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SPEJBL and HURVINEK THEATER IN NYC!

newyork

Thursday, JANUARY 29, 2026, at 6 PM & 7:30 PM

Spejbl a Hurvinek

Join us for a special evening featuring the beloved marionette duo from Prague, Spejbl and Hurvínek, whose witty father–son banter has delighted audiences worldwide for over a century. The Czech puppetry is included on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The two-part program includes:

At 6 PM
VESELE SE SPEJBLEM a HURVINKEM
A 40-minute performance in CZECH (for all ages.)

Free. Suggested donation $15.

Seats are limited
REGISTER HERE on EVENTBRITE for this performance.

Více zde

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At 7:30 PM
SPEJBL and HURVINEK: A CZECH CULTURAL TREASURE
A talk by puppeteer Vit Horejs in ENGLISH

The talk will explore the theater’s rich history against the sociopolitical backdrop of Czechoslovakia from the 1920s to today.
Selected scenes will showcase the duo’s humor and subtle voice of resistance during times of censorship and persecution. You will learn about fascinating stories, including how the theater was shut down under the Nazi regime and how, in 2022, a glass figurine of Hurvínek traveled aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of the Czech Planetum1 satellite mission.

Free. Suggested donation $15.

Seats are limited
REGISTER HERE on EVENTBRITE for the talk

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Spejbl was sculpted by woodcarver Karel Nosek in 1920 following Skupa’s design. Conceived in the Dadaist spirit, Spejbl is dressed in a tuxedo with tails, snow-white gloves and wooden shoes; in contrast, the character is bald-headed, with large ears and protruding eyes. This opposition between different social symbols is also expressed in the puppet’s personality: a simple man, clumsy, opinionated, mired in contradictions, and torn between his social ambitions and his limited capabilities. The Hurvínek puppet was carved in 1926 by Gustav Nosek. His appearance – peculiar movable eyes, a tuft of disheveled hair, dressed in short pants held up by suspenders – gave Hurvínek the appearance of a rascally suburban street urchin.

The 6-Minute Challenge, Vol. 19

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Tuesday, DECEMBER 16, 2025, at 7 pm

Join us for the new edition of our signature program!
Artists, professionals, scholars, scientists and students of Czech or Slovak descent are challenged to introduce their talent, the subject of their work, project, research, or studies in a short presentation limited to six minutes. In English.

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This edition’s presenters (in alphabetical order) include:

Livia Blaylock (behavioral therapist), Peter Cikhart (cinematographer), Tamara Kramar (singer and musician), Kristýna and Marek Milde (environmental artists), Oliver Otcasek (founder and innovator), Jarmila Ptácková (sinologist and Tibetologist), Katerina Silverblatt (pediatrician), Andréa Stanislav (artist and educator) and James M. Stevko (performer and choreographer)

Moderated by Christopher Harwood
PROGRAM NOTES

Free and open to the public. Suggested donation: $15.
Seats are limited on a first-come, first-served basis. RSVP online through Eventbrite.

Organized by the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU), New York Chapter, with the support of the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association (BBLA)and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic.

Note:
Come early and visit the Station for Paused Forecasting exhibition at the Czech Center’s Gallery on the 2nd floor. It presents recent works by seventeen emerging artists from the Academy of Arts, Architecture, and Design in Prague (UMPRUM).

NEW PROGRAM: Czech Language Playgroup

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New program kickoff!

CZECH LANGUAGE PLAYGROUP
For children 3-7 years old with their parents

Sunday, NOVEMBER 16, 2025
10 am – 12:30 pm
Bohemian National Hall, 3rd Floor
321 E 73rd Street, New York, NY 10021

Playgroup
We invite all preschool-aged children and their parents to the inaugural gathering of the revived Czech language playgroup, organized by our SVU NY board member, Vera Dvorak. Siblings of other ages are welcome.
The program will feature Czech rhymes, songs, movement, reading, creative activities, and a special guest, Vit Horejs*, the renowned New York puppeteer, and a fellow board member. He will join the children to perform two Czech fairy tales.

