Summer School in Krasnogruda. A symposium in the cycle READING THE OTHER titled KOŁAKOWSKI IS READING. Devil and Jesus - Utopia and Totalitarianism - 1968 and Responsibility. Dialogues conducted by: Krzysztof Czyżewski, Leonidas Donskis, Jarosław Hrycak, Marci Shore, Timothy Snyder.

On 16 May, the European Cultural Foundation will present two laureates with the 2018 ECF Princess Margriet Award for Culture: cultural centre Borderland (PL) and multidisciplinary research agency Forensic Architecture (UK).

The exhibition uses an extended formula presenting a novel approach to Czesław Miłosz's achievements. It is a permanent exhibition in the renovated poet's family house in Krasnogruda. It is available to all visitors all year long.

1918/1968 Freedom / Solidarity was a series of debates with outstanding thinkers, creators of culture and public intellectuals organized by Pogranicze during the entire jubilee year of 2018 in the White Synagogue in Sejny and at the International Center for Dialogue in Krasnogruda.

MERON BENVENISTI IN LITERARY CAFE "SONG OF PORCELAIN" - JERUSALEM: THE TORN CITY

"Ejbike Mame” - concert of songs from the pre-war Yiddish theatres and cabarets, performed by Małogrzata Sporek-Czyżewska and the Klezmer Orchestra.

Ela (Gabriela) and Nina (Janina) were Bronisław Kunat’s daughters. Their surname used to be spelled in the past with a double “t”. He was my grandfather’s, Zygmunt’s, brother. He is buried at the Catholic cemetery in Sejny.

My grandfather, Zygmunt Kunat, spelled his name with a double “t” only in his youth. The custom of doubling the final consonant (Jundziłł, Montwiłł. Radziwiłł) appeared probably to render the names sound more aristocratic. Bronisław Kunatt’s, my grandfather’s brother’s, tombstone, standing in the (Catholic) cemetery in Sejny, bears the double "t".

Czesław Miłosz’s life and thought are enclosed by the circle of return.  It was apokatastasis, rendered in poetry and heading for existence. The exile shared the fate of fugitives, emigrants, and  others deprived of their roots, those displaced by the winds of history, thrown into the outside world. The wanderer built his home in his mother tongue and remained true to it. He observed the world around him like Gucio Enchanted, the hero of his favourite children’s book: first, at close quarters, immersed in its small homeland as if in the calyx of the flower, then, from far away, like the world’s traveller encompassing continents, languages, generations and epochs...

It wasn’t a hereditary estate of the Kunats, just purchased from other relatives in the 19th century. My great grandfather, Teofil Kunat, had two sons, Bronisław and Zygmunt. The former was the heir of Krasnogruda, the latter went to study agronomy at the Main School in Warsaw, then emigrated north, to Lithuania, married Josefa Syruciówna and became my father. His photography portraying a small boy still puzzles me. What an extract of joy of life and at the same time of mischievous humour and intelligence! A nice boy, everybody must have loved him and his later life proved that true, too.

On the 7th anniversary of the Poet's death, a meeting was held in Krasnogruda. On the - freshly rebuilt - porch of the Manor House, guests from Lithuania and Poland spoke about Czeslaw Milosz. During the meeting, his poems were tecited by Irena Jun, a renown actress. In the evening, an exhibition of Andrzej Strumillo's works, inspired by Milosz's "Last Poems" was opened. A concert, "An epitaphy for Czeslaw Miłosz" was performed later that evening.

As in previous years Borderland has organisied the meeting on August 14 in Krasnogruda and Sejny to commemorate Czesław Miłosz. We have invited Poet's friends, co-workers, editors and people we are intereste in Nobel Prive Winner life.

The meeting started with the holy mass in the memory of Czesław Miłosz in a small church in Żagary. There was also the recitation of His poetry, recollections about Him, music and singing in manor-house in Krasnogruda. Young Lithuanians and Poles from Sejny and area shared with the others the stories about past inhabitants of the manor-house.

Culture of a fluid modernity is troubled by the Place. It has lost the space of a home, nature and spiritual craftsmanship, that takes care of the enrootment and sacrum. It's about a space, that knows and respects the laws of geomancy, has its own spiritual architecture, memory, mystery and a tale, written in signs and symbols. But a contemporary man misses the Place more and more.

Photos: Marcin Pawlukiewicz

Near the house, more or less next to the porch, stood an ancient tree, a huge linden, gone today. Next to it, there was a small outbuilding, the so called “świronek”, it seems to me it was made of larch. There was no heating, in winter it was very cold, but in the summer it could offer guest rooms for holiday makers.

Foreword. Czesław Miłosz’s life and thought are enclosed by the circle of return. It was apokatastasis, rendered in poetry and heading for existence. The exile shared the fate of fugitives, emigrants, and others deprived of their roots, those displaced by the winds of history, thrown into the outside world. The wanderer built his home in his mother tongue and remained true to it.

In Search of a Homeland - Czesław Miłosz in conversation with Krzysztof Czyżewski.

My Connections with Sejny - Czesław Miłosz in conversation with Sejny youth.