Yelena Khanga
Encyclopedia
Yelena Khanga was born in 1961 and raised in Moscow
, USSR, and came to the United States
in 1990 to write (with Susan Jacoby) Soul to Soul: The Story of a Black Russian American Family: 1865 - 1992 (http://www.wcwonline.org/womensreview/wrob-backissues_index_author.html). Khanga divides her time between New York City
and Moscow
.
(onetime vice president of Zanzibar) and Liya (a historian and educator; maiden name, Golden) Khanga , her American maternal grandmother, of Polish Jewish descent, was a Russian-English translator for a Soviet news agency. She also claimed to be distant relative to well-known violinist Arnold Steinhardt
; her grandmother was the cousin of his father. Her African-American maternal grandfather, Oliver Golden, had a college degree in agronomy from the Tuskegee Institute but was unable to find any work in his field in the USA, and moved to the USSR (to Uzbekistan
) with his wife to develop the cotton industry there.
She was also a performer with a comedy group in Brighton Beach called Kanotye.
"Part of her insistence that I apply myself to my language studies was attributable to the fact that English truly had been a “Piece OF Bread” for her when she lost her job. The unspoken message was that if trouble came…I had a skill to keep me from starving".
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, USSR, and came to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1990 to write (with Susan Jacoby) Soul to Soul: The Story of a Black Russian American Family: 1865 - 1992 (http://www.wcwonline.org/womensreview/wrob-backissues_index_author.html). Khanga divides her time between New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
.
Ancestry
The daughter of Abdullah KassimAbdullah Kassim Hanga
Abdullah Kassim Hanga was Prime Minister of Zanzibar from 12 January 1964 to 27 April 1964.- References :...
(onetime vice president of Zanzibar) and Liya (a historian and educator; maiden name, Golden) Khanga , her American maternal grandmother, of Polish Jewish descent, was a Russian-English translator for a Soviet news agency. She also claimed to be distant relative to well-known violinist Arnold Steinhardt
Arnold Steinhardt
Arnold Steinhardt , is an American violinist, best known as the first violinist of the Guarneri String Quartet....
; her grandmother was the cousin of his father. Her African-American maternal grandfather, Oliver Golden, had a college degree in agronomy from the Tuskegee Institute but was unable to find any work in his field in the USA, and moved to the USSR (to Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
) with his wife to develop the cotton industry there.
Career
Yelena Khanga was the moderator of the Russian television talk show The Domino Effect (http://www.middlebury.edu/academics/ls/russian/activities/2002.htm). She also moderated Russia's first talk show about sex titled About That ), which tackled such matters as H.I.V./AIDS, homosexuality and workplace sexual harassment; she later commented that the effect of the show “was like a bomb went off.”She was also a performer with a comedy group in Brighton Beach called Kanotye.
Quotes
"My grandmother often said, "Learn to write, Yelena, because it is a piece of bread." In the Russia of my youth, it was a prestigious thing to be a writer. Even if you had no money, people still felt your life was graced by art.""Part of her insistence that I apply myself to my language studies was attributable to the fact that English truly had been a “Piece OF Bread” for her when she lost her job. The unspoken message was that if trouble came…I had a skill to keep me from starving".