Jaunā Gaita nr. 314. rudens 2023

Jaunā Gaita is longer printed and mailed to subscribers. In future our magazine will be e-mailed in printable PDF format free of charge to anyone who requests it. It will also be available for downloading here on our website <jaunagaita.net>, and, of course, the contents will be available here also in HTM format.

L I T E R A T U R E

Valters Nollendorfs (1931) is chairman of the board of the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia and president of The Commission of Historians of Latvia. In 1955 he was the founding editor of Jaunā Gaita. He has recently published poems for the Museum of the Occupation, titled “Roots in Latvia. Poems for a History Book”. Here we offer two of them.

Selections of recent poetry are also from Anna Simina, Rūta Mežavilka, Velta Kaltiņa, Juris Kastiņš, Maija Migla-Streiča and Linda Tīmane. Dagnija Dreika’s eight brief essays are poetry in prose. Selections of literary prose as such are from Andra Manfelde, Vija Laganovska, Kristīne Jučkoviča, Baiba Zīle, Guntis Zariņš, Lauris Bērziņš, Līga Rimša-Eglīte and Rolanda Bula.

 

V I S U A L   A R T

Our art editor Linda Treija, president of ALMA, the American Latvian Artists’ Association, writes about two cultural events last summer in Cēsis, Latvia. One, titled “Too Close, Too Far”, is an exhibit of the paintings of artist/playwright Raimonds Staprāns of California, assembled to honor him on his approaching 100th birthday. The second event, “Beyond the Horizon – ALMA members in Cēsis”, was an exhibit at the The Global Center for Latvian Art in Cēsis (PLMC). Many diaspora artists are represented in this exhibit from June 28 to October 15.

Irita Žeiere of the National History Museum of Latvia Department of Archeology in Rīga describes an exhibit of which she was one of the organizers, titled “Vainagošanās”, devoted to an archeological and artistic study of the wearing of the crown (vainags) as part of the women’s folk costume in Latvia. The cover of this issue features a crown made from spent rifle cartridges.

Many photographs from these three exhibits are shown throughout this issue.

 

M U S I C

Arnolds Klotiņš, historian of music at the University of Latvia Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art, lays out a concise history of 20th century modernism in Latvian music.

A B O U T   B O O K S

Professor / politican / art historian Ojārs Spārītis of the Art Academy of Latvia shares a preface to a book in progress, the autobiography of Pēteris Kalniņš (1840-1935), whose account of his long life illuminates the cultural history of his time.

Jūlija Dibovska reviews a biography of Latvian writer-poet Jānis Poruks (1871-1911) by Viesturs Vecgrāvis. titled Pie augstā loga (At the Tall Window).

Kaspars Zalāns reviews a translation from English of a collection of poems, Iedomu ģeogrāfijas (Imaginary Geographies) by Raiens (Ryan) Dzelzkalns, a New Yorker of Latvian origin.

Kristīne Ilziņa reviews a novel by Lelde Stumbre, Karalis Līrs un viņa četras meitas (King Lear and His Four Daughters).

Lāsma Gaitniece reviews a historical novel by Inguna Bauere, Doroteja izredzētā (Dorothy the Chosen One), about the life of Anna Charlotte Dorothea von Medem (1761-1821), the third wife of Pēteris Bīrons (Peter von Biron), the duke of Kurzeme and Zemgale (Courland and Semigallia).


B R I E F L Y   N O T E D

Linda Treija and Aija Moeller highlight some of the important cultural events in Latvia since our last issue.