Year: 2021

Dorota Maslowska’s Provinces

The Kosciuszko Foundation online programs present a lecture Dorota Maslowska’s Provinces by Prof. Katarzyna Czeczot.  Dorota Maslowska, 38 is a novelist, playwright and independent thinker who burst into the Polish literary scene in 2002 with her famous debut novel Snow White and Russian Red / Wojna polsko-ruska pod flagą biało-czerwoną that received some prestigious awards such as Polityka Passport made it to the final round of the top Polish literary awards, the Nike. She was

History Keepers: Record Keeping for Organizations

The We Are The History Keepers! workshop  on preserving history, both for families and organizations, runs in 2-hour monthly sessions, each tackling a single topics. These are all online interactive sessions on a Saturday before noon. This is the last session in the series. The organizers describe content of  this session, Caring for and Digitizing Legacy Audio-Visual Materials,  as follows: This session will cover the basics of managing and preserving your organization’s records. Topics include

Polish Book Club: “Król”

The Club invites new members to discuss books in Polish. The book for the meeting is Król by Szczepan Twardoch, published in 2016. It paints a political panorama of Warsaw before WWII and of Polish-Jewish relations there with the narrator being an associate to a bloody gangster “king” who is a box champion at the same time. The book is available in English as The King of Warsaw. The book is available in English as The King

Pola Negri Film Festival: Early Years

Austin Polish Society presents the Pola Negri Film Festival – “Early Years”. Pola Negri (1897-1987), the famous silent film star was born Barbara Apolonia Chalupiec in Poland and started her career in Warsaw theatres.  She made her first movie in Poland in 1914, with eight other by 1917. Then she reinvented herself as a film actress in Germany. From 1917 to 1921 she made 24 movies there and her international career took off for good. 

Huddled in Full Sentences Poetry

The Kosciuszko Foundation Online Programs presents a webinar Huddled in Full Sentences: Poetic Worlds of Ewa Lipska by Jaroslaw Anders. One of the most distinctive voices in contemporary Polish poetry, Ewa Lipska’s writing combines the feeling of personal vulnerability, social corrosion, historical perils, and philosophical uncertainties of modern life. Often associated with the poets of Generation 68, she has created a unique poetic universe of her own. An ironist and skeptic acutely aware of the

AD: Learn Polish Online on a Kosciuszko Foundation Scholarship

The Kosciuszko Foundattion is currently accepting applications for Tomaszkiewicz-Florio and Wisconsin Study Polish Scholarships from students who wish to study Polish with Jagiellonian University professors and teachers. 2-week, 4-week and 6-week classes are available. Students can enroll in Polish language classes and up to two lectures from among the following courses: Polish grammar, history, literature, contemporary life in Poland, and the Jews in Poland. A cultural program is available on weekends. Students participate in classes via an

Polish Mother’s Day Specials Available to Order Till May 21

The Mother’s Day in Poland is on May 26 and many Moms in Polish community who are the first generation immigrants prefer that date. So if your Polish Mom likes May 26, here is your chance for ordering a special for her. Frasier cake – vanilla sponge, crème mousseline, strawberries; serves 10-12 people, price $35 Summer Cheesecake – vanilla sponge, creamy cheese mousse, berry gelée layer, fresh raspberries, cream Chantilly, raspberry coulis; serves 10-12, price

AD: Learn Polish Online at Summer Courses in Poland

Lat update: May 10, 2021. The usual crop of summer courses in Poland available every year has been adapted to the pandemic. Some courses listed below are online while others offer in person experience. Summer School at the Jagiellonian University School of Polish Language and Culture The Summer School has two online courses: a 4-week one in July, and a 2-week one in August with additional lectures on Polish culture also available online. Mode: online;

Quarantine Jazz: Mateusz Smoczynski, Stephan Braun

The Kosciuszko Foundation Online Programs presents a concert from the Quarantine Jazz series with violinist Matusz Smoczynski and cellist Stephan Braun. Mateusz Smoczyński is an internationally-acclaimed Polish jazz violinist and winner of numerous prizes at major competitions, including the Grand Prix of the Zbigniew Seifert Jazz Competition. A sought-after soloist and ensemble-leader, he has performed at the most important jazz venues and festivals around the world. An active educator, since 2017 he has been an

1981 Martial Law – Interview Subjects Needed for an Anniversary Research Project

This year will be the 40th anniversary of the imposition of the Martial Law in Poland on December 13, 1981. For all who lived through it, including the Polish News editor, it was a terrible shock. Many people died, thousands of Solidarity activist went to jail, and countless lives were broken. The military coup crushed the first Solidarity movement and pushed the democratic opposition underground for almost a decade before the tables turned and the

