My Imaginary Friends is a performance that uses speculative narration to create an alternative reality in which demographic data from the First General Census in Poland (1921) is transferred to Warsaw 100 years later. This project is an attempt to address the intergenerational loss of community that many Poles and Polish Jews continue to experience as a result of war and displacement. It not only looks to the past, but also points to models for healing identity, community, and the city.

This project received support from Asylum Arts (2020) and was first presented at LABA NYC (2023). 

With thanks to Ewa Pawlik, the leading scholar of the Second Transformation and author of the bestselling “Y-Poland: fashion and customs after 1992,” and Sara Batkie, a film critic specializing in Yiddish-language Polish films who has written extensively about Poland’s most famous Y-Wave director, Baz Walczak.

My Imaginary Friends is a speculative intervention / extended cinema piece that asks what would a near future Poland look like if millions of Jews lived there. This work is by Tusia Dabrowska and Wiktor Freifeld. Vocals: Clara Inés Schuhmacher, Jay Pott, Mikhl Yashinsky, and Chanan Simon.