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The main objective of the playgroup is to provide young children in our community with the opportunity to spend a few hours in a Czech-speaking environment with their peers, and to bring Czech and Czech American families together.
If there is sufficient interest, the playgroup will meet monthly.
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To attend, please REGISTER by Thursday, November 13th.
Fee: $10 per child (cash only at the door)

Please bring a snack for your child. You are welcome to contribute a small item for our shared table as well.

For more details:
Please visit the CSNY/Playgroup website (in Czech)
or contact Vera Dvorak.

We look forward to seeing you there!

* Note: Wooden Hearts, a feature film premiere starring Vit Horejs, will be screened on Mon, November 10 at 6:15 pm, at the Big Apple Film Festival in New York

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The event is organized by the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU), New York Chapter, with the support of the Czech Consulate General, the Czech Center New York and the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association (BBLA).

EXPLORING THE EXTREMES

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Wednesday, OCTOBER 15, 2025, at 7pm

A talk by Dr. Michaela Musilova, Astrobiologist and filmmaker
followed by a screening of her documentary film The Boss – Aconcagua (US premiere)

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Free. Seating is limited.
REGISTER HERE

The film takes you on Michaela’s extraordinary expedition to Aconcagua, the tallest mountain in South America, where she weaves together breathtaking adventure, cutting-edge science, and a deeply personal story of resilience. As part of her groundbreaking Astro Seven Summits project in collaboration with NASA, Michaela combines mountaineering with research, education, and student outreach—bringing space science to life in some of the planet’s most extreme environments.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A and reception.

Don’t miss this rare opportunity to witness her journey on the big screen and hear directly from one of today’s most visionary explorers.

Dr. Michaela Musilova, Slovak-born, is an astrobiologist and analog astronaut. She’s trying to understand the limits of life on Earth, while studying how the planet’s environment is changing and how it resonates with people around the world. Currently, she’s leading a unique project called Astro Seven Summits. It’s a world-first in combining expeditions to the highest mountain on each continent with scientific research in collaboration with NASA and institutions worldwide, educational activities and filming documentaries.

This event is organized by the Slovak American Cultural Center in partnership with the Czechoslovak Society for Arts and Sciences
and with the support of the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association in New York

THROUGH THE IMMIGRANT’S LENS by Tatana Kellner

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Wednesday, September 10, 2025, at 7 PM
Bohemian National Hall
321 W 73 St in Manhattan

Tatana Kellner, a multi-disciplinary artist, will discuss her work, charting her journey as an immigrant from Czechoslovakia in 1969, finding her artistic voice, and co-founding the Women’s Studio Workshop (WSW), an artists’ workspace in Rosendale, NY, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. The talk will present both her personal work and the activities of WSW.

Free and open to the public. Suggested donation $15

Please register on EVENTBRITE

Tatana Kellner is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work is rooted in social issues. Born in Czechoslovakia, she emigrated with her family to the USA in 1969. Her work combines printmaking, painting, photography, and installation. It was exhibited in numerous venues across the USA, Canada, Europe, and Asia, including over fifty solo exhibitions. She has received numerous prestigious awards, grants, and artist residencies. Kellner is a co-founder and past artistic director of Women’s Studio Workshop in Rosendale, NY.
www.instagram.com/tatana1950, www.tatanakellner.com

Organized by the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU), New York Chapter, with the support of the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association (BBLA).

ECHOES OF EXILE: A Family’s Odyssey through the Holocaust and Cold War

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A book presentation by the author DANIELA GROLLOVÁ SPENSER in conversation with DAN LA BOTZ

Thursday, October 23 at 7 pm
Bohemian National Hall
321 E 73 St, Manhattan

VIDEO RECORDING ON YOUTUBE

A presentation of Echoes of Exile, a deeply personal yet historically grounded account of Czechoslovakia from the 1930s to the 1990s.

