Culture

Finding Lithuania in Paris

Antanas Žmuidzinavičius.

Diana Gudaitis Barbera. While wandering through the beautiful Impressionist galleries at Musée d’Orsay in Paris this spring, I was thrilled to discover the museum hosting a very special exhibition “Wild Souls. Symbolism in the Baltic States.” As an American artist whose father was Lithuanian, I was intrigued and excited by …

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Paulina Mongirdaitė Lithuania’s First Woman Photographer

By Jolanta Klietkutė. Paulina Mongirdaitė was born about 1865 in Raseiniai county, in the province of Kaunas. Her parents, Sofija (née Griškevičiūtė) and Mečislovas Mongirdas, came from a noble bajoras (boyar) family. Perhaps due to poor record-keeping in the upheavals following the 1863 uprising, her exact birth date and place are …

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Commemorating a Lithuanian Hero at West Point

Lithuanian participants at the West Point Koščiuška commemoration. From left: Soloist Kristina Malinauskaitė, Ambassador Rolandas Kriščiūnas, Robertas Vitas, AAFKWP member Antanas Dambriūnas and Colonel Olesjasz.

Dr. Robertas Vitas. The United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, hosted a two-day conference commemorating the centennial of the ending of the First World I. Nine scholars presented various aspects of the end of hostilities related explicitly to Eastern Europe. Other than myself and a U.S. army …

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Ashes in the Snow

Actors Bel Powley as Lina Vilkas and Jonah Hauer-King as Andrius Aras in Ashes in the Snow.

Sandra Baksys. The “biggest Lithuanian movie of all time” is set for worldwide release October 12, 2018.  Filmed in accented English and some Russian with subtitles, Ashes in the Snow will tell the world the little-known story of the U.S.S.R.’s deportations of tens of thousands of innocent Lithuanians to their …

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We Thought We’d Be Back Soon: 18 Stories of Refugees 1940-44 Selected and Edited by Dalia Stake Anysas, Dalia Cidzikaitė, and ALaima Petrauskas Vanderstoep

We Thought We’d be Back Soon book signing at the Lithuanian World Center in Lemont, Illinois. The book’s editors (from left) Dalia Cidzikaitė, Laima Petrauskas Vanderstoep and Dalia Stake Anysas meet with enthusiastic readers.

Sandra Baksys. As traumatized survivors of three invasions of their homeland (Soviets in 1940, Nazis in 1941, and Soviets, again, in 1944), members of Lithuania’s “DP” generation were famously tight-lipped about their World War II refugee experiences. Until my father Vince was in his 70s and 80s, I learned few …

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A Gift from the Heart – The American Lithuanian Liberty Bell

An appeal from the Lithuanian Liberty Bell Committee. Patrons contributing five dollars or more received a bronze medal replica of the bell. The center photograph shows Lithuania and Columbia flanking the newly cast Lithuanian Liberty Bell.

Dr. Stasys Bačkaitis. The world sighed a sigh of relief when the horrors of the 1914-1918 war drew to a close. It was identified by the misnomer “Great” and only later given a number when the subsequent War outdid the previous one. The Lithuanian people, like other oppressed peoples, rightfully assumed …

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BABKA The Easter Queen

Easter Babka/Velykų Boba

By Ona Daugirdienė. The origin of the Lithuanian name for Easter is the subject of some debate. Linguists and etymologists claim that the word Velykos is borrowed from our neighbors to the east, the Belarusians, who call Easter velikij denj – literally, great (or grand) day. But žemaičiai, or Lowlanders, insist …

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A HUNDRED YEARS AGO LITHUANIAN AMERICANS JOINED THE STRUGGLE FOR LITHUANIAN INDEPENDENCE

Lithuanian American National Council, Madison Square Garden, New York, March 13-14, 1918.

Henry L. Gaidis. A frequently overlooked historic fact is that Lithuania’s Declaration of Independence of February 16th, 1918, did not occur overnight. It was, instead, the consequence of a series of significant events and political developments. This, of course, does not detract from the achievement which the declaration’s signatories brought …

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Vincas Kudirka, Herald of the Modern Lithuanian Nation

The home of Vincas Kudirka in Paežeriai. Photo from 1911

By Miltiades Varvounis. At the time when Lithuania was under Russian rule, national identity was shaped by the Lithuanian intelligentsia, the educated social elite in the country. One of the most prominent intellectuals and activists of the late 19th century was Vincas Kudirka, a publicist and publisher, author of Lithuania’s …

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It began in Vermont. Village Harmony goes Lithuanian

Village Harmony in Lithuania. Group leader, Will Thomas Rowan, is on the far left.

Village Harmony was founded by Larry Gordon in 1988. It began as a small ensemble of high school singers drawn from several central Vermont schools, rehearsing after school hours and touring the East Coast. In 1990 the first Village Harmony summer camp was held, establishing a model which has been …

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