Moonrise Press in Warsaw - ZPPNO, PIASA, "The Rainy Bread," and "Celebrating Modjeska in California," May-June 2024

Dr. Maja Trochimczyk at the World Book Fair. Photo by Dr. Jerzy Barankiewicz.

 

In May and June 2024, I had a pleasure to travel to my hometown of Warsaw, Poland, to participate in a series of cultural events, starting from the presentation of Moonrise Press books at the stand managed by Union of Polish Writers Abroad from London (Zwiazek Pisarzy Polskich na Obczyznie) at the International Book Fair in Warsaw's Palace of Culture, on 24-26 May 2024. I could not arrive at the beginning but I made it for the last day and brought for display some Moonrise Press books, including the anthology Chopin with Cherries, three of my own poetry volumes Into Light, Bright Skies, and The Rainy Bread, as well as nonfiction Celebrating Modjeska in California: A History of Helena Modjeska Art and Culture Club. The stand no. 149 was inside the Palace of Culture and Science, and located next to a bookseller of maps - facsimiles of old Polish maps, as well as the Polish Music Publishers PWM, where I found some interesting new books for my future reading. A report from the Book Fair was published in London and reprinted on ZPPNO website. ZPPNO website.

Maja Trochimczyk presents "Celebrating Modjeska" at the Internationl Book Fair in Warsaw.

I recently joined the ZPPNO (actually this spring), so it was a pleasure to meet Regina Wasiak-Taylor, the president of the ZPPNO, as well as some of the organization's notable members, both during the book fair and the subsequent reading.  In getting ready for my travel to Poland, I was not aware of the fact that the duty of participating writers is to advertise their presence on social media and in emails to their family and friends, and readers, if there are any, prior to the event. Apparently, some writers were quite successful in bringing the audience, especially those with major publication contracts in Poland. As a scholarly English-language writer, just starting to be published as a poet in Poland, I do not have a large following. But I had an opportunity to chat with some guests to the book stand, including Dr. Jerzy Barankiewicz of San Diego, as well as discuss the books with passersby and other poets present.

All books available at the stand ZPPNO were to be sold for 15 Polish zloty, or less than 5$ so it is actually quite good that I sold only two. Enough for coffee and a sandwich afterwards.  Thanks ZPPNO for the invitation and the opportunity! By next year, I'll have more Polish-language books. . . 

Decorated with a beautiful and colorful banner, the stand of the Union of Polish Writers Abroad could not have been present at Warsaw's Book fairs in the 50 years from the WWII to the fall of PRL in 1989.  It consisted of those that the regime considered "Traitors" of the "socialist" nation. The ZPPNO is one of the many organizations established after WWII in London by refugees and exiles who could not return back home - as members of Polish Armed Forces, or the Home Army, as "elements of hostile class" of the pre-war intelligentsia with roots in nobility or affluent bourgeoisie. 

One of the floats from the Parade of the Mermaid in front of the Palace of Culture, June 8, 2024.

The peasant-worker-paradise, the Polish People's Republic, was ruled from Moscow and the symbol of that dominance was the Palace of Culture and Science, built in the early 1950s over a large block of ruined downtown Warsaw, as a stamp of Soviet Stalinist dominion. A couple of days after the Book Fair, the grounds became the storage for floats used for a Parade of Mermaids - representing various regions of Warsaw with whimsical design of the city's old Logo - a mermaid with a sword raised up to defend the city (see the photo above). 

In the afternoon of Sunday, May 26, 2024, the poets and writers from ZPPNO in London moved to the Booksellers Club, Klub Ksiegarza, in Warsaw's historic (and rebuilt after its total destruction during WWII) Old Town Square for a lively reading and reception. The reading hosted by Regina Wasiak-Taylor and Zbigniew Zbikowski of the Writers' Union, presented poetry and other writings by emigre writers from the U.K (Renata Cygan, Grazyna Maxwell, Elzbieta Smolenska, Krystyna Stevenson), Canada (Waldemar Kontowicz), Australia (Bogumila Zongollowicz) and the U.S. (M.T.) coupled with texts by representatives of the local branch of the Polish Writers' Union, Zwiazek Literatow. (Anna Nasilowska listed on the poster above could not attend.)  Hosted by Jan Rodzen, the director of the Booksellers Club, the event gathered about 40 listeners enjoying the brief self-introductions and readings of the assembled poets and writers. The work of the host writers and of the foreign guests was quite impressive and the reception lovely, so it was an enjoyable afternoon. 

https://moonrisepress.com/trochimczyk---rainy-bread.html

I read two poems from  The Rainy Bread: More Poems from Exile collection, and the reading was received very well. I also sold copies of the translations of 24 poems from the Rainy Bread, that I prepared specifically for this event. net revenue: 45 zloty, enough for dinner :). Listeners came up to me to say that the poems moved them to tears, especially "Ciocia Tonia," describing a tragic fate of a sudden widow deported to Siberia. Some audience members thought that the key I held up while reading the second poem was the actual key discussed in my verse - but actually it was the key to my Warsaw rental apartment in the New Town district... Nonetheless, it played its role well, moving people with the feelings of regret and sorrow at the magnitude of losses experienced by Poles from Kresy, the country's Easter Borderland taken over by Soviets, and now converted into independent countries of Belarus and Ukraine. My family, mother, great aunts, my grandparents, my great grandma were among those displaced, but luckily not killed during WWII. The poems I read are reproduced below in English and Polish translations, I read them only in Polish.