In this new book, historian and anthropologist Daniela Grollová Spenser offers an intimate portrait of her family’s experience—beginning with her grandparents, who were marked by the tragedy of the Holocaust, and focusing on the lives of her mother, translator Ruth Toseková, and her father, prominent editor and journalist Vladimír Tosek. Active in the cultural and political life of 1950s and 1960s Czechoslovakia, both were key figures during the Prague Spring. Following the Soviet invasion in 1968, they fled the country and became part of exile circles connected to leaders such as Jirí Pelikán. The book concludes with a thoughtful exploration of the relationship between political exiles and Czech society after 1989.

The English edition was published by the University of Alabama Press, 2025. Receive a 30% Discount with Promo Code BAMA.

The book was published in Czech under the title Rozpolcená doba, rozptýlené životy za druhé sv?tové války a studeného míru.

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Daniela Grollová Spenser, born in Prague, with roots in Morava, in exile since 1968, is a historian and anthropologist living in Mexico. She received her M.A. in 1987 from the University of Mexico City, and PhD in 1994 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Later, she taught history at the Ibero-American University in Mexico City, the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and the Autonomous Institute of Technology in Mexico. She has published several books, including The Impossible Triangle: Mexico, Soviet Russia, and the United States in the 1920s (1999).

Dan La Botz is a retired professor who last taught at the School of Urban and Labor Studies of the City University of New York. He is the author of a dozen histories and novels and a member of the editorial board of the journal New Politics. His latest books are Riding with the Revolution: The American Left in the Mexican Revolution, 1900–1925 and Radioactive Radicals: A Novel of Labor and the Left.

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



THE POWER OF IDEAS

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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

VIDEO RECORDING ON YOUTUBE.

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.

Suzanna Halsey will present a FCG a book project that rediscovers 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.

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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.

Appeasement Then and Now/ CANCELED!!

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80 years since the End of WWII series

CANCELED!

A talk by Igor Lukes
Professor of History and International Relations, Boston University

Monday MAY 5, 2025, at 7 PM
Bohemian National Hall
321 E 73 St (cinema), Manhattan

Ukraine

In 1945, people asked: Can we coexist in peace? Will there be another war? In 2025, we ask the same questions. The talk will present new evidence regarding the pre-World War II escalating crisis and point out the parallels between the appeasers in the 1930s and today.

REGISTER on Eventbrite.

Igor Lukes is a Professor of History and International Relations at Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston Universit. He has written about the interwar period, the Cold War, and contemporary politics. His books include Dejiny a doba postfakticka: eseje, uvahy, glosy (2022), On the Edge of the Cold War: American Diplomats and Spies in Postwar Prague (2012), Rudolf Slansky: His Trials and Trial (2006), Czechoslovakia Between Stalin and Hitler: The Diplomacy of Edvard Benes in the 1930?s (1996). He is the recipient of the Central Intelligence Agency 2012 Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Literature on Intelligence and the 2000 Stanley Z. Pech Prize. Lukes is Honorary Consul General of the Czech Republic in Boston.

When the War Ended: Voices of Czech-American Eyewitnesses

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Audio-visual presentation by JULIE URBIŠOVÁ
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

VIDEO RECORDING ON YOUTUBE.

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

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.

REGISTER

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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).

The 6-Minute Challenge, #18

newyork

Wednesday, APRIL 9, 2025, at 7 pm
Bohemian National Hall in Manhattan

PROGRAM NOTES
VIDEO RECORDING

The popular 6-Minute Challenge invites artists, professionals, students, scholars and scientists of Czech or Slovak descent and challenges them to introduce their talent, the subject of their work, project, research, or studies in a short presentation limited to six minutes.

The 18th edition included the following presenters: Irena Canová (costume designer), Jan Cina (actor and singer), Petra Gupta Valentová (artist, Gray Nivas program), Michal Kaplan (diplomat, Czech Consulate NY), Lenka Lichtenberg (singer, musician, composer), Lenka Mašková (sculptor), Kris Príhodová (actress and model), Josef Scharfen (Hydra market consultant), and Mojmír Zálešák (student at NYU Stern and entrepreneur).

