Belarusians Of North America Hold Meeting In New York

• 3.09.2018, 16:13

The event gathered Belarusians from all over the United States and Canada.

On September 1-2, the 33rd meeting of the Belarusians of North America was held in the Belarusian Center in New York. It was organized by the Belarusian-American Association (BAA).

The meeting brought together Belarusians from all over the US: New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Miami, Boston, there were also guests from Toronto (Canada), Novy Chas writes.

This meeting was dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the BPR, and was held under the theme "The BPR Rada and the Belarusian emigration to North America - History, Present and Prospects". Honorary guests of the meeting were Ivonka Survila, chair of the BPR, and other members of the BPR Rada, who talked about the institution’s activities.

Among the honored guests there were the guests from Belarus: journalist, broadcaster, public figure Hleb Labadzenka, and Natallia Hardziyenka - historian, Ph.D., researcher at the Belarusian emigration.

On the first day of the opening of the Meeting of the Belarusians of North America, the guests listened to the greetings of the leaders of its member organizations. Chairperson of the BAA Chief Board Natallia Fedarenka made an opening speech. Chairman of the Association of Belarusians in Canada Alena Liavonchanka could not attend personally, but sent a video greeting to the participants of the Meeting.

On the first day of the meeting, Hleb Labadzenka spoke about the socio-cultural situation in Belarus, recalled his way to Belarusianity, as well as shared the ideas on how every Belarusian, even those who live abroad, can take an active part in the public life of their Motherland.

The first day of the 33rd Meeting of the Belarusians of North America was completed by a concert of the family band of Valiantsina Parkhomenka-Kazak, Ales Kazak and Volha Kazak-Anlar.Valiantsina with her husband Ales and daughter Volha touched all present with their sincere performance of the Belarus hits, folk songs and their own songs.

The second day of the Meeting of Belarusians of North America began with a prayer service at St. Cyril of Turau of the Belarusian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in New York, and a prayer for Belarus. The official part of the second day of the program was opened by the activists of the Brooklyn department of the Belarusian-American Association, which showed production of "How it was" about the events of the First All-Belarusian Congress in 1918 (based on the works of Aliaksandr Pashkevich "Freedom Square"). Brothers Siarhei and Uladzimir Kudzelich played the part of Ales Harun and Ales Busel.

The main part of the second day of the meeting was a plenary session, at which the guests of honor held speeches and presentations. Ivonka Survila spoke about her road to the BPR and with the BPR, as well as the Rada's activities in Canada. Natallia Hardziyenka presented the activities of representatives of the BPR in the United States. Zianon Pazniak gave a lecture on the role of the BPR in the history of Belarus. After the presentations there was a discussion on the subject , and then the participants adopted the Resolution of the Meeting of Belarusians of North America.

In addition to discussing the main issues of the meeting, Belarusians actively mingled, discussed everyday life things and cultural peculiarities abroad and at home.

The festive concert program was closed by Tatsiana Hrynevich-Matafonava, who performed favorite Belarusian songs and romances for the audience, as well as presented her new album, dedicated to Belarusian folk dances.