http://www.radio.cz/en issues of concern to Czechs overseas en Fri, 01 Oct 2010 17:55:19 +0200 Sun, 03 Oct 2010 17:43:18 +0200 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Radio Prague CMS http://img.radio.cz/logo_100.gif http://www.radio.cz/en 100 55 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Radio Broadcasting cr@radio.cz webmaster@radio.cz http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132211 Julek Neumann is a man of many talents: theatrical director, actor, journalist, playwright and poet. He is currently writing, directing and acting with a number of Czech theatres after over 25 years abroad, first in Vienna, where he moved from communist Czechoslovakia in 1984, and then in London, where for many years he worked for the Czech section of the BBC. David Vaughan spoke to Julek about a rather neglected, but fascinating aspect of Czech theatre – the central role it has played in the life of Czech communities abroad. Sun, 03 Oct 2010 02:01:00 +0200 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132211 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/131710 If you want to find out more about the long history of Czechs and Slovaks in the United States, the place to start is The National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The museum was devastated by floods in 2008 and some 6,000 flood-damaged volumes from the library are still being painstakingly restored. But the pace of recovery has been remarkably fast, and within the next couple of years, an ambitious project to rebuild and expand the museum should be complete. With it the library will also be up and running once again. In Czech Books this week, David Vaughan finds out more about the library’s rich collections. Sun, 19 Sep 2010 02:01:00 +0200 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/131710 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/131462 As we informed you yesterday, a biannual event is underway for Czechs living abroad to discuss, among other things, their attempts to keep Czech culture alive in their adopted countries. Today our reporter Christian Falvey went back to the Conference for Czech Compatriots and Culture to talk with some of the guests about their leaving Czechoslovakia and their work to sustain their Czech culture abroad. Tue, 07 Sep 2010 17:06:43 +0200 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/131462 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/131415 Czechs living abroad and their descendants are currently meeting in Prague for a three-day conference. The 120 delegates from 16 adopted countries as diverse as America and Egypt are here to discuss the common interests of Czechs living abroad, primarily cultural life. Christian Falvey went to the opening of the conference to find out more. Mon, 06 Sep 2010 15:53:31 +0200 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/131415 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/130736 An era has come to an end with the demise of Americké listy, the leading Czech-language newspaper in the United States. Its publishers Petr and Vera Bísek have decided to call time on the bi-monthly publication, which succeeded a paper started in the mid 1960s by another Czech émigré, Frank Švehla. The couple, who are in their late 60s, live in New York state but are currently visiting family at a village near Plzeň. On the phone from there, Petr Bísek explained why they had taken the decision to close Americké listy. Fri, 13 Aug 2010 14:47:53 +0200 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/130736 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/129270 When she lost her job after twenty years in the Czech section of the BBC, Hana Wilson was far from despondent. She simply allowed her hobby to take over her life. Hana, who left Czechoslovakia back in 1980, has spent much of the last decade on the waterways of Britain. Now she has published a book, introducing Czechs to the wonders of life on a narrowboat. Hana Wilson is David Vaughan’s guest in this week’s edition of Czech Books. Sun, 27 Jun 2010 02:01:00 +0200 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/129270 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/128358 This Thursday and Friday marks the third time Czechs abroad – from as far away as Japan or the US – have been able to take part in the national election. Polling stations abroad opened at 14 pm on Thursday – a day earlier than they opened in the Czech Republic. Worldwide as many as 6,000 Czechs expatriates are expected to cast their ballot. Fri, 28 May 2010 12:29:03 +0200 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/128358 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/127910 The Nové divadlo (New Czech Theatre) was established in the Canadian city of Toronto in 1970. Since then it has enjoyed several high points: the great actor Jiří Voskovec appeared in one production, Josef Škvorecký wrote a play for the amateur group and it staged the world premiere of the Czech language version of Václav Havel’s Temptation. Recently the New Czech Theatre received an award from the Czech Foreign Ministry for its work in promoting the good name of its founders’ native country. After the ceremony, I spoke about its beginnings with one of those founders, director Adolf Toman. Fri, 14 May 2010 12:22:04 +0200 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/127910 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/127539 Professor Lubomír Doležel, who was born in the Moravian village of Lesnice in 1922, is an internationally respected academic best known for his pioneering work in literary theory and linguistics. After three years at the University of Michigan in the second half of the 1960s, he was invited to the University of Toronto, where he established the study of Czech language and literature. On Friday Professor Doležel received the Czech Foreign Ministry’s Gratias Agit prize for promoting the good name of his native country. Mon, 03 May 2010 16:15:19 +0200 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/127539 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/127124 