Беларускія фэстывалі й выстаўкі ў Нью Джэрзі
Янка Запруднік
Выдавец: Беларускі Інстытут Навукі й Мастацтва
Памер: 219с.
Нью Йорк 2013
"This time the festival was held in Liberty State Park on the 6th and 7th of October. The number of participating groups reached over forty. Among them were also Belarusians, mainly from New Jersey. ...
"When I turned on my TV set to watch news on CBS's Channel 2, a great surprise was waiting for me. Suddenly, I heard the reporter's story about the festival I just mentioned. The beautiful park appeared before my eyes, with the Statue of Liberty in the background, followed by scenes of an ethnic festival; several Caucasians passed swiftly in a dance: a woman in beautiful dress with a veil over the head, her agile dancing partner also in national attire.
Belarusian tables at multi-ethnic arts and crafts exhibition in Liberty State Park.
"A thought crossed my mind: Are there any Belarusians, albeit a single couple? — And suddenly... the camera switched to some dancers. Judging by their costumes, I decided they were Polish, although 1 did not hear their name. Apparently they were not named... And then the camera moved to a stand with a large inscription — BYELORUSSIA,19 whose name was distinctly pronounced. One could clearly see the objects on the stand, mostly woven and embroidered items, displayed on several levels to make them more visible.
"And suddenly there appeared on the screen Mrs. Nadja Kudasow in her authentic costume while spinning flax too. Round goes the spin
Serge and Valentina Rahalewicz with their children dressed in Palessie outfits.
die, out glides the thread, and the all-ears reporter, slightly amazed, asks her: ‘What will you do with this?’ ‘What?’ says Nadja, ‘Everything. You see this,’ pointing to her rich costume, ‘my dress is made of such threads. Some parts of it are over one hundred years old.’ And she smiled having noticed the reporter's even greater amazement. How attractive this smile made our usually serious spinner. And she continued: ‘The linen of my costume was made over there, in our homeland where our roots are. People there still wear such clothing made by one's own hands’."
FESTIVAL IN LIBEKTY STATE PARK
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By Zora Kipel
Bielarus № 282, October 1980
Liberty State Park, together with the Statue of Liberty, Museum of Immigration and "the Island of Tears,"20 is an architectural complex as well as monument to the millions of immigrants who started their journey from the "Island ofTears" to New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio and farther westward. From the day of its opening in 1978, ethnic groups play an important role here. During the Captive Nations Week, flags of captive nations are raised. Many nationalities hold their festivals, excursions and picnics here. Last year, by the initiative of the Ethnic Advisory Council, folk festivals were launched in which more than fifty ethnic groups participated.
This year's festival was held on September 13th and 14th with participation of the Belarusian-American Association, BelarusianAmerican Youth Organization, and Association of Belarusian Arts and Crafts.
Belarusians had several exhibition stands with artifacts by our craftsmen; our youths organized a food stand with Belarusian dishes for sale (they certainly made a buck). There was also a stand of infor
mation and literature on Belarus, Belarusian publishing, the newspa
per Bielarus stand and a demonstration of Belarusian spinning tradi
tions by Nadja Kudasow and her young apprentice and helper Laura Rahalewicz. An exhibition of paintings (of which Irene Rahalewicz was in charge), with works by Belarusian artists, took place in the administration building. Our exhibits attracted, as always, crowds of spectators. Everybody was asking about Belarus, Belarusians in America, etc. Each one required time to talk, inform and explain. There were thousands of people and, I have to admit, we had some difficulties. Nevertheless, we met the challenge, and after the festival all of us — this
Nina Zgirski.
correspondent, Halina Rusak, Liza Litarowich, Irene Rahalewicz, Shura Semionow, Mr. and Mrs. Kazura, Vasil Rusak, Uladzimier
Rusak (our guest from New York and an outstanding hand) and Siarhei (Serge) Rahalewicz — felt that we have acquired deeper experience
Senator Frank Lautenberg visiting Belarusian exhibition at Liberty State Park Festival.
and moral satisfaction in disseminating information about Belarus.
Our dancing group had also done great work: Vasilok presented three dances, and the spectators asked for even more. However, 1 would like to stress that the youths not only danced. It was a pleasant sight to see them giving interviews to reporters of whom there were many. Interviews were given not only by veteran dancers such as George Kipel, Leon Wojtenko, Nata Rusak, Vitaut Tumash Jr., Raina Semionow, but also their younger friends: Vincent Mierlak, Mary Bojczuk and others.
