program information for each of the WBENA’s performances. With this larger performance timeframe, Bandurapedia’s song page structure would focus more on providing points of categorical comparison – such as themes, genre, origin, etc. – than Songs of Truth’s brief history integrated with personal reflection in a singular editorial paragraph. However, Songs of Truth’s more familiar tone and content reminds the team to avoid being too clinical in its song summaries and to leave room for each song’s complex history.  

Besides Songs of Truth, the three types of websites most similar in concept to Bandurapedia fall under the categories of Bandura History, Program Archives, and Music Archives. Bandura ensembles – such as the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus of North America, the Hryhory Kytasty Cleveland School or Bandura, and the WBENA – typically include brief histories of the instrument and its players, from its cultural importance to Ukraine, development, arrival in North America, and current classifications. Given that the WBENA already provides a brief history of the bandura on its website, the team will seek permission to include links to the WBENA site for information on the history to avoid duplication. Any additional context required will be either provided on the song pages or a more general About page. 

Most Program Archives, such as the ones belonging to the London Symphony Orchestra or university music programs such as the University of Alabama’s School of Music, contain a digitized version of the program arranged by date and musical genre. Unlike Bandurapedia, they do not contain any song information that is not already provided by the program, although the London Symphony Orchestra includes an article pertaining to each song in its program. However, given the size of the organizations’ collections and number of resources that such creating an archive would entail, these archives’ simplicity is by design. The University of Alabama’s archive in particular is well designed for ease of access and provides the user with programs from twenty different genres and ensembles. Bandurapedia, on the other hand, is designed to provide more context to the existing programs, dedicating its resources only to this goal. For this reason, Bandurapedia exists as a separate website rather than as a tab on an existing site. 

Similarly, most music archives, such as those found in the Library of Congress or Internet Archive, exist to provide context and/or audio recordings for specific songs or albums. Unless the album is itself archived on the website, such as Ola Herasymenko Oliynyk – Ukrainian Bandura in Concert in the Internet Archive, each song is typically isolated. Context provided can vary from only providing topics to the Library of Congress’s more robust classification system, providing information such as title, performers, genres, topics, notes, location, language, etc. However, the tags provided to the songs can be vague, such as its collection which contains over one thousand items or topics such as “Ukrainian Americans,” which contains various media and topics not strictly related to the piece itself. Again, given the scope and resources of these archives, the broad categorization is part of its design.  Bandurapedia, like the Library of Congress, seeks to provide clear background information about each song, but also will provide more connections between the songs and performances. 

Work Plan 

Overview 

The first phase of the project serves to deploy a minimum viable product version of the site. Over the Spring semester (roughly mid-February to early-May 2025), the team will launch the website on GitHub Pages containing two program pages and pages for each song within those programs. An About section will also be provided with a brief overview of the project, any necessary historical or cultural context, names of the contributors, and links to the WBENA site for any relevant information such as the instrument’s history (subject to approval from the ensemble). 

The second phase of the project involves adding the rest of the programs and their songs into the already existing framework. The Project Lead will add the rest of the Program PDFs and songs to the framework, not including the context. This phase is intended to be completed by the end of May 2025.  

The final phase of the project will include adding the rest of the context to the Song Pages. Only the Project Lead will be working on this phase of the project with 14 additional programs containing songs to research; however, the Ensemble does often keep most of the same repertoire from performance to performance. Given these factors, this phase will likely conclude by 2026.  

The Project Lead will stay on to aid the Ensemble in running the site after these phases end. The Ensemble will also have full access to the site’s GitHub repository. 

Below are the steps to Phase 1 of the project: 

February to March 2025 – Song Research and Development Education Design 

The first month of the project is dedicated to compiling notes for the two programs and approximately 20 songs, split amongst the two researchers. For programs, the researchers will record the name of the concert, its location(s), the date(s), any collaborators if applicable, the performers’ names, the song titles, any other notes, and the PDF file path. For songs, the researchers will record where available the title, composer, original year or period, language, location of origin, genre, themes, tempo, description, YouTube link, lyrics, and soloists. The researchers will also be free to record any other relevant or interesting information that they find for the song. Given that the team will unlikely be able to read in Ukrainian, interviews with the WBENA will be essential for this research. The WBENA has generously offered to share their records available on google drive with the team which will be an invaluable source for research. The wireframes will be created, the group agreement will be shared and the team will seek approval from WBENA within this period.   

