The Finnish American Reporter is a monthly, English language journal, established
in 1986, featuring articles and news reports of interest to Finns across
North America, in Finland and around the world.
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and welcomes well-written articles representing any aspect of Finnish culture,
politics and religion. The Finnish American Reporter provides a national
network for announcements of Finnish events in the United States and Canada.
Monthly features in the Finnish American Reporter include: sports, calendar of events, genealogy, book reviews, regional news and regular columnists. Past issue book reviews can now be found here. Current news reports from Finland and the North American keep the Finnish community connected, despite great distances. Numerous FAR subscribers are active supporters of the FAR by submitting articles, regional news, calendar events and photographs for publication. To join the growing number of participating FAR subscribers, click on the links below. Submissions can also be sent by mail or fax.
Some of the features included
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Sinikka Church of Milwaukee, Wisconsin reflects on a picture perfect day on Glacier Bay — one of several stops during FinnFest’s cruise.
Jim Kurtti photo
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in the July 2009 issue are ...
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IN THE HEART OF WISCONSIN - 30TH ANNIVERSARY HELD
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(L-R) Jim Kurtti, Arne Salli, June Johnson, Elsie Waterman, Rod Maki, Anna Threlfall and Jim Palmquist
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BY JIM KURTTI
What do an accountant, a counselor and a person with a back injury have in common? Well, if it’s Wausau, Wisconsin in 1979 it was that all three shared an appreciation for their Finnish heritage. So it was with Elsie Koski-Waterman, Bruce Mandelin and Dorothy Kleimola, who met each other at the Northern Valley Workshop, a vocational rehab service agency. Hailing from the Finnish communities of Rock and Ironwood, Michigan and Hurley, Wisconsin, they wanted to connect with other Finns in the predominantly German area of central Wisconsin.
The three rented a lodge at Oak Island in Wausau and placed a notice in the local paper inviting area Finns to attend a potluck picnic on a summer Sunday afternoon. To their delight 25 people showed up, including accordionist and singer Rod Maki of Merrill, leader of the band Finn Power. While Maki played familiar Finnish tunes Kleimola, Mandelin and Waterman took down names and addresses. Thus was born the Central Wisconsin Finnish American Club.
Through consequent events, including in the ...
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Photo courtesy Finland Center
Meri Pakarinen’s one-woman play “HS-Working Title” about the life of Helene Schjerfbeck had its U.S. premiere in early June.
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INSIDE THE ARTIST
BY LAURA PALOTIE
On June 4, New York’s oldest artists’ club provided a setting for a theatrical work about pioneering Finnish painter Helene Schjerfbeck. Conceived by actress Meri Pakarinen, the one-woman play delved into the intricacies of Schjerfbeck’s inner life in 13 non-chronological scenes. After performing the work at culture festivals and art venues around Finland, this performance (hosted by New York-based Finland Center Foundation) marked its North American debut.In creating “HS-Working Title,” which premiered in 2004 at the now-defunct Gallery Sam Vanni in Helsinki, Pakarinen benefited from a large, preserved collection of Schjerfbeck’s own letters; many of the artist’s own words found their way into the finished play, she told the audience.“I tried to quote her as much as possible. The first act is mostly my own text, but I included her own writings, freely of course, into much of the second act,” Pakarinen said in an interview. “Schjerfbeck lends herself to this kind of examination because thousands of her letters have survived to this day and they allow us to access her internal world.”As an unmarried woman living in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Schjerfbeck was left with the task of caring for her sick, aging mother, but even amidst her daily obligations and personal health problems that spanned through her own life, she found a way to devote herself to producing art on her terms — and even partake in ...
IN TRIBUTE TO SUMMER HARVEST
BY CAROL PÄRSSINEN
The literal translation of the Finnish name for July, heinäkuu, is “hay month.” In the agrarian lives of our forebears, haying-the practice of cutting, curing, and storing hay-was a focus of significant communal effort to secure the year’s crop. Thanks in large part to the fruits of such toil by my Finnish ancestors, my thoughts of July and summer bring forth less labor-intensive associations: Fireworks on the Fourth, the lovely, sparkly midday summer sun that throws little shadow and makes everything gleam, frozen treats melting down my arm, spitting winged carpenter ants from my teeth while riding through a swarm on my bicycle (phht!), running through the lawn sprinkler, and anticipating a visit with my grandparents. Memories of the carefree release of summer.
My parents’ grandparents all emigrated from Finland, and my mother’s family started out in ...
KARELIA: ONCE MORE WITH FEELING
BY PAUL LEPISTO
On Friday afternoon, we bring three men three dollars worth of dried peas, flour, cooking oil and a can of meat so that they will have something to eat on the weekend when the cook will be unable to pay them with lunch for sawing wood. One man is an invalid because of brain damage suffered in a fall (or was he pushed? In any event drunkenness was involved). His house was set on fire, quite possibly to cover the crime, and the injured man’s mother stood outside shouting, “Let it burn!” because she is so fed up with her ne’er-do-well son. His other two roommates are in similar straits; one’s brother, we are informed, is in the hospital 95 kilometers away in Petrozavodsk and has had both feet amputated a few days previously (after having been released from prison 45 kilometers away in Pryazha for driving without documents - and almost certainly drunk). He took a wrong turn walking home and it is quite lucky he is alive at all. “Could we help them visit their brother and friend?” they ask. The roundtrip train ticket is approximately $12 each, which might as well be $12,000 for these gentlemen living on a monthly disability pension of about $30. But, as we are going to Petrozavodsk ourselves on Monday to buy foodstuffs in bulk, we can give them a ride one way and train fare to come home (but only at the last possible moment lest the temptation to purchase vodka be too great). Pastor Pekka Palosaari invites them to come to. ...
PLUS MUCH MORE!
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