PAHA Awards and Awardees for 2019 Presented at the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York, 1/4/2020

PAHA Awardees with the Board of Directors 

During a well-attended Awards Ceremony held at the elegant ballroom of the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York, on Saturday, January 4, 2020, the following Awards were presented by PAHA's President Dr. Anna Muller and PAHA's Vice President, Dr. Marta Cieslak, assisted by Dr. Pien Versteegh, PAHA's Executive Director.

Marek Skulimowski, the KF President/Executive Director

The ceremony started from a welcome by Marek Skulimowski, President and Executive Director of the Kosciuszko Foundation, expressing delight about this renewed collaboration and hope for a variety of joint projects between PAHA and the KF in the future. Prof. Neal Pease, First Vice President of PAHA, discussed a history of the collaboration between PAHA and the Kosciuszko Foundation, and Prof. Anna Muller presented PAHA's achievements in the past year, and the role of PAHA Awards and Awardees in Polish and Polish American culture.

OSKAR HALECKI PRIZE FOR GRAZYNA KOZACZKA

Oskar Halecki Prize recognizes an important book or monograph on the Polish experience in the United States. The award was presented to Grażyna J. Kozaczka, Writing the Polish American Woman in Postwar Ethnic Fiction (Ohio University Press, 2019)

Kozaczka's book investigates the construction of Polish American womanhood in the fiction by Polish American authors of the second half of the 20th and early 21th centuries. It demonstrates how Polish American women writers have responded to the gender expectations of their communities, societies, and nations and how their heroines sought empowerment. One of the reviews calls it a unique scholarly work that "positions ethnic gender construction and performance at an intersection of social class, race, and sex."

Prof. Kozaczka with her Award

SWASTEK PRIZE FOR STEPHEN M. LEAHY

The Swastek Prize is awarded annually for the best article published during the previous year in a given volume of Polish American Studies, the journal of the Polish American Historical Association. This award, established in 1981, is named in honor of Rev. Joseph V. Swastek (1913-1977), the editor of the Polish American Studies for many years, and a past president of PAHA. It was presented to Stephen M. Leahy for his article “George Wallace and the Myth of the White Ethnic Backlash in Milwaukee, 1958-1964” (PAS 75, no. 2, Autumn 2018)

While the PAS Editorial Board members valued all of the contributions to volume 75, Stephen M. Leahy’s article “George Wallace and the Myth of the White Ethnic Backlash in Milwaukee, 1958-1964” (PAS 75, no. 2, Autumn 2018) has been selected for the Swastek Award for the best article in the 2018 volume of Polish American Studies. Leahy's article is a timely and careful analysis of the heated political atmosphere during the Civil Rights era. Leahy effectively questions the sweeping thesis that working-class Polish Americans were particularly receptive to Wallace's racist message in Milwaukee, WI. Leahy’s article is a fine example of meticulous research, which challenges a long-established opinion by cross-checking and triangulating a variety of sources. It offers a compelling political microhistory and it should have an impact on the historiography of race relations in twentieth-century America.

SKALNY CIVIC ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

Skalny Civic Achievement Awards honor individuals or groups who advance PAHA's goals of promoting research and awareness of the Polish American experience and/or have made significant contributions to Polish or Polish American community and culture.

TEOFIL LACHOWICZ is a historian, archivist, journalist, and teacher with a long list of projects that all contribute to the popularization and preservation of Polish and Polish American experience in the US. Mr. Lachowicz is a historian and history teacher but his work includes also a wide variety of activities in the Polonia community. He has been an archivist at the Polish Army Veterans Association in America since 1998 and is also editor of the monthly "Weteran." He is an author of several works on military Polish American history and has also contributed to Polish American newspapers.

Dr. JOHN GUZLOWSKI, a former PAHA Board Member and Awardee, has published in a wide range of genres: poetry, prose, literary criticism, reviews, fiction and nonfiction. Born in a refugee camp in Germany after World War II, Guzlowski came to America with his family as a Displaced Person in 1951. His parents were Polish slave laborers in Nazi Germany during the war. In much of his work, Guzlowski remembers and honors the experiences and ultimate strength of these survivors. His critically acclaimed 2016 volume of poetry Echoes of Tattered Tongues is as beautiful as it is harrowing. He has also been able to weave the Polish American experience in his 2018 novel Suitcase Charlie. In his very frequent public speaking engagements with audiences of all sorts (academic, non-academic, all ages), he is promoting the experience of Polish immigrants in the post-WWII years and the generations that followed.

Geoffrey Gyrisco and Michael Retka.

