16th June, 5:30 PM | a lecture in English with a Polish interpretation | cinema hall

Chicago is an unofficial capital city of the Polish diaspora in the USA. The third largest city in the USA is also a constantly changing mixture of cultures and languages, composed of the European, African and Asian immigrants. On 16th June, Professor Dominik Pacyga from the Columbia College Chicago will tell us about this unique place.

A large part of the history of the USA was written by huge waves of immigrants coming from various parts of the world. Each of them came to Lake Michigan and left its creative mark in the urban tissue of Chicago. The story of the migrants from the Polish lands, who came here in exceptionally large numbers, was not different. Today, it is estimated that there are over a million inhabitants of a Polish descent. It is also the city, in which the headquarters of the largest Polish diaspora organisations are located.

However, Chicago is a unique place not only for Poles. The third largest Jewish community in the world had lived there until 1939. There are large African-American and Asian communities in the city as well. Latin Americans (Mexicans, Guatemalans and Salvadorans and Puerto Ricans and others) are a third of the city’s community. The second biggest group of Palestinians in the USA also lives in Chicago. Today, just as in its early days, Chicago is a city of immigrants.

Professor Dominik Pacyga’s lecture, which is accompanied by a photographic material of the colourful history of Chicago, explores the inextricable link between the city and immigrants from all over the world. The expert in the city’s history and the author of several books will try to explain the phenomenon of the global Chicago. The lecture in English will be interpreted into Polish.