By August 2021, Dymna Lotva frontwoman Katsiaryna Mankevich had been in hiding in her home country of Belarus for almost a year. The previous summer, she and her bandmates – along with more than 100,000 other people – had taken to the streets to protest against the country’s authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko.
The government had started arresting anyone associated with the protests, and banned Dymna Lotva’s gigs. Katsiaryna understood she would soon have to leave behind everything she knew.
