Slavs of New York!

Walking Tour: Ridgewood

2009-01-17T11:47:00.026-05:00

R idgewood is perhaps a bit out of the way for the average New Yorker, but the effort to get there is well worthwhile. Historically, this is a German neighborhood but today it is as diverse as anywhere else in Queens – and is home to a major Polish enclave (mainly along Fresh Pond Road), and a smattering of former Yugoslavs, among many other groups.

The neighborhood is home to a major historic district, focused on its fantastically preserved early 20th century residential buildings. When the historic district was declared in 1983, it was the largest in the country, with nearly 3000 buildings included. Even beyond the Slavic sites here, the historic architecture makes Ridgewood a nice place to spend an afternoon.

Though there are several transportation options, Slavs of New York came from Manhattan on the L line to Myrtle-Wyckoff Avenue, and walked across Myrtle Avenue (though there is also a connection to the M line that runs straight through Ridgewood).

The Balkan presence is quickly felt on Myrtle Avenue. Walking across, you’ll first hit the Bulgarian grocery Parrot Coffee Grocery (58-22 Myrtle Avenue). Nearby is the Serbian-owned European Music & Video Store (59-13 71st Avenue), then Muncan Meat Market (60-86 Myrtle Avenue).

A bit further down, the deli Balkan Express (64-02 Myrtle Avenue), featuring a Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia flag on its awning has unfortunately closed, though the awning (and the flag) remain for now. From here, it’s a quick walk over to the next neighborhood in Queens, Glendale, home of the Serbian Club (72-65 65th Place).

An outpost of the Greenpoint-based Polish & Slavic Federal Credit Union (60-95 Myrtle Avenue) on the corner with Fresh Pond Road is the gateway to a Polish enclave second only to Greenpoint itself. Walking up Fresh Pond Road, you’ll first hit Bona Restaurant (71-24 Fresh Pond Road).

The road has a string of Polish delis, too numerous to list here. They include Teddy's Market Polskie Delikatesy (71-08 Fresh Pond Road), Wawel Meats (68-33 Fresh Pond Road), Pulaski Deli (67-12 Fresh Pond Road) and Okruszek Polish Bakery (67-10 Fresh Pond Road). Just around the corner, down Putnam Road, is a Polish bookstore.

After a couple more delis, including Jantar (66-66 Fresh Pond Road) and Starowiejski (66-51 Fresh Pond Road), there are two excellent Polish restaurants: Kredens (66-36 Fresh Pond Road) and Krolewskie Jadlo (66-21 Fresh Pond Road). Either is a good place for lunch or dinner.

Further up, you’ll find many more Polish delis, as well as Video Random (66-02 Fresh Pond Road) and Aga Book Store (65-18 Fresh Pond Road).

A short walk down Linden Street from Fresh Pond Road will take you to Gottscheer Hall (657 Fairview Avenue), which is worth poking your head into. The well-preserved deco lobby is impressive, as is the beer-hall on the first floor.

Along with the early German presence came the Gottscheer Germans, a group from what is today Kočevje, in Slovenia. Very few Gottscheer Germans remain in Slovenia because of post-World War II repression of German culture in Yugoslavia, and so their presence in Ridgewood is rather unique. The Gottscheer community here has a number of institutions – most visibly Gotscheer Hall, but also a dance group, a hunting club, a women’s chorus and more.

Down Fairview, the excellent restaurant Bosna Express (7-91 Fairview Avenue) sits next door to the Albanian Café Tirana, a sight possible perhaps only in Queens. Also nearby are even more Polish delis, joined now by a few Balkan ones. Check out Old World Bakery (66-91 Forest Avenue), Europa Grocery (99 Forest Avenue), Korona Deli & Grocery (66-65 Forest Avenue), and Burek's (68-55 Forest Avenue). Also nearby is St. Matthias Roman Catholic Church (58-15 Catalpa Avenue), a German parish that now serves the Polish enclave.

And from here, you will be within striking distance of the Myrtle-Wyckoff Avenue L train.

Slavs at the 1939 World's Fair in Queens

2008-11-27T21:50:00.051-05:00

The other week, Slavs of New York was lucky enough to join the Municipal Arts Society’s walking tour of Bohemian National and the Sokol Halls, led by Joe Svehlak. Everyone is encouraged to visit Bohemian National Hall, but Sokol Hall is a bit less of a public space so getting inside was a treat.

Just inside the door is a small pub, and among the decorations are five large medallions – one each for Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Slovakia and Subcarpathian Rus (Ruthenia), the five parts of Czechoslovakia from 1918 to 1939. The guide said they were originally from the Czechoslovak pavilion from the 1939-1940 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows, Queens.

The Munich Agreement was in September 1938, and Hitler invaded on 14 March 1939. Slovakia declared independence on 14 March, and Ruthenia on 15 March (the latter was then occupied by Hungary just about 24 hours later). The rest of Czechoslovakia was reorganized as the Nazi Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Czechoslovakia would not reemerge until the close of World War II.

So how was there a World’s Fair pavilion for a state that did not exist?

Turns out, the contract with the fair organizers was signed in 1938, and at the time of the Nazi invasion the following March the building was already about half-done. The plans were scaled down, but preparations went forward.

Mayor Fiorello La Guardia emerged as a leading proponent of Czechoslovak independence, quickly meeting with Czechoslovak representatives and assuring that so long as the United States did not recognize the German moves the Czechoslovak envoys would keep their titles and authority. When Nazi Germany (the only major country not participating in the fair) tried to keep the Czechoslovak pavilion from opening, La Guardia set up a “citizens’ committee” to raise funds to help complete the pavilion and its exhibits.

The pavilion became a symbol of Czechoslovak resistance to Nazi domination. Former Czechoslovak president Edvard Benes spoke at the dedication of the pavilion on 31 May, highlighting the struggle of the Czechs, Slovaks and Carpatho-Russians (Rusyns) in Europe and thanking La Guardia, noting that “This pavilion, ladies and gentlemen, is the free and independent Czecho-Slovakia of the near past and the free and independent Czecho-Slovakia of the near future.”

The Czechoslovak pavilion stood between the pavilions of the Soviet Union and Japan. Here’s a description of the finished pavilion from the New York Times on 30 April 1939:

The progress of the country during its twenty-year existence is the central theme, and the products and resources of the land and people are represented and demonstrated – such products as iron, steel, textiles, shoes, beer, hams, Glass blowing and etching are shown. A restaurant and open-air beer garden are included in the project.

Among the 60 states participating at the 1939 World’s Fair were three more Slavic states: Yugoslavia, Poland and the Soviet Union.

The Yugoslav pavilion featured a large, illuminated map of the country, as well as a model of the oldest pharmacy in the world, from Dubrovnik. Also highlighted were Yugoslavs who have made contributions to the United States, such as Nikola Tesla and Michael Pupin.

Mayor La Guardia spoke in Croatian, a language he learnt while stationed in the United States Consular Service in Fiume (Rijeka), at the opening of the Yugoslav pavilion in May. Among his comments:

The people of Yugoslavia are generous, kindly and peace-loving. Whenever there is trouble in the Balkans, look for the reason, and it will be found to come from without and not from within. Let the strong and big nations leave the Balkans alone and peace will prevail there.