Late March to Early April 2025 – Backend Development  

Towards the end of the Research step, the Backend Developer will begin assembling the csv structure that will power the site. Towards the end of the Backend Development period, the Backend Developer will work with the Frontend Developer to confirm the information provided and needed for the user interface. The Developers will also generate and briefly deploy sample pages at this time to ensure that the csv is connected properly. 

Mid-March to April 2025 – Frontend Development 

As a part of research and development, in coordination with the WBENA, the Frontend Developer and Project Lead will produce wireframes for the WBENA liaison review. On receipt of the wireframe approvals, some tasks of the Frontend development will be initiated and run parallel to the Backend development, with use of placeholder data. 

Towards the end of the Backend development step, the Frontend Developer will add higher-fidelity to the site UI/UX, with the Researchers aiding in finding images and other material for site content. The Frontend Developer will also collaborate with the Backend Developer to ensure that all the information required for this design is available to them. The Frontend Developer will then collaborate with the Content Editor to incorporate the content for the site. The Frontend Developer will work under a model of deploying often to production, to ensure that the site behaves as expected. 

April 2025 – Women’s Bandura History Research 

At this time, the team will turn their attention to researching the history of Women playing Bandura to publish on its own page at the request of the WBENA. This time has been chosen since the WBENA will have finished their March concert series, and the team will have assembled the back-end for the song pages. This research will be inserted into its own static page featured in the About tab. 

May 2025 – Revisions, Testing, and Deployment 

After the completion of Frontend Development, the team will take the WBENA through the MVP of the site and resolve any edits provided. Once the WBENA is comfortable that the outcome has stayed true to the approved wireframes and okayed any minor deviations, the team will test all pages and links locally before deploying the site and testing all pages and links publicly for bugs or errors.   

Phase 1 Note 

Throughout the development process, we will have weekly check-ins with our liaison Teryn, and we aim to meet with the Ensemble Board at least once per phase / month. We will defer to the Ensemble Board’s schedule as they are preparing for a show in April. We will also have a standing agreement with the WBENA outlining expectations for both sides. In addition, the Ensemble will have full visibility into each phase of development as well as all our documents.   

Staff / Partners 

Project Lead / Backend Developer / Assistant Researcher – Anastasia Hutnick 

The Project Lead will keep track of the team’s progress and assist to ensure that they stay on schedule and will act as point of contact for the WBENA. The Backend Developer will create a basic csv-based infrastructure for the site from the Researchers’ findings and provide the internal database from which the Frontend Developer will create the site design. She has previous experience with the Wax framework as well as HTML, CSS, and GitHub Pages deployment. She will mentor the Researchers in creating the tables in Wax, will assist the Researchers where possible, and also seeks to learn Search Engine Optimization to benefit the website. 

Frontend Developer / (Internal) Dev-Ed Lead – Alex Millatmal 

The Frontend Developer will be responsible for the aesthetic design of the website and will program the graphical user interface (GUI) using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. She will coordinate with the Backend Developer to ensure that the infrastructure is optimized for the GUI. 

Alex will also take on designing low-lift learning opportunities for the team members who want to shadow development, in a way that builds upon and incorporates existing workstreams. Examples include: sequencing work to include well-defined, beginner- friendly implementation tickets; pair/group code reviews; pairing sessions; and further resource/reading curation. 

Researcher / Assistant Content Editor / Development Shadow – Lini Radhakrishnan 

The researcher will refer to the shared WBENA google drive contents and any other research sources to compile notes on the programs and songs. Lini will also assist the Content Editor/ Social Media Specialist in copyediting the site content and content creation for outreach. In order to understand the application of the Wax framework and the user interface, Lini will shadow the developers and develop allocated portions of the code.   