≡ CIOCIA TONIA ≡

                  ~ dla Ciotecznej Babki, Antoniny Glińskiej

Tylko ta grusza wśród buraków, zboża.

Dojrzale gruszki – wszystko, co zostało

z domu, obejścia, sadu. Tam urodziła dzieci, 

doiła krowy, piekła chleb.

Tylko ta grusza – samotne memento 

stoi smutne w sierpniowym polu. 

Wszystko zburzyli, zaorali – kościól, wioskę, 

zagrodę sąsiadów, gdzie niegdyś rżały konie.

Wszystko zaorali – jej ogród zielny, i sad,

i kwietnik, gdzie słońce całowalo śliczny kosmos 

z delikatną koronką liści – marzenie, nie kwiat.

Dawno, tak dawno temu podziwiała 

tę wątłą urodę, ten czar.

Nic już nie boli, tylko trochę dziwi –

całe życie zniknęło – tylko jedno drzewo

jeszcze jest. Nie ma śladu po rodzinnej 

wiosce. Na nowych mapach brak nazw.

Najgorsze: gdy przybiegli sąsiedzi 

wołając z daleka: twój mąż nie żyje, 

zastrzelili go na środku drogi. 

Nie czas na żal, chowa łzy do kieszeni.

Rozkaz przyszedł natychmiast – 

Syberia. Dzień na zbieranie rzeczy. 

Długa jazda pociągiem w nieznane, 

do obcego miasta nad wielką, zimną rzeką, 

nie taką z sennych marzeń. Mówili: 

spakuj się mądrze, najcieplejsze ubrania, buty, 

poduszki, tyle jedzenia, ile udźwigniesz. Sól.

Tam gdzie jedziesz, nie ma nic 

–prócz zamarzniętego oddechu,

koszmaru zimna.

Tylko ta grusza 

na pustym ściernisku – 

tylko ta perła 

w złotym sadzie snów –

 

≡ CIOCIA TONIA ≡

                ~ for Great Aunt, Antonina Glińska neé Wasiuk


Only a pear tree
between fields of sugar beets and corn.

Ripe pears — that’s all left from the house,
barn and orchard. The farm where she raised
her sons, milked her cows, and baked her bread.

Only a pear tree. Alone memento
standing forlorn in an August field.

They ploughed it over— the village church and bus stops,
the neighbors’ corrals, where their horses used to neigh.
They ploughed it over — her garden of herbs
and cosmos, its fragile lace of leaves kissed
by sunlight, a dream of a flower —
she used to so love its effervescent beauty
in the past.

It is not painful now, just surprising,
her whole life gone, and only one tree left.
No trace of her ancestral village on the maps.

It was the worst to see her neighbors
running with news, her husband shot
in the middle of the dusty village road.

No time for grief, she saved her tears for later.
The orders came at once, a day to pack,


a long train ride to an unfamiliar city,
near a river she never longed to see.

They said, pack wisely —
take the warmest
clothes, boots, pillows.
Bring as much food
as you can carry.
Where you are going,
there is nothing,
except for freezing breath
and bitter cold.

Only a pear tree
in an empty field of stubble.
Only a pearl tree
in her golden field of dreams.

 

Warsaw's Old Town Square - Rynek Starego Miasta

≡ PIEŚŃ O KLUCZU ≡

                                          ~ dla Tomasza Kuby Kozłowskiego i jego Mamy

To jest klucz.

To jest żelazny klucz.

To jest duży, żelazny klucz.

To stary, duży, żelazny klucz.

Klucz, który moja Mama nosiła w torebce.

To stary, duży, kuty klucz mojej Mamy.

Nosiła go codziennie w torebce.

To jest pole.

To jest płaskie pole.

To płaskie, puste pole.

To płaskie, puste pole na Ukrainie.

Tu była kiedyś Polska. Płaskie, puste pole

gdzie kiedyś stał dom mojej Mamy, otoczony

wysokim drewnianym płotem z wysoką drewnianą bramą,

z solidnym, dużym zamkiem z kutego żelaza.

Powiedzieli jej: pakuj się!

Powiedzieli jej: won stąd!

Powiedzieli jej: wynoś się!

To nasza ziemia.

Nie ma już domu.

Nie ma już płotu.

Nie ma już bramy.

To jest klucz.

≡ A SONG FOR A KEY ≡

                 ~ for Tomasz Kuba Kozlowski and his Mother

This is a key.

This is an iron key.

This is a large, iron key.

This is an old, large, iron key.

A key my mother carried in her purse.

