Rich with stories and with a clear undercurrent of blues poetry, Barta’s book Ručičky věžních hodin (The Hands of the Prison Clock) describes both periods of success and steep falls. It is not just a personal chronicle but a testament to the life of an entire generation.

Tomáš Vrba and Michael Žantovský will present the book and conduct a talk with the author. 

For a millennium Czechs have helped shape the West, which is not a geographical entity but one of values, mentality and civilisation. However, since the start of the 19th century, when the modern Czech political nation began to emerge, we have gone through efforts to “divorce” from the West, against which we have defined ourselves to lesser or greater degrees, in a strange ultra-Slavonic intoxication. A geo-political divorce was enacted in the years 1945–1948, when we became part of the Soviet empire. After 1989 it appeared that this anti-Western and anti-European “divorce syndrome” had been surmounted. However, in recent years it has reared its head in Czech society once again. What are the roots of this phenomenon? And what role can it play in the volatile Western community of the end of the second decade of the 21st century?

Issues surrounding the Czech relationship with the West will be discussed by historian and philosopher Petr Hlaváček, author of the recently published Západ, nebo Východ? České reflexe Evropy 1918–1948 (West or East? Czech reflections on Europe, 1918–1948), political geographer Michael Romancov and journalist Kateřina Šafaříková, who covers current European issues. 

Debate chaired by Michael Žantovský.

A directorial note from the author – “Imagination knows no bounds!” – encouraged those staging the piece to render his libretto in a modern way. They were to strive for a new stylisation of movement, abandoning the artistic form of traditional mime and opting instead for an approach closer to everyday life.

The piece is the work of director Radim Vizváry and the mime Vojtěch Svoboda, actors and graduates of the Department of Mime at the Faculty of Music and Dance of the Academy of Performing Arts.

Libuše Jarcovjáková lived in pubs, worked the night shift at a print factory, went through a host of lovers of both genders and took photographs in semi-legal gay clubs. She brazenly transcended the boundaries of social stereotypes and morals. The Black Years documents the 1970s and 1980s as people really lived them. And the things they were afraid to live. In her own idiosyncratic manner, Libuše tackled abortion committees, StB men and a complicated father, photographing it all and writing about it all.

The book will be presented by documentarian Barbora Baronová while curator Lucia L. Fišerová will host a talk with the author. 

Doctorrr: Ivan M. Havel
Patient: Pavel Kohout
Dirrrectorrr: Michael Žantovský

For more inforrrmatoin go to http://gask.cz/en

These questions will be discussed by the two authors of the book Religious People, the philosopher and sociologist Paweł Rojek and the sociologist and psychologist Michał Łuczewski. The writers of the individual essays advance a surprising theory – that this robust and direct bond between “the nation and the church” is in fact something new in Polish history. It was created at the end of the 19th century and took root firmly during the communist period.

Brabence will read from his new prose collection Podoby (Forms), present the comics adventure Nevyžádaný příspěvek (Unsolicited Contribution) and play excerpts from several of his solo CDs.

The evening will be hosted by Vladimír “Lábus” Drápal from the label Guerilla Records.

Guests: Bob Kartous (EDUin), Lucie Plešková (Open Society Fund), Jana Straková (Charles University).

Polish Radio reporter Dariusz Rosiak visited those states and recorded hundreds of stories of people facing persecution, a fight to survive and expulsion from their homes. “On television and on YouTube we watch violence committed by Islamic State and then we, at best, organise charity auctions to salve our consciences. I didn’t want to become part of that or to become an armchair moralist. I decided to set out on a journey to try to describe a world that may be dying out,” the Polish journalist writes in his book Ziarno i krew. Podróż śladami bliskowschodnich chrześcijan (Grain and Blood: A Journey in the Footsteps of Middle Eastern Christians) (Czarne, 2015)

Dariusz Rosiak will speak with Czech Radio commentator Jan Fingerland, a leading Czech expert on the Middle East.

Miloš Doležal, the author of books focused on Toufar, Jana Franková and Jiří Hromada will read from new texts and documents, while Štěpán Drtina will provide musical accompaniment on cello.

Historian Tomáš Petráček will discuss the context and interpretations of the story. 

The author of the foreword Tomáš Vrba will present the third edition, which has been expanded to triple the length of the original.

Evening held in cooperation with the KANT publishing house.