Researcher 2 / Content Editor/Social Media Specialist – Melissa McDonald  

The second researcher will also refer to the shared WBENA Google drive contents and any other research sources and compile notes on the programs, songs, and women in bandura. They will also write social media posts and any outreach correspondence with assistance from Lini. They will shadow the backend and frontend developers. 

WBENA Liaison – Teryn Kuzma 

Teryn Kuzma is a current member and Concertmaster of the Women’s Bandura Ensemble of North America. She will serve as liaison between the Ensemble Board and the Project Team. The Team will ensure consistent communication with the Ensemble Board and will not publicize any material without their approval. 

Final Project and Dissemination 

The final project will be deployed as its own GitHub Pages site and will be shared on the WBENA website. The Project Lead will coordinate publicization on social media with WBENA and will also reach out to organizations such as the Ukrainian Museum in Manhattan and the Ukrainian History Education and Cultural Center of New Jersey for them to share on their sites and social media.  

Within the CUNY network, the Project Lead will also reach out to the Ethnomusicology department at the Graduate Center and the Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies scholars at CUNY to share the site through their internal communications and social media as well.  

 

Works Cited 

“15 December Programme.” London Symphony Orchestra, 2024, https://www.lso.co.uk/15-december-programme/ 

“About the Bandura.” The Hryhory Kytasty Cleveland School of Bandura. 2021, https://www.hkbanduraschool.org/about-the-bandura 11 December 2024 

Berezutska, Maryna, “The Development of Bandura Music Art Between the 1920s and 1940s.” Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics, 2020, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 44 – 66, https://doi.org/10.2478/jef-2020-0015. 11 December 2024 

Berezutskaya, Marina. “The History of Bandura Art or How Bandura Became the Musical Symbol of the Ukrainian Nation.” National Identities, vol. 23, no. 5, 2021, pp. 491–509, https://doi.org/10.1080/14608944.2020.1779207. 

Christen, K. and J. Anderson. “Toward slow archives.” Arch Sci vol. 19, pp. 87–116 2019. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-019-09307-x  

Hayda, Julian. “War isn’t dampening artists’ determination to revive Indigenous Ukrainian music.” NPR. 2022, https://www.npr.org/2022/04/17/1093264993/war-isnt-dampening- artists-determination-to-revive-indigenous-ukrainian-music13 . February 2025 

Herasymenko-Oliynyk, Ola. “Ukrainian Bandura in Concert.” Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/ola-herasymenko-oliynyk-ukrainian-bandura-in- concert_202411. 11 December 2024  

Kytasty, Julian and Marcia Ostashewski. “Songs.” Songs of Truth: Music and Song from the Kobzar Tradition. 2015, http://soundcommunities.org/archives/songs-of-truth/index.html.  

11 December 2024. 

Ostashewski, Marcia. “Women Playing the Bandura: Challenging Discourses of Nationhood.” Ethnologies, vol. 23, no. 1, July 2001, pp. 123–45. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.comlogin.aspxdirect=true&db=hus&AN=510040971&site=ehost-live.  

“Program Archive – School of Music.” University of Alabama School of Music. 2024. https://music.ua.edu/program-archive-2/. 11 December 2024 

Rawson, Katie and Trevor Muñoz, “Against Cleaning” Debates in the Digital Humanities 2019, ed. Matthew K. Gold and Lauren F. Klein. 2019 

Risam, Roopika and Alex Gil. “Introduction: The Questions of Minimal Computing.” Digital Humanities Quarterly Vol 16.2, 2022 

“The Bandura.” Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus of North America. 2021, https://www.bandura.org/ bandura-history11 December 2024 

​​“Women’s Bandura Ensemble of North America.” 2023,  https://www.banduristka.org/. 11 December 2024.​​​ 

 

Tasha Personal Log: Week 1 – Rolling the Snowball

Well, that’s week 1 done! I’ll admit, it was harder than I thought it would be. I feel like when I proposed this project, I felt like I had quite a bit figured out, that it would be simple and straightforward. Research, figure out the back-end based on the results, figure out the front-end based on the back-end table. Show the WBENA our progress along the way, and put one foot in front of the other. Of course, once the project was green-lit, I realized that it wouldn’t be nearly so objective. There was quite a bit that I hadn’t fully figured out yet, including but not limited to:

  • What’s the scope of the website beyond this semester?
  • How can we ensure the themes of this project are properly represented?
  • Are we sure about the name?
  • Are we sure about the software?
  • What plan do you have for disagreements other than “negotiate”?