This is an old, large, wrought-iron key my mother 

carried in her purse every single day.

This is a field.

This is a flat field.

This is a flat, empty field.

This is a flat, empty field in the Ukraine

that used to be Poland. A flat, empty field 

where my mother’s house once stood, surrounded 

by a tall wooden fence with a tall wooden gate, 

and a solid, large, wrought-iron lock.

They told her: pack!

They told her: go!

They told her: out!

You do not belong.

This is our land.

There is not house.

There is no fence.

There is no gate.

This is the key.

Nearly two weeks later, on Friday June 7, 2024, the 9th World Congress of Polish Studies was held at the Palace of Culture's Collegium Civitas. The site deserves an introduction. Instead of rebuilding much needed homes and apartment blocks in the center of war-devastated Warsaw, the Soviet overlords constructed a stamp of their power, in the architectural style imported directly from Moscow, with monumental stone walls, huge cement sculptures of historical figures (Mickiewicz and Copernicus at the entrance) and workers, marble floors, heavy crystal chandeliers, wood paneling, and the like. Monumental and foreboding, the Palace of Culture reminded the residents of who really ruled in the Polish People's Republic. 

The imprint of the name Josef Stalin Palace of Culture and Science was visible on the stone walls of the entrance for years after the removal of actual letters after the end of the Stalinist era. (The Silesian city of Katowice also changed its name back from Stalinogrod). Shaped like an oriental temple or a monumental stamp with the tower serving as its handle, and the various buildings at its feet as the "stamp" of power, the Palace was designed to be the tallest building in Warsaw - taller construction was simply not allowed. Therefore, it dominated the landscape as a symbol of foreign oppression. Fittingly, the Palace was surrounded by Plac Defilad - the Parade Square where May 1 Parades and military parades were supposed to be held.  I have been particularly interested in this building for years, maybe because my childhood was spent in a small wooden house with a garden, in a subdivision constructed for engineers and workers of the Palace of Culture and later designated as Osiedle Przyjazn for faculty and students of Warsaw Polytechnic University where my father worked... My parents lived there from 1956 to 1970.

Finally, more than 30 years after the fall of the Polish People's Republic in 1989 (known as the fall of communism, but actually it was the end of the "socialist system" - full communism was never reached!) the empty space around the palace is being filled out with new construction. There are taller office towers nearby, and the meaning of the Palace of Culture as a sign of "Soviet dominance" is long gone. The Palace now houses Collegium Civitas, a new college, along with two theaters, cinemas and a museum or two... The site also presents frequent events such as the International Book Fair I attended or the June Home Fair of home furnishing and designs...  

This "palace" looks a bit like a sci-fi fortress...

By now, the Palace of Culture became one of the city's landmarks, along with the Mermaid.... Its image may be even found on colorful socks! Made in China, of course... Personally, I have fond memories of the Palace since this is where I took my intensive English course during a break from university - 5 days a week, four hours a day of classes, and plentiful homework for 10 months. The course was all the more memorable that the students heard current BBC World Service news about the Martial Law, strikes and arrests during the 1980-81 winter. Our brave instructor got up daily at 5 am to record the news for us so we could learn what was going on while studying English. Remarkably, in a 20-student class, nobody denounced him, that's a true miracle of Solidarity! We were all grateful to receive a daily dose of current news in this difficult time... Now Collegium Civitas occupies those floors...

The 9th World Congress of Polish Studies organized by Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in America took place from June 7 to 9, 2024, with my paper based on a chapter from my book, Celebrating Modjeska in California, scheduled at session no. 53 on Sunday, 9 June 2024, the very last session in the program. "My" session featured also a study of Jewish cabaret musicians and music - and its transition from Poland/Polish to Israel/Yiddish or Hebrew (by Prof. Marcos Silber, University of Haifa in Israel), and a reception study of Kalina Jedrusik as a sex symbol maligned in prudish, socialist Poland with false rumors and ad-personam attacks (Prof. Jozef Figa, Southern New Hampshire University).  The session brought together topics of diverse "Artists, Actors and Singers" - and ended with a discussion that highlighted shared threads between the three presentations. 

My paper was entitled "Polish Emigres in California: Leonidas Dudarew-Ossetynski, the Modjeska Players, and the Modjeska Club" and was an overview of Ossetynski's theatrical career including his education in Vilnius, engagement in the Polish Theater of Artists in New York (1942-45) after coming to the U.S., the creation of the Modjeska Players with Lidia Prochnicka in 1954 and the new group's mission to promote "real theater" in the era of film and TV, especially the tours of the U.S. and Canada with the Polish program From Fredro to the Uprising (1955-58), as well as the various theatrical achievements of Ossetynski in the Modjeska Club (1973-1978): the first pre-premiere presentation of Mrozek's Emigrants, a workshop with Jerzy Grotowski, performances by Eskulap and Esperanto Theaters. The last section of the presentation was dedicated to the achievements of Ossetynski Actors Lab (tours of Poland in 1977, 1986, and introduction of Witkacy to the U.S. in 1980-83, including The Madman and the Nun and Matka that won 10 prizes in 1983 and converted many theatre specialist into Witkacy aficionados. At the end, I mentioned briefly my efforts to restore Dudarew-Ossetynski's good name: Poland's Cavalier Cross of the Order of Merit (2013), and restoration of his title of Founder and Honorary President of the Helena Modjeska Art & Culture Club, which took place at the General Meeting of the Club on 24 February 2024. 

