Culture

By Miltiades Varvounis. After the last partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was annexed by the Russian Empire. However, the Lithuanian national revival emerged during the late 19th century and the movement to establish an independent nation-state intensified during the early 20th century. During …

The newly confirmed Minister of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania, Mindaugas Kvietkauskas, visited Chicago, on September 14. He attended Chicago’s Lithuanian cultural centers – Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture, Lithuanian Research Center, World Lithuanian Center, and spent an afternoon at the editorial offices of Draugas. Mindaugas Kvietkauskas holds a …

Linas Jegelevičius. Fabijoniškės, a dreary residential district in the northern part of Vilnius, has recently become a major tourist draw. The Soviet-style high-rise apartment complex built in the late 1980s served as the production site for the television event of the year, the HBO miniseries “Chernobyl,” that dramatized the 1986 …

By Miltiades Varvounis. Witch hysteria took hold in Europe during the mid-1400s, when many accused witches confessed, often under torture, to a variety of wicked behaviors. Within a century, witch hunts were common and most of the accused were executed by burning at the stake or hanging. The publication of …

Audronė (Audrey) Kižys. What do you really know about that guy who once lived down the block? Especially if he’s older and your paths didn’t usually cross. He seemed like a regular guy growing up in the 60s and 70s on Chicago’s southwest side, in the Lithuanian enclave known as …

By Lara Lempertienė. The topic of Jewish documentary materials preserved in the libraries and archives of Lithuania is complex. These holdings were not formed in any purposeful or planned way, but rather were simply stored after surviving the Nazi occupation as well as later Soviet purges. The materials ended up …

By Daiva Markelis. A nation’s cultural history is expressed through its folk art, and a particularly fascinating aspect of that art has to do with textiles. In the United States and Canada, the most popular textile art has arguably been quilting, encompassing an impressive artistic and geographical range that includes …

Much has been written of the Forest Brothers, Lithuanian partisans who took cover in the woods after the second Soviet occupation of Lithuania in 1944. For nearly a decade they waged a guerilla war against the Soviet occupiers. But what about the Forest Sisters? Although they received less attention, women, …

Vida Kuprys. Chicago recently hosted the best of Lithuanian documentary films. Running from April 24 to May 4, the Lithuanian Documentary Film Festival (LDFF ) was organized by Audra Januškienė, a film connoisseur who also happens to run a successful catering service. Initially, she intended to show only several films …

Dr. Robertas Vitas. Our Lithuanian American community has recently suffered the loss of four prominent scholars: Dr. Jonas Račkauskas passed away on March 19, 2018, Dr. Augustinas Idzelis on October 14, 2018, Dr. Benediktas Mačiuika on November 10, 2018, and, finally, Dr. Arūnas Liulevičius left us just a few days …