Беларускія фэстывалі й выстаўкі ў Нью Джэрзі
Янка Запруднік
Выдавец: Беларускі Інстытут Навукі й Мастацтва
Памер: 219с.
Нью Йорк 2013
I sincerely thank all of them for their valuable input and recognize their co-authorship.
THE MOTIVE FOK THIS PUBLICATION
♦ To preserve and honor the memory of Belarusians who came to America after World War II and worked devotedly towards spreading information among Americans about their country of origin, Belarus, one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union until 1991 and since then an independent state.
♦ To show how Belarusian folk art became a medium for the newly arrived immigrants who strived to disseminate their political views and facts about their homeland.
♦ To illustrate how the American way of life gives each ethnic group a chance to preserve its cultural heritage and, by doing so, advance acculturation of American society.
♦ To provide social and political scientists with additional evidence for their analyses of the national identity of Belarusians.
The Subject and Why Now?
Herein is the story of the concerted efforts by BelarusianAmericans in the state of New Jersey to popularize, by means of folk festivals and art exhibitions, the name of Belarus during the second half of the last century and beyond. The ultimate goal of their endeavor was to bring to the attention of the American press and politicians the fact of the tyrannical subjugation of Belarus by communist Russia and Belarus's continued struggle for independence and democracy. Why New Jersey? Because this state is one of the most exemplary in terms of Belarusian-Americans' informational propagation due to their number and the favorable disposition toward them by state authorities. To be sure, similar activities took place in many other states where post WW II immigrants from Belarus had settled — especially in Ohio, New York, Illinois, Michigan, and California — but New Jersey stands first among them.
Much of what had been going on in New Jersey and other states in terms of folk festivals and folk art exhibitions has subsided in recent decades as a consequence of major changes both in Eastern Europe and within the Belarusian diaspora in America. First of all, Belarus of today (2010), although suffering under homemade authoritarianism, has been an independent state since 1991. Its name has become much more familiar among informed Americans today than it was during the years of the Cold War. New cybertechnology enables one to learn easily about the countiy. Secondly, the gradual attrition of the older generation,
■
those who organized festivals or participated in them, leaves younger Belarusian-Americans without a source to transfer knowledge of what occurred twenty to thirty years ago. Also the ability to organize and take part in events is impacted by a limited decentralization of the community as the result of children of original members moving farther from the churches (which serve as meeting places). And finally, newcomers to this country from post-Soviet Belarus are almost totally unaware of the informational activities organized in America by their predecessors. All of this calls for a look back to see how folk art was used, subconsciously to a degree, as a tool of politics. This publication reveals the immense role of folk art, not only as an expression of the national soul, but also as a communicative vehicle for new settlers in a country whose language they had not yet mastered.
Finally, the book demonstrates the atmosphere of freedom enjoyed in America by ethnic groups in efforts to preserve and popularize their cultural heritage. This freedom is a dynamic factor contributing to the socio-political stability of the United States, as well as to the diversity and richness of American culture. The history of Belarusian festivals also testifies to the American political world's favorable reception of the idea of a free and independent Belarus; something that has not lost its potency in present-day official and unofficial relations between the United States and the Republic of Belarus.
The saying goes that a picture is worth a thousand words. They also say it is better to see one time than to hear a hundred times. Psychologists validate these adages by claiming that about seventy percent of the information we store in our brain is acquired visually. All of this underscores the value of the illustrations in this book. Furthermore, the illustrations reveal the beauty of Belarusian folk costumes as well as the elegance and pride of the dancers and choir singers who wore them.
Over the last half century a mass of pictures has been accumulated reflecting our past cultural activities in times when we, as a community, had been more active and demographically much younger. Many of these silent and colorful witnesses are lying around in albums or envelopes, waiting to be discarded. It is important, therefore, to dig the most interesting and edifying of them out from the archives. They will tell us about inspiring facts in the lives of our predecessors, postWorld War II immigrants to this country. These bits of the fading collective memory will evoke images of past deeds, of our common Belarusian history, and of our enduring national spirit. They testify to our predecessors' unfailing love of their native country. Belarus. The
л
К 4 5t -
idea of a free and independent Belarus inspired them and gave them perseverance.