Cover of inaugural program of The Modjeska Players of 1954, presenting Goldoni's The Mistress of the Inn starring Lidia Prochnicka with Ossetynski, as a fundraiser for Szukalski's planned Modjeska Monument. The Modjeska Players' logo was designed by Szukalski as well.

Cover of Oct. 1957 "White Eagle/ Bialy Orzel" with the Modjeska Players caricature promoting Polish literature, she holds the book with the title of their program, the Pegasus travels across North America...LDO Collection 177, Polish Museum of America in Chicago. 

Scholars from a "Migrant Theater" study group based at the University of Wroclaw were very interested in this previously unknown information about Ossetynski and Helena Modjeska reception in the U.S. This paper was for them a veritable discovery of theatrical groups and projects that they never heard of. 

They received a copy of the book after the event in order to review the content and add Ossetynski's achievements to their databases of what they call "migrant theater" and what we in the U.S. call "emigre theater" - the word "migrant" having derogatory connotations of transients living in tents without access to water and basic amenities, certainly without any means to engage in the creation of theater. 

https://moonrisepress.com/celebrating-modjeska.html

Ours was one of five sessions dedicated to theater, music and performing arts during the 9th World Congress of Polish Studies  - two sessions were exclusively focused on theater (10 scholars), two on music (five scholars) and our panel had one paper on theater (mine) and two on popular music.  Overall, the PIASA World Congress included 176 papers/presentations in 53 sessions and 2 keynote addresses, plus an awards ceremony (if my accounting is correct). Of these papers/presentations, 7 were on music, 11 on theater, 17 about Ukrainian-Belorussian topics, and 33 about Polish-Jewish topics. The majority of sessions were dedicated to Polish and Polonian history and sociology, esp. immigration studies (51 presentations), literature and the arts (42 presentations including theater and music listed separately above), and politics and economy (31 presentations). It was a cross-section of current interests of scholars specializing in Polish studies, primarily in the U.S. and Poland, with some participants from Australia, Spain, France, Mexico, and the U.K.  A very informative and educational experience. . . 

Session Chair Dr. Dorota Kolodziejczyk of Wroclaw U, presenters Prof. Marcos Silber of the U. of Haifa in Israel, Dr. Maja Trochimczyk, and Dr. Jozef Figa of Southern New Hampshire University after the last session of PIASA's World Congress. 

The session on classical music focused on little known emigre composers, brothers Wiktor Labunski and Feliks Roderyk Labunski (Prof. Slawomir Dobrzanski), a New Yorker Karol Rathaus (pianist Aleksandra Halat), and a Californian Polish-Swiss-Canadian-American Roman Ryterband (pianist Anna Kijanowska). These presentations were all the more enjoyable that they included music excerpts. . . 

Prof. Dobrzanski shared some YouTube recordings of the Labunski brothers, here are samples:

1. Rustic Dance by Wiktor Labunski: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQpXSqeOhz0

2. "Fast and Spirited" from Patterns by Wiktor Labunski: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmZtyYGshjk

3. Three excerpts from Seven Miniatures by Feliks Labunski: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njNwNcWjEqM

4. Feliks Roderyk Labunski;s Threnody (Homage to Paderewski): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JhtbLXl02c

5. Feliks Roderyk Labunski's Miniatury: IV Toccatina: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfii_L--8PM

Dr. Aleksandra Halat shared recordings of her Karol Rathaus Ensemble dedicated to recording and promoting the composer's music, I found the following links on YouTube:

1. Karol Rathaus, Trio op. 53: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmZtyYGshjk

2. Karol Rathaus, Trio Serenade op. 69: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M1xYVZ2d4U

3. Karol Rathaus Ensemble at Queens College (two hours): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSCGbiFTLk0

Ann Kijanowska sent me the following links to her YouTube recordings:

1. Szymanowski Mazurki-DUX https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5zEv-1pvo4&t=33s

2. Woś- Sonata- CD LUSH Romeo Records  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIdTBmy_f3k

3. Polish Mazurkas- DUX https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2biLy4Gsk8

4. Ryterband- The Journey DUX https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O66IorUvJBI

Maja Trochimczyk, Anna Kijanowska, Slawomir Dobrzanski, and Aleksandra Halat after the session, with a motto of Roman Ryterband on the screen. 

I was pleased to connect with colleagues from my ten years of service on the board of the Polish American Historical Association (2010-2020), especially Dr. Ewa Barczyk, who published Footprints of Polonia: Polish Historical Sites Across North America (2022) and during her discussion of this book graciously gave credit for my role as California editor. She referred especially to the monument of Pola Negri in Los Angeles at the Polish church on Adams Blvd.  That was a nice reminder of the many hats I have worn over the 30 years of living as an emigre in North America... 

