PEACE THROUGH ART

Or marriage of Polish poetry and Japanese butoh dance

by aleks
The Polish Salon of poetry in Seattle in cooperation with our own SJG guide and butoh artist Joan Laage (Kogut)  commemorates the start of WW2 in September 1939 in Poland.

• Poetry recitation in Polish and English (Milosz, Herbert, Szymborska, Chudzinski and Duda)

• Dreaming Up Oscar - butoh performance by Joan Laage with music by Samuel Yoder

September 18, 2011, Sunday 6 pm • Polish Cultural Center 

 1714 18th Ave. Seattle, WA 98122 (Capitol Hill - map here) 

FREE ADMISSION

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Drumming Up Oskar was inspired by “The Tin Drum”, the Nobel Prize-winning novel by German author Gunter Grass, who grew up in Gdansk, Poland between the wars.  The main character Oskar symbolizes the shrunken morals of a country perverted by fascism.  For Joan, many of the character, places, and events brought to life both her grandfather and great-grandfather, both of whom were Oskar and of German/Danish blood.  In this performance she digs into the past, connecting with her ancestral roots, and simultaneously, reacting to the present world climate.  The rise of militarism, irreversible environmental destruction, and signs of a resurgent fascism coupled with irrational religious fanaticism, suggest that humans are incapable of evolving into more compassionate and tolerant beings.  And yet, we must persevere and nurture seeds of hope.  Oskar has been performed in Krakow, Paris, and Ulm, Germany.