Moderated by Christopher Harwood

Organized by the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU), New York Chapter, with the support of BBLA.

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Women’s Artistic Dissent: Repelling Totalitarianism in Pre-1989 Czechoslovakia

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On Wednesday, APRIL 23, 2025, at 7 pm
At Bohemian National Hall in Manhattan

Author book presentation
By Brenda A. Flanagan and Hana Waisserova

Moderated by Christopher Harwood

Free and open to the public. The suggested donation is $15.
Seats are limited on a first come, first served basis.
Please register online through Eventbrite.

To survive totalitarianism during the years when Czechoslovakia ached under Soviet rule and to retain their humanity, Czech women writers went underground to write, paint, sculpt, and create supportive communities.
The co-authors Flanagan and Waisserová will pay tribute to creative women dissidents including Eva Švankmajerová, “Mother of Czech Surrealism,” and Eda Kriseová, journalist, fiction writer, essayist, and activist who served in President Václav Havel’s first Cabinet.
They presented their book last year at the Václav Havel Library in Prague.

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Dr. Brenda Flanagan is a professor of creative writing, Caribbean and African-American literature. She has received numerous awards, including three Hopwood Awards, three NEH Fellowships, and a Michener Fellowship. A cultural ambassador for the U.S. Department of State, she has traveled extensively, particularly in Central Asia and the Middle East, often as the first American writer sent to certain regions in decades. She fell in love with Czech Republic, which she regularly visits for many years. She has become an honorary member of the Prague Surrealist group and formed strong friendships with Eva and Jan Svankmajer. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in various journals, and her published works include a novel, a short story collection, and a play. Recent activities include representing the U.S. at international book fairs and lecturing at universities globally

Dr. Hana Waisserová is an associate professor of practice of Czech and Central European Studies and an affiliate of the Harris Centre for Judaic Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She studied at Spelman College, GA, earned Ph.D. in Anglophone transnational literature from Palacky University, CR, and Gender Graduate Certificate from TAMU, TX. She has published articles concerning South Asian and Central European women’s transnational literature, women’s totalitarian experiences, women dissidents and their activism, medieval Czech literature, and Czech-American culture in Nebraska. Prior to working in academia, she lived in India and traveled widely in Europe, Asia, and East Africa, where she worked as an outdoor guide and a publicist.

Organized by the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU), New York Chapter, with the support of BBLA and in collaboration with the Václav Havel Center in New York.

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THE PRESCIENCE OF KAREL CAPEK

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What a wonderful refreshing evening with intelligent people and ideas!
THE PRESCIENCE OF KAREL CAPEK
A talk by Thomas Ort, PhD, Queens College/CUNY
March 6, 2025, at Bohemian National Hall

This year, on the 135th anniversary of his birth, we will be celebrating the genius of Karel Capek and reconsidering the relevance of his work today.

Thank you, Thomas ORT, for your erudite yet entertaining talk reminding us about the genius of this early twentieth-century Czech writer and the uncanny relevance of his work for our times’ political and technological developments. His fears about the displacement of human labor by machines and the threat of authoritarianism appear closer to their realization than ever since the 1930s.

The VIDEO RECORDING is available on our YouTube Channel.

