NY: Latham’s 16th Annual PolishFest, June 1-June 3, 2018

For the 16th time, PolishFest returns to Latham, NY from Friday, June 1 through Sunday, June 3, 2018.  Every year PolishFest brings an eclectic sampling of Polish and Polish-American food, music, art and history to the Capital District. While there will be plenty of hot Polka music, dancing and pierogi, PolishFest goes beyond expectations and offers a wide-ranging selection of Polish and other Eastern European culture.

Where: PolishFest is hosted by the Blessed Virgin Mary of Czestochowa church, located at 250 Old Maxwell Road, Latham, NY. 

Admission: Admission is $5, with a $1 discount for Price Chopper Advantage Card holders.  Children 12 and younger are admitted for free. Seniors 62 years old and up are admitted for free on Sunday, June 3. 

Food: For many people, PolishFest is all about the food! From our gourmet pierogi bar, to our Polish Platter, to our a la carte food offerings (kielbasa, golabki, kapusta, borsht, potato pancakes, haluski, and more!), PolishFest will give you many ways to enjoy Polish cuisine! Chester’s Smokehouse and the Euro Deli are supplying the items not made on site. You can even get a slice of the famous PolishFest Pizza (pagacz) at the bar, with an imported Polish beer. Authentic Polish dessert crepes, cheese cakes, and confections are the perfect way to finish a meal.

Here are just some of the delectable statistics:

• 20,000 pierogi in 10 different varieties
• 4,000 golabki 
• 4,000 potato pancakes from Poland
• 3,000 links of kielbasa being made especially for PolishFest
• 1,500 stuffed peppers
• 150 cases of imported Polish beer 

Music and Dance: PolishFest will be showcasing many genres this year. 

• The Polka headliners are the Rymanowski Brothers (Friday, June 1), Fritz’s Polka Band and Tony’s Polka Band (Saturday, June 2) and the Polka Brothers (Sunday, June 3). Bring your dancing shoes! Did you know that Polka dancing burns over 500 calories an hour? 
• St. Adalbert’s Dancers will be performing Polish folk dances and fancy polka moves on Sunday, June 3.
• There will be a Chopin Piano Concert showcasing the winners of the 2017 Capital District Council for Young Musicians (CDCYM) Chopin Piano Competition Winners on Saturday, June 2.
• Stanley and Barbara Chepaitis will have an evening of Lithuanian Solstice Celebration music and storytelling on, Saturday June 2.  
• On Sunday, June 3, Spa City Viola/Violin Studio, a Saratoga Springs based youth performance group, will perform a concert of Slavic Folk Music. Expect to see strolling violins throughout the day on Sunday.

PolishFest Book Club: Grab your e-readers or your reading glasses, because PolishFest is featuring three books that will give you a fresh perspective on current events! Read together, the three selections (a memoir, a novel, and a book of poetry) provide a broad understanding of what it is like to grow up the child of resilient Polish immigrant survivors.

