This is our Poland

Stories of resilience, creativity and change from the heart of Europe

What is it like to be young, creative, and non-conformist in a country where nationalism and ultra-conservative values are on the rise? This is our Poland: stories of resilience, creativity and change from the heart of Europe is a new special report by The Calvert Journal. Elevating the voices of young creatives, it paints a portrait of Poland often overlooked by the mainstream, joining a generation of young artists, cultural figures, and activists as they ask: can we shape a better future for our country?

Across 23 stories, we explore the complexity of contemporary Polish culture: from digital media, film, and feminist history, to radical literature and futuristic queer art. This is our Poland is a multidimensional snapshot of a society where cultural beliefs are in flux and where the stakes for those who fight for freedom are higher than ever.

Culture

Poland’s politics may be in flux, but the country’s cultural sphere is rising to meet the challenge. We speak to the creatives using the arts to voice something new and important in Poland today

This is our Poland

Culture

Poland is a divided country. We spent 3 years on the road trying to understand why

How TikTok is helping Poland’s pro-choice campaigners engage a new generation

Where art meets resistance: the galleries pushing back against Poland’s illiberal politics

How one high schooler’s Facebook beauty brand is saving survivors of domestic abuse

I am! human! Why Poland’s LGBTQ+ artists won’t be silenced

Meet Stop Bzdurom, the anarchic Warsaw collective fighting for Poland’s popular imagination

How TikTok is helping Poland’s pro-choice campaigners engage a new generation

Where art meets resistance: the galleries pushing back against Poland’s illiberal politics

How one high schooler’s Facebook beauty brand is saving survivors of domestic abuse

I am! human! Why Poland’s LGBTQ+ artists won’t be silenced

Meet Stop Bzdurom, the anarchic Warsaw collective fighting for Poland’s popular imagination

Meet Gen Z

‘I’m allergic to unfreedom‘: how one Polish journalist is carving a space for peaceful trans existence

Girls to the Front is the feminist collective making resistance about more than just protest

By reimagining Poland’s state symbols, artist Kacper Szalecki is creating a queer utopia

Artist Liliana Zeic wants to inspire empathy, sensitivity and revolution

How one Polish artist is making space for queer love — by celebrating heartbreak

Unspeakable stories: how Jolanta Janiczak became Polish theatre's feminist conscience

Lesbian postcards from the future: the artists sending back messages from Poland’s radical queer tomorrow

Photography

‘If we close everything in one go, it will be a disaster.’ Photographer Michal Luczak on the troubling fate of Poland’s coal industry

‘Society doesn’t allow me to feel Polish.’ Stories from Warsaw’s Vietnamese diaspora

Afro-Poland: a revolutionary friendship, captured in rare photos from 1955-1989

In Focus

Poland's Gen Z in their own words

‘My heart stood still in a distant motel:’ 6 contemporary Polish poems

10 era-defining Polish films from the 50s to the present day

9 radical Polish books to add to your reading list

How the defacement of two statues could lead to Poland’s reckoning with its Black history