An Open Letter to Maria Lvova- Belova
Leah M.
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An Open Letter to Maria Lvova-Belova is a work shaped by memory, urgency, and moral witness. As someone whose family’s history is intertwined with the tragedies of Eastern Europe, Ukraine is not an abstract place to me—it is a landscape of ancestral graves and living cultural identity. When Russia’s invasion led to the abduction and forced relocation of Ukrainian children, I felt compelled to respond through art. This piece uses direct address, testimony, and metaphor to confront one of the war’s most devastating crimes: the erasure of children’s identities under the guise of “rescue.” By writing to the Russian official responsible, I position the work between activism and accusation, demanding the questions that legal systems alone cannot ask. The letter becomes a form of protection—a way to preserve truth, honor stolen childhoods, and insist that the dreams of Ukrainian children remain their own. It is witness, resistance, and remembrance.
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Creativity is the ability to transform experience into meaning. It’s seeing connections others overlook and giving voice to what might remain unspoken. For me, creativity is both truth-telling and possibility-making—a way to preserve stories, challenge injustice, and shape something hopeful and human out of what the world gives us.
