Author: LS

Lithuanian Exile Media History Presented at the EMHIS Symposium

On May 14-16, 2019 the 8th Symposium of the Entangled Media Histories research network “Current Challenges of Entangled Media Histories—Theories, Sources and Methodologies” was organized in the Welsh countryside outside Newtown. The symposium was hosted and organised by Jamie Medhurst of the University of Aberystwyth in collaboration with the EMHIS coordinator Marie Cronqvist of Lund University. The main goal of the symposium was to discuss the future of the EMHIS network and to highlight personal challenges, as well as cooperation possibilities.

Symposium’s participants. Photo credit: EMHIS “Facebook.”

The researchers from nine countries gathered to discuss their problems and to present the sources and databases they use in their research. A few presentations addressed the complicated history of the Baltic region and research on migration.

One of them was Dr. Ina Ėmužienė, a researcher at the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, participant of the BaltHerNet conferences. She presented a topic on Lithuanian media in exile. In her presentation, Ina talked about diaspora research, sources, and data bases based in the Baltic region.

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Participants of the World Lithuanian Writers Forum Gathered at the National Library of Lithuania

On May 5-7, 2019 the First World Lithuanian Writers Forum took place in Vilnius. It was attended by more than 30 writers, translators and literary critics from fifteen countries. The program of the forum offered a variety of activities—from literary readings to the presentation of the anthology of world Lithuanian authors, Exodica, to a book exhibition of the Lithuanian émigré writers organized by the National Library of Lithuania.

The organizers of the Forum aimed at achieving several goals. The first one was to get to know each other and share different experiences and perceptions of the world. The event also commemorated the Lithuanian Press Restoration, Language and Book Day.


The participants of the Forum took a picture on the steps of the National Library of Lithuania.

On May 6, the participants of the Forum visited the National Library of Lithuania. Jolanta Budriūnienė, the director of the Documentary Heritage Research Department of the National Library of Lithuania, presented the writers to a wide range of library’s activities. She noted that the Library has become a place where more than thousand various cultural events take place every year and the space for the cultural diplomacy. “We cooperate with the embassies of the Republic of Lithuania abroad, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture. We have broadened the scope of joint works and projects in the East and West. The library is a unique place, because it traces the signs of cultural diplomacy. It’s a place where we systematically collect and house the books of Lithuanian authors published abroad. Today these publications are an important part of the Lithuanian documentary heritage,” Budriūnienė said.

The writers who gathered at the National Library of Lithuania presented the director of the Documentary Heritage Research Department with their books and publications published abroad and in Lithuania. Afterwards, the participants of the Forum were given an extensive tour of the Library.

The LAC Exhibition at the National Library of Lithuania


The exhibition at the Library. Photo: National Library of Lithuania

The travelling exhibition “We Created the Lithuanian State Together: The Lithuanian-American Community, Inc. 1951-2018” at the National Library of Lithuania highlights the fact that Lithuanian-Americans have always kept close contact with the homeland and have contributed to country’s development.

Lithuanian diaspora is an integral part of Lithuanian history. Despite the geographical distance, the Lithuanian immigrants tirelessly worked on behalf of Lithuania. Various initiatives of many relief organizations, the financial support, active propaganda work, and the establishment and strengthening of political, economic, and cultural relations between the US and Lithuania are undeniable evidence of the united struggle for Lithuanian independence.

Fighting for the independence of Lithuania was one of the main goals of the Lithuanian-American Community, Inc. founded in 1951. When Lithuania regained its independence, the LAC, which unites all Lithuanians living in the US, has actively cooperated with the homeland and its institutions, contributed to the development of ties between Lithuanian and the US government and business representatives.

Today, the ultimate goal of the LAC is to preserve Lithuanian culture and traditions and pass it onto the future generations. The organization’s main emphasis is on Lithuanian education, cultural, scientific, social, economic, religious, and sport and other activities in the US. It cooperates with other Lithuanian-American organizations, the US non-governmental organizations, and introduces Americans to Lithuania. Americans of Lithuanian descent and their non-Lithuanian spouses are also welcomed in the LAC.

The exhibition, which runs at the Library until the end of May, testifies to the glorious history of the LAC and introduces to its past and present activities.

Lithuanian Writers from All over the World Will Gather in Vilnius

The Lithuanian World Community, Inc. together with the Lithuanian Writers’ Union and the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore is organizing the first congress of world Lithuanian writers in Vilnius. The event, which will take place on 5-7 May, 2019, will host 50 Lithuanian writers and/or writers of Lithuanian origin who currently live outside Lithuania.

During the event, the participants will meet with Lithuanian writers. They will visit the Lithuanian Writers’ Union, the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore and the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania. Readings will take place during the event. At the end of the congress, an almanac of the participants’ fiction and poetry will be published.

The Annual Seminar of the Diaspora Researchers

Dalia Cidzikaitė

For the sixth year in a row, the diaspora researchers and archivists gathered at the National Library of Lithuania. The aim of the seminar is to bring together researchers working in the diaspora field, especially students, to give them the opportunity to share their research, and also to encourage the representatives of archives and museums to introduce the Lithuanian diaspora collections housed at their institutions to the broader audience.

The first seminar, entitled “The Young Diaspora Researchers’ Seminar,” today is known under a slightly different name, “The Interdisciplinary Diaspora Researchers’ Seminar.” Currently, the community unites about 30 researchers working in various Lithuanian universities, institutes, museums, archives, and libraries.


Photo: National Library of Lithuania

Six Perspectives on Diaspora

Six perspectives on diaspora were presented at the sixth event. Ina Ėmužienė, Ph.D., who just recently defended her thesis on Lithuanian radio and TV programs in the US from 1944 to 1990, presented the Lithuanian-American electronic media. In particular she talked about the Lithuanian radio programs that were active in the country in 1944-1990: their frequency, geography, and the circumstances of their establishment. The researcher presented a list of the Lithuanian-American radio programs that ran during that period, stressing that it is not final. She is still discovering new archives, related to the topic she has been researching.

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The Book “Nylon Curtain”


Book presentation at the Library.
Photo: National Library of Lithuania

The two-volume monograph Nylon Curtain. Lithuanian Music in the Context of International History of Cold War, by the musicologists, Prof. Rūta Stanevičiūtė, Prof. Danutė Petrauskaitė, and Prof. Vita Gruodytė, was presented at the National Library of Lithuania. The book, published in 2018 by the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater, consists of two volumes: a collective monograph, entitled Nylon Curtain. Cold War, International Exchanges and Lithuanian Music and a collection of correspondence, Foreign Correspondence of the Lithuanian Musicians, 1945-1990.

In the collective monograph, the authors using extensive archival documents gathered from the state and private archives, as well as published sources, analyze the channels of the exchange of musical information among the individuals and institutions in Lithuania and foreign countries that took place during the Soviet period. They also looked into the reasons that encouraged promoting personal and transnational relations between the two musical environments divided by the ideological confrontation of the Cold War, and posed questions, such as: which ideological, economic, and cultural constraints and differences limited such exchange and what impact international exchanges had on the national music scene.

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