Moderated by Professor Chris Harwood, Columbia University

THOMAS ORT is Associate Professor of modern European history at Queens College, The City University of New York. The main focus of his research has been modernist and avant-garde life in early twentieth-century Czechoslovakia, but his most recent work concerns the politics of memory in postwar Eastern Europe. He is the author of Art and Life in Modernist Prague: Karel Capek and his Generation, 1911-1938 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), which was subsequently translated into Czech (Argo, 2016). Prof. Ort’s new book project, Meaning, Memory, and the Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, explores the ever-evolving interpretations of the killing of Reinhard Heydrich, the SS general and architect of the Final Solution, who was assassinated in Prague in 1942.
We recommend Thomas Ort’s book “Art and Life in Modernist Prague: Karel Capek and his Generation“, 1911-1938 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013)

KAREL CAPEK (1890–1938), a renowned Czech writer, playwright, critic, journalist, and friend of the first Czechoslovak president TG Masaryk, has been compared to writers like George Orwell and Aldous Huxley. His notable works include the novels “War with the Newts” and “Krakatit”, and plays such as “The White Plague”, “The Makropulos Case”, “The Insect Play”, and “R.U.R.” (Rossum’s Universal Robots), which introduced the term “robot” to the world. Capek’s writing spanned multiple genres, from drama and fiction to essays, travel writing, reflections on gardening and enchanting stories for children. He was a master of language and storytelling, elevating Czech literature on the global stage.

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The 6-MINUTE CHALLENGE #17

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Come to learn and laugh!

Join us for our signature popular program since 2014, when artists, professionals, scholars and scientists of Czech or Slovak descent are challenged to introduce their talent, the subject of their work, project, research, or studies in a short presentation limited to six minutes. In English.

PROGRAM NOTES

The video recording is available on our YouTube Channel.

The 17th edition included the following presenters:

Alan BARTUS (jazz pianist and composer), Nicolas DOSTAL (Regional Planner at Metro COG), Vera DVORAK(linguist and language teacher), Tomas KOHL(Colladeo software and tango instructor), Michael KRONDL ( installation artist), Martin PLAVEC (cardiologist at Yale New Haven Hospital), Maxim VISNOVSKY (MA student at Columbia University SIPA ), Ester WIESNEROVA (jazz singer and composer), and Michaela “Misha” ZABRANSKA (digital art and virtual reality)

Moderated by Christopher Harwood, PhD

Free and open to the public. Suggested donation $10. Seats are limited, on a first-come first-served basis.
RSVP online through Eventbrite.

Organized by the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU), New York Chapter with the support of BBLA.

The previous editions of the 6-Minute Challenge are accessible on our SVU NY YOUTUBE Channel.

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ABOUT

Alan BARTUS, born on February 22, 2001, in Lucenec, Slovakia, is among the top ten pianists of his generation. A semi-finalist in the 2023 Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz International Piano Competition, Alan has collaborated with legends like Jerry Bergonzi and Tim Armacost. Since 2023, he has lived in New York and is active on the jazz scene. In 2022, he won the Excellence Piano Awards, Grand Prix Majestic Excellence Award, and the Ö1 Austrian Jazz Prize and was accepted into the Manhattan School of Music. In 2023, Alan earned the Artedea Prize and first prize at the Langnau International Piano Competition in Switzerland. His work has been praised by Peter Bernstein and Tony Lakatos, among others. In 2024, Alan received the Dave Brubeck Award and performed with Jeff Tain Watts and Robert Hurst at Lincoln Center NYC, solidifying his reputation as a rising jazz star.

Interests and hobbies: hanging out with friends, cooking, watching movies
Contact: https://www.alanbartus.com/
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Nicolas DOSTAL is a Regional Planner at the Connecticut Metropolitan Council of Governments, where he specializes in transportation planning, climate change mitigation, and economic development. Though born in the United States, both of his parents originate from Košice, Slovakia, and frequent trips there and back have played a profound role in his personal and professional development. He graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2022 with a Master’s in Regional Planning, a Bachelor’s in Political Science, and a minor in Sports Management and Sustainable Community Development. His research explores the proliferation of pedestrian zones through a growing variety of urban typologies and best practices in their organization and programming. He is the author of the article Pedestrianizing Streets as a Strategy for Urban Greenways, which he presented at the 7th Fabos Conference in Budapest in 2022.