Dr. Alla Orsa-Romano, the founder and director of the dance group Vasilok (com flower) told me once how she maintained the endurance of her dancers when they were fatigued from rehearsals and performances: "1 used to say to them, 'You aren't doing it for me, you do it for Belarus,' and complaints died off." Similarly, other participants in festival activities who sacrificed their time and money for travels, rehearsals, performances and other tasks did all of this in the name of Belarus. They all deserve to be honored and remembered, especially because their ideas of an independent and free Belarus found their assertion, albeit partial, in the events of the early 1990s. In summary, the history of festivals testifies to:
♦ the spiritual bonds of Belarusian post-WW II settlers in America with their country of origin;
♦ their efforts to call attention of the American public to the cultural beauty and political enslavement of their Old Country by Russian imperial communism:
♦ the ability of Belarusian immigrants to imbue their children (who became performers) with the passion and dedication to the freedom of a country they had not yet seen.
If one agrees that each new generation of a nation is an afterlife of forebears, then the description of cultural and informational activities of Belarusian-Americans is a testimony to an intrinsic generational unity of the Belarusian people as well as to the historical continuity of the Belarusian nation.
Onformationaf Ovnperative
Political immigrants, because
they are political, feel a compulsion to inform the citizens of their new land about the cause for their emigration. The very first questions they hear upon arrival are: What country are you from? Why did you leave? How is life in your homeland? And the political emigre's conscience dictates that he or she is as informative as they can be with their limited knowledge of the new language. The deeper the emigre's conviction that his native country is suffering from injustice and oppression, the greater is his duty to inform. The new settler has to explain the situation in his homeland not only in conversations at work, but also in encounters with politicians
J*.
I
and government officials of the new land. He has to overcome his inability to communicate, and voice, the best he can, his grievances.
This book is about the ways Belarusian-Americans of the postWWII immigration overcame their communication challenges in the New World to realize their patriotic impulse and tell their story. It should be noted that before their arrival in America, they had gone through the crucibles of the Polish, Soviet Russian and German regimes. America was for them a land where, in an environment of liberty, they could use their life experiences and present their cultural heritage and dreams for a better Belarusian future to an American audience.
On the eve of their exodus from Western Europe, in 1948, the Belarusian emigre newspaper Backauscyna (Batskowshchyna = homeland, fatherland), published in Munich, Germany, reminded those who were leaving for overseas: There is no more important task for today than the spread of information. Even the problem of emigration itself is secondary, because we do not emigrate simply to find a peaceful place with a middle-class comfort and to make a living by conscientious work, but only to fulfill those tasks that we must perform for our nation and our state (emphasis added J.Z.). With such an understanding of "the spread of information," the impulse was embedded to inform Americans about Belarus. To achieve this goal, the new settlers found an effective resource in their folk art — songs, dances, artifacts and cuisine — this universal medium of inter-ethnic and international communication.
One primary and exacting task was to explain to Americans what kind of country Belarus was, at that time officially called "Byelorussia" ("Byelo-" meaning "white"). People, who heard the name for the first time, wondered how Byelorussia differed from Russia. The explanation was difficult and complicated terminologically. In English, besides the official name of the country (a member of the United Nations since 1945), there were several others: White Russia, White Ruthenia and even Byelo-Ruthenia. The confusion deepened when some Americans mistook "Byelorussians" for "White" Russians (defenders of the Tsar in Russia's Civil War of 1918-1920). In most cases the American novice to East European history was left with an impression of having heard about "some kind of Russians." The concept was further complicated by the fact that Americans equated the Russian dominated Soviet Union with Russia itself, taking Belarus for a region of Russia. Add to that the fact that many Russians themselves perpetuate the notion that Belarusians are the same as Russians.
КНІГІ ОНЛАЙН