As such, calling the first meeting was tricky for me. Since it was the first meeting, and we had more introspective matters to discuss, I wasn’t always sure where to start. I went through our (very helpful!) feedback and at times struggled to come up with actionable items (or concise conversation) for some of the more reflective items. I definitely felt the weight of everything to come and, frankly, feared that I was falling behind, which is not great when you’re the project lead.

Which, of course, leads me to my first Lesson of the Week (TM) – You’re on a team for a reason! It’s easy to get lost in what lies ahead and feel like you should have done more, but being a project lead does not mean that you’re a monolith who needs to have absolutely everything figured out. I reminded myself that we had all done so much this week, coming together, setting up our communication methods, getting organized, finding people to add to our networks, starting our official correspondence with Teryn and the WBENA, submitting edits, formulating agreements, the list goes on. Bandurapedia (keep an eye out for the new name) was only theoretical last week – now it has a release date and has begun pre-production!  I’m grateful for everyone on my team for their skills, energy, and perspectives. We’ve still got a lot ahead of us, but we’ve made great first steps. And I remind myself that part of being on a team is trusting your teammates to talk to you rather than fretting over start of project anxieties.

And hey, now that we’ve started, I feel better about calling future meetings. Newton’s first law, right? A team in motion will stay in motion, even if we hit logistical bumps along the way.

I’m also very excited as tomorrow night right after class we are having our first official project discussion with the WBENA board! It’s all becoming so real.

And so it begins. . .

 

 

Tasha Hutnick – Skillset

Developer / Programmer – Strong – I have quite a bit of programming experience under my belt, including: Jekyll, Wax, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, React/Node.js/PostgreSQL, Python, Ren’Py, WordPress, dash of Ruby on Rails, and deployment to GitHub Pages / Heroku. I’m a little rusty on some of the above languages (see React/Node/Postgres and Ruby on Rails), but always eager to learn.

Project Management – Strong – I have worked in email marketing for almost four years now and in that time have worked on quite a few tests / specialty campaigns where I needed to keep track of several moving parts and make sure the campaign got from Team A to Team B to Team Z to Team A to deployment.I’m familiar with keeping a project organized, checking in, and adapting to changes in circumstance.

Editing – Very Good – If you hand me a paper to proofread I will return it riddled with suggestions / revisions.

Research – Pretty Good – happy to hunt through libraries, dig through bibliographies, and game search terms until I can get another piece of the mystery (I blame growing up on Nancy Drew games).

Art / Graphics – Okay, would like to learn more – I’ve created assets for personal projects / done front-end development work before, but I wouldn’t say I’m particularly polished. Would love to learn more!

Data Analysis – Eh. –  I don’t have a lot experience in this area, but happy to learn!

Social Media – … Please don’t – I don’t call myself a social media hermit (for the most part) for nothing.

Project Proposal: Bandurapedia

Abstract 

The bandura, a large, lute-like instrument, is Ukraine’s national instrument and a symbol of resistance. The bandura developed from the kobza, a smaller lute-like instrument over the centuries. After the massacre of the kobzars – nomadic​,​ often blind​,​ musicians and storytellers who played the bandura or its predecessor – by the Soviets in the 1930s, the instrument was brought to the United States​​. Since then, ensembles have formed across the country, and bandura communities continue to this day. This project aims to explore modern Ukrainian American musical identity by digitizing musical programs from the Women’s Bandura Ensemble of North America (WBENA) from their founding in 2015 to today in an archive. This archive, powered by the Wax framework, will include recordings where available as well as tags for composers, country of origin, themes, tempo, genre, presence of religion, and language. The team will be working closely with a member of the ensemble for acquisition, publication, and context of the programs and will proceed in publication of this archive only with tacit approval from the whole ensemble​​.

