Maketa fails - Jura Žagariņa mājas lapas

LETTERS AND THE VISUAL ARTS. Poems
by Marija Briede, Leons Briedis and their
son Adrians Briedis-Makovejs evince three
distinctly singular poetic sensibilities, all
sparkling with the shared verbal artistry
displayed in their collectively authored play,
Plato and Marija, or The Third Mind (JG
255, 2008). Indra Gubiņa fondly remembers
a friend who accompanied her on
trips to Tenerife, Crete and Greece some 20
years ago. Laima Kalniņa recounts
a childhood lesson on the joys of philanthropy.
Art historian Ruta Čaupova,
senior researcher at the Latvian Academy of
Art, describes the challenges and opportunities
confronting sculptors in Latvia during
the ongoing economic crisis. Her lavishly illustrated
article features the work of Gļebs
and Kirils Panteļejevs, Kristaps Gulbis, Aigars
Bikše, Ivars Drulle, Juris Švalbe, Igors and
Ansis Dobičins, Jānis Karlovs, and Ojārs Feldbergs.
Čaupova concludes that hard times
have not dampened the creativity or the
productivity of these artists. Linda
Treija, our newest contributing editor, writes
about an art exhibit held in Philadelphia last
February, and presents colorful samples of
the work of each of the three participants:
Sarma Muižniece-Liepiņa, Krista Nīgale and
herself. The cover art is by Ilmārs
Rumpēters, whose myriad contributions
over several decades have drawn acclaim
from the international design community.
LITERARY COMMENT. Ojārs Zanders writes
about the profound influence of Kārlis
Skalbe’s writings on Latvian culture. His life
(1879-1945) spans perfectly the gradual,
turbulent rise and abrupt fall of the first independent
Republic of Latvia. Skalbe was a
guiding light of the national awakening and
his poetry and fables have never grown oldfashioned
or irrelevant to the Latvian people.
The period of perestroika and glastnost’
(1987-1991) was a time of intensely amplified
cultural contact between Latvians living
inside and outside of Latvia. In her continuing
account of these contacts, Eva Eglāja-
Kristsone begins with the Chautauqua conference
of 1986, which spawned the dissident
group Helsinki-86, and ends with the
Worldwide Congress of Latvian Writers at
the University of Stockholm, in June 1989.
ACTUALITIES, HISTORY, MEMORIES. Rolfs
Ekmanis takes up the thread of his serialized
history of radio broadcasting into
Latvia from the West during the Cold War.
Having outlined in past issues the history
of broadcasting from Madrid (1955-1965;
1969-1972) and from Frankfurt (1965-1972),
he now presents a synopsis of the genesis
of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.
Laimonis Purs, a prose writer and playwright
on the other side of the Iron Curtain during
the Cold War, recalls the importance of RFE/
RL during the Cold War: It was as much a part
of daily nourishment as breakfast, lunch and
dinner. Sniedze Ruņģe pays homage
to Dr. Valdis Muižnieks (1927-2009), an influential
voice among Latvian political exiles.
Jānis Krēsliņš, Jr. reminisces about theologian
Father Kazimirs Vilnis (1907-1988).
Jānis Krēsliņš, Sr. remembers Columbia University
professor Sigurds Grava (1934-2009):
architect, city planner, and founding member
of the Association for the Advancement
of Baltic Studies. In his continuing saga
of life at DP Camp Alt-Garge, Germany, Uldis
Siliņš remembers the year 1945 as a year of
girls and American cigarettes. Juris
Žagariņš gets interviewed by Juris Zommers
on the occasion of receiving two important
awards for devotion to Latvian culture, and
offers a fresh installment of Kiberkambaris,
an internet discussion tangent to the topic
of aid to the needy in Latvia. Baiba
Lapiņa Strunska makes an appeal to common
sense on the issue of double citizenship
for Latvians residing and working abroad.
The Marginalia section, as always, is
chock-full of news shorts relating to the culture
and actualities of Latvia as well as other
Nordic, Central and East European lands.
BOOK REVIEWS. Anna Velēda Žīgure’s
Viņi.Ceļā, a study dedicated to bringing
together those who fled the Soviet occupation
and those who stayed (reviewed by
Aina Siksna and Astra Roze) Jānis Elsbergs’
book of poetry panti (Juris Silenieks and
Anna Auziņa) Margita Gailītis’ (ed.) Tilti
vol. I and II, separate anthologies of prose
and poetry in exile (Juris Silenieks) Zenta
Mauriņa élete és esszéi, a collection of
Mauriņa’s essays in Hungarian and in Latvian
published as part of Folia Baltica, edited
by Pusztay János (Lāsma Ģibiete)
Modris Zihmanis’ novel Bandu bērns (Lāsma
Ģibiete) Leonhards Latkovskis’ Aglona: A
History of the Church and the Monastery
(Juris Vīksniņš) Ilze Ziņģīte’s (ed.) Tautas
lietišķā māksla Latvijā – the proceedings
of a conference on folk art (2007) at the
Latvian National Museum (Māris Brancis)
Journal of Baltic Studies XL/4, 2009
(Gundars Ķeniņš Kings). jž