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Poetry by Polish, Polish-American, and Polish Diaspora poets

Dr. John Z. Guzlowski and Christina Pacosz have co-edited two issue of the journal KRITYA that feature poetry by Polish, Polish-American, and Polish Diaspora poets. The April issue alone includes poems by 18 poets from Poland, the US, and England.

Dr. Guzlowski has also written a brief statement on the importance of celebrating the art and writing of the Polish Diaspora. writing and art are important.

Over the years, I would hear about a poet here or a novelist there who wrote about the Polish Diaspora, and I would track these writers down, and slowly I began to realize that I wasn’t the only one writing about the Diaspora…

Perspective, PNCC, Poland - Polish - Polonia

Closing the book on the Rev. Marek Bozek (and St. Stans)

From St. Louis’ FOX Affiliate KTVI: Controversial St. Stanislaus Pastor Marek Bozek Dismissed From Priesthood

Pope Benedict XVI has dismissed Marek Bozek from the clerical state. Therefore, he may no longer function as a priest, with the exception of offering absolution to the dying. The dismissal from the clerical state focuses solely on Bozek, and does not address the status of the St. Stanislaus Kostka Corporation…

As I had noted over multiple posts, the Rev. Bozek took his parish off the deep end, and as far from Catholicism as possible (excepting certain externals). I had initially hoped that the parish would look to the PNCC as its model. Unfortunately, they decided to retain all the extravagances so much a part of Rome’s Novus Ordo Ameri-church. Eucharistic ministers, communion in the hand, etc, would have made for a very poor fit with the PNCC. Those extravagances coupled with the Rev. Bozek’s liberal views will soon have St. Stans in the hands of the vagante’s (or as some parishioners hope — and what would likely be best — back under Rome).

The parishioner’s initial understanding of responsibilities was correct: lay control over the parish’s assets and a democratic lay structure, which were provided to them in response to the PNCC’s growth in St. Louis, and adherence to the Catholic faith. With that they would have been able to recognize themselves in the mirror. As it is, they and their ancestors (if they exist) will never know who their grandparents were, nor what they represented. In attempting to save their way of life they destroyed it — regardless of how things turn out.

Poland - Polish - Polonia, ,

Essay contest for Polish-American students

New York District 2 of the Polish Army Veterans Association in conjunction with the Kosciuszko Foundation is sponsoring an essay contest on the subject: The Worldwide Significance of the 1939 Invasion of Poland.

The contest is open to Polish-American students between the ages of 18 and 22. A first place prize of $2,000 and a second place prize of $1,000 will be awarded.

The contest will be judged by Maria Szonert-Binienda, Professor Donald Pienkos of the University of Wisconsin and Professor Thaddeus Gromada, President of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences.

The deadline for entries is July 1, 2009. Results will be announced September 1, 2009.

Information is available by calling 330-666-7251 or from the Kosciuszko Foundation, 15 East 69th St., New York, NY 10065.

Further details, specific instructions, and applications are available here.

Poland - Polish - Polonia,

Anti-immigrant feelings run deep, the KKK in the North

From The Daily News: In the shadow of the Klan

If the truth were known, hundreds of local residents had relatives who were members of the Ku Klux Klan in Western New York during the early 1920s. The Klan, which originated in the South soon after the Civil War, was a white supremacist secret society known for intimidating and sometimes killing blacks, Jews, Catholics and others.

The Klan and local immigrants are the subject of a talk titled “Clash of Cultures” which Oakfield lawyer and Genesee County legislator Ray Cianfrini will present March 22 at the Gaines Congregational Church of Christ.

Cianfrini stumbled upon evidence of the KKK activities in Genesee and Orleans counties while researching local immigration, he said.

“My father came from Italy in 1911 to work at the U.S. Gypsum,” Cianfrini said. “I’ve always been interested in the immigration movement in our area — why they came and why they stayed here.”

In the mid 1980s, Cianfrini started tracking the number of immigrants in Oakfield particularly.

“Statistics gave me an indication of the influx of what they called ‘new’ immigrants to this area,” he said. “All were primarily males and predominantly Italian.”

“Old” immigrants were the English, Irish, German and Scottish, while the Italians and Polish were called “new” immigrants. From 1892 to 1925, the Italian population of Oakfield went from 16 percent of the total population of foreign-born to 58 percent. They all worked either in the gypsum mines or canning factory.

The “old” immigrants represented all the power in the area — they bought all the land, ran all the businesses and controlled all the boards, Cianfrini said.

“Then comes the ‘new’ immigrants, creating what I call the ‘Clash of Cultures,'” he said. “They weren’t welcome or liked.”