Stanisław Lem Centennial Movies

PFF Miami presents a movie program celebrating the centennial of the famous Polish sci-fi writer, essayist, philosopher and futurist Stanisław Lem (1921-2006). Perhaps best known worldwide as the author of the 1961 novel, “Solaris,” Stanisław Lem produced dozens upon dozens of novels, stories and essays throughout his nearly 60-year career. Renowned particularly for his work in the realm of science fiction, Lem’s artistic output covers a plethora of genres, encompassing memoirs, accounts of his wartime

Mother’s Day Specials Available to Order Till Midnight on May 5

The chef at the Polish Cultural Center Dom Polski, Anna Horodetska, offers these cake specials right in time for a Mother’s Day celebration! Frasier cake – vanilla sponge, crème mousseline, strawberries; serves 10-12 people, price $35 Summer Cheesecake – vanilla sponge, creamy cheese mousse, berry gelée layer, fresh raspberries, cream Chantilly, raspberry coulis; serves 10-12, price $40  Order by Wednesday midnight May 5, 2021 at https://marmolada-seattle.square.site/. Pick up on Saturday, May 8 from 3 pm

Polish Community Giving Campaign at the 2021 GiveBIG Till May 10

Update: GiveBIG extended till May 10, 2021! I you’d like to participate in this campaign, this is your last chance! Beginning of May is the traditional time for the big fundraising push known for years as GiveBIG – so please get your wallets ready! Seattle Polish Foundation (SPF) invites you to participate in this year’s Polish community fundraiser. This annual Seattle event is now called GiveBIG Washington and it has a new website, Washington Gives.

Polish Literature Club: “Tango”

This local club is for readers who would like to discuss Polish literature in English. The book for the meeting is Tango by Sławomir Mrożek, first published in 2006. Tango is a play, and  arguably, his most famous one. In his trademark absurd style the play deals with the totalitarianism and its brutal ways of forcing conformism; the subject treatment through the fog of absurd makes for a different and interesting perspective. Mrożek (1930-2013) is

BAM Kino Polska: New Polish Cinema

Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in partnership with the Polish Cultural Institute New York presents Kino Polska: New Polish Cinema, bringing together the best new works from Poland’s boundary-pushing filmmakers. The series,  starting on Friday, April 30 through Thursday, May 6, features seven films, including the New York premiere of the Venice Film Festival hit Never Gonna Snow Again /  Śniegu już nigdy nie będzie (2020, 113′). Director Malgorzata Szumowska (whose Berlinale prizewinner Mug screened in the 2018 iteration

Roy “Wojtek” Koczarski Has Died

Roy “Wojtek” Koczarski, a long time active member of the Polish community, and notably the architect taking care of the Polish Home, died on April 26, 2021 of natural causes with his family by his side. He was 92. Wojciech Koczarski was born on February 7, 1929 in Lwów, then a major city in Poland, now Lviv in Ukraine, as a son of Zofia and Roman Koczarski. At 14, conscripted by the Nazi Germany to

King Sigismund Augustus’s Love Story

The Kosciuszko Foundation online programs presents a meet-the-author talk Barbara & Augustus – A Renaissance Love Story and the Upheaval It Caused by Jeffrey Prince. He will talk about his recently completed manuscript In the Matter of the King’s Marriage, which brings the Golden Age of Poland to life for an American audience. The Renaissance in Poland generated fascinating tales of love and intrigue that have been retold and reinterpreted in each succeeding age—but almost always

Anti-Gender Politics And Right-Wing Populism in Poland

This event was rescheduled from February 10, 2021. The UW Henry Jackson School of International Studies presents a lecture Anti-Gender Politics And Right-Wing Populism in Poland by Elżbieta Korolczuk. Dr. Korolczuk is an Associate Professor of sociology at the Södertörn University in Stockholm and American Studies Center at Warsaw University. The European Union has set impressive standards on gender equality, providing legal frameworks for equal pay, investing in work/life balance and childcare, and allowing for

Katarzyna Kobro Composing Space

The UW Polish Studies Endowment Committee presents the lecture Katarzyna Kobro Composing Space by Marek Wieczorek. Dr. Wieczorek is Associate Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History at the University of Washington in Seattle, specializing in early 20th- century avant-garde art with focus on abstraction. Katarzyna Kobro (1898-1951) was an abstract sculptor who studied with and was influenced by Kazimir Malevich and was active in Poland in the 1920s and 1930s. Known for her radical

Polish Book Club: “Głos”

The book for the meeting is Głos, a book-long interview with Wojciech Mann by Katarzyna Kubisiowska, published by Znak in 2020. Mann, a radio & TV host, is a household name in Poland and known  to everybody due to his very popular music programs in Polish Radio hosted for over fifty years. One topic covered by the book is Mann’s desire to defend his independence and his departure from the public radio forced by the