James Ragan: A View of the World from Vaclav Havel’s Balcony
- Kde: Knihovna Václava Havla, Ostrovní 13, Praha 110 00
- Kdy: 16. červen 2015, 19:00 – 21:00
From the 1960’s, James Ragan had visited his family villages in then Czechoslovakia where he began his dissident writings against foreign occupation. As a published poet, playwright, screenwriter, and professor, he met newly- elected Czech President Vaclav Havel in 1991 in Los Angeles.
Acknowledging Ragan’s banned activism against communism, Havel extended his hand, saying, “We are colleagues,” and invited Ragan to return as a Czecho-Slovak and donate something back to the restored nation. Since that invitation, Ragan has returned to serve each summer for 22 years as Distinguished Visiting Professor of Poetry and Film at Charles University. As the subject of a 2014 documentary, Flowers and Roots, Ragan will discuss his early days of witness to communist oppression and his relationship as a poet-playwright with Havel. He will read poems from The Hunger Wall (Hladová zeď) written at Havel’s iconic family home at Rasinovo nabrezi.
Free entry without registration.