In this episode you will hear: Interviews: • A mission to give voices to those who are not heard Art gives a voice, empowers, returns dignity and changes lives. This is what Anna Rak and the acting school she graduated from in New York believe in. Anna is a Polish actress there who works with inmates – her work has also changed her life. She also aims to give a voice to art communities in New York who have so much to offer and are not heard enough. • A Polish-Canadian athlete wins gold for Canada in Pyeongchang Alex Kopacz…
Author: myPOLcast
In this episode you will hear: Interviews: • Polish folk music – the multicultural way Polky Village Band was created by ethnomusicologist, musician and singer from Poland Ewelina Ferenc and consists of Canadian musicians of various ethnic backgrounds. They charm Canadian audiences with Polish folk music and dances. • Polish-Canadian-Japanese artist’s help for Laos, India, and Uganda Sylvia Beauchain lives in Japan, with which she feels very close spiritual connection, and has devoted her life to her two great passions – art and helping those in need, which she has successfully connected to change other people’s lives. Also in this…
This story is featured in Episode 50. It used to be a small bedroom community of Toronto – now Mississauga, bordering Toronto on the west, is a modern and multicultural city with a population of over 720,000 and Canada’s sixth-most populous municipality. Home to the largest Polish community in Canada (Polish being its second non-official language), it was ruled for 32 years by “Hurricane Hazel”, Hazel McCallion. The now 97-year-old and still extremely active McCallion held 12 consecutive terms as mayor winning or being acclaimed in every election from 1978 to 2010, often without even campaigning. She was Canada’s longest…
In this episode you will hear: Interviews: • An orchestra which saves lives Since 1993 the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity, a non-governmental charity in Poland, has been working tirelessly with one goal in mind “Health Protection and Saving Children’s Lives through Providing Medical Equipment to Public Hospitals”. It was created by Jurek Owsiak and has millions of followers all over the world. It has recently played in Canada. • North America’s only mayor with Polish roots Bonnie (Bozena) Crombie, former member of federal parliament and Mississauga councillor, became mayor of Mississauga in 2014 after her predecessor 93-year-old Hazel McCallion stepped down after…
This story is featured in Episode 50. Since 1993 the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity, a non-governmental charity in Poland, has been working tirelessly with one goal in mind “Health Protection and Saving Children’s Lives through Providing Medical Equipment to Public Hospitals”. It was created by Jurek Owsiak and had millions of followers all over the world. This year for the 26th time, this huge annual campaign involving hundreds of thousands of volunteers raising money in Poland and in other countries, has yielded yet another record amount (last year it was 105 mln Polish zlotys roughly equivalent to 30 mln…
This story is featured in Episode 50. We are living in the world of super advanced technology. Every minute a new thing appears transforming everything we know and have gotten used to, including art. But… we seem to long for classic, traditional styles and techniques. Look at the amazing and well-deserved success of the recent film “Loving Vincent”, written and directed by a Pole Dorota Kobiela – the first fully painted animated feature film. Its 65,000 frames were hand painted by 125 painters. It wasn’t just computer software that created this masterpiece but humans, artists. Tina Nawrocki is a Canadian illustrator…
This story is featured in Episode 49 Marek Probosz is one of the few Poles who made it in Hollywood – actor, director, screenplay writer, university lecturer, who is passionate about history. Marek Probosz – A hero from zero Part 1; A hero from zero Part 2 Among dozens of roles he played, there was one that was very special because the character was a truly extraordinary and heroic human being – captain Witold Pilecki. Captain Witold Pilecki was the author of Witold’s Report, also known as Pilecki’s Report, an official report written in 1943 after he entered and escaped from the Auschwitz concentration camp.…
This story is featured in Episode 49 A group of ambitious high school students from Poland (and not only) worked for months to create a website called greatpoles.pl which has just been launched. It’s a beautifully prepared English language website featuring great Poles from the past and those who make Poland known around the world today. The launch of the project at the Polish Embassy in London: Stanislaw Borawski, a history buff, is one of the key people behind the Great Poles project. The team
In this episode you will hear: Our POLcast’s third award – granted to us by CEMA (Canadian Ethnic Media Association). Interviews: • Great Poles – a project by young history buffs A group of ambitious high school students from Poland (and not only) worked for months to create a website called greatpoles.pl which has just been launched. It’s a beautifully prepared English language website featuring great Poles from the past and those who make Poland known around the world today. Stanislaw Borawski, a history buff, is one of the key people behind the Great Poles project. • How I reconnected with my…
This story is featured in Episode 49 Quo Vadis in Latin means “where are you going?”. It is the title of an 1896 iconic historical novel by one of the most famous Polish writers Henryk Sienkiewicz, which contributed to his Nobel Prize for literature in 1905. Young Polish Canadians have adopted this phrase as the title of their conferences. There have been already 12 Quo Vadis conferences, the latest one in Burlington outside Toronto on October 13 and 14, 2017. We present a continuation of a story we featured in our last Episode 48, when we shared with you the…