A great man is one who collects knowledge the way a bee collects honey and uses it to help people overcome the difficulties they endure - hunger, ignorance and disease!
- Nikola Tesla

Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.
- Franklin Roosevelt

While their territory has been devastated and their homes despoiled, the spirit of the Serbian people has not been broken.
- Woodrow Wilson

Na Jermi niče brana-umetničko delo

Čuveni skulptor iz Minesote, SAD-a, Zoran Mojsilov, inače poreklom iz sela Vlasi, počeo je sa izgradnjom brane na reci Jermi koja će biti možda i na svetu jedinstvena po tome što će predstavljati pravo umetničko delo.

Kako je Pirotskim vestima izjavio Mojsilov, na ovom mestu brana postoji poslednjih 150, možda i 200 godine, ali svakog proleća Jerma nadođe i bujica odnese branu.

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- Za ovaj poduhvat sakupio sam novac-donaciju naših iseljenika iz SAD-a, ali i mnogih Amerikanaca. Predstavio sam svoj projekat na sajtu “kickstarter”, koji finansira umetničke projekte i ljudi su mi uplaćivali ko je koliko mogao tako da sam sakupio oko 12.000 dolara kako bi napravio branu, koja će omogućiti i navodnjavanje polja nadomak sela. Brana je postojala poslednjih 150, možda i 200 godine, ali je reka često odnosila. Ovoga puta ćemo to permanentno da rešimo, a selo će rešiti i problem sa vodom jer seljaci više neće morati da koriste pijaću vodu za polivanje bašti-kaže Mojsilov, koji je jedinstven po tome što u svoja umetnička dela, koja su uglavnom masivna, ugrađuje autentične predmete sa ovog podneblja poput poljoprivrednih alakti i sličnih stvari od gvožđa i kamena, koja se vekovima koriste na ovim prostorima.

Mojsilov živi u Minesoti ali svakoga leta dolazi u svoju postojbinu svojih predaka, u prelepo selo Vlasi. Svoja umetnička dela Mojsilov pravi od kamena, drveta, gvožđa, a o njegovom umeću jedan indijanski vrač iz plemena Dakota, inače njegov prijatelj, kazao je da je Mojsilov čovek koji ima snagu da probudi kamen. Njegove skulpture nalaze se u čak dvadeset država SAD-a. Za svoj najnoviji umetnički poduhvat, branu na Jermi, Mojsilov je ponovo iskoristio jedan originalni “ukras”, deo šine sa pruge uskog koloseka kojom je nekada kanjonom Jerme “tutnjao” voz-ćira, koji je transportovao ugalj iz odavno ugašenog rudnika uglja “Jerma”.

Po njegovim rečima, on je do sada u više navrata pokušavao da napravi skulpturu koja bi krasila selo, ali su poslednju njegovu skulpturu nesavesni meštani sela uništili, drvo zapalili a gvožđe prodali u sekundarne sirovine.

Ovoga puta sam napravio kompromis sa meštanima jer su shvatili da je pravljenje brane u njihovu korist tako da mislim da nećemo imati sličnih problema-kaže Mojsilov.

Tekst i foto Aleksandar Ćirić, Pirotske vesti


SA

 

People Directory

Savatije Sava Ljubicic

Savatije Sava Ljubicic [Savatije Sava Ljubičić, Саватије Сава Љубичић], highly acclaimed Yugoslav composer, was born in 1931, in Cacak, Serbia. He comes from a well known family of musicians with Savatije Ljubicic being the only family member to be a composer. His first musical training began at the age of three when he was at his father’s music school. While listening to the Serbian country songs and dances, he was taught how to play the accordion. His father Miloje Ljubicic, also known as one of Serbia’s best flute builders, opened the music school in Cacak in order to teach farmers’ young children how to be able to play, appreciate and enjoy the Serbian country music its rich folklore The school was opened in 1933, the year when Ljubicic’s father as a singer and accordion player wins the highest award given to outstanding vocalists and musicians in former Yugoslavia.

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Publishing

Serbian Americans: History—Culture—Press

by Krinka Vidaković-Petrov, translated from Serbian by Milina Jovanović

Learned, lucid, and deeply perceptive, SERBIAN AMERICANS is an immensely rewarding and readable book, which will give historians invaluable new insights, and general readers exciting new ways to approach the history​ of Serbian printed media. Serbian immigration to the U.S. started dates from the first few decades of 19th c. The first papers were published in San Francisco starting in 1893. During the years of the most intense politicization of the Serbian American community, the Serbian printed media developed quickly with a growing number of daily, weekly, monthly and yearly publications. Newspapers were published in Serbian print shops, while the development of printing presses was a precondition for the growth of publishing in general. Among them were various kinds of books: classical Serbian literature, folksong collections, political pamphlets, works of the earliest Serbian American writers in America (poetry, prose and plays), first translations from English to Serbian, books about Serb immigrants, dictionaries, textbooks, primers, etc.

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