We wish you: Bezpiecznych Świąt i Zdrowego Nowego Roku! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! In this episode: • Interview with Ewa Stachniak, a Polish Canadian writer who has made it big in Canada (and not only). Born in Wroclaw, she came to Canada (McGill University) on an academic scholarship just before martial law and stayed. She has become a bestselling authour, having written 6 novels (5 published to rave reviews and the 6th one to be published in February 2022 in Canada and the US). Her meticuluosly researched and beautifully written historical fiction has earned her several honours,…
Author: Malgorzata P. Bonikowska
In this episode I’d like you to meet my two guests: Anna Paluch In the previous episode 83, you met Zig Misiak, a Canadian historian and educator with Polish roots, who has been involved in work with indigenous people for over half a century, an award-winning author of many books and the only curriculum guide on First Nations history and culture used in hundreds of schools. We talked about the history of and reasons for establishing residential schools. Today I’m talking Anna Paluch, a Polish-Canadian PhD student at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, who does research on Indigenous culture and who works with…
This story is featured in EPISODE 84 (click to listen) Anna Paluch is a PhD student in Cultural Mediations at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, whose research focuses on Indigenous North American and Eastern European Futurism, spaces of cultural hybridity, and post-memory in the diaspora. She works at Minwaashin Lodge and Oshki Kizis Lodge, providing support in homeless outreach, shelter client care and harm reduction. She is a curator, mixed-media artist, cultural educator with Young Polish Canadian Professional Association (YPCPA), content creator for Cielesne, executive member of both Polonia Inclusive and Polski Piknik, and a co-director of the Indigenous+Diasporic Friendship…
This story is featured in EPISODE 84 (click to listen) Piotr Surmaczynski Born in 1970 in Opole, Poland, he is an author, playwright and journalist who lives in London, UK. His YouTube channel “Piotr Surmaczynski z Londynu” has gained considerable popularity not only in Britain but all over the world. It has two parts: Nasza emigracja and Komentarze polityczne. His debut play, Uciekający pociąg (Runaway Train), opened in Newcastle in 2012 and preceded his first collection of short stories Wyspa dreszczowców (Thriller Island), which was published under the Novae Res imprint in Gdynia in 2014. He earned degrees in political philosophy…
For the last few months Canada has been discussed all over the world. This time not because of its beautiful nature, openness to immigrants, progressive law or polite people. Unfortunately, the uncovering of hundreds of unmarked graves on several residential school grounds brought back horrid stories of the infamous forced assimilation system organized by the government and run by churches – residential schools for indigenous children, which existed for 150 years. We, Canadians, have known – or at least should have known – about it since at least 2015, when the Truth and Reconciliation Commission finished its 6 years of…
POLcast is happy to inform you that on May 15th it has reached 100,000 downloads: And if you want to know what English language media write about Poland every day, visit POLcast Facebook page daily. Lots of interesting information. ••• In this episode you will hear my interview with Ilona Kowalik Urbaniak, a mathematician and musician, born in Poland, living in Canada and now working in Cracow, Poland. Ilona has a PhD in applied mathematics and specializes in AI (Artificial Intelligence). She now works in Poland – at Cracow University of Technology and NASK (National Research Institute). But Ilona has…
In this episode you will hear my interview with Sabina Baral, who wrote an extremely successful book in Polish “Zapiski z wygnania” (Notes from Exile). The book talks about her family’s experience of being made to leave Poland in March 1968, as a result of the ruling communist party’s anti-Semitic purge. About 20,000 Jews were forced to leave the country between 1968 and 1972. Only between 5,000 and 10,000 Jews were left in Poland. Those forced to leave were made stateless and were subjected to humiliating exit procedures. Sabina left Poland with her parents, parting with her Polish boyfriend. This was the end of…
In this episode you will hear my three interviews with: • Ewa Henry- Dawson, head of the Canada Team of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity, about this year’s 29th annual campaign in Canada, pandemic-style. WOŚP Kanada (in Polish) In Polish: • WOŚP Kanada 2021 – edycja pandemiczna (cz. 1) • Pandemiczna WOŚP Kanada 2021 – rewelacyjny wynik $$$ + rozmowa z szefową sztabu Ewą Henry-Dawson ••• • Irene Tomaszewski, a Canadian writer, editor and translator of Polish descent living in Ottawa, for many years the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan Review, an online English-language magazine on Polish culture, established in 2008. We…
In this episode you will hear my conversations with two guests. One is Joanna Ciapka-Sangster, a Polish Canadian violinist from Edmonton, Alberta, who appeared on the previous episode of POLcast, Episode 78. We talked about Polish Christmas music and announced that we were going to continue and in this episode you will hear part two. My second guest is special to me – for years I tried to convince him to agree to an interview and every time I heard: “No, you are my Mom”. I’ve wanted to speak to Bart Bonikowski not because he is my son, but because…
Wesołych Świąt i Szczęśliwego Nowego Roku! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I hope that while listening to this POLcast episode you will forget about the pandemic and this weird Christmas 2020. This episode #78 celebrates the beauty of Christmas through music. You will learn a lot about Polish carols and other Christmas traditions. In this special Christmas episode I interview Joanna Ciapka-Sangster, a Polish Canadian violinist from Edmonton, Alberta. A native of Poland, Joanna received her Master’s degree in Music Performance (1989) from Academy of Music in Poznan where she studied violin with Bartosz Bryla. After graduation Joanna toured…