Intended Audience

This archive is intended to be used as an educational resource for anyone interested in Ukrainian culture, musical programming, and ethnomusicology.

The Women’s Bandura Ensemble of North America 

​​​​​This project will publish the programs of the Women’s Bandura Ensemble of North America (WBENA) from its founding in 2015 to the present on its own dedicated website. The ensemble is comprised of twenty-one women from seven different cities across the United States and Canada. The WBENA was chosen to examine the song choices of a North American bandura ensemble as well as the song choices of an all-female bandura ensemble. The bandura is largely considered a male-coded instrument due to the kobzars traditionally being male. Even in the year 2000, the bandura community widely considered a woman playing dumy, or Ukrainian epic poetry songs, to be inappropriate, and women ensembles were near impossible to find in North America. (Ostashewski 143). 

Overview of Project 

For this project, PDFs for each program will be uploaded to the site and more information provided on each document and song performed via Wax, a Jekyll based website framework. The website will contain collections for both the Programs and Songs generated by a csv file with relevant information obtained by the project’s Researchers. Wax was selected because it is free to use, can be deployed for free through GitHub Pages, and is lightweight given the project’s relatively small file footprint.  

For each program, the website will provide a PDF that the user can flip through as well as the date(s), location(s), performers, and if applicable collaborators. Each program will also list the songs performed (roughly 10 – 15 per performance), each of which will have their own page detailing where applicable the composer, the year / time period published, the country of origin, language, genre(s), tempo, lyrics, and themes.  

​​When it comes to tagging songs, the Team will avoid forcing a particular song into a rigid framework. A song may not have one strictly defined place / time of origin or may have nuances in its themes that cannot be replicated. While the Wax framework requires some efficiency, the project requires the team to avoid reductiveness and respect the nonscalable aspects of songs harkening from a centuries old oral tradition (Rawson and Muñoz).  

The first phase will focus on deploying the website with two programs and respective song pages populated as a minimum viable product. Throughout the process, the team will meet with the WBENA in order to ensure that the website receives their approval. As Christen and Anderson advocate in “Toward Slow Archives,” the team will focus on their relationship with the community of origin (the WBENA), ensuring that the ensemble has the right to refusal concerning what is published about their repertoire, their history, and their performances (107). The team aims to collaborate with the ensemble rather than to speak for them. 

Work Plan 

Overview 

The first phase of the project serves to deploy a minimum viable product version of the site. Over the Spring semester (February to mid-May 2025), the team will launch the website on GitHub Pages containing two program pages and pages for each song within those programs. An About section will also be provided with a brief overview of the project, any necessary historical or cultural context, and names of the contributors. 

The second and third phases of this project will occur outside of the DHUM 7002 Methods and Practices course. During these phases, the Project Lead will add the remaining programs into the existing framework and, once all are provided, provide research and context for the remaining songs.  

Below are the proposed steps to Phase 1 of the project:  

February to March 2025 – Song Research 

The first month of the project is dedicated to compiling notes for the two programs and approximately 20 songs, split amongst the two researchers. For programs, the researchers will record the name of the concert, its location(s), the date(s), any collaborators if applicable, the performers’ names, the song titles, any other notes, and the PDF file path. For songs, the researchers will record where available the title, composer, original year or period, language, location of origin, genre, themes, tempo, description, YouTube link, lyrics, and soloists. The researchers will also be free to record any other relevant or interesting information that they find for the song. Given that the team will unlikely be able to read in Ukrainian, interviews with the WBENA will be essential for this research.  

Late March to Early April 2025 – Backend Development 

Towards the end of the Research step, the Backend Developer will begin assembling the csv structure that will power the site. Towards the end of the Backend Development period, the Backend Developer will work with the Frontend Developer to confirm the information provided  for the user interface. The Developers will also generate and briefly deploy sample pages at this time to ensure that the csv is connected properly / show to the WBENA.  