In June 2008, the Czech and Slovak Museum in the US state of Iowa was hit by a devastating flood, which has caused damage running into millions of dollars. Now, nearly two years later, it has opened in a new location in the Kosek Building, right in the middle of the Czech Village. To mark the first step on the road to its recovery, the Czech and Slovak Museum has put up a new exhibition called “Rising Above: the story of a people and the flood”. I spoke to the museum’s director Gail Naughton. Tue, 20 Apr 2010 15:50:17 +0200 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/127124 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/121201 This Wednesday is reporter Rosie Johnston’s last day here at Radio Prague. Why? Because Rosie is heading to the United States, to undertake a new national project, interviewing Czechs and Slovaks who emigrated to America under communism. Rosie joins us now in the studio with more details about the project: Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:09:28 +0200 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/121201 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/115588 The Czech expatriate organization Beseda Volnost was founded in the Brussels pub of a Mr Antonín Trojan in 1904. Its membership has grown some from the original 29 Czechs who signed up to pay their half-a-franc yearly fee back then, but the club’s mission remains more or less the same. Over the past century, Beseda has provided Czechs living in Belgium with a means of keeping their culture alive, and has raised funds for a number of good causes such as the Prague floods in 2002. Thu, 23 Apr 2009 14:07:48 +0200 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/115588 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/113459 Jan Novák left Kolín in Communist Czechoslovakia a teenager in 1969. He emigrated with his parents to Chicago, where he studied and started to chronicle Czech life in the Windy City. In more recent years he has written screenplays for Miloš Forman, and a prize-winning fictional biography of fellow Czech-Americans, Josef and Ctirad Mašín. He is settled back in Prague for the medium-term teaching at the city’s film school, FAMU. When I met him in a café by the banks of the Vltava recently, I started by asking him about his first spell in this country, and life in 1960s small-town Czechoslovakia: Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:46:52 +0100 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/113459 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/112835 My guest for today’s One on One is Tom Zahn, an American who has been living in Prague for most of the last fifteen years, and who has, during his time in the capital, been specializing in a somewhat unusual trade. Tom runs a firm called P.A.T.H. finders which tracks down clients’ long-lost Czech and Slovak relatives, and in many cases, reintroduces both parties. When I met Tom in his office, overlooking Prague’s Vyšehrad fortress, he told me when his interest in Prague, and genealogy, was born: Mon, 02 Feb 2009 14:23:29 +0100 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/112835 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/111624 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. Fri, 26 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/111624 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/110247 Milan Hauner is a leading Czech historian whose area of expertise is World War II, Germany and Czech-German relations. He himself was born during the war, in 1940, to a Czech-German couple who were both deaf. In this edition of Panorama, Professor Hauner, who teaches at the University of Wisconsin, outlines aspects of his own, fascinating family history – starting with his grandfather Vilém Julius Hauner, a leading military historian, translator and anti-Nazi journalist. Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/110247 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/109898 After years of discussion, planning and extensive renovation work, New York’s Bohemian National Hall finally reopened on Thursday evening in a lavish gala event. The imposing five-storey building on Manhattan’s Upper East Side first opened in 1896, but closed in 1986, and was left unused for many years. Now it’s ready once again to serve as the centre of Czech cultural and social life in the Big Apple. Radio Prague’s director Miroslav Krupička was at the opening. Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:51:46 +0100 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/109898 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/108371 Czech expatriates from as far afield as Australia and the United States have been meeting in Prague this week for a conference called ‘Czechs and Exile: 1948 and 1968’. Those present have been remembering the historic events that prompted them to leave the country, as well as comparing notes on Czech expatriate organizations in their different regions. Milan Kocourek is one of the people speaking at the conference. He has lived in Britain for the last 40 years, where he has worked for both the BBC and, today, Czech Radio. I met Mr Kocourek at the conference, and asked him why he left the country: Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:39:39 +0200 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/108371 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/107069 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. Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:09:02 +0200 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/107069 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/106954 In this edition of Panorama we meet some of those teaching and studying Czech at two of New York’s most prestigious universities. Our first stop is Columbia University, where Professor Christopher Harwood teaches both the Czech language and Czech studies. How do enrolments compare for both classes? Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:13:29 +0200 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/106954