In the late 1980s, a client came into Cianfrini’s office with a bunch of pictures he had found in the house of a relative. They included pictures of a large number of Ku Klux Klan members at a funeral of an Oakfield man, the man’s burial in Reed Cemetery, a ceremonial burning of a cross after and a group of Klansmen who walked into a church service at the Oakfield-Alabama Baptist Church.

Cianfrini was immediately intrigued.

“What was the Ku Klux Klan doing in Oakfield, I wanted to know,” Cianfrini said.

He found the group had a revitalization in the North which started in the 1920s and lasted through the early 1930s. By the time the state Legislature banned the group, it wasn’t so much anti-Blacks as it was anti-Catholic, anti-Jewish and anti-immigrant, Cianfrini said.

In 1924, Klansmen announced they would march in Batavia’s Labor Day parade, and in response, the Rochester Journal and Post Express reported if the KKK marched, the newspaper would print the names of all its members in the paper — which it did.

In his research, Cianfrini was able to obtain a list compiled by the Buffalo Police Department naming all the members of the KKK in Erie, Genesee and Orleans counties. Hundreds of names in Genesee and half a dozen in Orleans County are well-known names, even now…

PNCC, Poland - Polish - Polonia, ,

In the Pittsburgh area

From the Valley Independent: Polish exhibit opens Sunday

MONESSEN – Preparing for a new exhibit at the Monessen Heritage Museum was a trip down memory lane for a group of women who wanted to celebrate their Polish ancestry.

Bittersweet tears flowed as Monessen residents Dorothy Jozwiak, Sophia Janol, Gloria Belczyk and Irene Babinski dug out treasures from their past for the new Polish Heritage Exhibit.

The exhibit will be on display at the museum, 505 Donner Ave., from Sunday to June 1.

The Greater Monessen Historical Society is hosting an open house for the new exhibit from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday.

Museum hours after Sunday will be 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays.

The exhibit coincides with the centennial anniversary of the former St. Hyacinth Polish Church and its women’s Rosary Society.

St. Hyacinth eventually merged with the four other ethnic Roman Catholic churches to form Epiphany of Our Lord parish.

The exhibit also pays homage to the former Sacred Heart of Jesus Polish National Church in the city.

Jozwiak, whose parents emigrated to Monessen from Poland, is the historian for the St. Hyacinth Church and has preserved many church relics that are now on display at the museum.

She believes it’s important to preserve and honor the accomplishments made by Polish people when they came to the city more than 100 years ago.

The largest wave of Polish immigration to America occurred in the early 20th century. More than 1.5 million Polish immigrants were processed at Ellis Island from 1899 to 1931.

“The Poles contributed a lot when they came to America and to Monessen,” Jozwiak said. “We wanted to do something to celebrate the spirit of Polish history.”

The exhibit features many family photographs, Polish flags and banners, and other items from the Polish National Alliance, today known simply as the PNA hall on Knox Avenue.

Jozwiak said there were once several Polish fraternal lodges in the city where families could buy reduced-cost insurance.

The women agreed preparing the exhibit brought back many memories.

They all came from large families – a trait of many Polish parents.

The displays feature a traditional Polish Easter basket filled with a loaf of bread, traditional Polish outfits, hand-made wood carvings, an old-fashioned coffee grinder, Polish dolls, and Wozniak’s mother’s curling iron from 1920.

“This has brought a lot of tears and joy,” Wozniak said, adding her infant baptismal gown and bonnet are on display.

The exhibit also features several photos of unnamed people. They are hoping visitors can help identify them.

As Belczyk went through her family archives, she shed tears as she thought about her brothers, who all served in the Polish Army.

“We only spoke Polish so, when they want [sic] to war and wanted to give their confession, they had to do it in Polish,” she said. “The priest said that would be fine.”

Jozwiak and Belczyk still speak fluent Polish, but use it very rarely these days.

There was a time, though, when the nuns at the St. Hyacinth School taught them in their native language.

“We really learned to speak English by playing in the neighborhoods,” Belczyk said.

Babinski, who is married to Leonard Babinski, recalls the days when her mother-in-law, the late Mary Babinski, served as a mid-wife, delivering more than 3,000 babies in Monessen.

“She even delivered me and both of my children,” Babinski said.

Although Janol is a third-generation Polish American, she has tracked down relatives still living in Poland.

All of the women agree they would love to visit Poland some day but, for now, they are happy to show off their heritage at the museum.

For more information about the Monessen Heritage Museum, call (724) 684-8460.

