The Václav Havel Library begins the New Year with a new theatrical series. The first of the evenings of staged readings of Václav Havel’s plays will be devoted to Audience, a one-act play set in a brewery that explores absurdity, totalitarianism, rolling barrels, informing and actress Jiřina Bohdalová.

Featuring actors from the Divadlo NaHraně theatre: Martin Severýn and Ondřej Novák

Directed by Šimon Dominik

Hosted by Barbora Šenoltová

An evening dedicated to Natalya Gorbanevskaya - a Russian poet, translator of Polish literature and civil rights activist, who died on 29 November 2012.

Evening dedicated to the poetry of Woeser, a Tibetan poet, novelist and blogger. Woeser grew up in Tibet but has lived for the last 10 years under police supervision in Beijing with her husband, the Chinese novelist Wang Lixiong. In June last year she published her most recent book, which mainly focused on why Tibetans immolate themselves. Her previous collection Tibet of the Heart, Tibet of the Mind is just coming out in Czech. The person behind the publication is poet Vít Kremlička; he will present the poems, which have been translated from English by Karla Vrátná and from Chinese by Olga Lomová. Also Zuzana Ondomišiová will participate in the discussion. After the reading there will be a discussion, followed by a cello concert by the Duo Brikcius.

Jana Hradilková will host the event.

Opening of an exhibition of abstract paintings by Jan Vaněk from the turn of the 1980s and the 1990s.

January 1989. A brutal police intervention against a peaceful attempt to honour the memory of Jan Palach, who on 16 January 1969 immolated himself on Wenceslas Square in protest at the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops in August 1968. Water cannons, dogs, tear gas – none scare off the demonstrators; instead they are spurred to hold further protests. Unfolding events and growing unrest signal the imminent collapse of the Communist regime. Civic groups link up, petitions to free Václav Havel spread throughout the country, signed not only by artists but by more and more Czechs and Slovaks…

The Václav Havel Library will mark this key event in modern Czechoslovak and Czech history on 16 January 2014 with a memorial ceremony at the main building of the Arts Faculty of Prague’s Charles University, a march on Wenceslas Square, the screening of a film about Agnieszka Holland at Lucerna and a debate with witnesses and direct participants at the Marble Hall at the Lucerna Palace.

Silent memorial for Charles University Arts Faculty student Jan Palach. Bring a candle! In cooperation with the Student Council of the Charles University Arts Faculty.

Procession from the Charles University Arts Faculty to Wenceslas Square.

Gala presentation of a documentary film by Krystyna Krauze about Agnieszka Holland

The Oscar-winning Polish director Agnieszka Holland, who has worked with actors such as Meryl Streep and Leonardo di Caprio, studied directing at Prague’s FAMU film school. When she returned to the Czech Republic last year to shoot the extraordinarily powerful serial Burning Bush she acquiesced to the shooting of a documentary that would look back at her studies in the country. And not just her studies: she found a second home here and frequently returns.

Last year, director Krystyna Krauze presented the film Our Vašek exploring relations between the Czech and Polish opposition.

The first 200 guests will receive a free ticket.

With the participation of Dana Němcová, Petr Placák, Jiří Suk, Alexandr Vondra and others, the events of 25 years ago are brought back to life via authentic footage from the Original Video Journal. The evening is moderated by Jakub Železný.

“Black” and “white” legends of the conquering of America

Lecture in a series conceived by Markéta Křížová (Centre for Ibero-American Studies at the Arts Faculty of Charles University)

Reading by Martin Ryšavý from his novel Vrač (Revolver Revue, 2010) with original musical accompaniment by Pavel Kopecký and Petr Vokál. The evening is being held in the connection with the release of an audio book version, which is a stand-alone supplement to Revolver Revue no. 93/2013.

Musical evening and presentation of the first collected and authorised publication of the song lyrics of Vladimír Merta which, over almost 1,000 pages, maps the sung poetry of one of the most important Czech songwriters.

Journalist Judita Matyášová’s book maps the fates of 80 Czech children who reached Denmark at the start of the war and in 1943 escaped to Sweden. They later lost touch with one another for 70 years, before the writer decided to search out the “children”, today in their 90s, and trace their stories.

One the occasion of the publication of the second and third volumes of a great 20th century epic, Ezra Pound’s Cantos (Cantos II, XXXI–LI, Cantos III, China Cantos LII–LXI) , the translator Anna Kareninová explores the concept, levels and style of this monumental composition comprising 117 songs. The evening will also feature recordings of Pound reading his poems and photos portraying places reflected in the Cantos, while a comparison of the source texts and their transformations into song will reveal something of Pound’s poetics.

Prague launch of selected volumes, which has just been released by the Brno publishing house Větrné mlýny, from this “eugenius” poet and philosopher.

In his work, Eugen Brikcius, who will present the book, “sings the praises of the senses and sensuality without letting go of regard for the horizon of the soul and the vanishing point of reason”. Surprises guaranteed.

The evening is being hosted by Petr Minařík, Větrné mlýny’s editor in chief.