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…
Author: Malgorzata P. Bonikowska
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…
This story is featured in Episode 57 As our listeners know, Polish-Jewish issues are very close to our hearts. We have featured many such stories. One of them was the 2016 Ashkenaz Festival . This one-week festival, organized every two years in Toronto, is one of the largest and most prestigious showcases of Jewish music and culture anywhere in the world (Ashkenaz Festival in Toronto). Its name comes from Ashkenazi Jews – “Ashkenazim” – Jews from Central and Eastern Europe, whose mother tongue was Yiddish. This year’s festival featured artists from across Canada and around the world, including Israel, Russia, Italy,…
This story is featured in Episode 57 When I was in Poland in June, I attended the official opening of the Museum of Warsaw, also referred to as the Museum of Things, located in a number of historic buildings in the Old Town Market Square. This is how the houses where the museum is located looked before the war in 1939, right after the war in 1945 and when they had been renovated in 1954. Out of 300,000 original items in the museum’s collection over 7,000 were selected to be exhibited in 21 thematic rooms such as: Room of Mermaids,…
This story is featured in Episode 56 In our last episode 55 I spoke with Polish Canadian filmmaker – Rafal Sokolowski, an award-winning film and theatre director whose short films have been shown worldwide. We talked about “22 Chaser” starring Brian J. Smith, his feature debut, which premiered in Toronto on the weekend we released that episode. I attended the opening night and found the movie very well made, superbly acted, gripping and powerful. I did have a problem with its ending though – unable to make a living in a decent way, Ben, the main character, a tow truck…
This story is featured in Episode 56 Exactly a year ago in Episode 18 (Young Canadian experts on Poland) we talked about the first ever multi-stage contest (Olimpiada Wiedzy o Polsce) where elementary and high school students of Polish language schools in Canada and the US were tested on and competed in their knowledge about Poland – its history, geography, culture, traditions (and this year also sports) – all in Polish. This year the Polish Language Teachers Association of Canada organized the contest again. I had the pleasure of attending its Jeopardy-style finals in Mississauga. There were three-member elementary school and high…