Christian Witness, Current Events, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , ,

Exhibitions at the Tate

From ArtDaily: Miroslaw Balka to Undertake Next Commission in The Unilever Series at Tate Modern

LONDON.- Tate and Unilever announced that the Polish artist Miroslaw Balka will undertake the tenth commission in The Unilever Series for the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern (13 October 2009 —“ 5 April 2010).

Born in Warsaw, Poland in 1958, Balka lives and works in Warsaw and Otwock. This will be the artist’s first public commission in the UK, which will be unveiled on Monday 12 October 2009. Miroslaw Balka is one of the most significant contemporary artists of his generation. His work has had critical acclaim both in this country and internationally. Comprising installation, sculpture and video, Balka’s works explore themes of personal history and common experience drawing on his Catholic upbringing and the fractured history of his native country, Poland. Intimate and self-reflective, his works demonstrate his central concerns of identifying personal memory within the context of historical memory.

In works such as Oasis (C.D.F.) (1989), he suggests a domestic setting in which the daily rituals of human existence are played out. Eating and sleeping, love and death are evoked using materials which have a particular resonance for Balka such as milk, wooden planks from his childhood home and pine needles salvaged from the tree that grew outside his window. In this work dedicated to the German Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich, Balka invokes both the spiritual and the everyday.

Central to Balka’s work is the use of materials of humble quality such as ash, felt, soap, salt and hair to give a sense of spirituality through their association with lives lived and memories left behind. Salt, for example, alludes to human emotions in the form of sweat or tears, whilst soap evokes the intimate yet universal daily rituals of cleansing as explored in Hanging Soap Women (2000), in which used bars of soap donated by women are strung together on a wire. In the installation, 190 x 90 x 4973 (2008), Balka constructs a wooden walkway with walls measuring 190cm high (the artist’s height) without any ceiling and made from simple common building materials such as plywood, creating a claustrophobic tunnel with no visible destination.

Memorials play an important role in Polish society but also in Balka’s personal experience —“ his grandfather was a monumental stonemason and his father an engraver of tombstones. His early performances and sculpture referred to his experience of the rituals of Catholicism, perhaps made more intense in a country where religion was repressed…

I would love to see this. If we reflect on this work we see the underlying Catholic connection – the communion of saints, the Church triumphant. It is our connection, raw and closest to the heart, seen through eyes of faith, made beautiful.

For more information visit the Tate

Also from the Tate: Symbolism in Poland and Britain from 14 March to 21 June, 2009.

Perspective, Poland - Polish - Polonia,

…and Polish priests don’t like it either

From CathNews: Polish priests want to marry

Most Polish priests favour an end to celibacy and twelve percent say they are already in a relationship with a woman, a survey has found.

The research has dealt a blow to the country’s reputation as a champion of traditional Catholic values, the UK Telegraph reports.

A survey of over 800 priests carried out by Professor Josef Baniak, a sociologist specialising in religious affairs, found that 53 percent would like to have a wife, while 12 percent admitted that they were involved in a relationship. A further 30 percent said that they had had a sexual relationship with a woman.

Professor Baniak concluded from earlier research that the desire to have a relationship and a family was one of the key reasons for priests leaving the priesthood.

His latest research echoes an earlier survey carried out by the Tygodnik Powszechny newspaper. The conservative publication, aimed at Catholic intellectuals, found that as many as 60 percent of priests wanted the right to marry.

Professor Baniak’s survey, however, has come under fire from the Church. Bishop Wojciech Polak, chairman of the Church’s Vocations Council, described it as “full of generalisations”, adding that he found the “conclusions hard to agree with.”

Bishop Polak must not have access to the books and records as the auxiliary bishop of Gniezno. He’s obvioulsy missed the priests who have long-term “housekeepers,” have left to marry, have committed suicide because they cannot reconcile their conflicted relationships, or who have dumped their housekeeper and her (really their) children on the dioceses’ doorstep.

Of course “new trends” in Polish seminaries will change the balance. Perhaps Bishop Polak is concentrating on those changes.

More from Bishop Polak in Catholic Church in Poland reports sharp drop in vocations. Methinks that the Bishop has his fingers in his ears and is signing a hymn very loudly.

PNCC, Poland - Polish - Polonia,

Lenten fish fries and other culinary delights

In the Albany, New York area check out the Polish Community Center, 225 Washington Ave Ext, Albany NY 12205 (call 518-456-3995) every Friday between February 27th and April 10th, 4-8pm for a tremendous fish fry. My family and I went last week. I literally felt like the Apostles had just dumped their nets full of fish on the table. The fish was tasty, with great fixins’ and a side of homemade sauerkraut salad. The service was personal and exceptional. They have Polish beers too — you can’t go wrong…

fishfry

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer: Lent is here and that means it’s fish-fry season: Your local guide

St. Mary’s Polish National Catholic Church — 5375 Broadview Road, Parma, Ohio. 216-741-8154. 4-7 p.m. Fridays, March 13 through March 27. $8. Includes pierogi, slaw or applesauce, fries, bread and butter, coffee and dessert.