The Polish pavilion was built around the 348th anniversary of the first Polish Constitution, and included – among a wide variety of exhibits – the Jagellonian globe, which is believed to be the first to show the name “America.”

The statue of King Jagiello by Stanisław K. Ostrowski, originally placed in front of the Polish pavilion, is one of the rare artifacts of the 1939-1940 World’s Fair still publicly displayed in New York. The statue now sits in Manhattan’s Central Park, near the Turtle Pond.

The Soviet Pavilion was universally acclaimed as a major highlight of the fair. The building was the tallest on the fairgrounds, other than the iconic Trylon structure. Estimates for its cost ranged from $4 to 6 million, by far the most of any World’s Fair structure. Among the materials used in its construction were nine different sorts of marble brought over specially from the USSR.

The building was topped by a 79-foot-tall worker holding aloft an illuminated red star, nick named Big Joe. After complaints, Fair officials had to put a US flag atop the Parachute Jump (which was later relocated to Coney Island) to ensure it flew higher than the Soviet star.

Exhibits inside included a map of the Soviet Union covered in precious stones, two cinemas, a restaurant, and even a full-scale replica of a portion of Moscow’s Mayakovsky metro station (the station was brand new, having just been completed in 1938).

At the end of the 1939 season, the Soviet Union pulled out of the fair, and its building was taken apart and shipped back to Moscow.

On 3 January 1940, the New York Times ran a story about the dismantling of Big Joe entitled “Soviet Worker at Fair is ‘Purged’” commenting tongue-in-cheek that “Stalin’s extended his purge to the United States yesterday and ‘Big Joe’… was decapitated by a derrick.”

Initially, there were plans to reassemble the pavilion at Gorky Park in Moscow, but this was never done and the final fate of Big Joe and the rest of the exhibits remain a mystery.

Walking Tour: Brighton Beach (with sidetrips to Manhattan Beach, Sheepshead Bay and Gravesend)

2008-11-09T17:57:00.014-05:00

Brighton Beach has a long history, but its status as Little Odessa dates from just the 1970s. The relaxation of emigration laws by the Soviet Union saw around 30,000 Russian-speaking Jews settle here and they in turn attracted more Russian-speakers (though perhaps not so many ethnic Russians) after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Today, the neighborhood is one of the most authentically “foreign” in the city.

Take the Q train to Ocean Parkway, and you're at the start of Brighton Beach Avenue. There are not a lot of cultural activities in the neighborhood for the casual visitor – no museums, for example. But the key draw is definitely the vibrant street life, and the exoticness factor from hearing Russian being spoken all around you. Rather than rush from place to place, your best bet really is to just walk along the avenue and take it all in.

Brighton Beach Avenue is home to a huge number of Russian businesses. The first ones truly interesting for the casual visitor are certainly St. Petersburg Books (230 Brighton Beach Avenue) and M&I International Foods (249 Brighton Beach Avenue), and, a bit further down, Russian DVD (269 Brighton Beach Avenue). All are great spots for souvenirs and unique gifts.

Nearby is the famous supper club National (273 Brighton Beach Avenue), but for something a bit more casual try Varenichnaya (3086 Brighton 2nd Street), just around the corner.

You will certainly not want for food in Brighton Beach. Highlights further down Brighton Beach Avenue are Primorski (282 Brighton Beach Avenue), Ocean View Café (290 Brighton Beach Avenue) and Cafe Arbat (306 Brighton Beach Avenue).

At Brighton 4th Street, you can turn right and walk out to the boardwalk where there are a few Russian restaurants with outdoor seating with views of the ocean. Check out Tatiana Grill (Boardwalk at Brighton 4th Street) or Volna Restaurant (3145 Brighton Fourth Street).

Other restaurants celebrate the cuisines of other groups from the former Soviet Union, particularly Georgians, and even Moldovans – Spoon (615 Brighton Beach Avenue) bills itself as the only Moldovan restaurant in the city.

Fed and with shopping bags in hand, you can now head back to the subway station, or go a bit farther afield:

To take a peek at Manhattan Beach, continue along Brighton Beach Avenue, cross Corbin Place and continue along Oriental Boulevard. At the corner of West End Avenue is a branch of Anyway Cafe (111 Oriental Blvd. (at West End Ave), and between Oriental and Hampton on West End is Ukrainian Entertainment (132 West End Ave. Walk up to Hampton and turn left onto Corbin Place, where nearby you'll find Babi Yar Triangle, a small park with memorials to victims of the Holocaust as well as the Jasenovac World War II concentration camp in Croatia.

And if you're up for something a bit more adventurous try the border area between Sheepshead Bay and Gravesend. The Q will get you to Gravesend Neck Road station, and right there is another branch of

Anyway Cafe (1602 Gravesend Neck Road). Not far, at the intersection of Gravesend Neck Road and Sheepshead Bay Road, is a true cultural experience: the Russian Baths of NY (1200 Gravesend Neck Road), with a Soviet hockey theme and a small restaurant inside.

A little further away, at the intersection of Coney Island Avenue and Avenue X is the supper club Rasputin (2670 Coney Island Avenue at Avenue X) to cap off your evening with dinner and a show!

Walking Tour: Bedford-Stuyvesant

2008-11-09T17:30:00.007-05:00

Bedford-Stuyvesant, in north central Brooklyn, is not an obvious neighborhood to get the Slavs of New York walking tour treatment. While the neighborhood may have been home to some Poles long ago, they did not leave much of a trace. This is the district that elected the first Black woman to Congress – Shirley Chisholm in 1968 – and today it is a major center of African-American life in the city.

Our tour starts at the Classon Avenue G station (this can easily be accomplished together with a visit to Greenpoint, also serviced by the G train). Coming out of the station, walk up Classon towards Kalb Avenue, turn right onto Taaffe Place and you’ll find Sputnik (262 Taaffe Place).

The place lies slightly out of the area normally though of as Bed-Stuy, but it’s close and the burgers are highly recommended. The restaurant has a 1950s space-age theme that has as much in common with the Jetsons as it does with the Russian space program, but has a great vibe.

After a quick bite (the burgers are highly recommended!) head back down to Kalb and keep walking straight, to Nostrand. From there, two streets up is Pulaski Street, one street down is Kosciusko Street. Between Marcy and Dekalb Avenue is the Kosciusko Street Pool, a public swimming pool.

Kazimierz Pulaski (1746-1779) was a Polish nobleman who came to the American colonies and rose to the rank of General of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Pulaski does not seem to have been active in New York, but memorials to him abound across the United States. Aside from this street, the Pulaski Bridge between Greenpoint and Long Island City is also named for him. Pulaski Day is celebrated on the Sunday closest to 11 October with a massive parade down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

Kosciusko Street is named for Thaddeus Kosciuszko (1746-1817), a major figure in the American – and Polish – wars of independence. Though he is not known to have spent much time in New York (he was, however, the chief engineer at West Point, and his one-time home in Philadelphia is a National Memorial), he has also given his name to the Kosciuszko Bridge, over the Newtown Creek between Brooklyn and Queens.