April 2025 – Frontend Development 

Towards the end of the Backend development step, the Frontend Developer will begin designing the aesthetics for the site, with the Researchers aiding in finding images if necessary. The Frontend Developer will also collaborate with the Backend Developer to ensure that all the information required for this design is available to them. The Frontend Developer will then collaborate with the Content Editor to synthesize the content for the site. They will program the user interface, briefly deploying samples of the site periodically to ensure that the site behaves as expected on deployment. 

May 2025 – Revisions, Testing, and Deployment 

After the completion of Frontend Development, the team will take the WBENA through the MVP of the site and resolve any edits provided. Once the site has received WBENA approval, the team will test all pages and links locally before deploying the site and testing all pages and links publicly for bugs or errors.  

Phase 1 Note 

Throughout the development process, the team will be in contact with a representative of the WBENA to ensure that they have the Ensemble’s explicit approval, particularly during the Research and Frontend Development portions. Should the Ensemble be in disagreement on how to proceed with a particular element, the Team will negotiate until an agreement can be reached. Any possible elements requested by the WBENA will be accommodated, and the WBENA has final say on any element of the site. Our liaison, Teryn Kuzma, has relayed the project to the WBENA, who have shared their excitement.

Staff / Partners 

We’ll need the following roles for this project, though I anticipate that several will be doubled up and / or involve mentor / mentee work with other members. I have previously built a website using Wax, so I foresee no major technical issues for this website.

Project Lead

The Project Lead will keep track of the team’s progress to ensure that they stay on schedule and will act as point of contact for the WBENA.

Backend Developer 

The Backend Developer will create a basic csv-based infrastructure for the site from the Researchers’ findings and provide the internal database from which the Frontend Developer will create the site design.  The Developer will use / learn how to use the Wax framework as well as some basic Javascript.

Frontend Developer 

The Frontend Developer will be responsible for the aesthetic design of the website and will program the graphical user interface (GUI) using HTML and CSS. They will coordinate with the Backend Developer to ensure that the infrastructure is optimized for the GUI. The Frontend Developer will use / learn Markup language, HTML, CSS, and potentially some JavaScript. They may also use any Design software of their choice should they wish.

Researchers (ideally 2) 

The Researchers will compile notes on the programs and songs from which the Back-End Developer will create the site’s database.   

Content Editor 

The Content Editor will edit the text of the site, collaborating with the Frontend Developer to ensure clarity and lack of grammatical errors.     

WBENA Liaison – Teryn Kuzma  

Teryn Kuzma is a current member and Concertmaster of the Women’s Bandura Ensemble of North America and will serve as liaison between the Ensemble and the Project Team. The Team will ensure consistent communication with the Ensemble and will not publicize any material without their approval. 

Final Project and Dissemination 

The final project will be deployed as its own GitHub Pages site and will be shared on the WBENA website. The Project Lead will coordinate publicization on social media with WBENA and will also reach out to organizations such as the Ukrainian Museum in Manhattan and the Ukrainian History Education and Cultural Center of New Jersey for them to share on their sites and social media.  

Within the CUNY network, the Project Lead will also reach out to the Ethnomusicology department at the Graduate Center and the Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies scholars at CUNY to share the site through their internal communications and social media as well. Each member of the team will be encouraged to share the project on their own social media accounts as well.

Why This Matters

Currently, no internet archive of this nature exists for the bandura, or for any other instrument as far as I could find. Every bandura ensemble provides a brief history of the instrument and of their group, yet rarely do they go into individual songs. The bandura is Ukraine’s national instrument because of its inextricable link to the nation’s culture and history, during much of which other parties attempted to suppress both.  

In the midst of a brutal invasion where the goal is total conquest of the Ukrainian people and annihilation of their identity, this website aims to serve as a seed, through the growth of which will disseminate not only Ukraine’s rich cultural history and tradition, but also the relevancy of its culture in the modern day. In Ukraine’s National Anthem, the first line translates to “The glory and will of Ukraine has not yet perished.” Through examining an ensemble in North America and comprised of women, the project will demonstrate the strength of Ukrainian culture in diaspora as it continues to live and evolve.