I’m about take a trip I’ve been wanting to make for as long as I remember. My earliest memories are of living multi-generationally in the Polonia District (East Side) of Buffalo. I have Polish names — family last names as well as nicknames. I’ve come to the part of my vocational pivot for the second pilgrimage (17 days), exploring some European places and roots. My first pilgrimage led me 15,000 miles across North America, the third is with mentors on the west coast, the final is wilderness time. Top image is a tree’s roots in Krakow, photo by @TomaszBorysiuk.
Playing decolonization can be fun. I enjoy dismantling and challenging whiteness, whether it’s identity and narrative in a personal sense or contributing to the analysis, pedagogy, or praxis to the movement of de-centering whiteness while rooting out white supremacy.
What does it mean to be Polish? Existentially, I’ve always been Polish. I’ve heard every Polish joke (in the US, people make jokes about how stupid Poles are). Well, I’m also a cis white male American, 100 years in the US has offered many privileges with it. I don’t speak much Polish at all, can only cook basic holiday food, and have lived a mile from the Polish neighborhood of Philadelphia since 1999. But am I a real Polish person? I know about Polish Americans in the US, but not much about back in Polska. I’m learning now about the history and especially last 100 years since my ancestors came over. That’s only from my dad’s lineage as my mom was adopted from Irish/Scottish/English people. Most of my Polish relatives are back 9in Western New York. I want to explore our narrative and stories. I want to touch the land, hear the language, eat the food, and enjoy exploring my family history. Did Poles really attack WWI tanks with swords on horseback? Is that why we are stupid if they did? If you’re white, what stereotypes are there about your peoples? Ever try to find out where they came from and why it helps whiteness to continue them or not?
I’ll be in Poland for a week. Krakow will be my base, with a lovely Polish/American family. I’ll get to see where Smok Wawelski (Wawel dragon) lived, and maybe find out whether it was Krakus that smote him. I’ll spend two days in Szczecin (maybe where my paternal great grandfather was from), where I’ll do some travel blogging for my Polish friends. I’ll also get to take a bus to the village Mielec, where my maternal great grandmother was from.
I’ll get to visit the countryside of England for a few nights, and will enjoy intergenerational fish n chips. I’ll also get to hang with friends in London for a few nights. Flying from Philly, London is by far the cheapest place to get to and from Europe, utilizing multiple airports. Look kids — Big Ben, Parliament.
My friend in Copenhagen first invited me to visit close to 20 years ago. I look forward to seeing this place and people that has formed some of my closest friends and music dudes. I also have the opportunity to facilitate some conversations with some cool Danes about white supremacy, Trump, and Indigenous/Settler relations.
My Mexican and Spanish artistic collaborators who I recently visited in Mexico will be in Bilbao, Spain. I’m fascinated by Basque Country, and can’t wait to roll with such creative people in a beautiful place for a few nights.
I’ve been contemplating the monarch butterflies and their four-generation annual migration over the past few years. Their east coast North American migration takes three generations to fly south, eating their milkweed, laying eggs, and dying. Their larvae turn into caterpillars who enjoy chrysalis, eat some milkweed and fly south. That happens again until the third generation overwinters in Mexico. When the fourth generation emerges, they make the flight North over only a few weeks back to Canada. They repeat this every year, although our wetlands are in danger of disastrously disrupting these important pollinators. Please allow more milkweed to grow, East Coast!
It’s been three generations since my Polish ancestors came East. I’m completing one monarch butterfly cycle, in a way. Hopefully my actual Polish babies benefit from it. I have dreamt about wading out into the Baltic Sea on a cold, gray day. There I reach my open hands towards the heavens. And then see what happens.
If you want to join me more closely on this journey, please consider making a donation towards the cost. While it’s way cheaper than I originally schemed (with the whole family), airfare and food will be around $2,000.
Embracing Liminality 