Kosciuszko is also the only Slav honored in the New York City subway system - the Kosciusko Street J train station. When you’ve finished exploring the neighborhood, walk down to Lafayette Street and hop the #38 bus to catch the train!

Bohemian National Hall Grand Opening!

2008-11-02T13:04:00.015-05:00

Last night was the grand opening of the rededicated Bohemian National Hall at 321-325 East 73rd Street in the Yorkville neighborhood of Manhattan, historically a major Czech and Slovak area.

The building was built between 1895 and 1897 by architect William C. Frohne as a cultural and community center for New York’s Czech and Slovak communities. After closing in 1986 and falling into disrepair, the building was bought by the Czech government from the Bohemian Benevolent & Literary Association in 2001, and renovations were undertaken by Czech-American architect Jan Hird Pokorny, along with another Czech-American architect, Martin Holub.

As of last night, the Czech Consulate General and the Czech Center have moved into the building, from their landmark building at 1109 Madison Avenue. The exhibition space there is intended to remain open to the public as an annex to the Czech Center.

At 1109 Madison Avenue, the exhibit Check Stories of the 8 runs through 3 November, and Catherine Cabaniss – Recent Work will open on 6 November with a reception from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. That exhibit will be on view through 31 December.

The Czech Center gallery on the second floor of Bohemian National Hall is featuring an exhibit, Check Places, Memory Traces, through 19 December. The exhibit focuses on the rennovation of the building, interspersing historical artifacts that present the building in the context of Czech and Czech-American history. An extensive catalogue for the exhibit was produced and is available at the Czech Center.

Also making their home in the newly refurbished Bohemian National Hall are the Bohemian Benevolent & Literary Society and the Dvorak American Heritage Association. Through 8 November, the Bohemian Benevolent & Literary Society is featuring an exhibit Some of Us, in its third floor space. The exhibit presents some of the victims of communism in Czechoslovakia on the 60th annversary of the brutal repression of 1968's Prague Spring.

Beyond all this, the building also features a small cinema, a major ballroom and a roof terrace. A bid has recently been put out for a restaurant planned for the first floor, which is expected to be open soon.

A 1987 Cityscape column by Christopher Gray in The New York Times tells the tale of the building, and Slavs of New York recently published a walking tour of Yorkville that features the building.

On Sunday, 16 November, the Municipal Arts Society is organizing a walking tour that will take in not only Bohemian National Hall but also nearby Sokol Hall (420 East 71st Street between First Avenue and York), led by Joe Svehlak, a Czech-American urban historian. The tour meets at 11:00 a.m. at the southeast corner of First Avenue and 71st Street, and costs $15.00.

Update: Recent News

2008-11-02T12:12:00.006-05:00

As we're catching up on our blogging, here's a selection of recent news:

Stalin on Cooper Square

The Cooper Union's main building on East Seventh Street is displaying a 1952 Picasso portrait of Stalin, part of an exhibit entitled Stalin by Picasso or Portrait of Woman With Mustache by Lene Berg. The exhibit runs through 6 December. The New York Times notes that Stalin joins the statue of Lenin atop the Red Square building on East Houston Street and links to a 1997 note explaining how that statue got there.

And while you're checking out the Cooper Union exhibit, check out the Slavs of New York East Village walking tour as well!

Hot Kielbasa!

Meanwhile, in Greenpoint… Sikorski Meat Market got busted last month for serving up cocaine when customers ordered “hot kielbasa.” The Brooklyn Eagle reports that 26 defendants now face between 10 years and life in prison. And, it turns out the FBI and NYPD have a Eurasian Organized Crime Task Force operating in the city – who knew?

The Mosque?

Another controversy last month concerned an “ironic” hipster bag produced by Brooklyn Novelty that features Greenpoint, and shows the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Transfiguration labeled as “The Mosque.” New York Shitty broke the story, and the New York Post followed up with unhappy comments from clerics at the church. The bag remains on sale…

Future of Protection Cathedral

Finally, big changes are afoot at the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection (59 East 2nd Street). Curbed reports that the church, currently being considered for landmark designation, is looking to put an eight-storey residential structure above the existing building.

(Cooper Union photo: Gianni Cipriano for The New York Times; Photo of Rev. Wiaczeslaw Krawczuk from the New York Post)

Village Voice Best of 2008

2008-11-02T12:05:00.002-05:00

The recent Best of 2008 by the Village Voice included a surprising number of Slavic restaurants! Some are pretty well known, but there’s a surprising number of little-known and out-of-the-way places that are deserving a bit of attention. Here’s the rundown (click on the links for the Village Voice’s comments):

Best Bosnian: Stari Most (28-51 42nd Street, Astoria, Queens, 718-932-7683)
Best Bulgarian: Bulgara (3710 11th Street, Queens, 718-392-5373)
Best Croatian: Sutra (693A Fifth Avenue, Brooklyn, 718-499-0279)
Best Czech: Zlata Praha (28-48 31st Street, Queens, 718-721-6422)
Best Polish: Karczma (136 Greenpoint Ave. at Manhattan Ave.)
Best Russian: Gina’s Café (409 Brighton Beach Ave.)
Best Serbian: Kafana (116 Ave. C)
Best Slovak: Eurotrip (667 Fifth Ave.)and
Puffiest Piroshki: M & I International Foods (249 Brighton Beach Avenue, Brooklyn, 718-615-1011)

Somehow, they managed to omit a category for “Best Ukrainian” in a city where Ukrainian food abounds, so we’ll add our own:

Best Ukrainian: Ukrainian National Home (142 Second Ave. between 8th and 9th St.)

Happy eating!

Walking Tour: Slavs of Greenpoint

2008-09-24T21:45:00.015-04:00

Greenpoint is the preeminent Polish enclave in New York – and one of the largest outside of Poland itself. According to the 2000 Census, New York had the second-largest Polish community in the country after Chicago, and the majority seem to live in Greenpoint.

The Polish presence is so strong that even though you downloaded that Polish-language primer from GreenPunkt as a joke, it turned out to be pretty useful in the end. Kirk Semple wrote recently in The New York Times that the booming economy in Poland is luring more Poles home and may leave Polish Greenpoint a part of history. But for now, there’s still much to see – even if gentrification is an ever-increasing force in the neighborhood and the promise of a better life now has many local Poles rethinking life in their homeland.

Since they’re close, this walk actually starts in Williamsburg, at the Bedford Avenue L station. Walk Up Bedford Avenue and you’ll immediately pass both Raymond's Place (124 Bedford Avenue) and Kasia’s Restaurant (146 Bedford Avenue). Turn right along North 12th Street, walk to Driggs Avenue and you cannot miss the landmark Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Transfiguration of Our Lord (228 N.12th Street at Driggs).

From here, go back out to Bedford Avenue, keep walking north and you’ll hit Father Jerzy Popieluszko Square. Popieluszko was a priest martyred by Poland's Communist government in 1984 for supporting the emergent Solidarity movement. The monument was erected here just six years later, in 1990.

At the fork, keep right and walk along Nassau Avenue (passing the Nassau Avenue G station), and you should see a number of Polish milkbars and restaurants, including Lomzynianka (646 Manhattan Avenue), Pod Wierchami (119 Nassau Avenue) and Pyza (118 Nassau Avenue).

