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SpecialSome highlights of our Czechs in New York series
Earlier this year I flew to New York to record a series of special reports
about Czechs in the city, visiting several important Czech institutions
and
speaking to dozens of interesting individuals. This special programme
revisits some of those places and people. More
ArtsPetr Kotík – Part 2
The minimalist composer and conductor Petr Kotík has led the S.E.M
Ensemble since soon after he arrived in the United States at the very end
of the 1960s. In this, the second of two editions of the Arts dedicated to
the Prague-born musician, he explains why he considers his hometown a
musical “garbage heap” and lauds Ostrava, the city where he established
an institute and festival dedicated to new music.
More
ArtsPetr Kotík – Part 1
Petr Kotík is a Prague-born composer and conductor based in New York. He
is the founder and artistic director of the S.E.M. Ensemble, a group that
performs modern classical music, both by Kotík himself and others
including John Cage and La Monte Young. In 1999 he established the Ostrava
Centre for New Music, which runs the biennial Ostrava Days institute and
festival in the north Moravian city.
More
PanoramaFocus on both language and culture at weekly Czech school in Queens
Every Friday evening during the school year, children from all over New
York (and sometimes even further afield) gather for Czech lessons at the
Bohemian Hall in Queens. As well as improving their Czech, the school’s
pupils learn about various aspects of Czech culture, while their parents
get to catch up on what’s happening in the community.
More
One on OneChristopher Harwood – professor of Czech at Columbia University
Christopher Harwood is a lecturer in Czech at Columbia University in New
York. When I met him at his office on Columbia’s Upper West Side campus,
we discussed Czech literature, the difficulties of learning Czech, and how
Professor Harwood himself had become good enough at the language to teach
it at one of the world’s leading universities. More
SpecialThe Jan Hus Church in New York – a remnant of the Upper East Side’s Czech past
The Jan Hus Presbyterian Church and Neighborhood House is to be found on
the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It takes its name from the great Czech
religious reformer Jan Hus, who was burned at the stake in 1415 and
influenced the later Protestant movement. When the church was established
in the 1870s, it was one of the hubs of a large Czech community that in
those days totalled thirty or forty thousand people.
More
One on OneAntonín Kratochvíl – Part 2
Before he ever picked up a camera, the internationally renowned Czech
photographer Antonín Kratochvíl led a colourful life to say the least.
After escaping from Czechoslovakia in 1967, he spent time in an Austrian
refugee camp, was imprisoned in Sweden and joined the French Foreign
Legion, with whom he fought in a war before later deserting. In the second
part of an interview conducted at his long-term home in New York, Antonín
Kratochvíl discusses, among other things, how his own experiences have
shaped his approach to photography.
More
One on OneAntonín Kratochvíl – Part 1
Antonín Kratochvíl is one of the greatest contemporary Czech
photographers. Known for both his celebrity portraits and photojournalism,
he is said to have won World Press Photo awards in more categories than
anybody else. Much of his work is informed by his own tough experiences,
starting with the Communists’ persecution of his family, who owned a
photography studio. At his apartment in New York, where he has been living
for three decades, I asked Antonín Kratochvíl when he had first begun to
feel his family was being treated harshly.
More
One on OnePeter Bisek – publisher of the leading Czech and Slovak paper in US
Peter Bisek and his wife Vera edit and publish the leading Czech and Slovak
newspaper in the United States, Americké listy. Mr Bisek is also the
president of the Bohemian Citizens' Benevolent Society, which runs the
popular Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden in the New York borough of Queens. It
was in the Bohemian Hall that Peter Bisek outlined the past and present of
the bi-weekly, Czech-language newspaper.
More
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