NewsEuropeans nominate Demirtas for award for ‘enduring struggle’ for Kurds July 15, 2017 Source: Rudaw / www.rudaw.net / By Rudaw / ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – An imprisoned political leader in Turkey has been nominated for a European human rights prize for his part in the Kurdish struggle. The Group of the Unified European Left (UEL) at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of …
EventsREHEARSAL FOR TRUTH, THEATER FESTIVAL HONORING VACLAV HAVEL July 11, 2017 September 27 – October 1, 2017 Pilot year of Central European theater showcase Disturbing the Peace – Award for a Courageous Writer at Risk presented by Ian Buruma Launch of Havel Conversations oral histories Bohemian National Hall, 321 E 73rd Street, New York For more information please send email to …
EventsLecture by Timothy Snyder July 11, 2017 On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century Lecture by Timothy Snyder, the Housum Professor of History at Yale University and author of several award-winning books including Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin and Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning. Monday, September 18, 8 pm Believe in truth. To abandon facts …
NewsVaclav Havel statue unveiled in Tbilisi June 24, 2017 Source: Agenda.ge / www.agenda.ge / A statue of first Czech President Vaclav Havel was unveiled in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. The statue was unveiled by Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili and Czech Defence Minister Martin Stropnicky, who is on his first official visit to Georgia, today. Margvelashvili said that the …
NewsBust of former Czech president unveiled June 14, 2017 Source: UM News / www.umanitoba.ca / On June 14, 2017, a bust of Václav Havel will be unveiled at the University of Manitoba in the John J. Conklin Theatre, within the Taché Arts Project. His Excellency Václav Havel [LLD/99] (1936-2011) was the last President of Czechoslovakia (1989–92) and the first …
NewsINTERNSHIP / VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITY June 7, 2017 The Vaclav Havel Library Foundation (VHLF) is seeking a creative intern / volunteer to assist the Executive Director with two major events: the second year of the Award for a Courageous Writer at Risk, Disturbing the Peace, and the pilot year of the Theater Festival honoring Vaclav Havel that will …
NewsCreative dissenters, a noble president, a funny comedian, and more June 4, 2017 Editor’s Note: The Oslo Freedom Forum took place last week. This is the annual human-rights gathering in the Norwegian capital. Jay Nordlinger has been writing a journal on this gathering, and related matters, and the previous parts can be found at the following links: I, II, III. Onstage at the …
NewsThe Prague Appeal for Democratic Renewal June 2, 2017 Source: Forum 2000 / www.forum2000.cz / Adopted in Prague on May 26, 2017 Liberal democracy is under threat, and all who cherish it must come to its defense. Democracy is threatened from without by despotic regimes in Russia, China, and other countries that are tightening repression internally and expanding their power globally, filling …
EventsA once-forbidden play is now going underground (literally) May 12, 2017 Source: The Washington Post / www.washingtonpost.com / By Kristen Page-Kirby / “I feel like a mole,” says Susan Galbraith, “emerging from the darkness.” Galbraith is the director of “Protest,” the first play mounted at Dupont Underground, and the cavernous, subterranean space is a fitting home for the Alliance for New …
EventsCatherine Cabaniss: Palimpsests April 29, 2017 Art exhibition opening 03 May, 2017 – 6:30 PM Opening for the exhibition “Catherine Cabaniss: Palimpsests” that introduces two series of works evolving around ancient palimpsests, parchment on which the writing has been erased by monks to create space for new text when often the old text still shows through. …
EventsVACLAV HAVEL’S PROTEST April 29, 2017 Source: Dupont Underground / www.dupontunderground.org / May 10th – 21st, 2017 / Alliance for New Music-Theatre is going underground – literally. In celebration of Dupont Underground’s Workspace Residency Program and Alliance for New Music-Theatre’s inclusion as “Theatre in Residence,” starting May 10, Alliance will offer performances of a work whose … NewsThe new Václav Havel European Academy was founded in Strasbourg April 16, 2017 Source: European Movement International / www.europeanmovemnt.eu / On 5 April 2017 the launch of the new Václav Havel European Academy was officially announced during a press conference in the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Its founders are Peter von Kohl, Tom Høyem, Rebecca Harms, Elmar Brok and the European Movement Internationals … 
EventsLecture: Czech-Cuban Ties, Unraveling Totalitarianism March 22, 2017 Martin Palouš will discuss the Czech-Cuban relationship inspired by the Czech experience with totalitarianism at the EU Delegation on March 29, 2017, at 6 pm. Solidarity with other “affected” groups is a necessary component for defending human freedom and democracy in the contemporary world. Music, especially rock music, plays a …
NewsRobert Silvers, a Founding Editor of New York Review of Books, Dies at 87 March 21, 2017 This New York Review of Books has always defended, Silvers said, “the human rights of people who are being bullied, repressed, and tortured.” He cited an early interview with Solzhenitsyn, prison letters from Vaclav Havel, articles by Andrei Sakharov on Russia and Simon Leys on China. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/20/books/robert-silvers-dead-founding-editor-new-york-review-of-books-nyrb.html?_r=0
NewsNobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo Dies With His Dream of Chinese Democracy As Distant As Ever July 14, 2017 Source: The Slate / www.slate.com / By Joshua Keating / The death of writer, activist, and Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, in Chinese government custody, would be tragic at any time, but comes as a particularly rough blow at a time when human rights norms are under attack and when his …