The arts, in all their variety, are mirrors that reflect a people. We owe so much to artists. They make us laugh, cry, think, and see ourselves in our infinite variety, so no wonder we admire those talented people who create images, words and music that enrich our lives.
Talented, gutsy and successful – and each one with a story that rates a movie of its own. This is a book you won’t be able to put down.
The memorial Centre in the German city of Halle Saale will unveil a monument to Krystyna Wituska, a young Polish prisoner executed on June 26, 1944, and two German authors will launch their book, Zelle Nr. 18: Eine Geschichte von Mut und Freundschaft (Cell No. 18: a History of bravery and friendship) to mark the 70th anniversary of her death.
Hollywood has been a talent magnet for a long time and one of the first superstars was Poland’s Pola Negri. Justine Jablonska reviews her story, written by Mariusz Kotowski.
Want an evening at a Polish cabaret? Go with Beth Holmgren. She knows everybody who is anybody – both in Warsaw and Tel Aviv – and will introduce you. Try the “Li-La-Lo” with that charming Hungarian Pole, Fryderyk Járosy, and beautiful Yemenite singer Shoshana Damari.
When she was eleven, Joanna Trzeciak sent Szymborska a poem, beginning a lifelong correspondence. To meet Różewicz, she plotted an accidental meeting in a park. A true lover of poetry obviously doesn’t just leave things to chance.
“I don’t worry about science redefining the value of a human being, but I am concerned about technology and the market place doing that,” says Nobel Prize-winner Roald Hoffmann – scientist, playwright and poet.
Eric Bednarski’s documentary, Neon, traces the history of neon illumination in Warsaw; a Polish documentary about the 1944 Warsaw Uprising has been made entirely from colourised archival film footage; Bill Johnston wins the Transatlantyk Prize for 2014; the Jagiellonian University celebrates its 650th jubilee with a year-long celebration – and more.
A thinker, a genius, a cultural demonologist, Gombrowicz engages manipulates his reader in a game. Łukasz Wodzyński would welcome another round.
This anthology of new Polish plays was published in English with an ambitious goal: to connect with the universal “everyman.” Will Harrington casts an American eye on the proceedings and says, “Yes, they resonate.”
Jaroslaw Anders’ book is at once a “farewell…to a certain way of reading” and “one of the best introductions to twentieth-century Polish literature.” Łukasz Wodzyński reviews.
That Falstaffian model for Sienkiewicz’s Zagłoba – patriot, soldier, miner, merchant, California’s Commissioner of Immigration and, according to Miłosz, a liar, braggart and drunkard (a remarkable CV) – left a colorful unpublished epistolary record at the Jagiellonian library. Discovered by Maureen Mroczek Morris with Lynn Ludlow and Roman Włodek, here they are.
Whether Empress Catherine was “Great” or not is debatable, but she was definitely pragmatic, as are all imperial rulers. Justine Jablonska talks to Eva Stachniak about her latest book and how she chooses her subjects.
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