This story is featured in Episode 64 Why is it that not only people with Polish roots but also people who have no Polish blood in them, study Polish literature, culture and language in countries outside Poland? Polish studies exist and flourish at universities all over the world. They definitely do so in Toronto, at Canada’s most prestgious university – the University of Toronto. Lukasz Wodzynski, is an assistant professor at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Toronto. His research interests are 19th and 20th century Polish and Russian literature and culture, modernism, adventure narratives,…
Author: Malgorzata P. Bonikowska
This story is featured in Episode 64 In his review published in The Spectator, Boyd Tonkin writes: It’s hard, in Britain, to imagine a popular museum devoted to a single poem. The Polish city of Wrocław hosts just such a shrine. It celebrates Pan Tadeusz, the verse novel written in his Parisian exile by the poet, dramatist and freedom fighter Adam Mickiewicz in the early 1830s, and now taught as a keystone of collective identity to every Polish schoolchild. He calls it “A Lithuanian Romeo and Juliet”. Adam Mickiewicz is to Poland what Robbie Burns is to Scotland. He is…
This story is featured in Episode 63 In one of our recent episodes you heard a story of Kannuk Vodka. Adam, who couldn’t buy vodka he liked in Canada decided to start producing one. But what if your passion is a sport requiring a specialized facility. Like… speed skating, ski jumping, diving from a 10 m tall tower. Or curling… Adela Walczak lives in Poland, a country without any curling traditions and without any curling facilities. Until now, because Adela decided to build a world class curling club in her home town Łódź in the centre of Poland. Curling Łódź…
Listen to the interview here, in Episode 62 Poland’s connections with many geographically distant countries – what a fascinating topic. I heard this story about a famous pre-war Polish painter whose art decorates many palaces in India from a Canadian POLcast listener born in India. He had just come back to Canada after visiting his home country and was fascinated with artist Stefan Norblin’s contribution to India’s culture. Stefan Norblin – (1892-1952) World-renowned artist was born in Warsaw to Stanislaw Norblin and Bronislawa Piasecka on June 30, 1892. His illustrious career had his varied works exhibited in many European countries before…
This story is featured in Episode 62 I am so lucky to live in the country, just next door to a picturesque Ontario town with the population of 30,000. Orangeville has many interesting and unique features and I love digging into its colourful stories. And recently, while looking at a local Facebook group, I saw something that caught my attention. A photo of a line between two trees in front of a house, with many winter clothes hanging on it on hangers and a message from its owner: This appeal to people to just come and take whatever they may…
This story is featured in Episode 60 Christmas is this special time when we think of others (or should do so), the time of giving and caring. Hence this story. For six years Ted Dawson has travelled every fall to rural Tanzania, an area next door to Kilimanjaro, to help local people build and modernize infrastructure. In November, for the first time, he took with him Ewa Henry, a Polish Canadian artist, always ready to help others through various help campaigns and initiatives. Ewa is always there when someone needs help. Ewa Henry and Visions They both organized and Ewa…
This story is featured in Episode 60 What I really love is when fascinating stories grow by getting extensions and often new lives. Here is one such story. At the beginning of our POLcast I interviewed Ron Davis, a renowned Canadian jazz musician, a son of Holocaust survivors. His mother Alicja, who came to Canada from Poland after the war with no documents, no family photos, had one story to tell: that before the war her father, Ron’s grandfather, used to run an inn in Warsaw, which was so well known and famous that it was immortalized in a popular…
This story s featured in Episode 60 I have seen and heard Arthur Wachnik, actor, musician, singer, director, on stage on a few occasions. His rendition of a powerful song “Niech zyje bal” sung by Maryla Rodowicz was one of the most unforgettable elements of the Polish Independence Concert held at the Christian Performing Arts Centre in Toronto (CPA), a very special venue, of which Arthur in the artistic director. I talked to Arthur just before the CPA’s brand new production – The Nativity Musical. Its three shows were held last weekend, all sold out – and were seen by over…
Episode 59 A really beautiful and rather unusual tribute to Poland’s 100th anniversary is one by the Lithuanian railways – seven locomotives used their sound signals to play the Polish anthem. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzHmGGqOwq8
This story is featured in Episode 58 The 10th EKRAN Toronto Polish Festival is starting very soon, on November 5. Nine years is a long time – lots of films, guests, screenings, events. It’s a perfect moment to look back. Marta Pozniakowski is the festval founder and director. Having been the organizer and host of nine Polish film festivals in Toronto in the late 1990s and early 2000s, I am really happy to see that young passionate people are continuing this work, in their own way, so effectvely employing the best of today’s technology and their unique skills. Congratulations to…