In a year of local elections, the city mayor’s awards gala for promoting the city is a highly significant event. It is worth noting several details.
The Mayor and the County Head Together
During the presentation of honorary awards, the mayor spontaneously invited the new county head Dariusz Kwaśniewski onto the stage to present statuettes and congratulate the nominees together with him. It was a kind, professional gesture by Piotr Roman, extended to a fellow professional who had taken on a difficult and highly responsible position. Such gestures deserve particular attention in an election year.
Honouring the Youth Cultural Centre was a similarly symbolic gesture. This year, the centre is celebrating the 60th anniversary of its establishment. The award was accepted by its director, Marek Łętowski. His speech of thanks made an impression. On the one hand, he emphasised the importance and value of his institution as a significant cultural centre in the city and county; on the other, he paid tribute to former MDK director Ewa Lijewska-Małachowska (now at BOK MCC) and stressed that the Bolesławiec cultural centre had always been supported by county heads. Once it was county head Piotr Roman; today it is county head Dariusz Kwaśniewski.
Oh, Karol
The honorary award also went to the exceptionally modest—and therefore all the greater—Bolesławiec artist Janina Bany-Kozłowska, chief designer at Zakłady Ceramiczne Bolesławiec. The company’s president hurried to congratulate her. Karol Stasik jumped from the audience onto the stage, bypassing the stairs. Like a young man, bouquet in hand, he ran up to the sculptor and lifted her a good 30 centimetres into the air. It was not particularly graceful, but it was highly spontaneous and exceptionally endearing. The president, known for concrete and straightforward solutions, expressed his admiration for one of his most important employees in his characteristic manner. And it must be admitted that not every president would be capable of such a gesture towards loyal and talented subordinates.
A Triangle with “Three” and Gender Satan
There were also a few controversies concerning the award recipients themselves. One of them was certainly Mariusz Lickiewicz, recently appointed president of the Via Sudetica Association. Bogusław Nowak parted ways with the association at the end of 2013 and took his dowry with him—Gliniada. The divorce may have been caused by Mariusz Lickiewicz’s infidelity towards the president, with Radio Three possibly being “the other woman.”
Radio Three and Marek Niedźwiecki were guests at the Glinoludy event during last year’s parade. The well-known presenter was supposed to have come to the event out of love for the Glinoludy, especially their creator, Papa Glinolud. That was in the summer. In the autumn, during the first anniversary celebrations of Galeria Bolesławiec City Center, Mariusz Lickiewicz thanked the gallery’s owners for enabling Radio Three to come to Bolesławiec through their financial support. At yesterday’s gala, it was announced that Lickiewicz was the first person in Bolesławiec’s history to organise a visit by Radio Three, thanks to which Marek Niedźwiecki hosted the Programme Three Hit List and Markomania live from our city.
The presentation of an award to Grażyna Hanaf—among other things, for the book “Joachim”—was also interesting to many people. Maciej Małkowski (Ziemia Bolesławiecka) has long waged a crusade against Hanaf, gender Satan, and protects all municipal institutions from her and her presence. Orka president Robert Tomczyk was so outraged by Hanaf’s article about a possible gay kiss at Orka that he broke off contact with the Istotne.pl portal and stopped nodding to the article’s author in the street. Meanwhile, the mayor presented Hanaf with an award for promoting the city, including for a book about a young gay man.
Our Stars Rocked
It should be emphasised that this year’s gala was exceptional because of the performance by artists from Bolesławiec. There were no foreign stars. And although some people thought it was not spectacular, it was nevertheless sincere. It also drew attention to the fact that Bolesławiec has potential. We have talented and exceptional artists who are in no way inferior to imported performers.
The gala was hosted in a very restrained and warm manner by BOK-MCC director Ewa Lijewska-Małachowska. At the beginning, children from the Modus dance group, led by Halina Bałacka-Kłak, BOK-MCC’s new instructor, impressed the audience with a dance arrangement.
The children performed a scene in which a group of teenagers who could find no attractions in Bolesławiec confronted children taking part in various activities at two cultural centres.
The scene in which municipal guards approached amused young people in the Market Square and ordered them to sign up for classes at BOK-MCC was extremely funny. In particular, one of the “rebellious” teenagers made the audience laugh. After the guards’ intervention, the girl said to her friends, who were outraged by the guards’ actions: “Maybe we need a guard like that, one who tells us what we are and are not allowed to do?”
An Exotic Trio
The vocal performances at the awards ceremony began with Agata Pińczuk-Burdzy and the band “Blue Stamps.” Agata runs the vocal studio at CIK Orzeł (BOK-MCC) on a daily basis. Two songs about hope and faith were performed by cultural award winner Agnieszka Musiał (a vocalist, composer and lyricist born in Bolesławiec). Agnieszka entertained the audience wonderfully. She even invited them to join in a “profession of faith”: the women sang “I am faithful,” while the men sang “I am faithful” in the refrain of her second song.
The gala also featured the excellent guitarist Wojciech Szajwaj (Sumptuastic). The audience warmly welcomed him, strongly applauding the two guitar pieces he performed. The cherry on top was saved for the end of the gala. Wojciech Szajwaj, Dariusz Uściski and Mirek Kuc performed together. The trio had so much positive energy that after the gala people talked at length about the musicians, hoping the performance would be repeated one day.
As last year, the entire gala also had exceptional stage design. It consisted of a replica of the historic town-hall staircase made by BOK-MCC employees: Paweł Sponar and Waldemar Cieślak.
(information: ii)