Bard College Berlin News
Mariia Krychevska ‘26 and Ina Constantin ‘26 Launch a Podcast Episode on Queer Ukrainian Beauty
The idea for this episode arose when Krychevska and Constantin met Annamaria Olsson, the CEO of Stories from the Beauty Parlor, at a fundraising event organized by Olsson at a Syrian-owned beauty parlor in Neukölln. The specific focus on queer Ukrainian beauty was born out of a collaboration with n-ost, a Berlin-based media NGO with a focus on Eastern Europe. The organization issued a grant call, searching for pieces particularly concerned with queer Ukraine. This was the first episode which Olsson worked on as a collaboration, while simultaneously being the first episode which discusses beauty in an active war zone.
Krychevska and Constantin began recording the interviews while in Bucharest, exploring the stories of Ukrainian refugees in Romania, Anya and Matvii. “Being a Romanian-Ukranian duo immediately brought us closer to the people we interviewed, and the conversations were open and full of trust,” said Constantin. Anya is originally from Luhansk, the most eastern part of Ukraine which has been occupied by the Russian forces since 2015. She fled from Luhansk to Odesa, making her journey to Romania the second time she was forced to escape Russian occupation. She works as a retoucher, enhancing and refining digital images. Matvii, who identifies himself as a “gay trans guy,” also fled Odesa, where he became active in the queer NGO scene and started his own group for trans people.
In Kyiv, Krychevska and Constantin interviewed Valentyn, a hair stylist. After the salon he worked at closed at the onset of the full-scale invasion, he decided to stay in Ukraine and open his own salon. He named his beauty parlor “Valentyna,” the feminized version of his own name, paying homage to the salons in Ukraine which women name after themselves. His salon is partially located underground, which renders it a kind of “half-shelter” during air strikes. The interview with Valentyn was conducted by Krychevska in Ukrainian and later dubbed by Artem Havrylyuk ‘27.
For both Krychevska and Constantin, the podcast creation process was full of firsts - their first time collaborating on a project together, their first time recording a podcast, and their first time securing a considerable amount of funds which allowed them to put together a larger team. Krychevska says that it was also one of her first journalistic experiences. The two complimented each other well throughout the making of the episode, learning “a great deal about project management, sticking to deadlines, grant reporting, reimbursements, and all the delightful discomforts that come with being freelance journalists,” says Constantin.
Krychevska and Constantin deeply appreciate the connections they made while conducting the interviews. This experience taught Constantin about “the importance of taking care of yourself, and forming community around practices of care, even when, or perhaps especially when you live under Russian missiles, under a violent force that tirelessly tries to annihilate you.” Concerning the nature of the interviews, Krychevska adds: “A person's story is a very special gift and to be trusted with it is a great honor, so I want to remember this feeling for all future projects I'll be doing.”
For the launch of the podcast, Krychevska, Constantin and Olsson held a panel discussion at Bard College Berlin, moderated by Professor of Migration Studies Dr. Agata Lisiak. Lisiak, who has produced her own podcast Spatial Delight, appreciates the high quality of the work which both Krychevska and Constantin put into the episode. “I think this episode is beautifully produced and it really shows the power of storytelling. It’s moving, it invites questions and reflections, it invites a lot of different emotions,” she says.
The music for this episode was made by Vasylysa Furmanova. Currently, Krychevska is raising money for Ukrainian defenders in collaboration with Dotyk Platform. On December 6, Stories from the Beauty Parlor will hold a fundraising event, collecting money for CTFA in Gaza and Marshzhinok in Ukraine.
You can listen to the full podcast episode here.
By: Hana Trenčanová '28
Post Date: 11-25-2025