New York-based singer/songwriter Audronė Simanonytė will perform songs written and sung by Lithuanian deportees to Siberia as well as her own compositions.

Actor Julija Sakalaitė-Paukštienė will read poems and excerpts from letters by Simanonytė’s mother, Silvija Juodžbalytė-Simanonienė, who was deported to Siberia as a Vilnius university student for writing poetry deemed “anti-Soviet” by the authorities. Even in solitary confinement, where the spirited young woman often found herself, she continued to write poems and to share them with other prisoners by tapping them out in Morse code on her cell walls.

Simanonytė’s father Anicetas Simanonis, a Lithuanian partisan, was arrested and deported to Siberia in 1949. Now in his 90s, Simanonis and his wife Sylvia live in Kaunas, Lithuania.

This event is open to the public.  There is a charge to enter the museum: $10/person or $5/member.

This event is part of the Hope & Spirit series. Hope & Spirit is partially supported by grants from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency; the Illinois Humanities Council; The National Endowment for the Humanities; the Illinois General Assembly; a City Arts grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events; and the ECPC.

For more information, please contact the Rita Jenz at (773)582-6500.