Interests and hobbies: soccer, tennis, paddleboarding, traveling, and videography
Contact: nickdostal2@yahoo.com
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Vera DVORAK, Ph.D., is a linguist, language AI specialist, and language teacher. She hails from Moravské Bud?jovice in Southwestern Moravia. After studying Czech Philology, Linguistics, and Phonetics at Charles University, she completed her master’s degree at the northernmost university in the world, in Tromsø, Norway, where she focused on Chomskian generative grammar. In 2017, she completed her studies in formal linguistics with a doctorate at Rutgers University in New Jersey. She now works in the IT industry, developing the language AI technologies as a Senior Manager of Machine Learning Operations at Yext, a tech company in Chelsea, NYC. Since her college years, V?ra has taught English or Czech for foreigners. Motivated to make her son fully bilingual, she started teaching Czech-American kids at the Czech and Slovak Language Center in Astoria in 2018 and later opened an online Czech course for teenagers. Building on her experience as a heritage language teacher, she recently co-initiated an international working group to create a new Czech textbook for Czech schools abroad.

Interests and hobbies: Moravian folklore & jazz music, afternoon tea, organizing SVU NY events!
Contact: vera.dvorak.ling@gmail.com; www.linkedin.com/in/vera-dvorak-linguist
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Tomas KOHL runs a software consultancy that helps marketers and startups build their apps and websites. He grew up in Kralupy nad Vltavou in Central Bohemia and studied viola at the Prague Conservatory, aspiring to become a musician. In the late 1990s, he spent two semesters at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, and he advanced to the final round of the Primrose Viola Competition in Canada. Always nurturing his interest in computer programming, he eventually transitioned to a career as a software engineer. He has collaborated on several high-profile digital initiatives, including the launch of an electric car-sharing venture by Volkswagen in Berlin and an internet portal by Vodafone in Prague. He moved to NYC in March 2023 to grow his business. Tomáš lives in Brooklyn with his wife Ilona, their son Alois, and their dog Becky.

Interests and hobbies: dancing and DJing tango, playing the piano
Contact: linkedin.com/in/tkohl
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Michael KRONDL, the New York-based installation artist, grew up in Prague and Toronto. He is a graduate of the Cooper Union (BFA) and the CUNY Graduate Center (MLS). His site-specific works often address pressing environmental issues and climate emergencies. At the beginning, there are photographs, which Michael manipulates digitally and via analog to create large-scale installations mounted on walls, billboards, screens, and even floors. His work has been exhibited at private and public galleries in Canada, the USA, and Europe and appeared in numerous public venues, including the Palmovka Synagogue (Prague), the Katonah Museum (New York), and Pier 16 in Manhattan during Climate Week 2024. His permanent public artwork can be seen in the New York City Subway, Surrey (British Columbia), Greenville-Spartanburg Airport, and Vail, Colorado. Michael is a recipient of many grants, most recently a Canada Council grant to explore rising sea levels in Nova Scotia.

Interests and hobbies: skiing and food history (authored several books)
Contact: https://art.michaelkrondl.net, IG: @mkrondl
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Martin PLAVEC, MD, FACC, born in P?íbram, Czech Republic, earned his medical degree at the Charles University in Prague in 1994. Before coming to the United States, he worked at the Department of Cardiology at Motol Medical Center in Prague. In 1997, he finished the Internal Medicine internship and residency at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and in 2004, the Cardiovascular Disease fellowship at Ochsner Clinic Foundation in New Orleans, Louisiana. Since 2017, he has been a part of the academic medicine department at the Heart & Vascular Center at Yale School of Medicine. Martin served on several committees in different hospitals. He is a member of numerous professional societies and certified in multiple specialties, including the American Board of Cardiovascular Medicine, the National Board of Echocardiography, the American Board of Nuclear Cardiology, and the American Board of Internal Medicine. His professional focus includes the implantation of cardiac devices, echocardiography, nuclear cardiology, and treatment of life-threatening cardiovascular conditions.