During an intermission in Peter Grimes opera by Benjamin Britten, with L to R: Prof. Dorota Praszalowicz of Jagiellonian University, Dr. Ewa Barczyk, Prof. Neal Pease and Maja Trochimczyk, June 7, 2024, National Opera in Warsaw.

Very impressive building, National Opera in Warsaw, in te wing on the right -National Theater. 

Celebrating Modjeska in California - A New History Book by Maja Trochimczyk

ISBN 978-1-945938-55-9, paperback; ISBN 978-1-945938-56-6, hardcover

ISBN 978-1-945938-60-3, e-book in PDF format

Published in December 2023, Celebrating Modjeska in California: History of Helena Modjeska Art & Culture Club is a 400+page case study of one Polonian organization, active since 1971, that reveals the interests, activities, successes and challenges of successive waves of Polish immigrants to America, especially the generation of the Displaced Persons (survivors and veterans of World War II, mostly interwar Polish intelligentsia), and of the Solidarity-era (activists of anti-communist movement, "tourists" who came to work and overstayed their visas, and creative/enterprising individuals seeking to further their careers).  The book is dedicated to "all Polish émigrés and exiles dispersed throughout the world who remained faithful to the Polish language and culture, especially to all the volunteers of the Helena Modjeska Art & Culture Club in Los Angeles, promoting Polish culture in California." 

This volume consists of ten chapters starting from a biography of the Club's patron, actress Helena Modjeska (1840-1909); a survey of Polish Americans and their organizations in California; and a biography of the Club's founder, actor Leonidas Dudarew-Ossetynski (1910-1989). Six chapters are dedicated to "eras" in the Club's history, from the Kingdom of Leonidas (1971-1978), through the times of Solidarity immigrants (1978-1989), the birth of the Third Republic of Poland (1989-1998), the period of stabilization and status quo (1998-2010), the arrival of new people and ideas (2010-2018), to surviving challenges (2018-2023). The tenth chapter is a summary with conclusions and recommendations. The book includes index and many illustrations from the archives of: Helena Modjeska Art & Culture Club, Polish Museum of America in Chicago, Valerie Dudarew-Ossetynska Hunken - the founder's daughter, American Council of Polish Culture (formerly "of Polish Cultural Clubs"), Institute of National Remembrance, Maja Trochimczyk, and other private and public archives. All net revenue is donated to the Modjeska Club.

⦾   TABLE OF CONTENTS  ⦾

⦾ Table of Contents — vi

⦾ Preface — viii

⦾ Acknowledgements — xi

⦾ Chapter 1. The Patron: Helena Modjeska — 1

                      Celebrating Modjeska in California — 26

⦾ Chapter 2. Polish Americans in California — 41

⦾ Chapter 3. The Founder: Leonidas Dudarew-Ossetyński — 76

⦾ Chapter 4. King Leonidas, 1971-1978 — 119

The Modjeska Club’s Founders — 121

Stanisław Szukalski, Copernicus and Modjeska — 125

Roman Maciejewski’s Requiem — 131

The Modjeska Club’s Theatrical and Film Events — 139

The Modjeska Club’s Lectures and Readings — 146

The Board and Bylaws — 153

⦾ Chapter 5. The Solidarity Era, 1978-1989 — 162

Andrzej Mikulski (1978) & Jerzy Gąssowski (1978-1983) —162

President Tadeusz Bociański (1983-1985) — 177

President Tadeusz Bociański (1985-1987) — 202

President Tadeusz Bociański (1987-1989) — 204

⦾ Chapter 6. The Third Republic, 1989-1998 — 216

President Witold Czajkowski (1989-1994) — 216

President Zofia Czajkowska (1994-1996) — 230

President Edward Piłatowicz (1996-1998) — 235 

⦾ Chapter 7. The Years of Status Quo, 1998-2010 — 252

President Jolanta Zych (1998-2006) — 252

Modjeska Club – A Tax-Exempt Corporation — 279

President Dorota Czajka-Olszewska (2006-2008) — 286

President Andrzej Maleski (2008-2010) — 296 

⦾ Chapter 8. New People, New Ideas, 2010-2018 — 304

President Maja Trochimczyk (2010-2012) — 304

President Elżbieta Kański (2012-2013) — 329

President Andrew Z. Dowen (2013-2018) — 332

⦾ Chapter 9. Surviving Challenges, 2018-2023 — 350

President Maja Trochimczyk (2018-2022) — 350

President Maja Trochimczyk (2022-2023) — 370

⦾ Chapter 10. Conclusion — 380

⦾ About Helena Modjeska Art & Culture Club — 403

⦾ About the Author — 403

⦾ Index — 405

 

⦾   PREFACE  ⦾

           

All the world’s a stage, / And all the men and women merely players; / They have their exits and their entrances,/ And one man in his time plays many parts,/ His acts being seven ages.

