Washington’s Yakima spins the polka
Frania Yakima is shown at Malbork Castle during a trip to Poland earlier this year.
Frania Yakima is shown hosting “Frania’s Polka Celebration” on WEDO 810 AM Radio.
Despite having given the world Frederic Chopin, Nicolaus Copernicus, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Billy Wilder and Pope John Paul II, Poland and its people were once the butt of jokes.
You don’t hear them so much anymore, but jokes insinuating that Poles were dim and bumbling were not uncommon in the 1970s and 1980s. So much so, in fact, that a Polish American Congress Anti-Bigotry Committee was hatched to combat them.
Those jokes were one of the factors that led Frania Yakima to take to the airwaves with her own radio program of polka music.
“I wanted to show that the Polish people are not to be made fun of, that we mean well,” said Yakima, a Washington resident.
The Polish jokes may have faded somewhere around the time Joe Piscopo left “Saturday Night Live” to conquer Hollywood, but Yakima’s radio career has carried on. “Frania’s Polka Celebration” can be heard on the McKeesport 1,000-watt AM radio station WEDO Saturdays starting at noon.
For two hours, the former librarian at Trinity West Elementary School spins Polish polka – “It’s got more of a hop to it, a little faster beat,” Yakima explained – from artists like Ray Jay and the Carousels, Eddie Blazonczyk, the Trel Tones and, of course, Jimmy Sturr, the closest thing polka has to a contemporary superstar.
Yakima also will be spinning polka at Polishfest ’16 this Sunday at the University of Pittsburgh Cathedral of Learning in Oakland from noon to 5 p.m. Also with Yakima and plentiful polka, there will be folk-dance groups represented at the event, Christmas carols offered in both Polish and Lithuanian, a kitchen serving Polish treats, cultural exhibits and more.
Yakima’s first foray into radio was as a co-host of a program “Polka Padre” on a Carnegie radio station with a Canonsburg priest. Once he was assigned to another parish and had to give up the program, Yakima decided to continue carrying the polka banner. It’s now part of a block of ethic programming on WEDO.
Polka could be heard throughout her household when she was growing up, and it was played on the radio. “My mother was really into listening to polka,” Yakima recalled. “I love the music.”
But Yakima is steeped in more things Polish than just the music. Among the groups she has been a part of are the Polish American Congress, the Polish Falcons Nest, the Polish Cultural Council and the United States Polka Association. She also was named the Polonian of the Year at the annual Polish American Day at Kennywood in 2013.
Proceeds from Polishfest ’16 will benefit the Nationality Rooms Scholarship Fund at Pitt. For additional information, go to www.facebook.com/polishfest.pgh or www.nationalityrooms.pitt.edu.