Interests and hobbies: tennis, skiing, cycling, swimming, reading, traveling
Contact: martin.plavec@yale.edu, https://medicine.yale.edu/
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Maxim VISNOVSKY is a Prague-born student of International Affairs at Columbia University. He is half Czech and half Slovak. After graduating from Johannes Kepler Grammar School, Maxim pursued a Bachelor’s in War Studies at King’s College London in the UK. He also spent a year in Tokyo, studying Indo-Pacific security. Maxim is interested in foreign policy, national security, and multilateral diplomacy. Prior to his studies at Columbia, Maxim had internships at the Czech Embassy in London, the Permanent Delegation of the Czech Republic to NATO in Brussels, and the Czech Ministry of Defense. As the Columbia European Union Student Association president, Maxim engages with various EU-related topics. In the future, he would like to work for the Czech government, in an EU institution, or at NATO.

Interests and hobbies: tennis, technology, languages, politics, exploring, Japan
Contact: maxim.visnovsky@columbia.edu, linkedin.com/in/maxim-visnovsky
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Ester WIESNEROVA is a vocalist, composer, and educator hailed as “an artist of rare imagination” and “an exciting new voice of European jazz” (Jazzwise, UK). Born in Partizanske in Slovakia, she attended the High School of Performing Arts in Nitra. A Grammy voter, she holds a master’s from the New England Conservatory and a bachelor’s from Berklee College of Music. As an educator, Ester has taught in twenty countries, co-founded the Slovak nonprofit Za hranice s hudbou (Music Beyond Borders), and received the Forbes 30 under 30 award. Her Grammy-shortlisted debut album fuses contemporary jazz, folk, and Slovakian traditions. Ester’s music has been performed worldwide, from Panama to China, and commissioned by Slovak National Radio and several film projects. Commuting between NYC and Slovakia, Ester balances performing, composing, teaching, nonprofit leadership, and her family life.

Interests and hobbies: salsa dancing, literature and psychology
Contact: www.esterwiesnerova.com, IG: @esterwiesnerova
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Michaela “Misha” ZABRANSKA, director, writer, producer, designer, and animator, was born in Hradec Králové in communist Czechoslovakia, nurtured in inclusive Canada, and matured in the melting pot of Brooklyn. Fluent in several visual media and art forms, she developed her storytelling skills by creating a number of original short films, such as Passers by (2000) or The First Political Speech (1993), and animating and directing the ground-breaking TV shows ReBoot and Transformers. Misha was a Lead Animator at George Lucas’ company Industrial Light & Magic, contributing to films like Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999), The Green Mile (1999), and Jack Frost (1998). Her creativity led her to multi-media performance-based collaborations such as with the choreographer David Parsons on large-scale projections and set design for American Ballet Theatre’s performance Pied Piper at the Metropolitan Opera, ReCreate at NYU’s Skirball Center, or Finn by Mabou Mines. Misha is a Professor at Pratt Institute and a former Professor at NYU. She has currently expanded into virtual reality with All is Relative immersive experiences.

Interests and hobbies: anything and everything that keeps my child-like curiosity and creativity expanded
Contact: misha.zv@gmail.com; www.mishazabranska.com

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HER2 : The Diagnosed, The Caregiver and Their Son

newyork

Photography book presentation by the authors Anna and Jordan Rathkopf

A special guest Magdalena Lombardi Plasilova, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Clinical Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, will discuss the intersection of art and science, focusing on patient experiences, early detection, and survivorship.

Wednesday, OCTOBER 2, 2024, at 7 pm
Bohemian National Hall
321 E 73 Str, NYC

VIDEO RECORDING

poster

Join us for an intimate evening with Anna and Jordan Rathkopf, a married, award-winning photography duo whose deeply personal story has been featured on CNN, Good Morning America, and honored by the International Photographic Council at the United Nations. Their upcoming book, HER2: The Diagnosed, The Caregiver, and Their Son is a powerful visual journey that explores how they used photography to open up conversations about the emotional and physical challenges they faced together and alone while navigating cancer as a family.

