Below are transcriptions of video interviews performed for my multimedia project, "The Polish Community on Long Island."
Zbigniew Koralewski, President of the Oginski Male Choir
[00:00] SIENKO: Hi, why don’t you tell me a little bit about yourself and a little bit about your choir.
[00:05] KORALEWSKI: I joined the choir in 1995, I was laid off. One moment. I was laid off from work, and I heard the choir singing Christmas carols at one of the churches, and I was very impressed, and wanted to know who was singing, I went to meet these guys, and I saw elderly gentlemen. I was surprised, and they started talking to me, ‘maybe why not you could join our choir, why not just come, and just ask questions’ and I gave them my phone number, and I said ‘yeah I come.” But I never came. And, one evening, Wednesday, I looked through the window, I see Cadillac standing in front. The guy comes and says “you ready? Jump in!” So that’s how I started coming to the choir.
I’m a chemical engineer, and my whole lab was moved to Mexico, to Tijuana, that’s how I was laid off. That was my beginning of the choir.
[01:37] SIENKO: Do you feel the choir gave you a new direction?
[01:42] KORALEWSKI: I feel that the choir is something else. It makes life more interesting, and it’s much better to come here, spend time with other men, and at least I have a voice here. At home, it could be different, it’s not always possible. Here we can use our voice and have fun.
[02:17] SIENKO: How important is the cultural aspect of the choir to you?
[02:24] KORALEWSKI: Well this came gradually. I realized that we do something more important, not just for ourselves, but for the community. Not only Polish ethnic community, but in general, community on long island, communities on long island.
(Next Video)
[00:10] SIENKO: What do you think about the Polish community on long island? Are these sort of cultural events important for its sustenance?
[00:21] KORALEWSKI: We continue like a tradition, song is part of the culture, music is part of the culture, and I think it’s very important to have some kind of roots. We cannot say that we come from the moon, or the America, we come from Poland, that’s where we are born. Most of us are born in Poland, had Polish parents, and these are our roots. Culture is very important, part of the nation and belonging to something.
[01:09] SIENKO: Do you participate in any other events involving the Polish community here?
[01:15] KORALEWSKI: Events meaning?
[01:17] SIENKO: Or organizations I guess?
[01:18] KORALEWSKI: Organizations meeting at this place?
[01:20] SIENKO: Just on Long Island?
[01:23] KORALEWSKI: Do I know any other organizations?
[01:25] SIENKO: I mean, do you participate in?
[01:28] KORALEWSKI: Do I participate in events organized by other?
[01:33] SIENKO: Yeah sure.
[01:34] KORALEWSKI: Of course, we participate with Polish national home in Glen Cove, they invite us to sing over there, or American Polish Council organizes events and they ask us to come and sing. Polish churches of course, especially during Christmas we’re very busy. Not only just the Polish community, but also we sang for Mr. Suozzi, when he announced he will be running for governor of New York State, and we were the first group to sing and it was the first time when he made an announcement, and were on TV, and I had a short speech, encouraging him to run and wishing him to get to the top. Unfortunately didn’t work.
Barbara Stelmach, owner of Barbara’s Polish Deli
2057 Hempstead Turnpike, East Meadow, NY
[00:01] SIENKO: Could you please state your name?
[00:04] STELMACH: My name is Barbara Stelmach.
[00:05] SIENKO: Tell us a little bit about your store here.
[00:09] STELMACH: Okay, I open the store, Polish store, two years ago, and I’m still here. There’s a lot of Polish people in the area and that’s why I decided to open it. Working since, it’s good, what can I say?
[00:24] SIENKO: So are most of your customers Polish?
[00:26] STELMACH: Polish and Ukrainian.
[00:28] SIENKO: There’s a market now for Polish goods? There’s more Polish people coming to Long Island?
[00:35] STELMACH: Yes, aha. A lot of Polish people moving from the city, to Long Island, and they’re coming here. They don’t have to travel to Brooklyn to buy stuff, they’re coming here.
[00:46] SIENKO: There’s a lot of people moving here too? What do you think is the main reason?
[00:54] STELMACH: For the schools, better schools. And also another thing is, you have a single family house, they have backyards, they have more space than in the city.
[01:06] SIENKO: And do you think there’s a strong Polish community here?
[01:11] STELMACH: That’s why we have a Polish church, Polish club, Polish school. For starters, for the kids, to keep the Polish heritage in, and I think we’re doing very good. It’s not just my store, its more stores, and its also more Polish clubs in our area. There’s one in Glen Cove, one in Copaigue, Riverhead, all over Long Island.
[01:31] SIENKO: Do you think the Polish community is only going to increase?
[01:35] STELMACH: Yeah I think so. Because I know, around my customers from two years ago, and now, it’s more and more and I have new ones. They come, they move to buy house here, they move to Long Island.
[01:47] SIENKO: Are there any other people who just stop by?
[01:50] STELMACH: Everybody stops by. Its not just Polish people, I have people from Ukraine, I have black people, I have Chinese people, I have Indian people, from all over the place they come, stop by, they try it and they like it.
[02:02] SIENKO: And most of your products here are from Poland?
[02:05] STELMACH: Yes.
[02:06] SIENKO: They come directly from Poland?
[01:07] STELMACH: Directly from Poland, they come in big cargoes, and they distribute them here.
[02:13] SIENKO: What are some of the customer favorites or your favorites?
[02:16] STELMACH: My favorites… Ptasie Mleczko. That’s the sweets. And of course Kielbasa, now is not the season, but as soon as the barbeque season starts, they all come for Kielbasa for barbeque. And Pierogi also.
[02:31] SIENKO: I think that’s it, thank you.
[02:32] STELMACH: Thank you!
Peter Muzia, President of the Hejnal Polish-American Dancers of Long Island
[00:00] SIENKO: Tell me a little bit about yourself, a little bit about Hejnal.
[00:03] MUZIA: My name is Peter Muzia, I’m the president of Hejnal. I’ve been the president on and off for about 4 years, I’ve been a member of the group for probably between 12 and 14 years.
[00:17] SIENKO: Why are you in Hejnal, what do you like about being in the group?
[00:20] MUZIA: I just like the entertainment aspect of it, its fun, its something not many people do. It’s enjoyable, coming down here, it doesn’t seem like a lot of fun but it actually is when you go to like a big show and people are clapping for you and enjoying the show its like kind of like the performance aspect of it.*
[00:36] SIENKO: How important is the cultural aspect of the dancing for you?
[00:42] MUZIA: It’s about 50/50, personally it’s about 50/50. It definitely brings an old world feel back to the new age, of like, you listen to hip hop and everything, it’s like that, but something like, you bring back the old, you kind of like remember, you remember where you came from kind of.
[00:56] SIENKO: Is it important for you to preserve your Polish culture?
[00:58] MUZIA: Yes it definitely is, not many people consider themselves, everybody says they’re American, but I’m American Polish, so its kind of nice to learn something that’s from my culture that not many people know about.*
[01:13] SIENKO: What do you think about Polish culture on long island, or at least young people nowadays, are they interested?
[01:19] MUZIA: Interested in performing, as what we do, not very much because it’s not the social etiquette way of doing it, its not one of the fun things to do, not the socially correct thing to do. Polish people, I see them at the Pulaski day parade painted red and white, but I don’t see a lot of them down at practices. So it’s just mainly they’re thinking of themselves as Polish-Americans but they’re not embracing their culture and participating in their culture. *
[01:47] SIENKO: Is it important to participate?
[01:48] MUZIA: I think it definitely is, if you don’t participate in some of the cultural events, it loses its value, if you’re not doing something it’s gonna go kind of extinct.*
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