PUSH is a new documentary from award-winning Swedish director Fredrik Gertten, investigating why we can’t afford to live in our own cities anymore. Housing is a fundamental human right, a precondition to a safe and healthy life. But in cities all around the world, having a place to live is becoming more and more difficult. Who are the players and what are the factors that make housing one of today’s most pressing world issues?
Saturday, January 8th | 1pm | $7; free for members | Tickets here | **proof of vaccination and masks required**
In 1936, a renowned Norwegian figure skater decides to leave her career and become a Hollywood star. Her first film breaks sells the most tickets in the world in 1937, but as she gets older and the spotlight fades, she refuses to quit.
Former architect, and Scandinavian Charitable Society board member, Marty Lehman, paints buildings, cityscapes, landscapes and “all things Swedish.” In his fourth exhibition at the SCC he will feature recent watercolors.
On view November 14th through December. Gallery hours vary.
Opening reception Sunday, November 14th | 3-5pm | please register here**advanced registration, masks, and proof of vaccination required**
Marty graduated from Cornell University’s College of Architecture in 1960, and had a professional career in architecture for nearly 50 years, working in Stockholm, Sweden, Boston ,Cambridge and for 22 years as one of DIGITAL’s corporate architects.
Marty “re-discovered” the joy of watercolor painting. This show represents work done in the past ten years, featuring his favorite themes… buildings, cityscapes, landscapes, and all things Swedish.
A wonderful Norwegian male choir is getting ready to warm up for Black Sabbath and to sing the last verse for their conductor.
Every Tuesday, 25 men in their prime get together in a bar in Oslo to sing in a choir and drink beers. They have joked that they have promised to sing at each other’s funerals and now it looks like the choir’s conductor will be the first to be sung out. The doctor has given him just a few months to live. Which is roughly the time that the male choir has to prepare for its biggest gig to date: a warm-up job for Black Sabbath. The countdown has started, while both the cancer-stricken conductor and the wonderful lads in the choir try to keep their spirits high with songs about the hardships of middle-aged men, while they also prepare to say farewell to each other. The joy of singing and community help them to open up to each other and their feelings. Rarely has a film been so funny and touching, and you are both warmed on the inside and reduced to tears at the same time. ‘The Men’s Room’ is a film that goes straight to the heart and stays there.
in Norwegian with English subtitles | 75 minutes
Saturday, December 11th | 1pm | $5; free for SCC members | Tickets here
**advanced registration; masks, and proof of vaccination REQUIRED**
“Were Socrates and Charles the Twelfth of Sweden both present in any company, and Socrates to say, ‘Follow me and hear a lecture on philosophy’ and Charles, laying his hand on his sword, to say, ‘Follow me and dethrone the Czar’, a man would be ashamed to follow Socrates.” -Samuel Johnson
Charles XII (1682-1718) was the last of Sweden’s warrior kings. He remains the only Swedish monarch born to absolutism and the last European monarch to die on the field of battle. He claimed the throne at age 15, was called off to war at 18, and spent the rest of his life in uniform trying to defeat a coalition of states that at one point or another included Denmark, Poland-Saxony, Russia, Prussia, and Great Britain. Charles’s armies stormed across Europe and under his direct leadership achieved miraculous victories often in the face of overwhelming odds. On a remote Ukrainian field in 1709, Sweden lost the initiative. Years of desperate rearguard actions yielded further losses of territory and lives before culminating in the mysterious death of Charles himself at a lowly fortress in Norway.
Public opinion and literary history are quick to place Charles in one of two extreme categories- a noble warrior fated to defend a doomed empire – or – a tyrant driven by glory and bloodlust who sacrificed his kingdom on the altar of war. As always, history is a bit more nuanced.
Carolus Rex will place Charles XII in his appropriate historical context. The talk of the king’s life and times will be accompanied by music and a display of contemporary artifacts including newspapers, coins, musketballs, and prints. A full replica uniform of a Carolean infantryman circa 1706 will be worn for demonstration and guests are welcome to handle various pieces of kit. Copies of By Defeating My Enemies- Charles XII of Sweden and the Great Northern War 1682-1721 will be available for purchase and signing.
Saturday, November 6th | 1pm | $7; FREE for SCC Members | register here
**Registration and proof of vaccination is REQUIRED to attend**
BIO: Michael Glaeser is an Early Modern historian specializing in the Swedish Empire of the 17th/18th centuries. He is published in the Great Northern War Compendium (2015) and taught history at the University of New Hampshire- Manchester. His biography of Charles XII of Sweden was published by Helion & Co in 2020.
“To travel is to live,” said Danish fairytale author, H.C. Andersen. See his words come to life in “Snapshots,” an art exhibition by Danish artist, Susanne Thea. H.C. Andersen is known for his world-famous fairytales from “The Little Mermaid” to “The Ugly Duckling,” “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” and many more.