After Anna, a Czech immigrant living in New York for the past 18 years, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer at age 37, she and Jordan turned their cameras inward. Their dual perspectives, through self-portraits and images of their family, became a way to talk about their grief, fears, and resilience, providing a means to confront the illness together. These photographs not only document the individual and shared struggles but also reveal moments of unexpected joy, hope, and connection as they redefined the experience of surviving cancer while raising their young son.

The Rathkopfs’ work has received international recognition. Beyond their own story, they have dedicated their careers to amplifying the voices of others facing health challenges, advocating for health equity, and pushing for a more inclusive representation of illness in media. Jordan recently founded the Patient Caregiver Artist Coalition to further this mission.

Anna Rathkopf – Raised in Prague and shaped by the city’s historic architecture, Anna learned the art of light and composition from her uncle, Pavel Hecko, a renowned Eastern European photographer. As an immigrant, her experience in New York has taught her the importance of curiosity, empathy, and community support, all of which were reinforced by her cancer diagnosis in 2016. The act of capturing her own healing and family through photography became a profound form of communication during their hardest moments.

Jordan Rathkopf—Born and raised in Brooklyn, Jordan’s background in marketing, PR, and experimental music composition informs his storytelling approach to photography. His work emphasizes structure while remaining open to unexpected moments that capture the essence of human experience. Jordan is also the founder of the Patient Caregiver Artist Coalition, advocating for more authentic and inclusive representations of illness in visual storytelling.

Magdalena Lombardi Plasilova, MD, PhD, A native of the Czech Republic, earned her medical degree from Charles University in Prague, followed five years later by a doctorate in stem cell physiology and pathophysiology. She completed research fellowships at Cleveland Clinic’s Taussig Cancer Center and at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and a breast surgery fellowship at Yale New Haven Health’s Smilow Cancer Hospital in Connecticut. She is currently an Associate Professor of Clinical Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College, New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Plasilova brings over 20 years of experience in research and treatment and is known for her compassionate approach to oncology, especially in addressing the needs of younger patients and supporting survivors in their long-term recovery.

Published by Daylight Books, HER2 is available for online purchase HERE:
A limited number of copies will be available for purchase at the event.

Organized by the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU) in New York with the support of the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association (BBLA).

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LEAVING TO REMAIN

newyork

A feature documentary film screening

VIDEO RECORDING: INTRODUCTION by PETRA GELBART, PhD, MS, and Q&A
Support Romani students in the Czech Republic

Thursday, September 5, 2024, at 7 pm
Bohemian National Hall
321 E 73 St, NYC

The film Leaving to Remain is available online from RUTH FILMS.

Mira Erdevicki’s documentary follows the lives of three Czech-Slovak young Roma, Petr, Denisa, and Ond?ej, who are children of the first generation of immigrants to the United Kingdom in the 1990s due to racial and social discrimination. The film also follows the three visiting their native countries with mixed emotions. The multi-layered, intimate documentary contains scenes shot by the protagonists on their mobile phones. It provides a closer look at Roma culture and society and insight into their lives in the UK, Czech Republic, and Slovakia. It also presents the challenges the protagonists faced due to Brexit and COVID-19.

Mira Erdevicki is a Serbian documentary film director and writer who graduated from the School of Journalism in Belgrade and Prague’s Film Academy (FAMU) in 1993. She directed several films with the Roma subject.

PETRA GELBART, PhD, MS, Czech-Romani, is an ethnomusicologist, musician, singer, music therapist and activist. She earned her Ph.D. in musicology/ethnomusicology at Harvard University and is the vice-chair of the Czechoslovak Romani Union. Petra uses her research and voice to educate about Romani culture and advocate for Romani rights. She has been working with children from Czech state care for part of each year since 2004.

Support Romani students in the Czech Republic

Poster

Czech Republic, Slovakia, UK, 2022 | 91 min.
Language: Czech, English with English Subtitles

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