At Eckford Stret, turn right and walk down to Driggs Avenue to the Polish National Home (a.k.a. the Warsaw) (261 Driggs Avenue). This former ethnic social club in recent years has recast itself as a major club venue.

From here, walk down Driggs to Humbolt, where you’ll see Walesa-Solidarity Square (a.k.a. Humbolt Street) and Pope John Paul II Plaza (Driggs Street) near the center of Greenpoint’s Polish community, St. Stanislaus Kostka Church (607 Humboldt Street at Driggs).

Turn right and walk up Humbolt St. back to Nassau Avenue, where you’ll find Old Poland Bakery and Restaurant (192 Nassau Avenue). Have a snack, or continue on to Manhattan Avenue and turn right. Near Norman Avenue is Krolewskie Jadlo (694 Manhattan Ave), guarded over by a Polish knight.

At the next intersection (Manhattan and Meserole), you’ll find Club Europa (98 Meserole Avenue) to the left, and the fantastic Wedel chocolate shop (772 Manhattan Avenue) on corner to the right. If you can, make SURE to check this place out around Christmas time!

Further along Manhattan on the next block is yet another Polish restaurant, Christina's (853 Manhattan Avenue), and Polonia Bookstore (882 Manhattan Ave) where you can get books in Polish as well as books to learn Polish. If you turn right onto Greenpoint Avenue, Club Exit (149 Greenpoint Avenue, check out Clubbing in Greenpoint) is just off Manhattan Avenue.

The next intersection is with Kent Street, and just past Manhattan Avenue to the left is the former Carpatho-Rusyn Greek Catholic Church of St. Elias (149 Kent Street (Manhattan Avenue & Franklin Street) and to the right, the Polish and Slavic Center (177 Kent Street and the Polish and Slavic Credit Union (175 Kent Street), two major local institutions.

And at the next intersection, turn right on Kent Street and you’ll find Ksiegarnia Literacka (161 Java Street). This one is the classiest of Greenpoint's Polish bookstores, and even if you don't read the language it's well worth dropping in just to take a look. It's also the end of the tour - unless you're feeling adventurous and want to check out the Pulaski Bridge (keep waking up Manhattan Avenue to the end and turn right on Ash Street and hike out to McGuiness Boulevard).

When you're done, you can walk back to the Bedford Avenue L train or the Nassau Avenue G, but the closest will be the Greenpoint Avenue G station at the intersection of Greenpoint and Manhattan Avenues.

Update!

2008-09-24T12:56:00.011-04:00

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, but we’re hard at work preping walking tours of Greenpoint, Brighton Beach and Bed-Stuy (with Astoria in the pipeline). They’ll be up ASAP. Meanwhile, keep checking the Slavs of New York calendar, which is regularly updated.

First, some sad news: the Baltic & Slavic Reading Room at the New York Public Library on 5th Avenue has closed as part of a general reorganization at the NYPL, and its collection has been integrated into the main reference library. Slavic materials will still be available, just not in the one handy room.

On a happier note, Slavic cultural life in New York is alive and kicking. Russian Film Week in New York ends tonight, the Vojtěch Jasný retrospective at Anthology Film Archives (32 Second Avenue) ends tomorrow, the Blagoja Manevski & Slavco Sokolovski exhibit continues at Gallery MC (549 West 52nd Street, 8th Floor) til 30 September, and O Canada kicks off with an opening reception Thursday night.

Kick off your weekend at Folk Dance Fridays at Hungarian House (213 East 82nd Street, ongoing). Saturday sees the launch of the New York Droma Gypsy Festival (various locations, 24 September – 3 October), Spotlight Poland at the Prelude Festival (CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue), the Carpatho-Rusyn Society’s “The Lattimer Mine Massacre: An Ancestral Story From A Modern Viewpoint” (Mulberry Street Library, 10 Jersey Street), and Welcome to Ukrainian New York at the Ukrainian Institute of America (2 East 79th Street).

Saturday also sees Book and Movie Night at the Ukrainian Museum (222 East Sixth Street). Be sure to download your free pass, since it is Smithsonian Magazine’s Museum Day (free admission not just to the Ukrainian Museum – check the website for the full list of venues). Currently showing at the museum are:

Holodomor: Genocide by Famine (til 30 November)
The Mapping of Ukraine (til 12 October)
The Cossacks: Their Art & Style (til 12 October)
The Pysanka and the Rushnyk: Guardians of Life (til 30 November)

All weekend is Octoberfest at Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden (29-19 24th Avenue, Astoria), and it’s Slovene Poetry Week (various locations, 24-29 September).

Among the highlights next week are the launch of the Russian Nobility Association’s new lecture series (tickets MUST be bought in advance), and Slovene band Laibach at Irving Plaza (15 Irving Place). And next weekend sees Open House New York and the 10th annual Czechoslovak Independence Day street fair (East 83rd Street).

Walking Tour: The East Village

2008-08-10T23:01:00.030-04:00

Start at Union Square, and walk east along the northern side of 14th Street. You will soon hit a small shop, Russian Souvenirs (227 14th Street), between Second and Third Avenues. The shop has seemingly been there forever, and is a great place for traditional Russian arts and crafts, and Soviet kitsch.

Once you hit Second Avenue, you can walk north one block to Stuyvesant Square (not really part of the East Village, but close enough), where you will find the Byzantine (Ruthenian) Catholic church of St. Mary (246 East 15th Street), dating from 1964.

Diagonally across the park, at East 17th Street and Nathan D. Perlman Place is a bust of Czech composer (and Slav of New York, at least for a time in 1892) Anton Dvořák by Yugoslav sculptor Ivan Meštrović

Leaving Stuyvesant Square, the Slavic heart of the East Village unfolds southward down Second Avenue. On the west side of the street, you pass the Ukrainian Orthodox Federal Credit Union (215 Second Avenue) and then the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (203 Second Avenue), and across Second Avenue on the east side are the diner Little Poland (200 Second Avenue), and the Jozef Pilsudski Institute of America in the Polish National Home (180 Second Avenue).

One of the most important blocks for our purposes is Second Avenue between St. Mark’s Place and 9th Street. On the northeast corner you’ll find the popular Ukrainian diner Veselka Restaurant (144 Second Avenue), and right next door is the Ukrainian National Home (142 Second Avenue). Though there are no windows, the food inside is top notch. Also in the building are the Karpaty Pub, and Lys Mykyta bar.

A couple doors down is a building with an impressive medallion of Ukrainian national poet Taras Shevchenko but no other signage (136 Second Avenue). Inside are the Dibrova Social Club (CYM) and the Ukrainian Free University Foundation Inc. Across the street you’ll find the last of the great Slavic meat markets, Baczynsky’s (139 Second Avenue, note that it is closed until September 2008).

One more block down, you’ll see the small Polish diner Stage Restaurant (128 Second Avenue), and a few doors down the Ukrainian Sports Club (122 Second Avenue).

From here, cross Second Avenue and continue west along East 7th Street to find the cultural center of the local Ukrainian Community. The landmark St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church (30 East 7th Street) dates from 1977, but a much older structure, St. George Ruthenian Catholic Church, once stood on the same spot. On the north side of the street is the excellent Surma Book & Music Store (11 East 7th Street), well worth a visit.

