The UW Polish Studies Endowment Committee presents a lecture Fr. Jan of the Ladybug: A Story of Fr. Jan Twardowski by Anna Cholewinska, discussing his life and poetry.

Jan Twardowski (1915-2006) was a Roman Catholic priest and a poet. Even though he published his first poems in the 1930s, it was not until the 1990s when he became popular and widely recognized. The opening line from one of his poems “Śpieszmy się kochać ludzi – tak szybko odchodzą” (“Let us hurry to love people – they depart so quickly”) is probably the most frequently quoted line from a contemporary Polish poetry. While his poems had very deep meanings, they were simple enough to be understood by both adults and children. This is the reason why he became so popular among regular people. In her talk, Anna Cholewinska will share some stories about Fr. Twardowski – a priest, a poet and a great person.

Anna Cholewinska is a sociologist working as an associate professor and the undergraduate program director at the City University of Seattle. In 2005 she founded the Fr. Twardowski Polish School in Bellevue that offers Polish language classes for children primarily from Polish families. Since then, she has run the school and also teaches children in grades from 5 to 8.

More: Fr. Twardowski bio, his Small Homeland / Mała Ojczyzna volume of poetry

To connect to the meeting please use this Zoom link https://washington.zoom.us/j/97056590910