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September 9, 2005

Lech Walesa Launches Exhibit at Union Square Honoring the Role of U.S. Press That Covered the Solidarity Movement as part of the 25th Anniversary of Solidarity celebrations in New York City - Polish Cultural Institute in New York and Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in cooperation with NYC Parks & Recreation and International Freedom Center present historic exhibit

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and former President of Poland Lech Walesa will launch a special outdoor exhibit "Poland on the Front Page" to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the birth of the Solidarity Movement at 11 am, September 28, 2005 in the southwest corner of New York's historic Union Square. The opening ceremony will bring together people who significantly supported the Solidarity Movement - among them former NYC Mayor Edward Koch - and will pay tribute to U.S. journalists who covered the Solidarity Movement including former New York Times correspondents in Poland, John Darnton and Michael Kaufman, and former Washington Post correspondent, Michael Dobbs - the authors of many stories presented at the exhibition.

The exhibit - the focal point of a city-wide celebration including the only public-speaking engagement by President Walesa at the 92nd Street Y, a major panel at the New School University, and a CUNY-TV documentary broadcast - is presented by the Polish Cultural Institute, the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in co-operation with the International Freedom Center and New York City Parks & Recreation. The exhibition will be available to the public from September 28 to October 27.

Solidarity's first victory - the Gdansk Shipyard agreements with the Communist government on August 31, 1980 - not only established the first independent trade union in the Soviet Bloc, but also triggered a chain of events that led to the collapse of Communism throughout Eastern Europe. The exhibition tells the story of Solidarity's struggle for freedom through the front pages from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post; covers of Time and Newsweek, as well as press photographs by Erazm Ciolek, from the "Polish decade" of 1979-1989. The front pages, through their blend of bold headlines and dramatic photographs, make graphic a turning-point in world history as seen through American eyes.

Given inspiration by Gandhi's non-violent strategies and those of - among others - the American civil rights movement, Solidarity's victory clearly led, in turn, to the Fall of the Berlin Wall, the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, and, most recently, served as a pattern for a non-violent Orange Revolution in Ukraine. The exhibition is a celebration of freedom and human rights movement and pays homage to the role of press in major conflicts.



SOLIDARITY'S 25th ANNIVERSARY
For complete information, please visit www.polishculture-nyc.org


Thursday, September 22, 2005, 8 am, 2 pm, 8 pm and Saturday, September 24, 2005, 4 pm
CITIZENS: An American Film Portrait of Polish Solidarity
CUNY TV, channel 75 (NYC; check local cable listings)

A documentary film by Richard W. Adams on human dimensions of the Solidarity movement and its creation of a thriving civil society within a totalitarian state (U.S., 1986, 58 min.); followed by one-hour discussion on Solidarity's legacy hosted by Prof. Jerry Carlson, director of CUNY-TV City Cinematheque, with guests: Michael T. Kaufman, New York Times correspondent in Poland 1984-1987, author of Mad Dreams, Saving Graces. Poland: A Nation in Conspiracy, as well as a biography of George Soros; Prof. Elzbieta Matynia, New School University; and Dr. Andrzej W. Tymowski, American Council of Learned Societies. Presented by CUNY-TV and the Polish Cultural Institute in New York


Tuesday, September 27, 2005, 8 pm
LECH WALESA speaks with James F. Hoge, Editor-in-Chief, Foreign Affairs
92nd Street Y, Kaufmann Concert Hall, 1395 Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street, NYC 10128
Tickets: $50.00, $25.00
Directions: Subway: 4, 5, 6 to 86th Street; 6 to 96th Street. Bus: M101, M102, M103 run north on Third Ave and south on Lexington Ave; M1, M2, M3, M4, X90 run north on Madison Ave. From the West Side, M86 or M96 to Lexington Ave.

In honor of the 25th anniversary of Poland's Solidarity movement, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Lech Walesa discusses the fall of communism and his experiences as the leader of Solidarity and President of Poland. Presented by the 92nd Street Y, the Polish Cultural Institute in New York, and the Lech Walesa Institute


September 28 - October 27, 2005 POLAND ON THE FRONT PAGE - exhibition
Manhattan's Union Square, southwest corner, near the statue of Gandhi
Directions by subway: 4, 5, 6, L, N, Q, R, W to 14th Street / Union Square

This outdoor exhibition features blow-ups of front pages from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post that highlight Solidarity; as well as covers of Time, Newsweek, and the New York Times Magazine, and press photographs by Erazm Ciolek from the so-called "Polish decade" of 1979-1989. In this period, the three aforementioned dailies devoted over 2,000 front page stories to Poland. The exhibition is curated by Ewa Zadrzynska. The exhibition will be mounted in Union Square, along the southwest pathway leading to the subway entrance at 14th Street, near the statue of Gandhi, and the pavement plaques commemorating events of the union movement in NYC. Presented by the Polish Cultural Institute and the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in co-operation with New York City Parks & Recreation and International Freedom Center. Special thanks to the Lech Walesa Institute.


Tuesday, November 8, 2005, 6 pm Panel on Solidarity's Secret: The Women Who Defeated Communism in Poland
New School University, Wollman Hall, 65 W. 11th Street (bet'n 5th & 6th Ave.), Rm 550, NYC 10011
Free and open to the public
Directions by subway: 4, 5, 6, N, R, Q, W, & L to 14th Street / Union Square; L, F, V to 14th Street and 6th Ave; 1, 9, 2 & 3 to 14th Street and 7th Ave; A, B, C, D, E, F & V to West 4th Street and 6th Ave; PATH from New Jersey to 9th Street and 6th Ave.

On the 25th anniversary of the birth of Solidarity, a new American book exposes the invisible leadership role played by women in Poland's pro-democracy movement. A panel discussion presents the "unsung heroines of Poland's free press" and the significant public debate that ensued when this overlooked story became public knowledge in Poland. Panelists: Shana Penn, author of Solidarity's Secret, University of Michigan Press 2005; Helena Luczywo, Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Gazeta Wyborcza; a key organizer of the Solidarity underground and its main newspaper, Tygodnik Mazowsze; Aryeh Neier, president, Open Society Institute; Lawrence Weschler, writer, director of the New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU; Ann Snitow, feminist scholar, Eugene Lang College, New School University. Moderator: Prof. Elzbieta Matynia, director, Transregional Center for Democratic Studies, New School University, whose publications include several essays on women in post-communist societies. Shana Penn's study begins with a simple question I wish I had thought more about myself: once the leadership of Solidarity had been arrested during the 1981 military coup, who kept the movement alive over the following months and years? The answer will surprise you, as Penn delves into the lives of seven Polish women activists who rose to the call, set about saving an entire political movement, and in time turned themselves into some of the most powerful women in Poland today. - Lech Walesa, the Solidarity leader, former President of Poland, 1983 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Presented by New School University and the Polish Cultural Institute in New York


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