Take the short side street Taras Shevchenko Place next to the church down to 6th Street. You’ll find St. George Academy (215 East 6th Street) on the corner, and walking east toward Second Avenue you’ll find the new Ukrainian Museum (222 East 6th Street). Check out the latest exhibits, and make sure to visit the gift shop (though the selection at Surma is much wider).

Now walk back out to Second Avenue, cross to the east side of the street and walk north a few doors. You’ll see a building with a Cyrillic inscription that is the Self Reliance Federal Credit Union (108 Second Avenue). Turn onto 7th Street and walk east towards First Avenue.

A newcomer to the Slavic world of the East Village is the Polish-themed bar Klimat (77 East 7th Street), with a wide selection of beer and wine from Slavic countries, as well as traditional Polish food. Next door is the stalwart Ukrainian bar Blue and Gold (79 East 7th Street). If you’re interested, you can continue along 7th Street and pick up the Slavs of New York Walking Tour of Alphabet City to venture further.

Otherwise, on First Avenue between 6th and 7th Street you’ll see the restaurant Polonia (110 First Avenue), and between St. Mark’s Place and 9th Street is First Avenue Pierogie & Deli (130 First Avenue).

Around the corner is the Slovenian parish of St. Cyril (62 St. Mark's Place), a reminder that the East Village historically was much more than Ukrainians, Rusyns and Poles. Earlier times also saw vibrant Bulgarian, Czech, Slovak, and, yes, Slovene communities (among others).

Walk back to Second Avenue and continue south. An interesting sight is KGB Bar (85 East 4th Street), just around the corner. The building in a previous life was the home to the Ukrainian Communist Party in the United States, but today is home not only to the bar but also the Kraine Theatre.

Further down Second Avenue is the Russian Anyway Cafe (34 East 2nd Street), and between First and Second Avenues is the Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection (59 East 2nd Street). Formerly a Russian-oriented parish, the church today takes in a wider audience. The building was originally the Mt. Olivet Memorial Church, and became an Orthodox church in 1943.

Continuing along East 2nd Street and crossing First Avenue you’ll find the small shop Arka - Ukrainian Arts (26 First Avenue). The store keeps somewhat irregular hours – right now, they’re open from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

At the end of First Avenue is Little Veselka, which operates out of a kiosk in First Park, between 1st Street and Houston Street. Seating is available in the park.

And finally, if you’re feeling adventurous, walk down Houston and you’ll find the apartment complex Red Square (250 East Houston Street) between Avenues A and B. On the roof is a statue of Lenin rescued from the last days of the Soviet Union.

For some good background on the Ukrainians of the East Village, check out "Ukrainian East Village: A Shortened Oral History of an Immigrant Neighborhood” from the New York Press back in 2001. And for something a bit more substantial, taking in Ukrainians, Poles, Russians and Carpatho-Rusyns (Carpatho-Russians), try Yuri Kapralov’s Once There Was a Village, documenting the author’s time in the neighborhood in the late 1970s.

ESB gets Olympic Fever

2008-08-09T00:14:00.004-04:00

The Summer Olympics have begun in Beijing, and the Empire State Building is getting into the spirit. The building will display the colors of 66 countries - a different one on each face of the building through the end of the Games.

Almost all of the Slavic countries are included, and will appear in the first week. The selection begins on Saturday, August 9, with the colors of the Czech Republic and Russia, and ends on Sunday, 17 August, with those of Slovakia:

Saturday, August 9

Czech Republic (Red, White, Blue), North face
Russia (Red, Blue, White), West face

Sunday, August 10

Poland (Red, Red, White), West face

Monday, August 11

Croatia (Blue, White, Red), North face

Wednesday, August 13

Slovenia (Blue, Red, White), West face
Ukraine (Yellow, Yellow, Blue), South face

Friday, August 15

Belarus (Red, Green, White), West face

Saturday, August 16

Bulgaria (Red, Green, White), West face
Serbia (White, Blue, Red), East face

Sunday, August 17

Slovakia (Red, Blue, White), West face

Photo: The New York Times City Blog

Spoke too soon: Greenpoint church to become condos

2008-08-04T15:38:00.002-04:00

No sooner do we note a resurgence of Slavic life in the East Village in the face of gentrification than we discover a new loss in Greenpoint: the Byzantine (Ruthenian) Catholic Church of Saint Elias (143-149 Kent Street) is to be converted into condos.

The church was built in 1870 and bought by the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Passaic in 1943. The congregation (originally at least) was primarily Carpatho-Rusyn. The congregation has since dispersed, and the building has sat vacant for a few years.

Curbed reported today that the building is being handled by “voracious real estate machine” Massey Knakal. The exterior has landmark status and cannot be altered, but the idea seems to be to turn the inside into condos.

Back in March, the New York Sun reported the asking price as $4.2 million. The Brooklyn Paper says that “close to 40 units” will be created in the building, at a cost of $7 million.

The Brooklyn Paper also noted that the stained glass windows and Byzantine crosses on the roof are being removed “in hopes of not scaring away potential tenants.”

The Return of the Slavs

2008-08-04T13:49:00.007-04:00

Kurowycky Meat Products used to be at 124 First Avenue between 7th and 8th Street, but it closed after 52 years on 2 June 2007.

Today, Jeremiah's Vanishing New York reports on what is happening to the building. Apparently there was interest in opening the space as a restaurant, but the local community board turned down the liquor license application and the interested restaurateurs backed out.

So now rumor has it that it will be turned into a porn store. Jeremiah comments, “When a high-end restaurant is passed over for porn, maybe it’s time to say welcome back, bad old East Village!” But it seems there is still a chance that a liquor license will be approved, and the space will open as a restaurant.

The loss of Kurowycky Meat Products followed hot on the heels of the final demise of Kiev diner, a major landmark for the local Ukrainians, the latest in a long string of Slavic establishments closing up shop in the face of gentrification.

Lately, though, the gentrification of the neighborhood has taken a new twist: the return of the Slavs.

First up was the Klimat (77 East 7th Street), near the unreconstructed Blue & Gold bar and the gentrified Café 81 (pregentrification: Verchovyna Tavern). Klimat is officially Polish, but has a beer menu and a wine list that covers most of Eastern Europe. The menu also includes pierogies, kielbasa and other Slavic East Village soul food.

And just last month, the Serbs set up an outpost in Alphabet City: Kafana (116 Avenue C, between 7th and 8th Streets). The most detailed review seems to be in the Village Voice. The menu is extensive, the food is excellent. And the Slavs are back in town.

Addendum: New York Magazine has just annouced that Veselka (144 Second Ave. and Ninth Street) is going ahead with the creation of a new location - Veselka Bowery - on East First Street, to be open next summer. Meanwhile, the original location is continuing with its planned expansion into a neighboring space on East Ninth Street.

Photos: Kurowycky from Jeremiah's Vanishing New York; Klimat from New York Magazine.

BGuide New York 2008

2008-07-28T13:16:00.003-04:00

BGuide New York 2008, featuring organizations and businesses in the New York area of interest to the local Bulgarian community is out now.

