The Literary and Artistic Haven (Przytulisko Literacko-Artystyczne), together with the Polish Theatre Institute in the USA, organized two meetings with Rafał Olbiński in early October. On Tuesday, October 6, the artist was hosted by MM Art Studio in Wallington, owned by Magdalena Majerowicz-Lupiński. On Sunday, October 11, Rafał Olbiński appeared at the Kościuszko Foundation, where the meeting was led by Ella Wojczak.
***
The conversations centered on a book of several dozen poems, published as an album and complemented by illustrations by Rafał Olbiński. The carefully produced edition, with a weeping woman-swan on the cover, was prepared by the Warsaw publisher Wydawnictwo MUZA. It is already the second book by Rafał Olbiński released by the same publisher. The first, “My New York” (“Mój Nowy Jork”), was published in late fall last year. In October of last year, the Literary and Artistic Haven organized three meetings promoting that book.
Why did Rafał Olbiński start writing poems again? As he put it himself: “A year and a half ago, a kind of enchantment came over me, lasting maybe a month, maybe two weeks, a kind of emotional storm, and these poems were the result. Suddenly I started writing, and it kept coming out better and better.” The desire to be only oneself, to be merely “a spark of hope in the dream of the cosmos.” The dream that “the muse of poetry will save us from monotonous everyday life” and, incidentally, protect us from “the vulgarity of pop culture” coexists in Olbiński’s poems with a longing for closeness and the reflection that “after what happened to us, only one tear is left.”
On November 10 last year, the album had its official premiere on the stage of the Wrocław Opera. The artist’s poems were read by, among others, Jan Englert, Daniel Olbrychski, Cezary Pazura and Małgorzata Kożuchowska. The audience could see a collection of the artist’s visual works. According to Rafał Olbiński himself, every seat in the hall was taken. Promotional events in Poland were also held in Kielce and Opole, among other places.
At our meetings, Rafał Olbiński read poems, told anecdotes and shared memories. We learned that he began writing poetry as a sensitive teenager. In love with the best student in his class, he would leave poems for her on her desk. She, convinced that the author was a classmate who was friends with Olbiński, became kind to that classmate. It did not end with a happy ending, because the classmate did not grow up to be a particularly decent person. Unfortunately.
Rafał Olbiński also told an American story. Right after the attack on the World Trade Center, a statement by Sana Dahl, wife of Jason Dahl, the captain of the United Airlines plane that crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, during the September 11 attacks, was picked up by the media. She said that “life is too short and there is no time in it for hatred.” The poem “The Question” (“Pytanie”), which begins with the words “You ask what I love in life and what I hate,” offers a list of the author’s delights, with a resolution that “because life is too short to hate,” it is worth focusing only on what one truly loves. Among other things: “I love the lilies of sails in a calm bay, the golden waterfalls of your hair after rain.”
In writing about the meeting in Wallington, one cannot fail to mention the sweets. Magdalena Majerowicz-Lupiński baked a cake decorated with a swan floating on sweet waters. Just above it hung a framed copy of the swan from the cover of “Poems and Paintings” (“Poezje i obrazy”). The whole picture can be seen in the photo in which Rafał Olbiński is posed with a third swan in the foreground.
The meeting in Manhattan, led by Ella Wojczak, began with waiting. It was pouring rain. Until the last minute, it was unclear whether the audience would want to trek across a flooded Manhattan on an early Sunday afternoon. It turned out they did. Very much so. The chairs ran out. Later, the books ran out. In conversation with the audience, Rafał Olbiński drew on both “My New York” and “Poems and Paintings.” Quotations, memories and anecdotes were therefore interwoven not only with poetry but also with prose. Rafał Olbiński read about his beginnings in the United States and about that remarkable first Time magazine cover. As is well known, it was not the artist’s first drawing, but his profile portrait worked into the space between the letters “T” and “I.” The portrait, among a crowd of other faces, was meant to represent the multiculturalism of New York’s immigrant community. The afternoon meeting at the Kościuszko Foundation was also a chance to hear Paulina Milewska, who read the poems “Ophelia” (“Ofelia”) and “On the Death of Juliet” (“Na śmierć Julii”).
Rafał Olbiński has already submitted material for a third book to his publisher. This time it will be a collection of six short stories. Wydawnictwo Muza has promised that it will be published in a few weeks. We already know that one of the places reserved for its promotion will be Warsaw’s Łazienki.
Both meetings showed how much we need contact with authority figures. We are therefore grateful that Rafał Olbiński found time for us.
Author: Elżbieta Kieszczyńska
I thank Ella Wojczak, Aneta Pieróg-Sudoł and Ewa Wiśniewska for their help in creating this text. I thank Rafał Olbiński for being with us and for personally delivering the books.
Source: Nowy Dziennik