The Polish and Slavic Center in New York and Jan Karski Society are cordially inviting to an event with Prof. Alexander J. Motyl as an honorary guest on Saturday, May 6, 2023, at 6 P.M at the Polish and Slavic Center, 177 Kent Street, Brooklyn, NY 11222.
The event is strictly related to Russia’s genocidal war in Ukraine and is an expression of our opposition to the brutal acts of Russia.
In the first part of the event, the Medal of the 75th Anniversary of Jan Karski’s Mission will be awarded to Professor Alexander J. Motyl from Rutgers University, an internationally renowned expert in the field of totalitarian doctrines, Russology, Sovietology, Ukrainology, and human rights. Author of books and articles, media expert, and commentator. He will receive the Medal for consistently defining the system of Putin’s Russia as rashism, i.e. Russian fascism. It is no coincidence that the award ceremony will be held just before May 8th, the anniversary of the Victory Day of 1945. Hitler’s fascism is indistinguishable from Putin’s rashism. 
The second part of the event will be devoted to a presentation of Prof. Alexander Motyl’s book “Pitun’s Last Stand”, about a fall of a Russian tyrant, Putin. The book was recently published in the Polish version as “Ostatnia stacja Pituna”. Prof. Motyl will be accompanied by Waldemar Piasecki who translated the book into Polish.
Autographed copies of the book found their way to the President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda, the President of Ukraine Wolodymyr Zelenski, and the President of the United States Joe Biden.
The evening will conclude with a live music performance by a spectacular Makowicz-Medyna-Dingler Jazz Ensemble.
Adam Makowicz – piano
Krystof Medyna – saxophone
Jeff Dingler – bass
Adam Makowicz, Polish-American pianist and composer living in the New York area. He performs jazz and classical piano pieces, as well as his own compositions. Besides playing solo, he has worked with such musicians among many as Earl Hines, Ben Webster, Phil Woods, Jack DeJohnette, as well as with the National Symphony of Washington DC, at the Kennedy Centre, at the Carnegie Hall, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London, the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, and other major orchestras at concert halls in the Americas and in Europe. His technical skills as jazz pianist have been compared to that of Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, and Erroll Garner, among others. He was named the “Best jazz pianist” by the readers of Jazz Forum magazine and was awarded a gold medal for his contribution to the arts. In December of 2022 the Academy of Art in Szczecin, Poland awarded Adam with honorary degree “doctor honoris causa”.
Krystof Medyna began his musical career at age 5. His mother was a trained classical pianist and his grandfather a conductor. From 1975-1978, Krystof lived and performed in Scandinavia. Upon his return to Poland, he founded the group Freakwater, with pianist Andrzej Winnicki. At the 1979 Jazz and Odra Jazz Festival in Wroclaw, Poland, Breakwaterwon the award for Best Group, and Krystof won the award for best solo instrumentalist. Krystof has been living Stateside since 1982. Since then, he has been performing in the New York area with such musicians as Greg Maker, Fukushi Tainaka, Jeremy Pelt, Rodney Holmes, Nasheet Waits, Scott Colley, and Drew Gress, among others.
Born in 1986 in New York City, Jeff Dingler a bass player and composer. His bass work has seen him included in a variety of settings covering a wide range of genres of music. From straight-ahead jazz with The Nelson Riddle Orchestra, to Macedonian rhythms with Brad Shepik’s Balkan Peppers, all the way to Ethiopian folk styles of The Addis Acoustic Project. Jeff’s recent album “In Transit” has received acclaim worldwide for its blending of straight-ahead jazz and Ethiopian folk music. Jeff served for two years as a professor of jazz studies at Mekene Yesus University in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and holds a Master of Music degree from NYU.