Local businesses are featured – not only Bulgarian but also Greek, Bosnian and others. Other businesses and services elsewhere of interest to Bulgarian New Yorkers are also included, along with websites and other internet-based groups (like BG-NY). This is the third edition of the guide.

The guide can be downloaded from the BGuide website for free.

Croatian Hijacker to be Paroled

2008-07-19T13:48:00.005-04:00

Sunday’s New York Times noted the parole of Zvone Busic, a Croat involved in a hijacking of a TWA flight in 1976 designed to draw attention to the Croatian independence movement (Croatian Leader of 1976 Hijacking Is Granted Parole, but Faces Deportation).

When Croatian hijackers took over TWA Flight 355 not long after its departure from La Guardia on 10 September 1976, they announced they had put five bombs on the plane and a sixth in Grand Central. As it turned out, there were none onboard, but the one in Grand Central was real – and one New York City police officer, Brian J. Murray, was killed trying to defuse it. Another officer was blinded in one eye and two more were injured.

Busic, now 62 years old, served more than 30 years, and was granted parole on Friday but will not be allowed to remain in the United States.

About a week after the hijacking, the Times ran the story, New York’s Croatians: Close-Knit and Fiery, which describes the community at that time. The article states that up to 35 percent of the 60,000 Croats in the city in the late 1970s arrived after World War II and were very politically active; they tended “to think of themselves as exiles rather than immigrants…” Many fled following the 1971 of the “Croatian Spring” reform movement in Yugoslavia, which was quickly extinguished by the Communist authorities.

Yugoslav Communist leader Josip Broz Tito died on 4 May 1980, but already on 23 March the Times published Violent Acts in U.S. Feared on Tito’s Death, which predicted “Croatian separatists, Serbian nationalists and Yugoslav security police officers” in the US and elsewhere would see Tito’s death as an opportunity to advance their causes. Croats and Serbs in New York, Chicago and elsewhere often alleged that Yugoslav security services had executed terrorist attacks to tarnish their names, complicating the situation.

An earlier hijacking by Croatian nationalists, that of JAT Flight 367, saw the plane explode above Srbska Kamenica, Czechoslovakia. Of the 28 people on board, only stewardess Vesna Vulovaic survived – having fallen 33,300 feet.

She ended up in the Guinness Book of World Records (highest fall without a parachute) and in the New York Times again in April (Serbia’s Most Famous Survivor Fears That Recent History Will Repeat Itself) in the run-up to the recent elections in Serbia.

Captive Nations Week

2008-07-17T11:57:00.001-04:00

Who’s captive now? on the website of The Economist today highlights Captive Nations Week in the United States, an annual observance since 1959 born of the Cold War. The Captive Nations Parade, a regular feature of the observance, was held on Fifth Avenue this past Sunday.

Originally, the list of “captive nations” included most if not all of Slavic Europe: “Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, Ukraine, Czechoslovakia, Latvia, Estonia, White Ruthenia, Rumania, East Germany, Bulgaria, mainland China, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, North Korea, Albania, Idel-Ural, Tibet, Cossackia, Turkestan, North Viet-Nam, and others”. Captive, of course, to Soviet Russia.

The Presidential Proclamation from last year (2008’s is, as of yet, nowhere to be found) has a very different list of “captive nations” – Belarus, Burma, Cuba, North Korea, Syria, Iran, Sudan, and Zimbabwe. Local Belarusans were out in force, as the photos from ZMBA attest.

At the Crossroads: Slovenian Cinema

2008-07-15T13:41:00.002-04:00

At the Crossroads: Slovenian Cinema, the first New York retrospective of film from Slovenia, kicks off at the Walter Reade Theatre at Lincoln Center tomorrow. Thirteen films, spanning over fifty years, are on the schedule. The festival continues through next Tuesday (22 July).

Highlights include the classic Vesna (Frantisek Cap, Yugoslavia, 1953; 93m), the Yugonostalgic Outsider (Andrej Kosak, Slovenia, 1996; 100m) and Sweet Dreams / Sladke sanje (Saso Podgorsek, Slovenia, 2001; 110m), and last year’s biggest domestic hit in Slovenia, Rooster’s Breakfast / Petelinji zajtrk (Marko Nabersnik, Slovenia/Croatia, 2007; 125m).

Screenings are $11.00 (senior, child and Film Society members all get discounts), and a Series Pass (one person, five screenings) is available for $40.00.

Several screenings will feature an introduction by Joseph Valencic, a Cleveland-based author and Slovene film commentator. Director Marko Nabersnik will also be on hand for both screenings of Rooster’s Breakfast for Q&A sessions.

NYC warm up for Guca 2008

2008-07-07T17:27:00.006-04:00

July is promising to be huge for Balkan music fans – two of the biggest names are in town for multiple shows, rounded out with a film and dance lessons too.

First up is Sarajevo-born Goran Bregovic, with shows at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. Last year, Bregovic made his New York debut at Avery Fisher Hall in a single sold-out show, and organizers this year have wisely scheduled two shows, on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Next up, get a taste of the famous Balkan brass festival in the central Serbian village of Guca with Milivoj Ilic’s documentary, simply called Guca, at the second annual New York Roma / Gypsy Human Rights Film Festival at Mehanata (113 Ludlow Street, near Delancey). The film screens twice: Friday, 11 July, at 9:15 p.m. and again on Tuesday, 15 July, at 9:30 p.m. (And check the festival schedule for a full list of other films and accompanying events – it runs from 8 to 15 July).

The film features Serbia’s most famous Roma trumpeter, Boban Markovic, and is a fitting start to Markovic’s visit to New York.

On Wednesday, 16 July, at 7:30 p.m., Markovic will play Midsummer Night Swing at Lincoln Center, with a lesson in Balkan dancing by Michael Ginsburg at 6:30 to enhance the experience.

Markovic, his son Marko and their orkestar then move downtown to Drom (85 Avenue A between 5th and 6th Streets) for a show with Frank London Klezmer Brass All Stars at 11:00 p.m. The two groups will perform their 2002 collaboration, Brotherhood of Brass (which also featured Egypt’s Hasaballa Brass Band).

The Boban i Marko Markovic Orkestar plays Drom one more time, on Wednesday, 23 July, at 9:00 p.m. in a solo outing that will surely be a highlight of the summer.

And not far from Drom is a new Serbian restaurant, Kafana (116 Avenue C between 7th and 8th Streets), that provides the tastes to go with the sound.

If all the Balkan brass gets you hooked, there’s still time to make it to the 2008 edition of the Guca festival itself – it takes place from 6 to 10 August.

Walking Tour: Czech and Slovak Yorkville

2008-07-06T13:37:00.013-04:00

Czechs and Slovaks have a long tradition in New York City - Czech immigrants began arriving to the city after 1848, and Slovaks soon following after 1870. By the late 1870s, enough immigrants had settled on the Lower East Side for Avenue B to referred to as “Czech Boulevard.”

In the late 1890s as Lower East Side Germans migrated north to Yorkville (and particularly following the General Slocum Disaster in 1904), other Central European groups slowly followed. A new face of Yorkville emerged, with the area around 86th Street home to a strong German population, 79th Street home to the Hungarians, and 72nd Street the center of Czech and Slovak community life.

