This season, we’re once again opening up a space for conversation and reflection, following in the footsteps of nonfiction literature. We invite the authors of the most interesting new releases, as well as creators who undertake in-depth attempts to capture the contemporary world in all its complexity.
In this new edition of the series, we focus on emotions and phenomena that defy simple definitions—and from which late-capitalist society all too often turns a blind eye—such as powerlessness, helplessness, sadness, and grief. We also reflect on the private lives of well-known figures, which unfold beyond the official narratives and media biographies.
In the intimate setting at Jaśkowa Dolina 4, we’ll meet two exceptional authors who have been documenting reality with empathy and sensitivity for years: Agnieszka Dauksza and Magdalena Grzebałkowska. These will be encounters with literature that not only describes the world but also encourages us to pause, look deeper, and ask ourselves a few important questions.
I. Agnieszka Dauksza / May 28, 2025 / 7:00
p.m. On the Other Side of Failure—On Drawing Strength from Powerlessness as a Strategy of Resistance
The meeting will focus on the concepts of failure and powerlessness. In a world where the model of success and productivity is gradually crumbling, there is room to accept one’s own powerlessness as a tool for change. Agnieszka Dauksza explores strategies of resistance and tactics of survival by examining literary characters, artists, public figures, and even animals. How can failure be transformed into a creative experience? How can weakness become a strength? Can powerlessness lead to social change? This is an invitation to reflect on a new model of existence, in which the insignificant and the imperfect become the key to survival and solidarity.
The meeting will be led by Dagny Kurdwanowska.
Agnieszka Dauksza—a native of Gdańsk living in Kraków, author of the books: *Jaremianka: A Biography* (2019), *Affective Modernism* (2017), *The Auschwitz Club and Other Clubs: Fragmented Stories of Survivors* (2016, 2021), and *Women on the Road: The Experience of Public Space in Literature at the Turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries* (2013). Finalist for the Nike Award; winner of the Teresa Torańska “Newsweek” Award, the Polish Science Foundation Award, the “Polityka” Scientific Award, the Adam Włodek Award, the “Gryfia” Award, the “Juliusz” Award, the KMLU Award, creative fellowships from the City of Kraków and the City of Gdańsk, and fellowships from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. She also experiences many failures in her daily life. She works at Jagiellonian University.
II. Magdalena Grzebałkowska / June 25, 2025 / 7:00
p.m. Beyond the Monumental: On the Second Life of Great Names
We invite you to a discussion on the works of Magdalena Grzebałkowska—this will be an opportunity to examine the lives of famous figures from a completely different perspective: a personal, unexpected, and sometimes painful one. The author of books such as *Komeda: The Personal Life of Jazz*, *The Beksińskis: A Double Portrait*, *1945: War and Peace*, *Wojenka*, “Konopnicka: Always Apart,” and “Father Paradox,” reveals with extraordinary empathy the fates of people who are famous yet often misunderstood. We will discuss Maria Konopnicka—a writer who consistently chose to live apart; Father Jan Twardowski—a modest poet who shunned sanctity; about Krzysztof Komeda—an artist confronted by the legend of his own name—as well as Zdzisław and Tomasz Beksiński—a family whose shared history is a story of loneliness, closeness, and death.
The meeting will be led by Michał Tokarczyk.
Magdalena Grzebałkowska—one of Poland’s most highly regarded reporters, author of bestselling biographies (*The Beksińskis: A Double Portrait*, *Komeda: The Personal Life of Jazz*, *Father Paradox: A Biography of Jan Twardowski*) and historical reportage. She is the winner of the NIKE Readers’ Choice Award, the Grand Press Award, and the Torańska Award, and has been nominated for the Kapuściński Award and the Gryfia Award, among others. She lives in Gdańsk.