• Grace Revealed, by Greg Archer: Seventy-five years after Joseph Stalin's reign of terror across Eastern Europe, entertainment journalist Greg Archer takes a step back from Hollywood and examines his Polish family's mind-bending odyssey of the 1940s. In the process, he exposes one of the most under-reported events of the 20th Century: Stalin's mass deportation of nearly two million Polish citizens to the Siberian gulags and the life-shattering events that followed. But the author's quest takes a dramatic turn. As he walks an emotional tightrope between the past and the present, can a serendipitous global adventure become a saving grace, heal the ancestral soul and bring justice to his family and their forgotten Polish comrades? Greg Archer is an author, multimedia journalist, and public speaker. Grace Revealed as been heralded by Huffington Post as being “haunting and heartfelt,” it reveals the lengths family members would go to save their own offspring. He is currently exploring creating a documentary on the subject. Greg regularly speaks to groups about his serendipitous life in the entertainment industry, making revealing connections to inherited legacies and family history. His work spotlighting Agents of Change, and culture vultures near and far, is featured regularly in Huffington Post, Gannett’s USA Today Network, Live Happy Magazine and other media and television outlets.
• The Best Polish Restaurant in Buffalo, by William Kowalski: A masterful blend of historical and modern fiction by a best-selling, award-winning author, The Best Polish Restaurant in Buffalo chronicles a century of life in America for one humble Polish farm girl and three generations of her descendants in Buffalo, New York. The story focuses on Polish immigrant women who escape the despair of poverty in partitioned Poland, coming to the New World with millions of other economic refugees, facing ethnic discrimination in their new home. Sixteen-year-old Aniela had never dreamed of opening a bakery/restaurant when she arrived in Buffalo, New York in 1908, but her ingenuity and hard work created the economic stability for her family to survive, and then thrive. Three generations later, what are her great grandchildren to do with a family business that is no longer relevant in their community or their lives? William Kowalski is the author of the international best-seller Eddie’s Bastard (HarperCollins, 1999), the best-seller Somewhere South of Here (HarperCollins, 2001), and twelve other novels. He is the recipient of the 1999 Rosenstein Award, the 2001 Ama-Boeke Award, the 2014 Thomas H. Raddall Award, and three nominations for the Ontario Library Association's Golden Oak Award. He was also the co-author of Coyote Beach, winner of the 21st Century Filmmaker Award at the Avignon/New York Film Festival. His work has been translated into fifteen languages. A descendant of three generations of Buffalo Polish-Americans, he was raised in Erie, PA and now lives in Nova Scotia, Canada with his wife and two children.
• Echoes of tattered tongues: memory unfolded, by John Z. Guzlowski: In this major tour de force, Guzlowski traces the arc of one millions of immigrant families of America, in this case, survivors of the maelstrom of World War II. Through a haunting collage—poems, prose and prose poems, frozen moments of time, sometimes dreamlike and surreal, other times realistic and graphic—the story unfolds backwards through time. This is the story of Guzlowski’s own family: his parents were taken as slave laborers by the Germans and barely survived; his sister and he were born in Displaced Persons camps. Raw and at the same time compassionate, Guzlowski illuminates a hidden facet of World War II and reflects the many ways in which trauma echoes through time, leaving us with a deeper more visceral understanding of the human costs of war. echoes of tattered tongues: memory unfolded is the winner of the 2017 Benjamin Franklin GOLD AWARD for Poetry and the winner of the 2017 MONTAIGNE MEDAL for Most Thought-Provoking Book.

History and Culture:  Our workshops and lectures are a wonderful place to learn more about Polish history – and your own personal history. Here is just a sampling of what PolishFest has to offer this year:

• Genealogy Workshop: Local genealogist, John Szypulski, will lead a seminar reviewing internet databases and resources, and other sources and methods for researching your Polish ancestry.  
• Cooking Demonstrations: Chef John Kowalski, professor at the Culinary Institute of America, will demonstrate making the Polish classic, Szarlotka sos Morelowy (Apple Charlotte with Apricot Sauce) Betty Stolarek, educator and author, is traveling all the way from Michigan to teach our festival goers how to make classic Polish dishes! 
• Preview of Uprising, an original play about the Warsaw Uprising:  The writers, director and cast of Uprising will read selected scenes from the play and will hold a Q&A.
• Slovak Hand-Craft Demonstrations: David and Zuzana Lundeen will demonstrate Oplatki making and Slovak Easter egg decorating at PolishFest.  Their Oplatki and Easter Eggs will be available for purchase.
• The Partitioning of Poland and 100 Years of Independence Historical Exhibit: Local history student, Sara Zlotnick, will explain the tragic era when Poland disappeared from the map. 
• Vendor Hall: The PolishFest vendor hall is full of hard-to-find imported Polish and Slavic gifts. From Polish Pottery to Baltic Amber Jewelry to Wood Carvings, there are many items that cannot be found elsewhere in the Capital District.  There are also T-Shirts, Books, Sports Jerseys and many other items available for purchase.
• And many yet to be announced lectures and workshops. . . 

Children’s Activities: PolishFest is a great place for kids of all ages. Kids 12 and under are admitted for free and children’s activities at the festival are free of charge. These include:

• Polish Folk Tales with Crazy Christine Balloons Saturday, June 2 and Sunday, June 3!
• Sean the Pranskster Magician Saturday, June 2 and Sunday, June 3!
• Polish Folk Dance Lessons with Michelle Kisluk Saturday June 2!

For more information, go to www.polishfest-ny.org, or follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/PolishFestNY. You can also follow us on Twitter @PolishFestNY