Events: November 2021
October 2021
December 2021
Between Literature and Academia
November 1, 2021, 19:00
Arnošt (Vilém) Kraus (1859–1943) and Otokar Fischer (1883–1938) were not just significant figures in Czech cultural life, to which they contributed as translators, critics, cultural intermediaries and literary and arts journalists; they also helped shape – each in his own specific manner – the profile of Czech literary-academic German Studies from the 1880s to the start of WWI. At the same time, their own life stories reflected the complicated Czech- German-Jewish relations of the 19 th and 20 th centuries. More
Michal Plzák and Lucie Vopálenská: Ready to Go
November 3, 2021, 19:00
Lively interviews about final acts. More
Why Cities (Don’t) Earn Through Art?
November 4, 2021, 19:00
How to develop cooperation between the arts scene and schools in the context of major and regional cities? How can cities and regions implement a long-term system of support for creative learning? How to use the potential of the cultural and art scene to bring innovation to teaching at primary, secondary and arts-focused schools? How to bring together the interests of cities, school founders, schools themselves and arts organisations? What does cooperation require of the parties involved? More
European Intellectual – A Portrait of František Skorina
November 5, 2021, 18:00
Doctor František Skorina (1470–1552), a citizen of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a historical figure in whom today’s Belarus takes pride, was a European intellectual who published his most important work in Prague. His Ruthenian Bible (1517–1520) is a key work in the history of Slavonic literature, and by no means only for Belarus, representing a milestone in the development of Czech printing and Czech portraiture. Indeed, his portrait in the Ruthenian Bible is the subject of the international study by the Prague Linguistic Circle that is being presented. More
Belarus on the Road to Freedom
November 8, 2021, 18:00
Presidential elections held in Belarus in summer 2020 saw Alexander Lukashenko win for the sixth time. The country’s opposition and most democratic states cast doubt on the official result and thousands took to the streets of Minsk and other Belarusian cities. The book Bělorusko na cestě ke svobodě (Belarus on the Road to Freedom) delivers interviews with representatives of several generations critical of the country’s regime, many of whom have experienced repression and imprisonment. The book launch will also focus on the current situation in Belarus. More
Jan Němec, Petr Vizina: Signs of the Unknown
November 9, 2021, 19:00
We search for what cannot be found and, in happy moments, find what cannot be searched for. It would be easy to speak of spirituality, or even of mystical experiences, but the main focus is on stories of inner transformation. In Znamení neznámého (Signs of the Unknown) musician Shina, cleric Petr Vacík, painter Jan Pražan, translator Markéta Crowe, poet Adam Borzič, environmentalist Jiří Zemánek, philosopher Alice Koubová, Zen monastery abbot Jiří Hazlbauer and nun Denisa Červená discuss that about which there first must long be silence – which may be trauma and mastery, or the truth before words and behind them. How is it when somebody tries to find themselves and finds far more? Nine interviews about interior life, nine stories of that which we have forgotten and nine witnesses to the signs of the unknown amongst us. More
Young People Make Civil Society, II
November 10, 2021, 16:00
How to get young people involved in civil society? What do they think about non-profits, volunteering and charity, and how do they make that known? Do the ideas that Olga Havlova and Václav Havel identified with – truth and love, compassion and humility – have the same significance to them? More
Transdisciplinary Conference in Honour of IMH
November 11, 2021, 09:00
When Ivan M. Havel died this year those of us who knew him and collaborated with him in some way were fully aware of what an extraordinary personality we had lost. “What he enjoyed most, I think, was to sit and listen as respected academics argued. And how out of that dispute an important theme would arise, an idea would be born,” wrote David Storch, who succeeded him as director of the Centre for Theoretical Study after many years, in a tribute. In order to honour the memory of Ivan M. Havel and to remember his unique role, we decided to hold the kind of academic conference that he would no doubt have attended –meaning an informal debate on issues he held dear in a location where he would have likely enjoyed sitting and with people from various fields with whom he liked to converse. More
5 and a Half Screenplays by Ester Krumbachová
November 15, 2021, 19:00
Director Jana Chytilová used to call her “Ester the witch”, while for fellow director Jan Němec she was “a muse, the éminence grise of the1960s”. Set designer, artist, film wardrobe designer, director, screenwriter and writer Ester Krumbachová was certainly no shrinking violet. More
Václav Havel’s Living Room
November 17, 2021, 13:00
This year’s edition will be given over to debates between parents and their children born after 1989, as we explore shared households and, as every year, create a living room milieu. This inter-generational dialogue on both perceptions of freedom and the difficulties of the present and past will be split into four blocks. More
Havel to the Cafe!
November 17, 2021, 13:00
Join us for a joyous, celebratory procession to commemorate the legacy of Vaclav Havel and the 33rd anniversary of the Velvet Revolution. More
Theatre Night 2021: 3x Young Václav Havel
November 20, 2021, 19:00
The flair of young theatre people, the energy of the early golden 1960s and the wit, ideas and sharp outlook of an emerging author = Fresh Air at the Václav Havel Library More
Last Blacksmith – First Minister
November 22, 2021, 19:00
Presentation of Poslední kovák – první ministr (Last Blacksmith – First Minister), a book of interviews that historian Jakub Šlouf conducted with November 1989 industrial workers’ leader and later first post-Communist federal minister of labour and social affairs, Petr Miller. The authors ponder changes in the status of the industrial working class in the late-socialist period, the way in which the factories influenced the Velvet Revolution and the social and economic consequences of a transformation that paradoxically led to the demise of numerous enterprises and manual professions. Petr Miller’s gripping life story and openness serve as an unusually inspiring stepping off point for such reflections. More
Erasmus, Spinoza, Cleveringa, Havel, and the Praise of Folly
November 24, 2021, 19:00
On the twenty-sixth of November 1940, six months after the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, several professors at Leiden University, led by Rudolph Cleveringa, professor of law, spoke out against the expulsion of their Jewish colleagues. Lambertus Jacobus Van Holk, professor of theology, also gave a protest lecture on the Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza. Cleveringa was arrested and spent the rest of the occupation in prison. In honour of these courageous gestures, the Cleveringa Lecture is held annually in Holland and many other countries on themes related to the rule of law, freedom and responsibility. More
Barack Obama: A Promised Land
November 25, 2021, 19:00
Presentation of Barack Obama’s memoir A Promised Land, which is now coming out in Czech. The book offers an insight into the private life of the first Afro-American history in US history and behind the curtain of American politics at the highest level. More