Jolanta Piątek

* 1959

  • "So it was really overwhelming, because the crowds were pushing in, I don't know if Weksler [Teatr Polski director Jacek Weksler] regretted it, he certainly didn't later, and the technicians overseeing security in the theatre were in shock, Jakub was unable to direct the folk. The crowds were crowding in, everyone was smoking cigarettes, and you're not allowed to smoke in the theatre. There was a really incredible noise, but the crowds, the revival! Everybody was very impressed, even the large attendance, especially the performers. I don't think Charles expected such a crowd or such a reception. He was really happy."

  • "These were books hidden with different people because they couldn't be in one place, because then someone might find them and confiscate them all. The borrowing diaries were in different places, a few books were there, a few were somewhere else, they were scattered around to different people. The library grew throughout the 1980s, because there were quite a few [uncensored] publishers until 1980. It was single books, it was only when Zapis started to come out, it was only when it started to pick up momentum, and it grew very much in the Solidarity period. Before Solidarity, there weren't so many, mostly books from Kultura in Paris or from London. A lot of them were miniature books, although even those started to increase after 1980. Miniature Cultures and others, although I don't know about then, but now I wouldn't read them even with my glasses on, because they were miniature prints that could actually spoil most people's eyes, because you could read such prints with a lot of self-denial, but some books were just available."

  • "Tadeusz Kuranda was responsible for the graphic part, so he is the author of the festival logo and all the prints. Remik Lenczyk, who had an antiquarian bookstore on Plac Uniwersyteské, was also responsible for the books he was supposed to sell. Jarek [Broda] was responsible for information, i.e. the press office. Igor Wójczyk for the painting exhibitions, Krzysztof Jakubczak for the outlets. What else was there... I don't remember who was responsible for the films. Dementi took care of the photography and Aszka Czarniecka and Grzeszu Braun were in charge of filming. I hope I've listed them all, if I remember correctly."

  • Celé nahrávky
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    Wroclaw, Centrum Historii Zajezdnia, 31.05.2023

    (audio)
    délka: 01:26:03
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
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Kryl did not expect such a reception in Wroclaw, nor the crowds of Czechs. He was happy

Jolanta Piątek in Vienna, 1980s
Jolanta Piątek in Vienna, 1980s
zdroj: archive of Jolanta Piątek

She was born on 14 June 1959 in Bielawa in Lower Silesia, her parents were Poles who settled in the former German territory after the war. After graduating from high school in Dzierżoniów, she studied political science at the University of Wrocław for a year and a half, switching to Polish studies in 1979 and taking over the management of its underground library from Student Solidarity Committee (SKS) activist Renata Otolińska. She also ran it during the Solidarity Carnival, when the library functioned officially under the banner of the Independent Students‘ Association (NZS), and again in secret after the declaration of martial law on 13 December 1981. In 1985, she graduated from Polish Studies and joined the Polish Studies library, where she hid banned books. In May 1989, she was involved in the preparation of the International Seminar on Central Europe and the Festival of Czechoslovak Independent Culture, which took place in Wroclaw from 3 to 5 November 1989. After the fall of communism she worked as a journalism editor at Radio Wroclaw. From 2001-2010 she lived in Prague and described her experiences in the book Obrazki z Czech. In 2016 and 2017, she worked as a spokesperson for the mining concern KGHM Capital Group and from 2017 to 2019 she was the director of Radio Wroclaw. In 2023, she lived in Wrocław.