At a press conference in Łódź’s EC1, where the Freedom Games will take place on November 9-11, the organizers and the Mayor of Łódź Hanna Zdanowska talked about the plans for this year’s event. – Łódź organizes Independence Day for Poland. It’s a grass-roots, civic holiday. Łódź is an ideal place to show Poland as an open, multicultural, feminine country – said Leszek Jażdżewski, program coordinator of the Olympic Games.
President Zdanowska said: – This year the Freedom Games will set new standards. During the 100th anniversary of independence, we want to talk about modern patriotism, about the identity of the European Union Member States, about the future.
Leszek Jażdżewski, editor-in-chief of Liberté! and program coordinator of the Games: – Łódź organizes Independence Day for Poland. It’s a grass-roots, civic holiday. Thanks to the support of the City of Lodz, for many months we were able to prepare for something that the Polish government did not prepare for at all. In the EC1 Machine Hall, the most outstanding minds of Poland and Europe will meet to celebrate independence through conversations, discussions and concerts. We invite everyone, regardless of political views, if they want to talk, and not argue and disturb.
For the final of the Games on November 11, we are preparing an action entitled “Polka Niepodległa” (“Independent Polish Woman”) – a combination of the centenary of women’s electoral rights with the century of independence. We invite outstanding women who will talk about the future, not about the past. We will have, among others Jolanta Kwaśniewska, Natalia Przybysz, Mary Komasa. It will be a kind of manifesto that will combine the energy independence with what we saw during the Black Protest defending women’s rights. For many people, talking about what was 100 years ago is pointless, but it turns out that the issue of an independent Pole, the struggle for women’s rights is here and now. That is why we have topics devoted to minorities’ rights.
We want the Polish flag not to belong only to nationalists in balaclavas who march with racquets very often under racist slogans. This should be a festival for all of us. It’s about time we started talking about history from other positions. Łódź is an ideal place to show Poland an open, multicultural, feminine country – in this respect, the city is suitable to be the true capital of Polish independence.
Błażej Lenkowski, president of the Liberté foundation! – organizer of the Freedom Games: – We are entering a completely different level and we are also able to organize one of the most important intellectual and cultural events in Central and Eastern Europe in the years to come. We managed to convince many decision-makers, people of culture, writers, musicians, and academics from around the world that it is worth coming and celebrating on November 11 in Łódź. Not only the Games will feature not only politicians of the highest rank, as Donald Tusk, Robert Biedron, Leszek Balcerowicz, Katarzyna Lubnauer, Barbara Nowacka, but it will also be a cultural event, attended by lecturers from Cambridge, Harvard, Yale, Sorbonne. We will host absolutely top Polish writers: Dorota Masłowska, Eustachy Rylski, Stefan Chwin and Elżbieta Cherezińska.
An important piece of information is that we invite parents with children for the Games, for whom a play corner will be organized. – The Games are a family holiday – Poland’s independence should be celebrated by whole families – says Leszek Jażdżewski.
