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NewsHavel@80 January 6, 2016 “Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.” Vaclav Havel Vaclav Havel, playwright, dissident, and president, ‘soul guide to individuals and nations’, to quote Seamus …
NewsHavel@80 – Video Postcard from New York January 6, 2016 Oskar Eustis, Edward Einhorn, Peter Sis, Suzanne Vega, George and Camilla Mraz, Bill and Wendy Luers, and Alexander Lane invite you to celebrate Havel@80 and make 2016 the year of Vaclav Havel!
NewsWe commemorate the 39th anniversary of the release of Charter 77 January 6, 2016 On January 6, we commemorate the 39th anniversary of the release of Charter 77. The Charter 77 was a human rights document that revealed Czechoslovakian government’s violations of human and civil rights that were included in the Helsinki Accords signed by the government in 1975. The document became known internationally …
NewsHavel and Dienstbier fellows start at RFE/RL December 26, 2015 Source: Prague Post www.praguepost.com / By Raymond Johnston / Prague, Czech Republic- December 23, 2015 – RFE/RL has welcomed the 2015–16 Václav Havel Journalism Fellows to its Prague offices for an eight-month program of professional development aimed at supporting independent journalists in countries lacking a free press. This year’s Havel …
NewsCELEBRATING HAVEL – PRAGUE AND HOUSTON December 18, 2015 By Fred Baldwin Fred Baldwin has had an extensive career in photography as a professional photographer and professor of photography. He has worked for Audubon, LIFE, National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, Newsweek, and the New York Times among others. In 1983, he co-founded FotoFest, the first international Biennial of Photography and …
Events“Art and Activism: Amnesty International USA Write for Rights.” December 8, 2015 Amnesty International USA is joining forces with Eugene Lang College, The New School University, Theater Program for a free event “Art and Activism: Amnesty International USA Write for Rights.” Tuesday, December 8, 2015 from 6pm-8pm at the Theresa Lang Center, 55W 13th Street The event will consist of students from …
EventsWrite for Rights with Amnesty International December 8, 2015 Link: Write for Rights with Amnesty International Human Rights Day – December 10, 2015 Your hand-written letters, combined with hundreds of thousands of others from around the world, can change the lives of this year’s 12 cases. Become part of the largest grassroots human rights event in the world by …
NewsNovember Hurricane November 14, 2015 November 17 marks the 26th anniversary of the start of Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia. We are marking the occasion with an excerpt from the writing of one of Vaclav Havel’s favorite writers. From “November Hurricane,” by Bohumil Hrabal Translated by Paul Wilson, November 2015 In 1989, Hrabal, who by that …
NewsChinese dissident receives political award in Washington November 6, 2015 Source: Asia Times / By dpa / Chinese human rights activist Chen Guangcheng received an award Thursday from a US organization dedicated to the memory of the victims of communism. Chen, who escaped house arrest in China in 2012, was awarded the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom from the Victims of …
NewsDesignation of Small House Rotunda November 6, 2015 Washington – President Barack Obama on Monday, November 2, 2015, signed into law a bipartisan budget bill that includes Designating Small House Rotunda as “Freedom Foyer”. This section designates the first floor area of the House of Representatives wing of the U.S. Capitol known as the Small House Rotunda as …
NewsCuba and the European Union: Opportunities, Challenges and Tensions October 14, 2015 Václav Havel Program for Human Rights and Diplomacy Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs Cuba and the European Union: Opportunities, Challenges and Tensions Presentation by EU Parliament Member Pavel Telička Friday, October 16, 2015 | 2 PM | FIU Modesto A. Maidique Campus | GC 140 Join …
NewsHungary’s First Post-Communist President Goncz Dies at 93 October 9, 2015 Source: Bloomberg / By Andras Gergely and Marton Eder / Arpad Goncz, a Hungarian writer and translator who battled Nazism and communism and went on to become the country’s first president after the fall of the Iron Curtain, has died. He was 93. Goncz “peacefully passed away in the company of his family,” his aide Andras … NewsAN EXCERPT FROM VACLAV HAVEL’S UNPUBLISHED ESSAY ENTITLED A DAY IN A PRISON CELL, ca. 1977-78 October 5, 2015 On the occasion of Vaclav Havel’s 79th birth anniversary (10/05/36) This is a translation of three hand-written pages now on display at the Bohemian National Hall in Manhattan. They are a rough sketch for an essay Havel intended to write, describing the tedious and monotonous daily routine of his pre-trial …
NewsWendy Willis on Havel: A Life October 1, 2015 Source: Los Angeles Review of Books / By Wendy Willis / An All or Nothing Gamble: Václav Havel and His Spiritual Revolution “MICHAEL,” said former Czech president Václav Havel to his now-biographer Michael Zantovsky when they met for the last time, “I am a ruin.” At that point, they had …
NewsVeteran Russian Activist Wins Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize September 29, 2015 Source: Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty / By Claire Bigg / STRASBOURG, France — The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has awarded its annual Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize to veteran Russian activist Lyudmila Alekseyeva. A Soviet-era dissident and one of Russia’s most outspoken and respected rights advocates, …