The golden age of the Czechs and Slovaks in Yorkville faded in the 1930s, as more and more moved to the suburbs. Even as late as the 1990s, a number of Czech bars, restaurants and shops could be found along First Avenue between 73rd and 74th Street, but little has survived. What remains, however, are a number of monumental buildings well worth a look .

Start at the southern edge of Slavic Yorkville, at the Slovak Catholic Church of St. John Nepomucene (#1., 411 East 66th Street at First Avenue). The parish was founded by Slovak immigrants, and began at St. Bridget on Tompkins Square Park around 1891. By 1895, the parish had raised enough funds to build its own church, St. John Nepomucene on East 4th Street.

As the Slovak community moved northward in Manhattan, the parish moved to East 57th Street briefly, and settled into its current home on East 66th Street in 1925.

Nearby is one of the few remaining Czech or Slovak owned businesses the area, Krtil Funeral Home (#2, 1270 First Avenue at 70th Street), opened in 1885.

Around the corner is the landmark building, Sokol New York Hall (#3., 420 East 71st Street between First Avenue and York). Built in 1896 by architect Julius Franke (who also designed the building that was later the site of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911), the building continues today to serve as an athletic club, with a full schedule of classes as well as cultural events and a library and archive.

Back on First Avenue, a few blocks north and around the corner is

Jan Hus Presbyterian Church (#4., 347 East 74th Street between First and Second Avenues), founded in 1885 by Czech Protestants. The church is home to the Neighborhood House, formerly a social center for local Czechs and today a social center for the entire neighborhood, Czech or otherwise.

Perhaps the most significant building remaining in the area – and a beacon for the future of Czech and Slovak Yorkville – is the Bohemian National Hall (#5., 321 East 73rd Street between First and Second Avenues), currently being renovated and completely disguised by scaffolding.

The hall was built between 1895 and 1897 as ground zero for Czech and Slovak community life in Yorkville. Designed by architect William C. Frohne, the building replaced the original Bohemian National Hall in the East Village, at 533 East 5th Street. (Not much is known about Frohne, but he did design the spectacular German Shooting Club at 12 St. Mark’s Place in 1888). Though the building remained in Czech hands, as the community began its exodus to the suburbs more and more of it was rented out to others and by 1986 the city had declared it unfit for occupancy.

The Czech government stepped in to rescue the building, and results are already being seen. The façade has already been completed (though is currently hidden under scaffolding), by Czech-American architect Jan Hird Pokorny. The third floor performance space is also completed, and is periodically used for events (watch the Czech Center website for announcements). More renovations are underway by another Czech-American architect, Martin Holub.

When complete, the Bohemian National Hall will be home to the Consulate General of the Czech Republic, the Czech Center and the Bohemian Benevolent & Literary Association, as well as a Dvorak Room, a restaurant and performance and events spaces.

The tour of Yorkville essentially ends here, though there are a few other places nearby that could be included: the Czech furniture design shop Atelier of Prague (970 Lexington Avenue between 70th and 71st Street) is just on the western edge of the old neighborhood, and the current center of Czech life in Manhattan, the Czech Center (1109 Madison Avenue at 83rd Street) is a short walk to the northwest.

Any Czech tour of New York, however, must end across the river from Yorkville, in Astoria at the landmark beer hall and community center Bohemian Hall (29-19 24th Avenue). As the Czech and Slovak community began migrating from Yorkville to the suburbs, Astoria was the first stop thanks to the ferry that used to run from a pier at East 72nd Street across to another at the end of Astoria Boulevard before the Queensboro bridge went up. Today, you have to take a taxi or a bus or subway, but it’s a perfect end to a day exploring Czech and Slovak New York City.

Field Trip: Cedar Rapids

2008-06-24T21:43:00.004-04:00

The recent flooding in the Midwest has sadly affected a major landmark in Slavic America – the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Set up as a local historical institution to document the area’s Czechoslovak immigration, the museum was recognized in 1992 by Congress as a national institution. A new landmark museum and library building was inaugurated in 1995, with US President Bill Clinton, Czech President Vaclav Havel and Slovak President Michal Kovac in attendance.

Founded in 1974, the museum collection includes Czech and Slovak folk art and costumes, fine art, political history materials, maps and military objects, and a Czech immigrant’s house from 1880 was moved to the museum’s grounds, restored and opened to the public. The library includes a wide variety of books and archival materials about Czech and Slovak history and culture.

Some of the museum’s collection was able to be stored safely before the flood hit, but the scope of the flooding was unanticipated and the museum ended up under 15 feet of water. In Cedar Rapids, some 25,000 out of a population of 120,000 have been left homeless. Metropolis has more information about damage to the museum as well as to other Cedar Rapids architectural landmarks. Radio Praha also has an article, with audio.

The Czech government has announced it will donate $1 million towards restoring the museum, and the museum has also established a Flood Relief Fund to help towards its recovery efforts. Gifts may be made online at the museum’s website, at any Wells Fargo Bank location in the US or by mailing a check to: National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library, 30 Sixteenth Avenue SW, Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52404.

Zlín in New York

2008-05-22T14:31:00.003-04:00

The small, trendy, Czech town of Zlín is getting the star treatment this summer around town thanks to the Zlín in New York program that kicked off last week.

Through 31 July, catch the exhibit “Fresh Design - Zl ín in New York” at the Czech Center, which showcases original works created by students of the Faculty of Multimedia communications at Tomas Bata University in Zlín.

And through 30 June, the Czech Center is also hosting “CI.CZ – Corporate Identity in the Czech Republic 1990 – 2007,” which also touches on Zlín.

On 12 June, Prague Kolektiv (143-B Front Street, DUMBO, Brooklyn), will host a screening from the Šumná města documentary series focusing on the architecture of Zlín (7:00 p.m., Free).

Unfortunately, a few other Zlín-related programs have already passed, but the two exhibits will at least give a taste of the town that the New York Times once called “an architectural gold mine” and the Czech Center bills as “the local essence of a trendy small bohemian city”

Borderlanders: Finding Their Voices

2008-04-14T08:43:00.005-04:00

Going on right now is the Borderlanders: Finding Their Voices festival at various venues in the East Village and Lower East Side, organized by the Polish Cultural Institute and the Borderland Foundation of Sejny, Poland. The idea is to show the multicultural diversity of Poland, and the work being done today to help preserve it.

TONIGHT (14 April) is Café Europa, An Evening of Arts and Letters on the Theme of Borderlanders at the Bowery Poetry Club (308 Bowery Street, between Houston and Bleecker) at 8:00 p.m., $10.00.

Hosted by Krzysztof Czyzewski, president of the Borderland Foundation, with Central European writers who now live in New York: Vyt Bakaitis, Carmen Firan, Anna Frajlich, Eva Hoffman, Vasyl Machno. Plus, Yiddish and Slavic music and songs by Michael Alpert.

NOW THROUGH 20 APRIL, the play Sejny Chronicles is at La MaMa E.T.C. (74 East 4th Street, between Second Avenue and Bowery). Performances run Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m., with matinees on Sundays at 2:30 p.m, $25.00 ($20.00 students and seniors).

