NEW YORK Chapter events, which took place in 2010
December 20, 2010, at 7 PM
Pardon Me! Signing a newly-published book of cartoons by Gabriel A. Levický
December 10, 2010, at 7 PM
Evening Reading from Books of Eda Kriseová
December 6, 2010, at 6 PM
Election of the SVU NY Executive Board and Council for 2010-2012
December 6, 2010, at 7 PM
Christmas Concert with the distinguished Opera Singer Dodo Ivaška
Monday, November 8, 2010, at 7 PM
Křeslo pro hosta: Petr Fejk
VeÄer povÃdánà a vzpomÃnek s bývalým Å™editelem pražské zoo
at Bohemian National Hall, 3rd floor, 321 E 73rd St.
RSVP: svu.newyork@hotmail.com
Event only in Czech
September 16, Thursday, 2010, at 6:30 PM
“The Path to Post-Marxism in Central and East-Central Europe,”. A lecure by Dr. Bradley Abrams
 Dr.Abrams is the former Associate Director of the Harriman Institute, Columbia University. His contribution takes 1968 as a departure point, as I view the events of that year in Europe as the historical moment at which left-wing intellectuals in Central Europe – the two Germanies, Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary – became disillusioned with Marxism. The failures of the Polish “March Days,†the West German student movement (and its French counterpart) and, most importantly, the Prague Spring signaled for many the end of attempts at radical social change the relied upon Marxism as their primary tool. There was no linear movement from Marxism to something discrete that can be termed post-Marxism, however. Intellectuals East and West adopted different strategies from the late 1960s until the turning point of the Helsinki Accords was reached in 1975. What emerged in its wake in the late 1970s was less a metanarrative than a shared belief in the importance of several issues, among them human rights, the environment, peace and disarmament and the critique of mass, consumer society. These issues brought Central European organizations, such as the Green parties, KOR and Charter 77 together in a dialogue across the Iron Curtain, and helped give renewed energy to the notion of a Central Europe itself.
Friday, June 4, 2010 , at 7:30 PM
A solo performance of a soprano
Isabella Mederi
The award-winning soprano Isabella Mederi will sing arias by Richard Strauss, LeoÅ¡ JanáÄek
and AntonÃn Dvořák. The arias will be taken from the following operas:
Arabella, Ariadne auf Naxos, Capriccio, Jenufa, and Rusalka. Pianist: Dan Smith.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010, at 7:30 PM
The New Mixed Bag: Spoken Word Series – Poetry Reading
Tuesday, May 25, 2010, at 7:30 PM
The New Mixed Bag: Spoken Word Series – Poetry Reading
Wednesday, May 12, 2010, at 7 PM
Reading of The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare
The Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre and The Czechoslovak Society for Arts and Sciences present a reading of “The Winter’s Tale” by William Shakespeare. (“The Winter’s Tale” will be presented in Central Park’s Delacorte Theatre by the New York Shakespeare Festival from June 9-August 1.) Come join us on the ancient shores of Bohemia! The listeners are encouraged to bring their own text of the play to follow the reading.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010, at 7 PM
The Most Remarkable Book of the Most Remarkable Decade in Postwar Czech Literature
A lecture by Christopher Harwood
In this lecture Dr. Harwood challenges the all but universal conclusion that the 1960s were the most vibrant and exceptional decade in the history of Czech literature since World War II. While acknowledging the significance and unrepeatability of the 1960s in the Czech cultural experience, Dr. Harwood’s essay attempts to reevaluate the legacy of the 1980s as a period of paradoxical fecundity and diversity in Czech literature.
It then turns to an analysis of Jiřà Kratochvil’s Bear Novel (Medvědà roman/Urmedvěd, written 1979-1983) as a singularly ambitious, successful, but, alas, probably untranslatable work of literary art.
Thursdays, March 18 & 25, 2010, at 7:30 PM
Two Lectures on Georg Mendel by Dr. Eva Derman
Lecure 1: The Legacy of Georg Mendel, the Long-Forgotten Augustine Monk
Lecure 2: Gregor Mendel: How his discoveries of genes led to biotechnology, and how biotechnology is affecting our lives.
Gregor Mendel can be considered the father of modern biology. This lecture will discuss how Mendel’s scientific contributions led to the acceptance of Darwins’ theory of evolution, our understanding of heredity, the concept of a gene and isolation of genes through gene cloning, and ultimately the unraveling of the mysteries of the human genome. Mendel’s discoveries will be presented within a historical context, with an emphasis on the ethical questions raised by these discoveries.
Dr. Eva Derman is a molecular biologist whose research interests are gene structure and regulation, biomarkers of aging, identification of tissue-specific enhancers/promoters, chromatin structure of active and silent genes, molecular immunology and molecular endocrinology. In her most recent research Dr. Derman developed genetically- engineered mice, to be used as animal models of growth retardation in chronic inflammatory diseases.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010, at 6:30 PM
Czech Writers Under Siege and Czech Literary History. A lecture by Prof. Jiri Holy, DrSc
In his lecture “Czech Writers Under Siege and Czech Literary History,†Professor Holý will reflect on several problematic areas in recent Czech history—literary and otherwise—which he was forced to confront while writing his book for English-speaking readers.
Jiřà Holý, professor at the Institute for Czech Literature and Literary Studies at the Philosophical Faculty of Charles University in Prague, is one of the world’s leading experts on Czech literature of the twentieth century.Â
Saturday, March 6, 2010, at 5 pm
Life and Film The Labyrinthine Biographies of Vojtech JasnyÂ
Prize-winning documentary on one of the most successful Czech filmmakers of the 60sDisscussion with Vojtech Jasny will follow after the screening. Organized in cooperation with Consulate General of the Czech Republic and BBLA.
Saturday, January 21, 2010, at 5 pm
“From Hollywood to the Gallows: The strange case of Otto Katz.”Â
Professor Anson Rabinbach will deliver a lecture on the persecution and assassination of Otto Katz (also known as Andre Simone), an enigmatic Czech-German communist, hanged along with ten other victims of the Slansky Trial in Pankrac prison in Prague on December 3rd 1953. Â
Anson Rabinbach is a specialist in modern European history with an emphasis on intellectual and cultural history. He has published extensively on Nazi Germany, Austria, and European thought in the nineteenth and twentieth century. In 1974 he co-founded the premier journal of German studies in the United States, New German Critique, which he continues to co-edit. In 1979 he published The Crisis of Austrian Socialism: From Red Vienna to Civil War 1927-1934, a study of Austrian culture and politics between the wars.The Human Motor, an investigation of the metaphor of work and energy that provided modern thinkers with a new scientific and cultural framework to understand the human body, appeared in 1991 and has since been translated into several languages. His current research is on the culture of Nazi Germany and on post-World War II exchanges between European and American intellectuals. He also writes and reviews widely for journals of opinion including The New York Times, The Times Literary Supplement, Dissent, and The Nation. He received the Viktor Adler State Prize in 1987. Professor Rabinbach has also been the recipient of Guggenheim, ACLS, and NEH fellowships.