SPENCER HOWE, STANISLAW POSZWA, GEOFFREY GYRISCO and MICHAEL RETKA are a team of scholars and activists spanning MN and WI who conduct research and community engagement efforts regarding the work of early 20th century Polish-American architect VICTOR CORDELLA, active in Minnesota. Fr. Spencer Howe and Fr. Stanislaw Poszwa represent the Holy Cross Church in Minneapolis, MN. Dr. Geoffrey Gyrisco is a resident of Madison, WI and Michael Retka resides in Little Falls, MN.   Over the past two years they have come together to document Cordella’s extensive body of architectural design in Minnesota and Wisconsin and assess his lasting impact and influence on two dozen mostly Polish Roman and Eastern Rite Catholic communities. Cordella was a graduate of the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts who immigrated to the US in 1893 and was in active architectural practice between the 1890s and mid-1930s. The list of the team’s achievements includes preservation, popularization, and academic efforts that highlight, investigates, and brings to the general and academic audiences Cordella’s legacy.

Norman Kelker accepts his award

AMICUS POLONIAE AWARD FOR DR. NORMAN KELKER AND JOANN FALLETTA

The Amicus Poloniae Award recognizes significant contributions enhancing knowledge of Polish and Polish-American heritage by individuals not belonging to the Polish-American community.

Dr. NORMAN E. KELKER has had a long career as a microbiologist. For many years now Dr. Kelker has been an active member of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America and a supporter of the Kosciuszko foundation. His interests in history and family history resulted in his many presentations. Most recently, Dr. Kelker presented his research on Ernestine Rose, a Polish Born Leader of the American Suffrage Movement and Herbert Hoover’s support for Poland. Dr. Kelker is a long-time friend of Poland and Polonia.

Dr. Kelker with his Award

 The second Amicus Poloniae Awardee was JOANN FALLETTA.  Ms. JoAnn Falletta, Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra received the award for continuous support of Polish and Polish American composers and musicians. Falletta has led numerous projects and events that showcased Polish and Polish American composers as well as invited Polish musicians to play with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. 

PULA DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD FOR DR. IWONA KORGA

James Pula Distinguished Service Award is given to a member of PAHA who has rendered valuable and sustained service to the organization.

Dr.  Iwona Korga, Executive Director of the Pilsudski Institute was nominated by several individuals and an excerpt from one nomination reads as follows: "For years she has been promoting Polish history and culture though both research and public programming as Executive Director of the Piłsudski Institute and more recently as a member of the Board of Directors of the Polish & Slavic Federal Credit Union."  Dr Ewa Hoffman Jędruch, who is a Board Member of the Pilsudski Institute received the award on behalf of Dr. Korga.

Dr. Hoffman Jedruch with Dr. Korga's Award.

ZURAWSKI PRIZE FOR BEST BOOK OR ARTICLE ON POLISH AMERICANS ON SCREEN

Joseph W. Zurawski Prize is awarded for the best article or book published on the topic of Polish American screen images in films or television presented to audiences in the United States and released by American companies.

Sonia Caputa for "Stereotypes of Polish American Women in American TV Series" from volume Histories of Laughter and Laughter in History, (ed. by Rafał Borysławski, Justyna Jajszczok, Jakub Wolff, Alicja Bemben), Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016.

Dr. Puchalski with his Grant Certificate

YOUNG SCHOLAR TRAVEL GRANTS FOR  AVRAMCHUK and  PUCHALSKI

The Young Scholar Travel Grant ($500) supports a graduate student's/young scholar's participation in the PAHA upcoming annual conference.

 OLEKSANDR AVRAMCHUK is a Ph.D. student at the University of Warsaw. He is currently writing a doctoral dissertation on the vision of Ukraine in Polish émigré historical thought in the United States during the Cold War. The scope of his academic interests ranges from Polish-Ukrainian relations to modern nation-building processes in Central and Eastern Europe. He is an author of several scholarly articles and essays on Polish, Ukrainian and Russian historical thought in the 20 th century, as well as the American attitudes toward Eastern Europe.

Dr. Puchalski and Mr. Avramchuk with their Grant Certificates.

DR. PIOTR PUCHALSKI of the University of Wisconsin-Madison at the time of award. Dr. Piotr Puchalski was born in Warsaw, Poland and moved to New York City at the age of thirteen. He attended high school in Brooklyn and earned Bachelor’s degrees in European Studies and French from New York University. When Piotr applied for this award, he was still a Ph.D. candidate in modern European history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Since then, not only did he defend his doctoral dissertation but also accepted the position of assistant professor of history at the Institute of History and Archival Studies of the Pedagogical University of Cracow, where he currently lives.

The Awards Committee has decided not to award the Creative Arts Prize and the Haiman Award this year.