WEDNESDAY (16 April) and THURSDAY (17 April), Films about the Borderlands are screening at 8:00 p.m. at Millennium Film Workshop (66 East 4th Street), $8.00.

Wednesday (total, 89 minutes):

I Had a Dream About Hana (Snila mi sie Hana, 30 min., dir. Mikolaj Wawrzeniuk, Jerzy Leszczynski, TVP Bialystok 1999). A film director invited by the Borderland Foundation examines the Belarussian-Polish-Jewish borderland and a multicultural town in the Podlasie region.
Life Stories, Listened To (Losy posluchane, 24 min., dir. Malgorzata Sporek-Czyzewska, Wojciech Szroeder, youth from the Sejny Theater, The Borderland Center film studio, Sejny 2000). Film shot during a trip by young people from the Sejny Theater to Polish villages in the Lida region in Belarus, where they interviewed people about their identity and history.
The Path of Polish Muslims (Prowadz nas prosta droga, 35 min., dir. Waldemar Janda, TVP3 Krakow 2005). A documentary about Polish believers in Islam, mostly Tatars from the Podlasie region and Gdansk, that poses the question whether their ability to co-exist with the Polish and Christian majority, sustained for 600 years, is a value that could become more widely accepted, or whether a stronger Arab current will come to dominate.

Thursday (total, 80 minutes):

Sejny Bridge Builders (Sejnenscy budowniczowie mostow, 33 min., dir. Waldemar Janda, TVP 3 Krakow 2006). A film about the Borderland Center’s activities that attempts to answer the question whether a patriotic education can accommodate education for multiculturalism. In a borderland region where, as painter Andrzej Strumillo puts it, the measure of one’s patriotism is one’s enmity towards one’s neighbor, various social projects have revealed the need of both mainstream Poles and minority communities for honest dialogue. Thanks to projects like Sejny Chronicles performance, people have started to acknowledge their multicultural roots again.
We Go and We Go Without Knowing the Way (Ideme, ideme, drazki ne znajeme..., 27 min. 45 sec., dir. Krzysztof Krzyzanowski, Waldemar Janda, TVP Krakow 1994). Dispersed after the war to the four corners of the earth, Lemkos were not to exist anymore, their former houses and temples in the Beskid Niski mountains of southeast Poland abandoned, their fields overgrown. For over a dozen years, every July the Lemkos gather again in a forest clearing in Zdynia near Gorlice to sing, talk, pray together in their mother tongue, and be themselves.
Andy or Andrej (Andy czy Andrej, 20 min., dir. and screenplay: Krzysztof Krzyżanowski, vocals: Julia Doszna; commentary: Olena Duc-Fajfer; TVP Krakow 2001). The film is a search for the family roots of Andy Warhol. In 1913 Andrej Warchola, a Lemko-Rusyn, emigrated from Eastern Slovakia to seek his fortune in the U.S. His son became the most famous pop-artist in the world. The search for Andy Warhol’s roots also reveals how his career and worldwide fame influenced today’s Lemko-Rusyns in the Polish-Slovak borderland.

WEDNESDAY (16 April) will be a conversation with Krzysztof Czyzewski, president of the Borderland Foundation, Between the Past and the Future: Memory Work in the Borderlands, at the New School for Social Research (79 Fifth Avenue, entrance on 16th Street, Room 1009), Free

Sixth NY-Bulgarian Film Festival

2008-04-04T22:05:00.002-04:00

The sixth annual New York Bulgarian Film Festival opened tonight at Scandinavia House, and runs through 19 April with a schedule featuring fifteen feature films from Bulgaria and a selection of shorts from around the Balkans.

Tomorrow (Saturday), the festival has four screenings, including Investigation and Hindemith.

Investigation screens at 7:00 p.m. and director Iglika Trifonova will be on hand for a post-screening Q&A.

Hindemath have its world premier at the festival at 9:00 p.m., and on hand will be the cinematographer/producer Dimitur Gotchev.

The festival continues next weekend, with screenings on Friday and Saturday, and then again the following Friday and Saturday, when the festival will close.

Check out the festival website for more information and to buy tickets.

Scandinavia House is located at 58 Park Avenue, at 38th Street in Manhattan.

Fieldtrip: Jordanville, NY

2008-03-22T11:39:00.015-04:00

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, Metropolitan Laurus, was buried yesterday at Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, near Cooperstown and Utica in central New York State.

The highlight of his career was perhaps his leadership in reunifying the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia with the Patriarchate in Moscow last year.

Holy Trinity Monastery has an interesting story itself. Holy Trinity Monastery was founded in 1928 by Russian emigres living in Jordanville. The community was helped by another Russian emigre, Igor Sikorsky, of aviation fame.

A second strand of the monastery’s history traces its beginnings to a group of monks who fled the Pochaev Monastery in Ukraine in the face of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. They ended up in the Carpatho-Rusyn village of Ladomirova (Ladomyorova), today in Slovakia.

Metropolitan Laurus, then known as Vasyl’ Shkurla, was born in Ladomirova on 1 January 1928, and was active in the monastic community at an early age. He later joined the community, and fled with it when the Soviets occupied Czechoslovakia in World War II. The community ended up at the monastery in Jordanville, where it remains today. The current monastery church is a replica of the one at the Ladomirova monastery.

An interesting side note is that when the monks fled Slovakia and landed in New York they brought with them a Cyrillic printing press originally donated by the Carpathian Student Union in Prague with the help of Rusyn émigrés in the United States. The press printed a major inter-war newspaper aimed at Carpatho-Rusyns in Czechoslovakia and Poland, Pravoslavnaia Karpatskaia Rus’(Orthodox Carpatho-Rus’, 1928-1944) that continues to this day as Pravoslavnaia Rus’ (Orthodox Rus’, 1947-present).

Printing remains a major activity at the monastery. Elsewhere on the monastery grounds is the Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary.

Holy Trinity Monastery was named one of the “Seven to Save” by the Preservation League of New York State in the face of a large-scale wind power project that would see the surrounding area planted with nearly 50 wind turbines.

A full history of the monastery can be found in three parts on the ROCOR website: one, two, three. And a video report about Metropolian Laurus, as well as about the funeral, can be found on the website of Russia Today.

More photos:

Rusyn Language Study Abroad

2008-03-05T22:13:00.004-05:00

The Pittsburgh-based Carpatho-Rusyn Society is sponsoring a Lemko-Rusyn Language Study Abroad trip to the Lemko region of southeastern Poland from 10 to 27 July. Registration is underway now, and since only 15 people can take part, act now if you’re interested.

This first-ever Rusyn-language learning program for foreigners in Europe is being held in Gorlice, Poland, at the historic Ruska Bursa building. Classes are held there regularly for locals, but this is the first time instruction will be geared towards English speakers.

The cost is estimated at $2800, which includes round-trip airfare from Newark to Krakow, transportation between Krakow and Gorlice, hotels, most meals, all materials including take-home learning materials on CD, as well as participation in the annual Lemko Vatra festival in Zdynia.

If interested, send an email to lemkotour@c-rs.org as soon as possible.