March 22: Belly dance showcase
GREENFIELD — The LAVA Center at 324 Main St. will host a belly dance showcase on Saturday, March 22, at 5:30 p.m. Doors open at 5.
There is a $10 suggested donation, though no one will be turned away for inability to pay. Cash and Venmo are accepted.
Visit facebook.com/events/625059630031350 for more information.
Sojka, Thomas to lead talk on Eastern European immigrant history
GREENFIELD — As part of “New Roots in River Banks: Polish and Other Eastern Immigrant Stories,” an exhibit by the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association exploring these histories, The LAVA Center at 324 Main St. will host a talk by Jeanne Sojka and Peter Thomas on Friday, March 28, at 6 p.m.
Sojka is project manager of the Eastern European project, business manager at PVMA and vice president of the Polish Genealogical Society of Massachusetts. She is also the curator of the “New Roots in River Banks” exhibit, which is now on display at The LAVA Center through April.
Drawing on primary source documents, images, photographs, newspaper articles and family stories, Sojka will explore and illustrate the triumphs and tragedies of these immigrants and their experiences here, as well as of their descendants. She will focus especially on the agricultural history of Polish and other Eastern European farmers.
Thomas will be present a portion of his recorded oral histories and his slideshow of farmers and farming, including experiences by descendants of Polish and Ukrainian immigrants. For example, attendees will be able to listen to Deerfield’s Walter Kownacki (1929–2023) share his family’s farming experiences. His parents came from Eastern Europe at the turn of the 20th century.
Thomas’ oral history collection was recorded in 2023 as part of the Deerfield Oral History Project. He is a retired associate professor of anthropology at the University of Vermont and also worked for the Federal Emergency Management Agency as an environmental and historic preservation officer. He is now conducting research on the Connecticut River Valley, focusing on Deerfield and the Indigenous communities.