Exhibit will be on display in the Nordic Hall September – October 2021
Tap dance and jazz have a long and intertwined history. From the prohibition on musical instruments during the era of slavery, which prompted the enslaved African-Americans to find ingenious ways to use their bodies as percussion instruments, to the early 20th century New York City where Irish and African-American styles of dancing met and enriched each other while innovative popular musical styles were created through the fusion of cultures, to the film era and the groundbreaking work of Fred Astaire – these two art forms developed side-by-side, even if at some point their paths have grown somewhat apart.
Tap dancer Alex MacDonald – the original tap soloist and choreographer for the wildly popular vintage jazz band, Scott Bradlee & Postmodern Jukebox – and pianist and improviser Alex Pryrodny present a fun and educational program that pays tribute to the historical roots of each discipline while fusing them in new ways, with creativity and lightning speed communication of both virtuoso performers of full display. Get your hands clapping and your feet moving to the rhythms and sounds of “Jazz on Tap!”
**please note that advanced registration, masks, and proof of vaccination are required for this event**
An unemployed music teacher takes his estranged transsexual father on a road trip to the west coast of Norway, in order to honor his late mother’s excellent quilting skills. Going West is a warm and touching feelgood film about life, loss and love.
Saturday, October 16th | 1:30 | $5; tickets can be purchased here**advanced purchase, masks, proof of vaccination required**
75 minutes | In Norwegian with English subtitles.
** because of COVID restrictions masks must be warn at all times. No food or beverage may be consumed**
Join us for a talk with author Rachael Cerrotti about her book We Share the Same Sky: A Memoir of Memory & Migration.
It is the story of a granddaughter’s decade-long journey to retrace her grandmother’s wartime escape and weave together the thin threads of family history.
In 2009, Rachael Cerrotti, a college student pursuing a career in photojournalism, asked her grandmother, Hana, if she could record her story. Rachael knew that her grandmother was a Holocaust survivor and the only one in her family alive at the end of the war. Rachael also knew that she survived because of the kindness of strangers. It wasn’t a secret. Hana spoke about her history publicly and regularly. But, Rachael wanted to document it as only a granddaughter could. So, that’s what they did: Hana talked and Rachael wrote.
Upon Hana’s passing in 2010, Rachael discovered an incredible archive of her life. There were preserved albums and hundreds of photographs dating back to the 1920s. There were letters waiting to be translated, journals, diaries, deportation and immigration papers as well as creative writings from various stages of Hana’s life.
Rachael digitized and organized it all, plucking it from the past and placing it into her present. Then, she began retracing her grandmother’s story, following her through Central Europe, Scandinavia, and across the United States. She tracked down the descendants of those who helped save her grandmother’s life during the war. Rachael went in pursuit of her grandmother’s memory to explore how the retelling of family stories becomes the history itself.
We Share the Same Sky weaves together the stories of these two young women — Hana as a refugee who remains one step ahead of the Nazis at every turn, and Rachael, whose insatiable curiosity to touch the past guides her into the lives of countless strangers, bringing her love and tragic loss. Throughout the course of her twenties, Hana’s history becomes a guidebook for Rachael in how to live a life empowered by grief.
Sunday, October 17th | 2pm | register here**advanced registration and proof of vaccination required to attend**
RACHAEL is an award-winning author, photographer, educator and audio producer as well as the inaugural Storyteller in Residence for USC Shoah Foundation. For over a decade, she has been retracing her grandmother’s Holocaust survival story and documenting the echoes of WWII. In the fall of 2019, she released her critically-acclaimed podcast, titled We Share The Same Sky, about this story. The podcast is now being taught in classrooms worldwide. Rachael’s memoir, also titled ‘We Share The Same Sky’ is her first book. It received a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly and listed as one of the “Best Books of August” by Apple Books. Learn more at: www.rachaelcerrotti.com & www.sharethesamesky.com
BIO: Michael Glaeser is an Early Modern historian specializing in the Swedish Empire of the 17th/18th centuries. He is published in the Great Northern War Compendium (2015) and taught history at the University of New Hampshire- Manchester. His biography of Charles XII of Sweden was published by Helion & Co in 2020.
Join us for a talk with author Rachael Cerrotti about her book We Share the Same Sky: A Memoir of Memory & Migration. 
RACHAEL is an award-winning author, photographer, educator and audio producer as well as the inaugural Storyteller in Residence for USC Shoah Foundation. For over a decade, she has been retracing her grandmother’s Holocaust survival story and documenting the echoes of WWII. In the fall of 2019, she released her critically-acclaimed podcast, titled We Share The Same Sky, about this story. The podcast is now being taught in classrooms worldwide. Rachael’s memoir, also titled ‘We Share The Same Sky’ is her first book. It received a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly and listed as one of the “Best Books of August” by Apple Books. Learn more at: 