~ William Shakespeare (As You Like It)

 

This quote from Shakespeare, the favorite playwright of actress Helena Modjeska, appeared in 2012 on the Modjeska Club’s 40^th anniversary poster by Polish artist Lech Majewski. It fits the history of a Polonian organization that reached its maturity after having been active in Southern California since 1971. Helena Modjeska Art & Culture Club in Los Angeles has outlived many similar organizations. Its achievements and challenges are presented here in the broad context of its predecessors and contemporaries. This project was initially designed as an English version of the Album 50-lecia Klubu Kultury im Heleny Modrzejewskiej that I edited, together with Elżbieta Kański and Elżbieta Trybuś, for the 50^th anniversary of our organization in 2021. The Album contains an assortment of materials produced by Club activists and guests during the past five decades. Since online translation engines are widely available and constantly improving, creating an English translation of all these source materials would have been counterproductive. Instead, the wealth of documentary and archival material that I collected for the Album needed analysis, interpretation, and contextualization.

            Three chapters that I wrote for the Album 50-lecia Klubu have been revised and expanded here. The first translated and updated Chapter is about the Club’s patron, Helena Modjeska (stage pseudonym in the U.S.), or Modrzejewska (stage pseudonym in Poland), or Countess Bozenta (a name used in the U.S.), or Jadwiga Helena Misiel (the name from her baptismal certificate.) Born in 1840 in Kraków, the ancient capital of Poland, when it was a part of Austrian-ruled Galicia, Modjeska came to California for the first time in 1876 and died here in 1909. She was an actress, director, producer, writer, and illustrator. An émigré, she learned English and became an American theater star, specializing in her beloved Shakespeare plays. Modjeska was the first celebrity of Orange County and a model for immigrant success. A section of the first chapter summarizes the efforts that Polish Californians made to commemorate and promote this lasting model of émigré achievement and patriotism.

Modjeska Club website design by Ewa Chodkiewicz-Swider, 1996

            The second, entirely new, Chapter is about the cultural context for the emergence of the Modjeska Club in the 1970s: an overview of Polish immigration to California, its different cohorts, and ways of structuring its societal and cultural life in a multitude of organizations.   It builds on prior research by immigration scholars and documents gathered by Polonian activists in California. The third, translated and expanded Chapter is about the initiator and the founder of the Modjeska Club, Leonidas Dudarew-Ossetyński (1910-1989). An actor, director, journalist, acting coach, producer, translator, art dealer, and cultural activist, he made an enormous impact on the development of Polonian communities throughout his life. Writing his biography was possible thanks to the resources, research support, and encouragement of his daughter Valerie Hunken, who provided numerous, hitherto unpublished photographs and documents, and clarified complex issues. Chapter Four, (the third section translated and expanded from the Polish Album 50-lecia Klubu) presents the tenure of Ossetyński as the Modjeska Club’s President in 1971-1978. Here, we encounter an array of fascinating large-scale projects that promoted the work of fellow émigrés from the Displaced Person generation—artist Stanisław Szukalski (1893-1987), composer Roman Maciejewski (1910-1998), and writer Aleksander Janta-Połczyński (1908-1974), among them.

From Chapter Five to Ten, the connection to the previously published Album of Club documents becomes tangential, as these source materials are instead analyzed and interpreted. The narrative benefits from the juxtaposition of texts from Club Archives with other documents that came to my attention since then, including files in Poland’s Instytut Pamięci Narodowej (Institute of National Remembrance), documents maintained by the State of California, and recent research publications. Additionally, I found in the Modjeska Club Archives certain documents that were earlier not examined. These six chapters are organized by the periods in recent Polish political-cultural history. Chapter 5 covers the crises and restructuring of the Club during the Solidarity-era to 1989 (with Club Presidents Andrzej Mikulski, Jerzy Gąssowski and Tadeusz Bociański). Chapter 6 is dedicated to the first decade of the Third Polish Republic, finally free of the yoke of Soviet oppression (1989-1998), with Club Presidents Witold Czajkowski, Zofia Czajkowska and Edward Piłatowicz. In this period, the Club’s history was dramatically rewritten during its 25^th anniversary celebrations in 1996. 

Cover of 50th anniversary album, 2021

        Chapter 7 tackles the years of stabilization and expansion, 1998-2010, with Club Presidents Jolanta Zych, Dorota Czajka-Olszewska, and Andrzej Maleski. During this time, the Club held some of its most significant events and hosted the most eminent guests from Poland. Simultaneously, it underwent a “multiple-personality” crisis, as it struggled to maintain its character of an exclusive social club, while obtaining the official status of a public-benefit, California non-profit corporation. Chapter 8 (2010-2018) switches gears, as I direct the focus on my first two terms as President   in the first person including the Club’s 40^th anniversary celebrations. The second of “my” terms was not finished; my resignation in December 2012 was followed by a brief presidency of Elżbieta Kański. Six years with Andrew Z. Dowen at the helm (2013-2018) marked a period of continued close collaboration with the Polish consulate and selected cultural groups, such as Polish Film Festival in Los Angeles. Chapter 9 (2018-2023) deals with more recent challenges associated with the pandemic and its aftermath, especially visible in the political bifurcation and increasingly confrontational manner of public discourse. A summary and my recommendations for the future of the Club are outlined in Chapter 10: Conclusions.