Generally speaking, if we
consider advertisement, before and after the festival, it was quite efficient. New Jersey governor Brendan Byrne had called a special conference to discuss advertisement of the festivals. It was heartening to see there a representative of the Belarusian young generation, Halina Bachar. We should be grateful to her, for she took a day off from school to represent Belarusians at the conference. Vitaut Kipel also contributed to the dissemination of news about the festival and Belarus. As head of the State Ethnic Council and sponsor of the festival, he on numerous occasions appeared on TV, in radio shows and the press, and each time he would find occasion to say something about Belarusians.
On the day of the festival V. Kipel and other members of our group gave interviews that either were already shown or will be shown on Channel 13 in a special program about festivals.
Governor Brendan Byrne, Senator Bill Bradley and a dozen congressmen, and about ten mayors of surrounding towns spent several hours at the festival. All in all, there were about thirty thousand visitors, and reports about the festival and our group appeared in more than twenty newspapers. It looks like we had done not a bad job.
Zora Kipel again described our participation in the festival held at Liberty State Park a year later, on September 12-13, 1981.21
These festivals keep growing: an increasing number of ethnic
groups take part in them; the popularity of these events is spreading among local ethnics in the surrounding towns as well as throughout the state.
Belarusians have been participating in them from the very beginning. Already for a third year in a row our exhibitions attract the eye of visitors and serve as a source of information about Belarus and its people: our women display their artifacts and souvenirs, our youths demonstrate folk dances, and our kitchen satisfies the culinary demands of the public.
The weather this time was particularly propitious for the festival. On Saturday morning we arranged our exhibition: Nadja Kudasow sat at her staff, Tamara Kolba made herself comfortable for belt weaving, Zhenia Dubiaha busied herself with the food, Halina Rusak, Liza Litarowich, Zora Kipel and Irene Rahalewicz-Dutko attended the souvenir and exhibit tables, answered inquiries by visitors, gave out information to the press. Toward midday, support arrived from the neighboring New York: Raya Stankevich and Anton Shukeloyts brought brochures and leaflets on Belarus.
The liveliest moment at our stand was when our young dancers began to prepare themselves for their performance in the afternoon: all of them in Belarusian costumes, elegant, young and cheerful, they attracted attention of visitors, press, and... politicians. The latter, it must be said, were numerous this time: there was Governor Brendan Byrne, a good friend of Belarusians, and both candidates for governorship, Jim Florio and Tom Kean. They all took interest in our display, posed for pictures with young people, looked for volunteers in the
Parade of participants at Liberty State Park train station. Banner carriers are Paval Romano, left, and Danila Andrejuk.
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<52 4*
electoral campaign. And Dr. Vitaut Kipel. the chairman of the State Ethnic Council, being in charge of the festival, had not missed opportunities to direct both press and politicians toward our table.
On Sunday, the number of visitors was even larger (park's officials estimated attendance at nearly ten thousand). Our stand was literally suiTounded by them. Nadja Kudasow and Tamara Kolba at their respective 'workbenches,' Halina Rusak and Zora Kipel at the exhibition, and Maryja Kazura near the food stand barely managed to answer questions of inquiring onlookers. And the visitors were of all dots and stripes. There were old and recent immigrants from Belarus, people from various other Slavic and non-Slavic countries whose numbers are so high in our state. There were also newspaper and TV reporters. Nadja Kudasow gave an interview to a reporter from CBS-TV which was later shown on newscast. Newspapers wrote about the event, too.
And so, once again a group of enthusiasts (this time complemented by a sizable number of youths) performed a worthy deed spreading information about Belarus, our people and culture.
Demonstration of belt weaving.
Vasifcd Advertises Testivaf22
“Halina Bachar and Nata Rusak deserve special appreciation for having advertised the festival in cooperation with the Caso Martin Agency. The Belarusian group Vasilok was selected by the agency as one of the best and popular in the state of New Jersey and around New York City. Photographs of the two Belarusian girls appeared in all major dailies of New Jersey and contributed to the outstanding success of the festival and spread of the Belarusian name.”
Very successful participation of Belarusians was realized in the festival that took place on September 10-11, 1983, in the same Liberty State Park. Thirty eight ethnic groups were represented. In spite of hot weather, this multiethnic event attracted over 20,000 visitors. Reporters, photographers, and politicians, including state's Governor Tom Kean, attended.
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