Seattle-based monthly reading group Readings from the Heart of Europe will feature Magdalena Tulli’s novel Dreams and Stones / Sny i kamienie at its November meeting. All readers with an interest in the author or book are welcome to follow or participate in the discussion. Magdalena Tulli, 65, made her name in Poland in 2011 with her frank autobiography Włoskie szpilki / Italian High Heels; that book departed in style from her earlier, more metaphysical
The book for the meeting is “27 śmierci Toby’ego Obeda” by Joanna Gierak-Onoszko. Ms. Gierak-Onoszko is a Polish journalist who lived in Canada with her family for four years. Her first book is a result of her shock when she learned how the supposedly benevolent Canadian state was treating the First Nation peoples. Tony Obed is just one man from generations of Canadian First Nations whose life was broken by being removed from his family
Your favorite Christmas pictures and video clips are needed! The program for the virtual Christmas edition of the Polish Festival Seattle on December 20, 2020 is coming together nicely, with over dozen attractions running the whole gamut from the story of Polish Christmas Eve and Chopin’s scherzo with a traditional Polish carol motif, through the Virtual Polish Christmas Orchestra playing and a Canadian choir caroling, to a borscht and uszka cooking demos. One thing sorely
Polish Cultural Institute New York and Anthology Film Archives present a 2021 Oscar hopeful animated movie Kill It And Leave This Town / Zabij to i wyjedź z miasta directed by Mariusz Wilczyński. This is a North American premiere on the film and a two-week streaming run in the USA required to submit a movie to the Academy Awards. The last Polish contender in the Best Animated Feature category was Loving Vincent nominated in 2017. This
Salon of Poetry in Seattle presents the first poetry evening in Polish this year Poezja łączy ludzi. The program includes reading poems by members of the Salon as well as by members of the audience: please prepare your favorite poem supporting motto of this pandemic event: poetry connects people. As usual for the Salon meetings, music will be complementing poetry – local pianist Marzena Szlaga will play Debussy’s Clair de Lune and Beethoven’s Adagio Cantabile
This new literature book club in Seattle is for readers who’d like to discuss Polish literature in English. The book for this meeting is Choukas by Zofia Nałkowska published in 1927. Choucas is a French bird name for jackdaw, in Polish kawka; the name is used symbolically for people and their sometimes strange behavior. The books examines the role of minorities in different societies and situations through its different characters and is set in Swiss
UW Polish Studies Endowment Committee invites you to a lecture Women and the Writing of Polish Jewish History before the Holocaust by Prof. Natalia Aleksiun-Madrzak. The lecture discusses social and cultural backgrounds of Polish Jewish female historians and their contributions as a minority historians, public intellectuals and Jewish women finding their place during interwar period in Poland, 1918-1939. Dr. Aleksiun-Madrzak is a Professor of Modern Jewish History at the Touro College in New York, with a
Update: you can now watch this webinar on the FIU zoom channel here (it starts at 0:00:30 sec of the recording). The American Institute of Polish Culture in Miami (AIPC) and Florida International University (FIU) present the second webinar that is part of the Blanka Rosenstiel Lecture Series on Poland Shifting Political Landscapes in Europe: Poland’s Role. The keynote speaker is the renowned historian and best-selling author, Norman Davies, PhD; Polish Ambassador Piotr Wilczek will
Update 11/19/2020: This PHA fundraiser was quite successful despite the coronavirus discouraging people from attending. Sixteen people showed up to don different folk costume attires and to get their pictures with different backdrops. The event raised about $300 for the folk dancing groups. Paulina and Maciej are very grateful to everybody who came in and supported the dancers! If you could not come or stayed at home due to the pandemic, you can still support
At the special meeting discussing the pandemic impact, the Trustees and Officers of the Polish Home Association decided that the dining room and the bar at the Polish Cultural Center Dom Polski will be closed until January 8, 2021.
Kosciuszko Foundation Online Programs present the webinar Women Fighters of Polish Independence by Anna Nowakowska-Wierzchoś. Dr. Nowakowska-Wierzchoś is An assistant-Professor at the Institute of History, Polish Academy of Science in Warsaw, with interest in Polish social history, women’s and gender history. Her talk discusses different ways women engaged in the fight for Polish independence during 19th and 20th centuries, starting with the legendary Emilia Platter , and how that changed and expanded in the subsequent
There is a new pączki / ponchki maker in town: Mark Oliver opened his virtual Marek’s Bakery and Deli recently. His pączki come in the following flavors: plum, marionberry, cherry, yuzu, passion fruit, and peach. Currently the bakery delivers pączki to the following locations: George’s Deli in Seattle on Fridays Coffee and Cone in Kirkland on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays Check availability before you drive as his pączki fly off the shelves! Also check for a
The Polish Film Festival of America in Chicago, the first (since 1989), the best, and the biggest of the Polish movie festivals in the United States is on! This year, it has a hybrid form due to COVID-19. That is, some movies will be screened in an actual cinema theatres in Chicago, while some others will be available through streaming. The festival will even feature some movies that have not been released yet in Poland
The Ethnic Heritage Council and the UW Libraries present another edition of the We are History Keepers Virtual Workshop. This is a shortened version of the workshop on preserving history of local ethnic communities. Please check the workshop website for details of this program and of another one coming in September. There will be two sessions at the workshop, as per info below: Conducting and Preserving Your Oral History Projects UW Libraries archivists and librarians will guide you through
Paderewski Festival in Paso Robles is an annual piano festival honoring the famous virtuoso pianist, composer and politician Ignacy Paderewski (1860-1941). The 2020 edition of the festival is a two days event with all the events available online due to the pandemic with tickets available for token price of $5 or a possibly more generous donation. This year festival opens on November 6, which is the 160th anniversary of Paderewski’s birthday. The Gala Concert featuring
After successfully putting a toe in the water last week, Polish Cultural Center Dom Polski again opens its dining room and bar with a limited menu on Friday, November 6, 2020 from 5 pm to 10 pm. This is a temporary arrangement with volunteer chefs Teresa and Grażyna caused by the Polish Cuisine food truck not coming back this Friday or next Friday night. A new permanent chef is expected to take over around mid-November.
The 27th Ann Arbor Polish Film Festival (AAPFF) in Ann Arbor, Michigan goes completely online this year, and presents jury-awarded documentaries and short film as well as a selection of feature films and Q&A sessions with filmakers. The AAPFF is an annual event organized by the Polish Cultural Fund – Ann Arbor in cooperation with the Ann Arbor Polonia Association and the University of Michigan Polish Student Association. The program includes the following movies and interviews available for screening from 4
The Kosciuszko Foundation Online Programs present the webinar The Transatlantic Lives of Polish American Women at the Turn of the Twentieth Century by Marta Cieślak. Dr. Cieślak is is currently a Humanities Scholar at the Center of Arkansas History and Culture at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock where she teaches modern, world and women’s history and runs a project investigating the unique experience of Polish female migrants in American cities at the turn
Update: APFF has been extended through December 27, 2020 with new movies added to the schedule. This pandemic autumn has become a great season to watch Polish movies in the USA with streaming offers coming from many places. Austin’s is another Polish film festival that decided on the hybrid formula that includes streaming of several films along with screening at a local cinema. Feature movies, shorts and documentaries as well as an interview are available
This episode seems to have been cancelled. In the printed November 2020 KCTS 9 program this half an hour slot is taken over by the premiere broadcast of an Italian food series. This is the final episode of the series broadcast by PBS since August. Flavor of Poland is a culinary-travel PBS television weekly series presenting the country of Poland to American viewers like they’ve never seen it before. Hosted by Aleksandra August, the series