Attendees before the ceremony

Dr. Pien Versteegh

Dr. Neal Pease

Dr. Anna Muller and Dr. Marta Cieslak Present the Awards

 Geoffrey Gyrisco and Michael Retka 

Dr. Maja Trochimczyk 

Easter Workshop at the Pilsudski Institute and Our Favorite Things

  

Easter Workshop at the Pilsudski Institute 

On March 24, at 3 p.m. the Pilsudski Institute of America invites all children with parents to an Easter Art Workshop dedicated to making Easter Palms.  Under the guidance of Jola Szczepkowska the workshop's participants will make their own, traditional Easter Palms used in liturgy on Palm Sunday (a week before Easter), and as Easter decorations at home.   Registration: 212-505-9077 or office@pilsudski.org. The institute is located at: 138 Greenpoint Ave., Brooklyn NY 11222.

These hand-made Easter Palms may become, in time, cherished objects that are associated with fond memories of family, childhood, togetherness, celebration... in other words, Objects that Speak.

Objects that Speak

The Polish American Historical Association has designated a portion of its website to documenting Polish American experience through objects brought by immigrants from Poland and cherished by their descendants.  Moderated by Prof. Anna Muller, this section includes already several such objects - photographs accompanied by stories - and we are always looking for more. In the site's introduction, Prof. Muller writes:

Old furniture, books, dolls, pottery, so much old stuff… all these various objects encircle us and take up crucial living space. Do they add anything to our lives? We often treat them as an addition to our lives, as a sign of prestige and possession. They tell the story of who we are, the hobbies we have, sometimes the fear or ambition that consume us. Perhaps they simply pollute the space around un with unnecessary memories of various moments we experienced, people we used to know, journeys we took or only dreamt of taking, things that symbolize fulfilled or unfulfilled potential or dreams. They do participate in our lives, they are elements of material culture, they help sustain our social lives, but do they perhaps also live separate lives from us?

Here are some pictures and stories gathered so far.  To submit your idea please contact
Prof. Muller (anmuller@umich.edu), or
PAHA Executive Director, Dr. Pien Versteegh (pien.v@polishamericanstudies.org), or
PAHA Communications Director, Dr. Maja Trochimczyk (maja@polishamericanstudies.org).

SEWING MACHINE AND SHEEP WITH PYSANKY
Theresa Veltri (with the help of Anna Muller and Talylorann Lenze)

A Singer sewing machine may have been a staple of many 1900s women’s households, but for Janina Andrzejczak, it was also a way to maintain and pass on culture. “My mom used to make all of our Polish dance costumes,” the Janina’s daughter, Theresa Veltri remembers. “Three of the four of us kids used to take Polish dance lessons every Saturday, ending the year each May with a dance recital.  We were even in the Hamtramck Parade one year with our Polish costumes.” [...]

The clothing wasn’t Janina’s only effort to pass on her Polish culture to her children. “My mom… was also a fantastic cook always making traditional Polish food like pierogi, gołąbki, soups, and other foods…. She would always cook lamb for Easter,” Veltri notes. [...] Around Easter, Veltri remembers always seeing an Easter lamb statuette surrounded with pysanky. She and her siblings didn’t paint the colorful eggs themselves but were aware that the delicate art came from Poland.
To read more, visit PAHA Website.

STORY OF THE MORTAR AND PESTLE
Czesław Blechinger (with the help of Anna Muller and Talylorann Lenze)

During World War II, young Czeslaw Blechinger and his family were brought to Germany as forced laborers. They departed from Otynia Poland, a town south of Lwow, with only essentials and a decoratively wrought mortar and pestle.  The two brass pieces were intended to prove Blechinger's father’s technical craftsmanship competence, so they were not used on a daily basis. Blechinger explains that his father had “worked in the shop area, where railroad cars were maintained. A foundry was also in the shop, that’s where the mortar and pestle were made.”

When WWII ended, the mortar and pestle came with the Blechinger family to the displaced persons (DP) camp, called Bergen-Belsen. It was a former Nazi concentration camp where thousands of prisoners died including Margo and Anne Frank. ... To read more, visit the PAHA Website.


THE WEDDING RING
Karen Walczyk Prescott

The 10K gold ring inlaid with rubies and pearls has the initial J inscribed on it. It traveled from Przasnysz, Poland in 1908 to the United States, shortly after my grandmother, Henryka Kolakowska Bulawa was born. Originally the ring had belonged to her great-grandmother, Jozefa. Henryka's mother, (Jozefa's daughter), had returned to Poland after only a year of lliving in the US in order to honor her beloved mother's death. Jozefa's will stipulated that the ring would be passed on to her first grandchild, whoever that might be. Already pregnant, Stanislawa would save the ring for Henryka and bring it back to the US....
To read more,visit the PAHA Website.