Celebrating Modjeska in California: History of Helena Modjeska Art & Culture Club by Maja Trochimczyk
TABLE OF CONTENTS ⦾
⦾ Chapter 1. The Patron: Helena Modjeska — 1 ⦾ Chapter 2. Polish Americans in California — 41 ⦾ Chapter 3. The Founder: Leonidas Dudarew-Ossetyński — 76 ⦾ Chapter 4. King Leonidas, 1971-1978 — 119 ⦾ Chapter 5. The Solidarity Era, 1978-1989 — 162 ⦾ Chapter 6. The Third Republic, 1989-1998 — 216 ⦾ Chapter 7. The Years of Status Quo, 1998-2010 — 252 ⦾ Chapter 8. New People, New Ideas, 2010-2018 — 304 ⦾ Chapter 9. Surviving Challenges, 2018-2023 — 350 ⦾ Chapter 10. Conclusion — 380 ⦾ About Helena Modjeska Art & Culture Club — 403 ⦾ About the Author — 403 ⦾ Index — 405 The project is partly financed by a grant from the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland as part of the Competition “Polonia and Poles Abroad 2023.” The publication expresses only the views of the author and cannot be identified with an official position of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister. The work is part of the project entitled "I will show you Poland —stimulating the Polish community and Poles abroad to act in the Polish national interest." |
ISBN 978-1-945938-55-9, paperback, $125.00. ISBN 978-1-945938-56-6, hardcover $140; ISBN 978-1-945938-60-3, ebook in PDF format, $80.00. Dec. 2023
Celebrating Modjeska in California: History of Helena Modjeska Art & Culture Club is a 428-page case study of one Polonian organization, active since 1971, that reveals the interests, activities, successes and challenges of successive waves of Polish immigrants to America, especially the generation of the Displaced Persons (survivors and veterans of World War II, mostly interwar Polish intelligentsia), and of the Solidarity-era (activists of anti-communist movement, "tourists" who came to work and overstayed their visas, and creative/enterprising individuals seeking to further their careers). The book is dedicated to "all Polish émigrés and exiles dispersed throughout the world who remained faithful to the Polish language and culture, especially to all the volunteers of the Helena Modjeska Art & Culture Club in Los Angeles, promoting Polish culture in California." This volume consists of ten chapters starting from a biography of the Club's patron, actress Helena Modjeska (1840-1909); a survey of Polish Americans and their organizations in California; and a biography of the Club's founder, actor Leonidas Dudarew-Ossetynski (1910-1989). Six chapters are dedicated to "eras" in the Club's history, from the Kingdom of Leonidas (1971-1978), through the times of Solidarity immigrants (1978-1989), the birth of the Third Republic of Poland (1989-1998), the period of stabilization and status quo (1998-2010), the arrival of new people and ideas (2010-2018), to surviving challenges (2018-2023). The tenth chapter is a summary with conclusions and recommendations. The book includes index and many illustrations from the archives of: Helena Modjeska Art & Culture Club, Polish Museum of America in Chicago, Valerie Dudarew-Ossetynska Hunken - the founder's daughter, American Council of Polish Culture (formerly "of Polish Cultural Clubs"), Institute of National Remembrance, Maja Trochimczyk, and other private and public archives. All net revenue is donated to the Modjeska Club. 
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About Modjeska ClubEstablished in 1971 by actor-director-journalist Leonidas Dudarew-Ossetyński with composers Stefan Pasternacki and Wacław Gaziński, as well as translator Eugenia Domachowska, Helena Modjeska Art and Culture Club in Los Angeles celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2021. The 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. Initially associated with the American Council of Polish Cultural Clubs and the Polish American Congress of Southern California, the Modjeska Club became a 501(c)(3) charitable organization in 2006, with the IRS Tax Determination number EIN 20-3491956. Every year, the Club sponsors dozens important cultural events in Los Angeles and its environs for the Club members and the general public. 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. Over the years, its membership included artists Stanislaw Szukalski and Leonard Konopelski, film directors Jerzy Antczak and Romuald Gantkowski, actors Stefanie Powers, Jadwiga Baranska, Zofia Dobrzanska, Elzbieta Jodlowska, Renata Danska, Aleksandra Kaniak, and Katarzyna Smiechowicz, musicians Roman Maciejewski, Stefan Pasternacki, and Wojciech Kocyan, and many more eminent creators of culture.
Financed mostly by membership dues and individual donations, the Club invites eminent guests from Poland and organizes meetings with artists, actors, film directors, scholars, journalists, musicians and government officials. It presents concerts, film screenings, theatrical performances, and exhibitions. Since 2010, the Club has honored the most eminent Polish actors with the Modjeska Prize, so far presented to Jan Nowicki, Barbara Krafftówna, Anna Dymna, Jadwiga Barańska, Jan Englert, Andrzej Seweryn, and others. Videos from Club events, zoom lectures, and TV programs about the Club are on the website in English (modjeska.org) and Polish (modrzejewska.org). In 2021, on the occasion of its 50th anniversary, the Modjeska Club issued a 380-page Album 50-lecia Klubu Kultury im. Heleny Modrzejewskiej edited by Maja Trochimczyk, Elżbieta Kański and Elżbieta Trybuś, documenting the five decades of its activities. The Album is available as free PDF download on the Modrzejewska.org website. |
About the AuthorMaja Trochimczyk, Ph.D., is a music historian, poet, photographer, and non-profit director born in Poland and living in California. She published eight books on music and Polish culture: After Chopin: Essays in Polish Music (2000), The Music of Louis Andriessen (Routledge, 2002), Polish Dance in Southern California (Columbia UP, 2007), A Romantic Century in Polish Music (2009), Lutosławski: Music and Legacy (2014, co-edited with Stanisław Latek), Frédéric Chopin: A Research and Information Guide (Routledge, rev. 2015 with William Smialek), Górecki in Context: Essays on Music (2017), and Album 50-lecia Klubu Kultury im. Heleny Modrzejewskiej (2021). She also published 27 peer-reviewed articles in scholarly journals as well as 27 book chapters in volumes on Chopin, Lutosławski, Szymanowska, Tansman, Jewish music, women composers, Polish music after 1945, and ecomusicology. An author of six volumes of poetry and editor of five poetry anthologies, Trochimczyk received PAHA Creative Arts Prize for two poetry books (2016). Hundreds of her articles and poems appeared in English, Polish, as well as in German, French, Chinese, Spanish, and Serbian translations. Dr. Trochimczyk holds a Ph.D. from McGill University in Montreal and two M.A. degrees, from the University of Warsaw and Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, Poland. She presented her research at over 90 national and international conferences, in Poland, France, Germany, Hungary, U.K., Canada, Australia and the U.S. She received awards and fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, University of Southern California, McGill University, MPE Fraternity, Polish American Historical Association, City and County of Los Angeles, and Poland’s Ministry of Culture (medal for the promotion of Polish culture abroad). Dr. Trochimczyk has served as President of Helena Modjeska Art & Culture Club (in 2010-2012 ad since 2018). She is also the President of California State Poetry Society and Managing Editor of the California Quarterly (2019–) and Vice President for Public Relations of Polish American Congress of Southern California (2022–). She previously served as Secretary and Communications Director for the Polish American Historical Association (2010-2020) and Poet-Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga, her California home.
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