            Why would anyone read the history of a small Polonian organization active on the shores of the Pacific? Would its audience be limited to the Modjeska Club’s members and activists? It is this group that might be the most surprised and even challenged by the content of my history of “their” Club. I think that the Modjeska Club’s history is a unique “case study” of the challenges, crises, and achievements of Polonian organizations, promoting Polish culture thousands of miles away from the “old country” and struggling to maintain a balance between their American present and the Polish past. Having a first-person knowledge of the interior workings of this group as its President since 2010, a lecturer and interviewer since 2001, and co-organizer of several of its programs since 1997, soon after my arrival in California in 1996, I am uniquely positioned to narrate this history.

              As a trained historian and self-taught English-language poet, I’ve authored many books of cultural history and poetry, writing mostly in English. However, I’m functionally bilingual and bi-cultural, having learned English in Poland and having made a conscious decision to become a first-generation Polish American, not a Pole living in America. This book benefits from my personal experience as an émigré. As I am not an exile, I was not forced to leave, but I shared the trauma of the loss of the “ground under my feet” and I felt a sense of displacement and alienation in a bewildering new space, new culture, new language. This aligned my experience with the exiled generation of Displaced Persons of WWII and the political refugees of the Solidarity era.

 This book is dedicated to them, as it tells their story. 

Maja Trochimczyk

Los Angeles,11 November 2023

 

⦾  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS  ⦾ 

The project is financed by the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland as part of the Competition “Polonia and Poles Abroad 2023.” The publication expresses only the views of the author and cannot be identified with an official position of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister.

The work is part of the project entitled "I will show you Poland —stimulating the Polish community and Poles abroad to act in the Polish national interest."

Projekt finansowany ze środków Kancelarii Prezesa Rady Ministrów Rzeczpospolitej Polskiej w ramach konkursu „Polonia i Polacy za Granicą 2023”. Publikacja wyraża jedynie poglądy autora i nie może być utożsamiana z oficjalnym stanowiskiem Kancelarii Prezesa Rady Ministrów.

Praca jest częścią projektu pt. „Pokażę Ci Polskę – stymulowanie środowisk Polonii i Polaków poza granicami kraju do działania w polskim interesie narodowym”.

 

 

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Celebrating Modjeska in California is based on research conducted in the archives of the following institutions and persons: Helena Modjeska Art & Culture Club in Los Angeles; Polish Museum of America in Chicago, The Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens in San Marino; University of California, Irvine – Special Collections;  as well as archives of the American Council of Polish Culture in Chicago (formerly American Council of Polish Cultural Clubs) and the Instytut Pamięci Narodowej (Institute of National Remembrance) in Warsaw, Poland; Archives of Valerie Dudarew-Ossetyńska-Hunken, and the author’s personal archives.  Their permission to conduct research and to publish the results (including photographs from the archives of the Modjeska Club, PMA, ACPC, and Valerie Hunken) is hereby gratefully acknowledged.

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I am deeply grateful for the generous assistance and support of Valerie Dudarew-Ossetyńska-Hunken, daughter of the Founder of the Modjeska Club, Leonidas Dudarew-Ossetyński. Thanks to her dedication to the memory of her father, ongoing research support, providing many valuable resources, and correcting errors, I was able to write the first biography of Ossetyński, an eminent actor, director, journalist, and Polonian activist. I also relied on copies of letters, writings and photographs from Leonidas Dudarew-Ossetyński’s Papers that she donated to the Polish Museum of America in Chicago. It is a treasure-trove of Polish American history, especially as pertains to California.

I am thankful for valuable research assistance on-site and providing materials by email to Director Małgorzata Kot and Archivist Halina Misterka of the Polish Museum of America. I thank scholars Patryk Pleskot of the Institute of National Remembrance in Warsaw, Poland and Peter J. Obst of the American Council of Polish Culture in Chicago for their support as well as identifying and providing access to vital documents. I am grateful to members of Polish American Historical Association and historians: John Bukowczyk, Stanislaus Blejwas, Anna Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann, Mary Patrice Erdmans, and Joanna Wojdon, for their insights and research into diverse aspects of the Polish diaspora.

I would like to express my gratitude to all members and activists of the Helena Modjeska Art & Culture Club who contributed to the Club’s projects during over 50 years of its existence, ensured the survival of this organization, while other groups dissolved, and made this book possible.

 Special thanks to archivist and art historian Isabella Zuralski-Yeager, Ph.D. and to Nicholas Skaldetvind for proofreading and copy-editing of the manuscript.

All statements, errors, and omissions are mine; I have described the history of Polish Americans in California and the Modjeska Club based on the knowledge I have gained from documents available to me in 2023. These statements may be corrected in the future, when more information becomes available.  

