THE POWER OF IDEAS

newyork

Wednesday, JUNE 18, 2025, at 7 PM
Bohemian National Hall, 321 E 73 St. in Manhattan

The Story of Three Ideas Conceived in New York and Realized in the Czech Republic: a Greenway, a Garden, and a Book.

An illustrated talk by Stefan Yarabek, President, Friends of Czech Greenways

Join us to celebrate the legacy of the late Lubomir and Tiree Chmelar, whose visionary ideas continue to inspire connections between people, nature, and culture in the Czech Republic: the Prague-Vienna Greenway and the unique organic herb garden in the wine country of Moravia and adjacent to the magnificent Valtice Chateau, a part of the UNESCO Cultural Landscape.

You will also learn about a book project rediscovering the fascinating story of the Bauer Brothers, three boys from Valtice (Feldsberg) who became 19th-century world-renowned botanical illustrators. The book is written and illustrated by four former students of the Mikulov Art School (ZUŠ). The foremost expert on the life and work of the Bauer brothers, Professor H.W. Lack at the Berlin Botanical Garden, consulted on the project and wrote the foreword.

This year’s international Lednice-Valtice Music Festival (September 20 – October 18) will also feature the Bauer brothers in its program.

Free and open to the public. Suggested donation $15

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Stefan Yarabek is a landscape architect of Czech and Slovak heritage based in Saugerties, New York, where he leads Hudson & Pacific Designs. He also serves as president of the nonprofit Friends of Czech Greenways, headquartered in New York City. Stefan is actively involved in heritage and preservation efforts in the Hudson River Valley, contributing to initiatives such as the Hudson River Valley Greenway and the Hudson River National Heritage Area. His connection to the Czech Republic goes back decades. In 1990, he collaborated with Lubomir Chmelar on the design and development of the Prague–Vienna Greenway, a landmark project in post-communist Czechoslovakia. Just before that, during the historic Velvet Revolution in November 1989, Stefan lectured on environmental planning and the Greenway Movement in the United States at Charles University and several architectural schools in Prague. These lectures were organized under the auspices of SURPMO, as the country began opening to new ideas and global exchange.

Join us on the journey!

This event is organized by the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences, New York Chapter (SVU), in collaboration with Friends of Czech Greenways and with the support of the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association.

Please note: One of The 6-Minute Challenge alumni, Karel Hermánek, Jr., a prominent Czech actor, appears in the free production of All’s Well That Ends Well by W. Shakespeare in Central Park and elsewhere. Until July 3, 2025.

When the War Ended: Voices of Czech-American Eyewitnesses

newyork

Audio-visual presentation by JULIE URBISOVA
Part of the special event commemorating 80 Years since the End of WWII series

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Thursday, MAY 22, 2025, at 7.15 PM(!)
Bohemian National Hall in Manhattan
321 E73 St, 3rd floor

Julie Urbišová’s talk will feature remarkable personal stories about survival, hope, and new beginnings shared by Czech immigrants who lived through WWII. She collected these accounts as part of her work for Pam?? národa (Memory of Nations), one of Europe’s largest oral history projects. Since 2008, it has provided open access to firsthand testimonies from those who endured Nazism and Communism, ensuring that history’s darkest times are never forgotten.

Following the presentation, Julie will hold a live conversation with several Czech-Americans who lived during the war

Seating is limited.
Free to the public. Suggested donation $15.

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Julie Urbišová is a Czech-born journalist who studied Journalism and Ethnology at Charles University in Prague. Growing up near Ostrava in the Hlu?ínsko region, which was part of Germany until 1920, Julie developed a deep interest in people’s stories. She was affected by war memories in her village, where all the men, including her grandfather, were forced to enlist in the German Wehrmacht armed forces during WWII. In 2007, Julie moved to New Orleans to continue her studies at the University of New Orleans and has since settled there with her Turkish husband and two daughters. She is the author of Doma v Nola (At Home in Nola), a book about New Orleans’ history and culture, based on her stories for Czech radio. She also hosts the podcast Doma ve Státech (At Home in the States). Since 2021, Julie has collaborated with Memory of Nations, traveling across the U.S. to interview Czechs and preserve their stories.

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PLEASE NOTE: At 6 PM, our program will be preceded by a talk, LIDICE LIVES! Global Responses to a Nazi Atrocity, by Professor CYTHIA PACES Paces from The College of New Jersey. In her unique talk, she will explore how Lidice captured the imaginations of many creative thinkers and artists in the 1940s and asks why Lidice still resonates today.

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This special two-part event is organized by the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU) in collaboration with the Czech Center New York with the support of the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association (BBLA).