2026: Grzegorz Kwiatkowski from Poland
The Cheuse Center’s tenth anniversary festival will have multiple events in April. We are pulling out all the stops, flying down multiple writers from across the world! In addition to the Cheuse Center, our dear co-sponsors – Mason Exhibitions, Goethe-Institut and Solasnua—will help us host these events across DC. We can’t wait for you join us in our beautiful regional cities. It’s a star-studded week of international writers, local archivists, artists, and scholars for conversations on literature, history and place.
We are focusing on the Washington DC area, home to the Cheuse Center as place, while connecting Washington and Virginia in unique ways to the world. Our flagship lecture will also focus on former Washington Post publisher Agnes Meyer’s persuasive ‘rescue’ of Nobel prize winning German writer Thomas Mann from Europe. Meyer, who was of German origin, was the mother of newspaper legend Katharine Graham, who is buried in Oak Hill cemetery in Washington.
As part of this festival, we have been collaborating on developing special events with Kwiatkowski.
Conversations with Grzegorz Kwiatkowski (Visiting Scholar in Residence at George Mason)
April 21–25, 2026
Conversations will be located at the School of Art, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
Polish poet and human rights activist Grzegorz Kwiatkowski joins us for a week of conversations.
Film Premiere: Malte Herwig’s “The Girl with the Golden Hair”
April 24, 2026 | 6:30–9:30 PM
Goethe-Institut, 1377 R Street NW, Washington, DC
Join us for the US premier of The Girl with the Golden Hair. This powerful documentary follows Malte Herwig’s search to uncover the story behind a haunting WWII photograph that was in his grandfather’s possession. His grandfather, a gold medalist in the Los Angeles Olympics, served the German army, occupying Poland at the start of the War in 1939. The screening will be followed by a conversation and reception. This event is in conjunction with Grzegorz Kwiatkowski’s residency. Kwiatkowski and Herwig’s works overlap in ways that will make for a stimulating conversation.
More Info: https://cheusecenter.gmu.edu/events/17713
Bringing Them Home
A Literary Reading & Guided Cemetery Tour (Georgetown)
April 25, 2026 | 2:00–5:00 PM
Where: Mt Zion Cemetery, and Oak Hill Cemetery, Georgetown
An afternoon exploring place and history, featuring Polish writer and activist Grzegorz Kwiatkowski, alongside Mt Zion Cemetery’s Director Lisa Fager, Oak Hill Cemetery’s Archivist and Collections Manager Laura Thoms, Director of GW’s Creative Writing program Lisa Page, poet Martheaus Perkins, and writer and Cheuse Director Leeya Mehta, with guided tours connecting literature, history, and place. As we visit these cemeteries we also acknowledge that many of us will never be found, never be buried, never be known perhaps; so how do we create the idea of home and last rites, how do we continue to form community across the world even when there is no closure? How do we carry history, and bring the lessons home?
RSVP: https://cheusecenter.gmu.edu/events/18088
Also, join us all for: The 2026 Cheuse Lecture: “Stories of Sanctuary” with Colm Tóibín
April 23, 2026 | 7:00–9:00 PM
Stacy C. Sherwood Community Center, 3740 Blenheim Boulevard, Fairfax, VA 22030, Fairfax, VA
In celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Cheuse Center, join us for this year’s Cheuse Lecture with Irish writer Colm Tóibín, in conversation with German intellectual Malte Herwig. In Stories of Sanctuary, Tóibín reflects on exile, identity, and what it means to seek, and create, refuge through literature.
More Info: https://cheusecenter.gmu.edu/events/17712