                                                 Maja Trochimczyk, Ph.D.

Los Angeles, 11 November 2023

    

Modjeska Club 40th anniversary poster by Lech Majewski, 2012

⦾   ABOUT MODJESKA CLUB   ⦾ 

Modjeska Club after Maja Trochimczyk's lecture 

on Modjeska at Laguna Art Museum, March 2019

Established in 1971 by actor-director-journalist Leonidas Dudarew-Ossetyński with Stefan Pasternacki, Wacław Gaziński and Eugenia Domachowska, Helena Modjeska Art and Culture Club in Los Angeles celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2021. The Club is a charitable, cultural and a-political organization, dedicated to the promotion of the Polish culture, as well as Polish arts and sciences in California. Initially associated with the American Council of Polish Cultural Clubs and the Polish American Congress of Southern California, the Modjeska Club became a 501(c)(3) charitable organization in 2006, with the IRS Tax Determination number EIN 20-3491956. Every year, the Club sponsors dozens important cultural events in Los Angeles and its environs for the Club members and the general public. During the past five decades of its existence, the Modjeska Club has made a significant contribution to the enrichment of the ethnic mosaic of Southern California. 

           Financed by membership dues and individual donations, the Club invites eminent guests from Poland and organizes meetings with artists, actors, film directors, scholars, journalists, musicians and government officials. It presents concerts, film screenings, performances, and exhibitions. Since 2010, the Club has honored the most eminent Polish actors with the Modjeska Prize, so far presented to Jan Nowicki, Barbara Krafftówna, Anna Dymna, Jadwiga Barańska, Jan Englert, Andrzej Seweryn, and others. Videos from Club events, zoom lectures, and TV programs about the Club are on the Club’s website in English (modjeska.org) and Polish (modrzejewska.org). In 2021, on the occasion of its 50th anniversary, the Modjeska Club issued a 380-page Album 50-lecia Klubu Kultury im. Heleny Modrzejewskiej edited by Maja Trochimczyk, Elżbieta Kański and Elżbieta Trybuś, documenting the five decades of its activities.

 

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Maja Trochimczyk hosting the Club's Christmas Caroling in Beverly Hills, 2019.

 ⦾   ABOUT THE AUTHOR    ⦾ 

Maja Trochimczyk, Ph.D., is a music historian, poet, photographer, and non-profit director born in Poland and living in California. She published eight books on music and Polish culture: After Chopin: Essays in Polish Music (2000), The Music of Louis Andriessen (Routledge, 2002), Polish Dance in Southern California (Columbia UP, 2007), A Romantic Century in Polish Music (2009), Lutosławski: Music and Legacy (2014, co-edited with Stanisław Latek), Frédéric Chopin: A Research and Information Guide (Routledge, rev. 2015 with William Smialek), Górecki in Context: Essays on Music (2017), and Album 50-lecia Klubu Kultury im. Heleny Modrzejewskiej (2021). She also published 27 peer-reviewed articles in such journals as American Music, American Journal of Semiotics, Computer Music Journal, Contemporary Music Review, Interface, Leonardo, Muzyka, Musical Quarterly, Organized Sound, Polin, Polish Music Journal, Polish Review, Polish American Studies, and Studia Chopinowskie, as well as 27 book chapters in volumes on Chopin, Lutosławski, Szymanowska, Tansman, Jewish music, women composers, Polish music after 1945, and ecomusicology. An author of six volumes of poetry and editor of five poetry anthologies, Trochimczyk received PAHA Creative Arts Prize for two poetry books (2016). Hundreds of her articles and poems appeared in English, Polish, as well as in German, French, Chinese, Spanish, and Serbian translations. 

Dr. Trochimczyk holds a Ph.D. from McGill University in Montreal for her dissertation (written as Maria Anna Harley), Space and Spatialization in Contemporary Music: History and Analysis, Ideas and Implementations (1994). She also received two M.A. degrees, from the University of Warsaw and Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, Poland. She served as Director of Polish Music Center for eight years and presented her research at over 90 national and international conferences, in Poland, France, Germany, Hungary, U.K., Canada, Australia and the U.S. She received awards and fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, University of Southern California, McGill University, MPE Fraternity, Polish American Historical Association (Swastek Award, Creative Arts Prize, and Distinguished Service Prize), City and County of Los Angeles, and Poland’s Ministry of Culture (medal for the promotion of Polish culture abroad). The founder of Moonrise Press, Trochimczyk has served as President of Helena Modjeska Art & Culture Club (in 2010-2012 ad since 2018). She is also the President of California State Poetry Society and Managing Editor of the California Quarterly (2019–) and Vice President for Public Relations of Polish American Congress of Southern California (2022–). She previously served as Secretary and Communications Director for the Polish American Historical Association (2010-2020) and Poet-Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga, her California home. Since 2007, she has worked for Phoenix Houses of California as Senior Director of Planning and Development; a senior management position that also enabled her to volunteer for so many cultural causes.