![]() Stalkers see themselves as both students of history and documentarians-preventing the memory of Chernobyl from falling into oblivion while breaking free from the eternal haste of the city. In addition to the human toll, the political and economic consequences were profound and enduring. An explosion at reactor number four released a cloud of radioactive dust that poisoned millions of acres across Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia and forced the evacuation of nearly a hundred thousand people. ![]() On April 26, 1986, a series of mistakes at the Chernobyl power plant compounded into the worst nuclear disaster in history (only Fukushima shares its maximum level-7 rating). Published 15 years before the Chernobyl disaster, the Strugatskys’ book proved prophetic. The story was later adapted into Andrei Tarkovsky’s film, Stalker. The stalkers infiltrate these highly-regulated Zones to steal and sell the objects on the black market. The term stalker originated in Arkady and Boris Strugatsky’s 1971 science fiction novel, Roadside Picnic, in which alien invaders have left dangerous artifacts in areas known as Zones. This is a magical sensation.” THE POST-NUCLEAR TRAVELER “You wander through empty villages, cities, roads. “You feel like the last person on Earth,” says Eugene Knyazev, who estimates that over the course of 50 trips, he has spent a year of his life in the exclusion zone. You can go into any house, any apartment, live there, feel history." Photograph by Pierpaolo Mittica, Parallelozero "It's a huge area of 2,500 square kilometers and virtually free of people. "I'm attracted by the freedom of the zone," he says. Knyazev (nicknamed JimmSide), rests in an abandoned pig shed on the journey to Pripyat. Cloaked in darkness and camouflage, they navigate miles of irradiated forest, sleep in abandoned villages, and watch the sunrise unfurl over Pripyat's crumbling Brezhnev baroque rooftops. Over the past decade, an increasing number of self-proclaimed “stalkers” regularly enter the zone illegally. Thirty-one years after being designated a dead zone, the living roam its corridors once again. ( Read more about the Chernobyl disaster.) Its ruination has become a symbol of the failed utopian ideals of the Soviet Union, a warning of humanity’s capacity to wreak ecological havoc, and a reminder of both our fragility and resilience. Today, the 30-kilometer radius around the most contaminated area-the exclusion zone-is a mausoleum of man’s technological folly. Weightless, odorless, and invisible to the human eye, it has leached into the ground and swept across the anguished landscape. Paul’s and be a part of such an extraordinary community.An estimated 200 tons of radioactive material festers beneath a steel containment structure inside Chernobyl, the site of the worst nuclear catastrophe in history. Reflecting back on her time she says, “It was an honor to volunteer at St. Today, Kelberman still serves her New York community by taking school groups to the museum and she also exhibits at St. Paul’s Chapel from fall 2001 until the Last Column ceremony in May 2002. Paul’s staff and rescue and recovery workers. Paul’s asked their volunteers to work 12-hour shifts, and Kelberman typically worked nights and overnights. In fall 2001, Kelberman was determined to aid in the recovery effort and found an opportunity to volunteer at St. An art activity will follow the reading.Īs the daughter of two Holocaust survivors, Kelberman always felt strongly about performing acts of kindness and giving back to her community. and 3:30 p.m., 9/11 Memorial Museum visitors with children will have the opportunity to meet one of those volunteers, Paula Kelberman, who will be reading the classic children’s book “ The Little Chapel That Stood” in a free Stories & Art program. More than 5,000 volunteers worked long hours at the church, cleaning, serving hot meals, and providing comfort to all who came to the church for rest and refuge. Paul’s Chapel became a haven for rescue and recovery workers at Ground Zero. It is widely believed the church was protected by a giant sycamore tree that was planted in St. Located less than 100 yards from the World Trade Center site, the church became known as “The Little Chapel That Stood” after it survived the collapse of the Twin Towers on 9/11. Paul’s Chapel, constructed in 1766, is the oldest church building in Manhattan.
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