As BigSister28 noted in the comments section to the article: “St. Mary’s Polish National Catholic Church on Broadview Road has, without a doubt, the best pierogies. And the best homemade cupcakes for dessert.”

…and from the Standard-Speaker: Hometown happenings

A potato cake and soup sale will be held at Ss. Peter and Paul PNCC, Adams Street, McAdoo, Pennsylvania on every Friday during lent and the soups available include pasta fagoli, tomato, potato mushroom, vegetarian vegetable, macaroni and cheese and haluski. Advanced orders are appreciated, but walk-ins are welcome. For more information call 570-929-1250 or 570-929-1558.

Smacznego! Bon Appétit!

Perspective, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , , ,

Learning culture, from the family on up

From the Buffalo News: Dance troupe, trip to Poland connect teen to her roots

America, the land of the free and the home of the brave. But where did we come from? At one point in history, your ancestors likely emigrated to the U. S. from someplace else. Do you know from where —“and when —“ they came?

Nineteen-year-old Christina Slomczewski does.

Christina, a sophomore at Daemen College, takes great pride in her family’s history. She grew up in a home in Buffalo based on Polish traditions, and she often heard her grandmother speak the language.

—As a child, I always heard my grandmother talking to family and friends in Polish, and it always seemed like a bonding experience,— said Christina.

Christina’s great-great-grandparents emigrated to the United States. Even though her ties to Poland are not extremely close, the tradition has been passed down since those first relatives set foot on American soil. The family eats Polish foods such as ham, potatoes, pierogi a dough pocket filled with fruit, meat, cheese or potatoes and kielbasa, a Polish sausage. They also celebrate swenconka, or a blessing of Easter food the day before Easter.

So, naturally when Christina was offered the chance to travel to Poland, she jumped at the opportunity. Last summer Christina went to Poland for a month with the Kosciuszko Foundation. The foundation is an organization which helps children in Poland learn English from American teachers. Even without a teaching degree, Christina was able to spend her time in the city of Przypok, Poland, as a teacher’s assistant, teaching the English language to students ages 9 to 14.

—While I was there, the teacher and I did lessons with the kids until lunchtime. And in the afternoon we played games with them. It was a lot of fun and the children were really nice,— she says.

“Believe it or not, the U. S. and Poland are a lot more alike than most people think,— says Christina. —They have shopping malls like we have here —“ and they even have a lot of American based foods. [But] I realized how lucky we are to have so many things in the U. S.— Christina says: —Every day we take for granted the little things, like clean tap water and free public restrooms. In Poland you have to pay two dollars for a small bottle of water and 50 cents every time you needed to use the bathroom—

Christina is currently a member of Western New York’s largest Polish-American cultural and dance group, Harmony Polish Folk Ensemble. Harmony was founded by several families with Polish ties. They have upwards of 50 members, who range in age from four to 75.

Manya Pawlak-Metzler, president of Harmony, says she is always very impressed with Christina’s —ready-to-go— attitude. —Christina is reliable, dedicated, and eternally upbeat. Her ability to adapt to frequent change is unparalleled, and her skill in level of dance has recently resulted in her placement as a junior instructor for our organization,— said Pawlak-Metzler.

Harmony’s mission is to expose Western New York to Polish culture through traditional song, dance, and simple language lessons. But on a less dramatic scale, the group is also out to prove those who believe Polish dancing is all polka, very, very wrong.

—I think that the people who usually associate [our] dancing with polka all the time are surprised. They get to see the more traditional side of Polish dancing.— Christina said.

—I’m proud to show where my family came from every time I dance with Harmony. Just within the hour show we put on for people, they get to live as if they were one of those Polish villagers, and they take home with them a story which they can tell their families for generations to come.—

The article points to experiences much like my own (although, I was never a dancer…). Knowledge of ones roots, cultural connections, being in the family, and most especially the extended family. Those are the experiences that give us a core sense of warmth, connection, and of being grounded. As we mature those experiences blossom into a deeper knowledge, studied history, and all its intricacies. That knowledge doesn’t destroy our our starting point, it only deepens our understanding of it.

Beyond the family, the article points to the support of church and community, both of which are essential in establishing a sense of self.

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