A great man is one who collects knowledge the way a bee collects honey and uses it to help people overcome the difficulties they endure - hunger, ignorance and disease!
- Nikola Tesla

Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.
- Franklin Roosevelt

While their territory has been devastated and their homes despoiled, the spirit of the Serbian people has not been broken.
- Woodrow Wilson

Pearl Drops by Željka Cvjetan Gortinski

Željka Cvjetan Gortinski presents her first recording of Serbian Folk Poems, oral poetry that has been handed down by word of mouth for centuries. She began her acting career on stage with the Belgrade Drama Theater. Fortunate to have worked with some of the greatest directors of the former Yugoslavia, she continues a successful career in theater, film, television and radio in Europe and the United States.

All three poems have been soulfully narrated by Željka in both the English and the Serbian languages and fully enhanced by mystical music and sound design. Included is a bonus track performed by Savo Kontić, a much respected gusle player in Serbia.

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“These recordings are unique and extraordinary partly due to Zeljka’s talent and skill as an oral interpreter and partly because of her strong personal connection to the material. As I worked with Zeljka to help create her oral interpretations I was drawn more and more deeply into the rich tradition of maternal wisdom that pervades the pieces and I became profoundly moved by the timeless universality of the stories. If you listen to these exquisite recordings with an open heart, I am sure they will touch you as much as they have touched me. If they do, please Fromshare your appreciation of these precious pearl drops with others.” Rod Menzies, Voice Recording Producer

From Spoken Word Inc.


SA

 

People Directory

Milan Panic

The story of Milan Panic is a very American story – emblematic of the people who made America what it is today. America is a nation of immigrants and Panic possesses the very qualities of first generation immigrants who turned America into an economic powerhouse: boundless optimism, a burning desire to succeed, and an enormous appetite for work.

Milan Panic is the founder and owner of MP Global Enterprises and Associates LLC, headquartered in Costa Mesa, California. The company focuses on both business and humanitarian issues around the world.

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Publishing

Serbian Americans: History—Culture—Press

by Krinka Vidaković-Petrov, translated from Serbian by Milina Jovanović

Learned, lucid, and deeply perceptive, SERBIAN AMERICANS is an immensely rewarding and readable book, which will give historians invaluable new insights, and general readers exciting new ways to approach the history​ of Serbian printed media. Serbian immigration to the U.S. started dates from the first few decades of 19th c. The first papers were published in San Francisco starting in 1893. During the years of the most intense politicization of the Serbian American community, the Serbian printed media developed quickly with a growing number of daily, weekly, monthly and yearly publications. Newspapers were published in Serbian print shops, while the development of printing presses was a precondition for the growth of publishing in general. Among them were various kinds of books: classical Serbian literature, folksong collections, political pamphlets, works of the earliest Serbian American writers in America (poetry, prose and plays), first translations from English to Serbian, books about Serb immigrants, dictionaries, textbooks, primers, etc.

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