Born and educated in Odessa (Ukraine), poet Irina Ratushinskaya spent 4 years in her 30s in a Soviet prison camp. Her crime: penning "dangerous" poetry. Nevertheless, she continued scratching poems on bars of soap that even today offer hope to the people of her native land.

Oxford and London School of Economics graduate Xenia Dennen, Chair of the Keston Institute in the United Kingdom and a Soviet expert, will offer the Keston Spring Lecture remembering the poet’s "triumph of the Spirit" on the anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine. Refreshments and conversation will follow. This event is free and open to the public.

This year's Keston Spring Lecture is sponsored by the Keston Institute (UK) and the Keston Center for Religion, Politics, and Society along with the Baylor Libraries, International Studies (Political Science), the Department of English, the Department of History, the Department of Religion, and the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures.