Sebastian Rys Presents a Play about Zofia Rysiowna - Family War Stories, L.A. Performing Arts Conservatory, 3 November 2024 at 6:30 pm

The Helena Modjeska Art & Culture Club in cooperation with the Institute of National Remembrance invites you to a monodrama written by Polish actor, Sebastian Rys, entitled "Family War Stories: Zofia Rysiowna" and presented on Sunday, November 3, 2024 at 6:30 PM at the Los Angeles Performing Arts Conservatory, 10931 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90064.

RSVP to Beata Czajkowska, at Beata.J.Czajkowska@gmail.com. Free admission for club members, $30 per person for guests. Payment by check made payable to "Helena Modjeska Art & Culture Club" with note about the theater, to PO Box 4288 Sunland CA 91041, or paypal to prezes@modjeska.org. Parking behind building or on Pico Blvd. Surrounding streets have parking restrictions...

"ZOFIA RYSIÓWNA: PRAGNIENIE ŻYCIA

"With our thoughts, we reach memories as quickly as with our eyesight to the stars. Looking at the starry sky, we see the black dome of the Earth's firmament sparkling with diamonds. The stars are seemingly equally distant, but in reality, they are separated from us and from each other, by thousands of light years. Thought has a similar path to memories recorded in memory, although some lose their shine." 

 Let these thoughts accompany us, calling up from memory the recorded slides, which can now shine anew, brightened with the power of our hearts. The heroine of our meeting today is Zofia Rysiówna. A woman from Nowy Sącz, a liaison officer, an actress, a mother and a wife, a strict but fair and dedicated person.

She will open for us the world of family memories of the Ryś family from Nowy Sącz. Continuing the family saga, we will follow "Zosia" in this story, because that was her war nickname, and we will try to see the youth of Nowy Sącz, their activities and sports, observed through her eyes. We will meet Rysiówna's school professors and seek to recognize the character traits of the so-called The War Generation, with whom we have less and less in common. Perhaps she will reveal to us a distant reflection of Jan Karski, a secret emissary – she took part in his liberation from German prison – and reveal the later dramatic fates of the family and the inhabitants of this city related to it.

 I do not know if she will take us with her beyond the walls of the German concentration camp, we cannot really expect that, but I think that at the end of the story Zofia Rysiówna will invite us in front of her beloved radio microphone and onto the theatrical stage. Her post-war life was hidden and here too, let's not expect too effusive of a report. What can we expect? Honest words, a warm heart, and something on the border of a dream and intense experience.  The stage performance combines: the testimony of an indirect witness to history, archival radio recordings, and poems with elements of a fictional narrative in musical accents.

The whole play has been based on Memories of May by Wanda Straszyńska with reminiscencies about the family and the book "On the Paths of Fantom" by Jacek Ryś.  Let this meeting be an engaging journey into the recesses of memory, into the world of living remembrances.

~ ~ Sebastian Ryś

SEBASTIAN RYŚ

Sebastian Ryś was born in Wrocław in 1986 and is a graduate of the Aleksander Zelwerowicz Theatre Academy in Warsaw. An actor, a sensitive interpreter of romantic heroes. He made his debut while still a student at the Nowy Theatre in Słupsk, in the role of Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz in Andrzej Maria Marczewski's original performance Witkacy jest do X-tej with music by Marek Dyjak. He collaborated with the Old Town Theatre and the Polish Theatre in Warsaw. In the Płock Dramatic Theatre he made himself known as: S.B. in Szymon Bogacz's play Three Nen of Different Ages directed by Julia Mark, as well as the title role of W. Shakespeare's Hamlet directed by Marek Mokrowiecki. He was permanently associated with the Polish Theatre in Wrocław, where he played, among others: in Janusz Wiśniewski's The Imaginary Invalid and in Bartosz Wyszomirski's Mirandolina. He also has film and TV roles under his belt. 

In his search for theatre heroes, he sought to engage in radio theatre and his own short productions. In his monodrama entitled Fish Soup in Odessa, Sebastian Ryś resurrects the unfinished story of the war hero, Jan Karski, winning numerous awards: Main prize at the Strzała Północy Festival in Koszalin. Main prize of the XLIII Tyskie Spotkania Teatralne, and two Jury prizes, at the Solo Olsztyn OSTJA Grand Prix; and at the Festival of Original Arts and Adaptations, WINDOWISKO, Gdańsk. Ryś is a beneficiary of the "Kultura Polska na Świecie" programme of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute. He took part in the international United Solo Festival in New York, performing there the English version of the monodrama The Fish Soup in Odessa. 

With his vision, he set the tone for the artistic expression in the radio play entitled Scars of Freedom. He is the co-creator of Stains of Memory, a production of the Polish Radio Theatre. Ryś is also the co-writer, director and actor in the spectacle about Father Jerzy Popiełuszko, martyred by the communists in 1984, entitled Burning Embers of Love. The actor is also a theatre instructor with pedagogical training and organizes poetry readings and concerts.

Janusz Gajos receives 2023 Modjeska Prize in Warsaw, 9/16/2024

 

The Helena Modjeska Art and Culture Club in Los Angeles will present its 2023 Modjeska Prize to the legendary Polish actor Janusz Gajos on 16 September 2024 at the opening of the Gajos Film Festival that celebrates his birthday at Kino Kultura in Warsaw with film screenings between 16 and 19 September (Krakowskie Przedmieście 21/23, 00-071 Warszawa, Poland). The event, organized by Polish Filmmakers’ Society (Stowarzyszenie Filmowców Polskich) and starting promptly at 6:30 p.m., will include various presentations before the film screening and will be a great opportunity to honor one of the most famous and beloved Polish actors. 

The Modjeska Club’s Board of Directors made its decision to recognize Mr. Gajos with its lifetime achievement award in September 2023. Since the honoree could not travel to California, the Gajos Festival in Warsaw was deemed the most suitable occasion for this presentation. The Club’s President, Dr. Maja Trochimczyk, will bring the award and certificate from California, along with Certificates of Recognition from California State Senator Anthony J. Portantino, as well as Supervisors of Los Angeles   County and Orange County where the Modjeska Club and Helena Modjeska Historic House are respectively located.  

Janusz Gajos, 2007. Wikimedia Commons

Born in 1939, Mr. Janusz Gajos appeared in a multitude of TV and film roles and is greatly respected in the artistic community not just for his talent but also for his artistic and personal integrity. The Modjeska Prizes, established in 2010, honor the lifetime achievement of Polish actors and are presented annually to one or two actors, representing Poland and émigré communities. These Prizes commemorate the life of Helena Modrzejewska (in the US Modjeska, 1840-1909) who was a phenomenally talented actress and gave about 4,000 performances during her career, focusing primarily on plays by Shakespeare.

Modjeska toured the U.S. and Canada using a railway car as her home; thus, she was able to appear in 225 towns and cities in all of North America. She was not only an actress, but also the director, costume designer and maker, producer, and publicist of her own troupe. A fervent Polish patriot, she was banned from ever returning to her home in Russia-occupied Poland and remains a symbol of both immigrant exile and success. 

The Modjeska Prize celebrates the Modjeska Club’s patron and the lifetime achievements of the awardees, distinguished Polish actors of the stage and screen. Previous honorees included Jan Nowicki, Anna Dymna, and Jan Englert who are based in Poland as well as Jadwiga Barańska, Barbara Krafftówna and Marek Probosz who settled in California. In 2022, the Director of the National Theater, Jan Englert travelled to California to receive his Modjeska Prize in person. When the honorees visit Los Angeles, they often give unforgettable performances. In Beverly Hills and San Diego, Jan Englert and his wife Beata Ścibakówna masterfully presented “Kwiaty Polskie” by Julian Tuwim with interludes of live Chopin music performed by Prof. Wojciech Kocyan.

In the past, two of Modjeska Club’s honorees received their Modjeska Prizes in Poland – Anna Dymna did so in 2011 in Kraków, at a special event with the participation of Benjamin Ousley Naseman, Public Affairs Officer of the American Consulate and several professors from the Polish American Historical Association. The award was presented by me, as the Club’s President at that time. In September 2023, following a Zoom presentation and interview during the pandemic, Andrzej Seweryn received the 2020 Modjeska Prize from the Club Vice President, actress Katarzyna Śmiechowicz, at the Gdynia Polish Film Festival.  

This is the third such Modjeska Prize presentation held in Poland. We are looking forward to honoring Janusz Gajos – a legendary actor and a great human being.

Premiere of TV Series "The Four Tank-men and a dog" in 1966 - Janusz Gajos, Włodzimierz Press, Roman Wilhelmi, Małgorzata Niemirska.  Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe, sygn. 3/53/0/10/699/8. 

JANUSZ GAJOS

JJanusz Gajos, born on September 23, 1939, in Dąbrowa Górnicza, is one of the most eminent and popular Polish actors. He graduated from the Theatre and Film Academy in Łódź in 1965 and debuted in Maria Kaniewska’s film Panienka z Okienka (1964).  The leading role of a tank commander during WWII in an extremely popular TV series Czterej Pancerni i pies (1966) was both an incredible success and a curse. Enthusiastic audiences identified the actor with the heroic soldier, fighting alongside the “friendly” Soviet Army, and his career was at a dead end. 

Being typecast in one role, Gajos shifted his attention to theater and since 1970 played in several Warsaw theaters: Komedia, Polski, Kwadrat, Dramatyczy and Powszechny.  He also performed many memorable roles for the Polish TV Theater, broadcast nationwide. Finally, in 2003-2021 he was a cast member of the National Theater in Warsaw. In 1977, his role in Sylwester Szyszko’s film Milioner was recognized with an award at the Polish Feature Film Festival in Gdańsk; he then appeared in Andrzej Wajda’s Man of Iron, but the tide turned with the TV Theater role in Christopher Hampton’s Tales of Hollywood, directed by Kazimierz Kutz (1987). In the following decades, the flexibility of his talent was recognized on the stage and the screen.  He appeared in Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya (1989), Wyspiański’s The Wedding (1995), and stage adaptation of Dostoevskii’s Crime and Punishment (2000). He starred in Andrzej Szczypiorski’s Msza za Miasto Arras, at Teatr Powszechny from 1994 to 2015, when he directed its TV adaptation. 

Janusz Gajos i Pierwsza Dama Maria Kaczynska. 2008, 40. rocznica ostatniego publicznego spektaklu „Dziadów”, Teatr Narodowy w Warszawie, Archiwum Kancelarii Prezydenta RP - www.prezydent.pl

Notable film roles of this flexible and versatile actor included Kieślowski’s Decalogue 4 and Three Colors: White, the role of the censor in Wojciech Marczewski’s Ucieczka z Kina Wolność, an alcoholic in Janusz Morgenstern’s Żółty Szalik (The Yellow Scarf, 2000), Cześnik in Andrzej Wajda’s rendition of Aleksander Fredro’s classic Zemsta (2002), and a variety of criminals and crooks in commercial movies, such as Fuks or The Last Mission (1999).  He worked with noted directors: Jan Jakub Kolski (Jasminum), Jerzy Antczak (Chopin: Desire for Love), Małgorzata Szumowska (Body), Filip Bajon (Kamerdyner), and Wojtek Smarzowski (Kler). He did not avoid comedic roles, appearing as wry janitor Turecki in Olga Lipińska’s Cabaret on TV and in Cabaret Pod Egidą.  

 Gajos's hand in Międzyzdroje. Wikimedia Commons. Fot. Geonidiusz, 2012. Star of Janusz Gajos, Łódź Walk of Fame. Wikimedia Commons. Fot HuBar, 2006. 

Theatrical roles remained Gajos’s main focus since 2003. As the star of the National Theater, he appeared in plays by Anton Chekhov, Arthur Miller, Sławomir Mrożek, and Jerzy Pilch, directed by Kazimierz Kutz, Piotr Cieplak, Jan Englert and others. He continued to star in Polish TV Theater (Shakespeare’s Hamlet, plays by Janusz Głowacki and Wojciech Tomczyk). His debut as a theater director was in Gogol’s Ożenek (2022).  Gajos’s multiple awards honored the multitude of his great roles since 1977, to mention only: Golden Screen award for roles in Polish TV Theater (1986), Golden Duck for Przesłuchanie/The Interrogation (1989), “Feliks” for a role in Dostoevskii’s Crime and Punishment (2000), the Eagle Award (2001), Grand Prize at a Sopot Theatre Festival for Bigda idzie, Golden Sceptre from the Polish Culture Foundation (2005), Best Actor Award at the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia (2015, for his role in Body), and “Gustaw” from the Union of Polish Stage Artists (ZASP). In  2015, Janusz Gajos received Diamond Lions, the audience award for the best actor in past 40 years at the Gdynia Film Festival. Always the audience’s favorite, he won the title of the most popular Polish actor also in 2002 (Rzeczpospolita newspaper) and in 2018 (Film magazine). He received the Crystal Pomegranate for the best comedy actor, the Crystal Boar for the best collaboration with the director (2012), and numerous Grand Prix at theater festivals. In 2002, Gajos was honored with Polonia Restituta Commander’s Cross with Star by the Polish government and the Minister of Culture’s Theater Lifetime Achievement Award.

Czlonkowie Klubu w Laguna Art Museum po wykladzie Mai Trochimczyk, 2019

HELENA  MODJESKA ART & CULTURE CLUB

Established in 1971 by actor-director-journalist Leonidas Dudarew-Ossetyński and other Polish émigrés, Helena Modjeska Art and Culture 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. The Club is named after the legendary actress Helena Modrzejewska, known in the U.S. as Modjeska (1840-1909). In 1876, she emigrated to California, where she became one of the most famous Shakespearean actresses of her time. She was not only an actress, but also a director and producer. Her phenomenal and lasting popularity made her a beloved model of immigrant success. As a 501(c)(3) public benefit nonprofit, 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. The Club invites eminent guests from Poland and organizes meetings with artists, actors, film directors, scholars, journalists, musicians and government officials. Hundreds of cultural events included public meetings and interviews with distinguished representatives of Polish arts and sciences (including Nobel Prize winner, poet Czesław Miłosz and Oscar winner, film director Andrzej Wajda); lectures by eminent scholars, politicians, and athletes (e.g. Prof. Leszek Balcerowicz; and Irena Szewińska, Olympic medal winner); film screenings and premieres; classical music and jazz concerts; and presentations of theatrical plays, and cabaret shows. 

Concert for 100th Anniversary of Regaining Independence, Colburn School of Music, 2018.

Thousands of Southern California residents participated in the Club’s events.  The Club frequently collaborates with the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland that has funded many of its programs and events. The collaborations extend to such well-known Los Angeles cultural institutions as the Polish Music Center at the University of Southern California, UCLA, Art Center College of Design, the Autry Museum, Jacaranda-Music on the Edge, L.A. Master Chorale, the Bowers Museum, and Polish American organizations in San Diego, San Francisco, and Riverside. The Club’s members include college professors, managers, artists, musicians, doctors, lawyers, and business owners, who personally participate in the organization of events and theatrical performances. Funding comes from dues, donations and grants, for instance from the Polish National Foundation, Stowarzyszenie Wspólnota Polska, and the State of California. 

Awards and Anniversaries

For its activity in promoting Polish culture, the Club and its volunteer presidents and activists have received numerous state awards from Poland, including medals from Poland’s Minister of Culture „For Meritorious Contribution to Polish Culture” for the Club and for over 20 of its past presidents and board members. Honors include the 2009  Special Award from the Union of Polish Stage Artists for the Club, and the Cavalier Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland for its founder, actor, director and writer Leonidas Dudarew-Ossetyński (1910-1989) granted posthumously in 2013. The Club was also honored by California state, city and county governments on the occasion of its 40th and 50th anniversaries. In 2021, the organization’s 50th anniversary was celebrated with a 380-page Album 50-lecia Klubu Kultury im. Heleny Modrzejewskiej  with texts by 20 authors, edited by Maja Trochimczyk, Elżbieta Kański and Dr. Elżbieta Trybuś. Supported with a grant from the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland, this book is available for free on the modrzejewska.org and moonrisepress.com websites. In December 2023, Moonrise Press published Celebrating Modjeska in California: History of Helena Modjeska Art & Culture Club by Maja Trochimczyk, the Club's President in 2010-12 and since 2018. This 428-page case study of a Polonian organization reveals the interests, activities, successes and challenges of successive waves of Polish immigrants to America. All net revenue is donated to the Modjeska Club. The project was financed by the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland as part of the Competition “Polonia and Poles Abroad 2023.” 

Nagroda im. Modrzejewskiej dla Beaty Pozniak, od Lewej: Prezes Maja Trochimczyk, Beata Pozniak, MC Marek Probosz, Konsul Pawel Lickiewicz.

Modjeska Prizes

In 2010, in order to commemorate its patron, the famous Polish actress Helena Modrzejewska/Modjeska and to honor the achievements of distinguished Polish actors, the Club established the Annual Modjeska Prize to recognize the lasting contributions of actors to Polish culture. Functioning as a lifetime achievement award, the first Modjeska Prize was presented in October 2010 to the eminent actor Jan Nowicki.  The second Modjeska Prize of 2011 was divided between Anna Dymna and Marian Dziędziel. In 2012, the Prize was awarded to actress Barbara Krafftówna (who lived in California since 1983) and in 2013 the Modjeska Club recognized the achievements of film director Ryszard Bugajski.  After a hiatus in 2014-2017, the 2018 Modjeska Prize honored the charismatic actress Jadwiga Barańska, the Club’s Honorary Member along with her husband Jerzy Antczak. In 2019, the  Prize was awarded to the Polish Theater of Toronto, represented by its two actresses, Agata Pilitowska and Maria Nowotarska.  

Modjeska Prize dla Agaty Pilitowskiej i Marii Nowotarskiej, 2019.

The 2020 Prize was presented to Andrzej Seweryn in a Zoom ceremony and interview during the pandemic. The Club’s VP Katarzyna Śmiechowicz made an in-person presentation to Seweryn at the Gdynia Film Festival in September 2023. The 2021 Awardees were California-based Beata Poźniak and the legendary actor-director Jan Englert. These Modjeska Prizes were presented during the 50th Anniversary Ball in Pasadena in 2021, where Mr. Englert was present virtually on the screen. In September 2022, he came to California with his wife, Beata Scibakówna, to receive the Modjeska Prize in person. At that time, they also performed "Kwiaty Polskie" by Julian Tuwim in Beverly Hills and Vista. In 2022, the honorees were California-based Polish actors Katarzyna Śmiechowicz and Marek Probosz. 

Golden Awards

On 9 March 2024 in Beverly Hills, the Modjeska Club offered its newest Golden Awards for lifetime achievement in the field of film to two outstanding directors, producers, screenwriters, icons of Polish cinema, Jerzy Antczak and Jacek Bromski.  Just like the Modjeska Prizes, the Golden Awards honor lifetime achievements, albeit those of directors and filmmakers, not actors. The recipients could be talented film and theater directors, or filmmakers from many industries - screenwriters, cinematographers, or composers. The Golden Award consists of a commemorative statuette, a diploma and a symbolic gold bar. 

Consul Jaroslaw Lasinski - Honorary Members with the Board - Anna Sadowska, Maja Trochimczyk, Beata Czajkowska i Elzbieta Trybus, 2022

Honorary Members

IAnother way of honoring eminent individuals is to bestow upon them honorary membership for services rendered to the organization. So far, 42 honorary memberships were granted to Modjeska Club activists, former presidents and board members (21 persons, these awardees today belong to the category of “distinguished” members), former Polish consuls with spouses (11 persons), and such eminent artists as: film director Jerzy Antczak and actress Jadwiga Barańska, actress Elzbieta Jodłowska with her husband Tomasz Heller; actress Zofia Dobrzańska; artist Leonard Konopelski with wife, Club board member, Klara Konopelska (1994); dancer and choreographer Stefan Wenta (2012); actress Stephanie Powers (2012), and actress Alicja Bobrowska (2022).

The Club's Presidents

Dr. Maja Trochimczyk (2018-25), Andrew Dowen (2013-18), Elżbieta Kański (2012-13), Maja Trochimczyk (2010-12), Andrzej Maleski (2008-10), Dorota Czajka-Olszewska (2006-08), Jolanta Zych (1998-2006), Edward Piłatowicz (1996-98), Zofia Czajkowska (1994-96), Witold Czajkowski (1990-94), Tadeusz Bociański (1983-89), Jerzy Gąssowski (1979-83), Andrzej Mikulski (1978), and actor-director Leonidas Dudarew-Ossetyński (1971-1978) who in February 2024 was granted the title of Honorary Member, Founder and Honorary President. 

Polish Writer Piotr Siemion - First Guest of the Fall Season, Brentwood, Saturday, 28 September, 2024, 6 pm

On 28 September 2024 at 6pm, the Modjeska Art & Culture Club will have the pleasure of presenting a Polish writer, Piotr D. Siemion, a Warsaw-based novelist and translator, who also works as a corporate attorney. The event will be held in a private residence in Brentwood and will be open only to Club members and VIP guests of the speaker. RSVP prezes@modjeska.org.  The interview will be conducted by Dr. Jerzy Kossek, specialist in Polish-American literature who teaches at University of California, Irvine and is a  Modjeska Club member. 

Piotr D. Siemion is an accomplished novelist and essay author, writing in English and his native Polish. He was  raised in the academic center of Wrocław (the pre-1945 Breslau) in Poland, where he studied English  Literature and was, in his own words, "a bit of a counterculture figure." After his early debut as a literary translator, he spent his formative years in New York City. In 1988 he traveled to the United States as a Fulbright scholar, where he wrote his doctoral dissertation on the subject of American twentieth-century novels. Between 1988 and 2000 he moved between the US (New York) and Canada (Montreal), during which time he published a series of translations, among others, of Yeats' poetry and Tom Clancy's prose. He has translated Thomas Pynchon (the ingenious translation of The Crying of Lot 49, for which he won the 'Literatura na Świecie award), John Gardner and Robert Nye. He worked as a columnist and anecdote writer for the underground journal 'BruLion'. In 1997 he completed his legal studies at the University of Columbia and worked in Manhattan in the legal practice of Weil, Gotshal & Manges. Since the summer of 2000 he has lived in Warsaw.

His return to Poland after twelve years abroad coincided with the beginning of his novelistic career. He lives just outside Warsaw, that the writer describes as "a zany, postmodern city, where one can, these days, fully experience the 21st century dynamics of intermingling languages, civilizations, and ideas, while remaining rooted in Europe’s difficult history." In fact, his artistic work has always been marked by cross-border but also cross-disciplinary influences. In the U.S. he received his Ph.D. degree in American fiction but also studied for a law school degree, both from Columbia University in New York. In the last three decades, Siemion has pursued a two-edged career of an international lawyer and a novelist, never being able to decide which path to abandon. In the end, he is still doing both things at once, writing novels and, in parallel, working on AI projects for a Warsaw-based publishing house. 

In his early years, he used to translate into Polish the works of British, Irish, and American authors, including Thomas Pynchon, Robert Nye, and W.B. Yeats. In 2000, he published his first novel, Niskie Łąki (“Low Meadows”), which was hailed as the literary event of the year, and was subsequently translated into German, Hungarian, and Ukrainian. It was meant as a chronicle of his post-Communist generation, depicting the transition from the Cold War era to the new, chaotic, capitalist order of things. In 2004, his second novel, Finimondo, appeared, to good reviews but less publicity. It was a business thriller and, for a second novel, it had good reviews. In 2015, the book was followed by a personal, book-length biographical essay, The Year of the Snake. A Diary. In the meantime, he periodically published other literary translations (listed below), essays, and reviews. 

Siemion published his most recent novel, Bella, ciao, in 2022. A post-apocalyptic riff on modernity’s key philosophical issues, it coincided with Russia’s invasion on Ukraine. Accordingly, some critics read it as a fact-based report from the conflict. At any event, in 2023 Bella, ciao, was shortlisted for the Warsaw Literary Prize, as well as the Central European Literary Prize Angelus. At this time, Siemion is busy outlining a new work of fiction, but in parallel he concern myself with the rapidly changing Polish and English literary idioms. In fact, he enthusiastically embraced the chance to translate Solar Bones into Polish precisely because Mike McCormack’s novel intermingles the 21st century vernacular with strong echoes of grand literary traditions: an exercise in literary sleight-of-hand that is a challenge and a joy to its translators. 

DR. JERZY GEORGE KOSSEK

Dr Kossek is a Polish-American Americanist, Associate Professor writer, poet, literature and music critic, theater director, promoter and producer, radio host, Fulbright Visiting Professor at University of California, Riverside, Former Chair and Associate Professor at University of Bielsko-Biala, Poland. Former English and American Literature and Culture Professor at University of Occupational Safety Management. He holds MA in English and American Literature and Culture and a Doctoral Degree in American Literature from the University of Silesia, Poland. A recipient of several international research awards, he lectured in Europe and USA. In Poland under Soviet regime he organized and founded American Club Association in cooperation with American Consulate General in Krakow, Poland. His passion for American core music - Blues - resulted in co-organizing the world's biggest blues festival - Rawa Blues Festival. He also organized or contributed to Poetic Blues Café, Academic Blues Conference, and Route 66 Seminar.

He is the founder and Director of Ethnic Studies Center and actively supported the efforts to organize the Blues Hall of Fame in Memphis. Dr Kossek is the author of many academic books on American literature, culture and music. He is a singer/songwriter and poet. His first CD entitled The Blues Sharpener’s Daughter earned The best concept album status in 2014 at Polish-American Music, Folk and Arts Fest in Zywiec, Poland. Dr Kossek wrote and directed theatrical performances in Katowice and Bielsko-Biala and Los Angeles. He is an Academic Tutor and has 35 plus years of experience teaching English and related subjects at all levels. He currently teaches creative writing at California MiraMar University in San Diego. Recently he initiated Blues Poetic Café, under the name of Blues and Jazz Poetic Café at historic Leimert Park location in Los Angeles. George supports the local communities in LA, Riverside and Orange Counties with volunteer work as the Director of Music, Culture and The Arts for Greater Los Angeles Fulbright Association and as Artistic Director for Barbara Morrison Performing Arts. 

Artistic Performances

Kossek, started his passion for American core music - The Blues, which resulted in many ventures. The most significant of them, co-organization of Rawa Blues Festival in Katowice, Poland. Over the years the Festival grew to the biggest blues fest status in the world under the roof and also one of the oldest. Most of the top blues personalities like Koko Taylor, Junior Wells, Robert Cray, Keb' Mo', James Blood Ulmer & Vernon Reid, Otis Taylor performed at the Flying Saucer venue, a 60.000 spectators concert arena. The Festival is the recipient of the Keeping the Blues Award for the Best International Festival. To stress the role of text/lyrics/poetry/art in blues music and interdisciplinary character of blues culture Kossek founded The Poetic Café - a venue happening yearly alongside the Blues Fest gathering poets, songwriters, artists and painters, students and fans over workshops, seminars, competitions and artistic happening on and off the main stage. The Poetic Café, unlike the Blues Fest, is opened throughout the whole year, inspiring the wide audience all over the world.

https://jerzygeorgekossek.com/

Anna and Irek Dobrowolski Present "Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski" - Friday, 21 June 2024 at pm

 

Helena Modjeska Art & Culture Club presents a screening of the documentary "Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski" with the participation of the film's producers Anna Dobrowolska and Irek Dobrowolski.  Information about them  is included below. 

The film will be shown at LAPAC/Promenade Playhouse Los Angeles Performing Arts Conservatory - 10931 W. Pico Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90064 – on Friday, June 21, 2024 at 7:00 p.m. Admission is free for club members, $30 for guests. Seating is limited. Checks payable to Helena Modjeska Art Culture Club or PayPal: prezes@modjeska.org. RSVP prezes@modjeska.org.

STRUGGLE: THE LIFE AND LOST ART OF SZUKALSKI (Wikipedia)

Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski is a 2018 documentary film directed by Irek Dobrowolski, written by Stephen Cooper and Irek Dobrowolski and starring Stanisław Szukalski, Glenn Bray and Robert Williams. The documentary is produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, and his father George DiCaprio.[The film was released by Netflix on December 21, 2018. The documentary tells the story of the Polish artist Stanisław Szukalski’s troubled life and complicated body of work. He created his own language, and is an innovative sculptor, who once lost all his work in a Nazi bombing raid. It also focuses on his nationalism in the lead-up to World War II, and his subsequent transformation during the second half of his life. The documentary was reviewed positively by Karen Han in The New York Times, who stated that it "manages to deliver" on the breadth and depth implied by the title. Han noted: "Still, for Bray, George DiCaprio and others who knew Szukalski in his final years, their struggle with his past is deeply personal. They effectively become subjects themselves, grappling with how he ought to be remembered. The viewer is left to decide."

Anna Dobrowolska (from filmstreet.pl)

ANNA DOBROWOLSKA

Producing films and television programs since 2002, Anna's most recent release is the feature documentary Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski from producer Leonardo DiCaprio and NETFLIX Studios.  Struggle premiered on December 21, 2018 at LACMA in Los Angeles and is now available 190 countries (in 34 languages) to an audience of 160 million. Reception has been phenomenal: rave reviews in top publications from around the world (New York Times, Observer, Guardian, Daily Mirror, Tribune and many more); Netflix ranked it 4th Best Film of 2018; and ranks #5 on the list of Must See movies in 2019 according to IMDb - the most popular industry portal and the defacto authority in film and television. Her portfolio boasts an extensive run in television, having produced more than 300 episodes and 26 broadcast shows, a number of on-stage musicals with famous Polish stars played in Warsaw’s Sala Kongresowa and the Polish National Opera, and multi-award winning productions like In Fortunes Debt, Dancing with Drugs, and The Portraitist.

IREK DOBROWOLSKI

Director of over 25 documentaries and two feature films - many of which have been internationally nominated and awarded, including The Magnolia Award at Shanghai Film Festival, the Grand Prix at Stockholm’s International Film Festival, Lajkonik at Krakow Film Festival and the Golden Phoenix at Warsaw’s Jewish Motifs Festival. His film August Sky: 63 Days of Glory has become a cult favorite in Poland, with more than 350,000 Facebook fans who post poems and show off August Sky tattoo art. The trailer has garnered over 8 million views on Youtube. Irek's latest film, Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski, was produced by Leonardo DiCaprio and released by Netflix Studios.

Stanislaw Szukalski and Leonidas Dudarew-Ossetynski, 1973. From the Archives of Valerie Dudarew-Ossetynska-Hunken. Used by Permission

STANISLAW SZUKALSKI (1893-1987) AND THE MODJESKA CLUB

by Maja Trochimczyk, based on materials from Celebrating Modjeska in California: History of Helena Modjeska Art & Culture Club (Los Angeles, 2023)

Szukalski was an innovative and visionary sculptor, whose education alternated between Poland and the U.S., and who designed many original sculptures before WWII.  After he refused to create a portrait of Hitler and Germany attacked Poland, his studio was targeted in bombings and all his works were destroyed by German Air Forces in the raids on Warsaw at the beginning of September 1939. He was buried in rubble during a bombing in Katowice, but survived. Several months later he was allowed to leave Poland with his American-born wife, Joan. 

1955 Theatrical Program of the Modjeska Players fundraiser for the Modjeska Monument

Club Archives. The Modjeska Players logo designed by Szukalski.

After the war, Szukalski settled in California and continued to design sculptures and monuments. Alas, he was only able to complete small models, portraits, paintings and medals; no large-scale sculptures were built. Two designs of Helena Modjeska Monuments are among his sketches and the Modjeska Club's founder, Leonidas Dudarew-Ossetynski was earlier the chair of a committee organized to fundraise for the construction of this monument in Los Angeles in 1955.  

Szukalski's Letter with an explanation of the meaning of the Helena Modjeska Monument. Leonidas Dudarew Ossetynski Collection at the Polish Museum of America, Chicago. 

In an undated letter addressed to Ossetyński, kept in the Polish Museum of America’s archives with an inscription “Helena Modjeska Memorial Committee” on its back (the letter was folded and appears to have been sent on 28 September 1954, without an envelope), Szukalski wrote about his intention to portray the actress in his sculpture as a dancer that held a heart, a crown, and a moon in her hands. Posed asymmetrically like a flamenco dancer with her castanets, Szukalski’s Modjeska was towering above a knee-high model of St. Mary’s Basilica in Kraków, Modjeska’s hometown. Szukalski described this building as both “the most characteristic monument of Kraków” and “the most beautiful temple.” In this design, which could have been quite offensive to religious zealots, with the actress towering above the Basilica, in a provocative pose and scant clothing, the sculptor’s intention was for Modjeska to become “a reflection of her national origin” so that she “radiates onto the audience of foreign nations with her proud heart.” 

One of Modjeska Monument designs by Szukalski, reproduced in the 1955 program 

of the Modjeska Players' fundraiser to construct the monument. Modjeska Club Archives.  

The original is in the Szukalski Archives, managed by Glenn Bray. 

Ultimately, the project was not realized.  Instead, Szukalski designed the logo for Ossetynski's first California theatrical endeavor, that is the Modjeska Players that toured the U.S. and Canada in 1955-1958.  He then designed a Copernicus poster that was distributed with signatures to Club members and an envelope to commemorate Copernicus's  500th Birthday in 1973.

An envelope with a commemorative stamp by Stanisław Szukalski, 

prepared for the 500th anniversary of the birth of Nicolaus Copernicus 

(19 February 1973; the U.S. postal stamp of 23 April 1973). Club Archives.

The  initial, highly successful event of the Modjeska Club was held in the Hollywood home of Ossetyński in May 1973. It was dedicated to the art of an original Polish sculptor, Stanisław Szukalski   who hitherto stayed away from Polish émigré organizations.

Ossetyński explained: 

The first event was a very important test for the Club. It was about gaining new members and drawing the attention of the Polish community to the meaning and overtones of our plans. An excellent Polish sculptor, Stanisław Szukalski, has been living in Los Angeles for years. Unfortunately, the local Polonia has not taken an interest in him, and if he is known to the newcomers, it is more for his controversial feats, not for the great works he creates in the isolation of his rich creativity. In short, I decided to familiarize my compatriots with his interesting art, and also to use it, somewhat as a lure. When I offered him a meeting where he was to give a lecture illustrated by his works, he declined. But I persisted until he agreed. I had a nose. It turned out to be a super atomic bomb. At home, the walls were bursting at the seams as it were from the excess of people who had arrived. Everyone bought an interesting lithograph of the bust of Copernicus, designed and made by the great artist, and fifteen new members signed up to the Club immediately. 

The first meeting of the Modjeska Club with Stanislaw Szukalski, May 1973. Joan Szukalski, Stefanie Powers and Stanislaw Szukalski speaking. From the Archives of Valerie Dudarew-Ossetynska Hunken. Used by permission.

Szukalski joined the group of Modjeska Club's Art Advisors and was listed on the Club's letterhead between 1973 and 1978 along with the club's co-founder composer Stefan Pasternacki, actress Stefanie Powers, fiber artist Yolanta Wojkiełło-Martusewicz, and dancer-choreographer Stefan Wenta.  He designed an eagle as a logo for the Club but it was never used; instead a different design based on a Piast eagle by Waclaw Gazinski appeared on the Club's letterhead in the first decade of its existence. 

At the same time, Szukalski worked on developing an all-encompassing original, and bizarre anthropological theory of “everything”—races, languages, mythologies, —that he called the “science of Zermatism.”  In a 1978 note in Polish Americans in California, Gene Harubin Zygmont described him as “an esoteric artist and thinker… a writer, painter, medalist and a man of ideas” who was “very much in evidence and working in California.”  In that period, he designed monuments of Copernicus; Polish officers, Prisoners of War, murdered in Katyń in Soviet Union by the NKVD; and the French Resistance fighters of WWII. None of them were built. 

Szukalski with Modjeska Club members in late 1970s. 

On the wall Ossetynski's portrait by Szukalski.

PHOTOS FROM THE SCREENING