News

On 17th June 2010 the Václav Havel Library organised a discussion meeting, Amálie, this time on theme "Green Phoenix".

The complete audio records of Talks from Lány are available in the Digital Archive now. The program in which Václav Havel as a president commented regularly on topical events in the country was broadcasted by Czechoslovakian and later Czech Radio in years 1990 to 2000.

Several insights from the former director of Czech Radio who was directly involved in Talks from Lány.

We selected three audio records from the Literary Evening with Václav Havel, during which the author recited his verses personally.

The book is composed of works of the 36ers published in Samizdat magazines Interviews with the 36ers and Silver Wind. Among others, it contains Havel’s unknown texts from his earliest period, uncovered in the depths of Hrádeček.

The literary evening of Václav Havel took place in the premises of the Montmartre Gallery on Wednesday 2nd June 2010 from 18:00 within the Václav Havel Library project Spring with 36ers.

The video recording of Václav Havel's pre-election statement is available here.

The Václav Havel Library announces the second year of the competition for secondary school students: Award for the Best Student Essay.

All Talks from Lány with Václav Havel broadcasted by Czechoslovakian and later Czech Radio in years 1990-2000 will soon be available in the digital archive.

The agreement on cooperation with the Nation's Memory Institute was signed in Bratislava on 4th May 2010. The Václav Havel Library on its grounds extended its resources with many publications mapping the epoch-making events of Slovakian history in the 20th century.

We publish selected parts of the interview conducted by Martin C. Putna with Věra Linhartová in Paris.

Literary Evening of Poetess Věra Linhartová will take place in premises of the Montmarte Galery within the Vaclav Havel Library project, Spring with 36ers, on Wednesday 21st April 2010 from 18:00.

Tens of personalities who decided to vote the Green Party met in the Václav Havel Library on Tuesday 16th March 2010.

You are heartily invited to a literary evening of Josef Topol (the name means “poplar” in English), the third of the cycle of five evenings within the Spring with 36ers which will be held on Wednesday, 31st March 2010 from 6 p.m. in the Montmartre Gallery, Řetězová 7, Prague 1.

You are heartily invited to the literary evening of Viola Fischerová, the second from the cycle of five evenings within the Spring with 36ers which will be held on Wednesday, 24th February 2010 from 6 p.m. in the Montmartre Gallery, Řetězová 7, Prague 1

The first volume of the second year of the Vaclav Havel Library Notebooks is a catalogue to the art exhibition of Jiří Kuběna bearing the same name.

The Vaclav Havel Library invites you to a literary evening of Jiří Kuběna. The first from the cycle of five evenings within the Spring with 36ers will to be held on 2nd February 2010 from 6 p.m. in the Montmartre Gallery, Řetězová 7, Prague 1.

We invite you to talk with a journalist and dissident Petruška Šustrová about the activity of women in dissent. It will take place on Wednesday, 27th January at 17:30 in the Marcus Gallery Café, Úvoz 24, Brno.

The Šestatřicátníci (“those born in 1936, or 36ers”) association was the first literary and artistic group which Václav Havel put together at the beginning of his career, in the years 1953-1954, as a seventeen year old man - and the association shaped his own creative beginnings. From the group, besides Václav Havel, came many writers and journalists, among them especially four authors, extremely important for the history of Czech culture - Jiří Kuběna, Josef Topol, Věra Linhartová and Viola Fischerová.

Accept our invitation to the first event of this season in the Vaclav Havel Library. The season bears motto Havel’s first gang or Spring with 36ers and will recall the first artistic association which Havel created around himself in the middle of 1950s.

Spirituality of Václav Havel, the new study of Martin C. Putna, which searches for the sources of Havel’s philosophical texts, which almost no one have noticed yet.

In connection with the publication of the work of Václav Havel in our archive, we lower the price of Havel’s seven-volume Writings (Torst 1999) to CZK 888. You can buy the “green box” in the Montmartre Gallery where you will also find exhibition Havel in a Nutshell.

Vaclav Havel Library invites you to the opening of an exhibition of photographs made by Luboš Kotka: Absurdistan – years of non-freedom. Set of photographs of everydayness of normalisation revealing many absurd, unintentionally comic situations and scenes, hidden behind the gray surface of Husák’s time.

Set of critical reflections on Havel’s intellectual work from the pen of a leading Czech philosopher. Many texts are published in a book for the very first time.

The work of Václav Havel is freely accessible in the digital archive from 12th October. Gradually, it will present also other materials that are somehow related to the life of our first Czech President - photographs, documents, audio recordings, but also videos.

We invite you to the radio documentary on the trial with six members of the VONS at the Municipal Court in Prague on 22nd – 23rd October 1979.

We invite you to launching Notebooks 2009/3. On Thursday 15th October from 18:00 at the Montmartre Gallery (7 Řetězová Street, Prague 1).

Since October 2009 we open library and archive to the public - every Tuesday from 9:00 to 17:00. Here you can find the basic Havel-related literature (from Havel and about Havel), as well as literature on Havel-related context (history, politics, law, etc.).

We invite you to the opening of the exhibition about the Committee for Defence of the Unjustly Prosecuted. Library, Institute for Contemporary History AS CR and Libri prohibiti organised it at the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the trial with members of the VONS. The opening takes place on Tuesday, 22nd September from 18:00. From 15:00 a colloquium of historians will be held, followed by the debate with the still living, then convicted members of the VONS.

Here you can see a detailed program of the Library for the next two months: September and October.

In November 2004, a book of the dispatches sent from the American Embassy in Prague to the American diplomatic headquarters from the revolutionary days of 1989 was published under the name of “Prague – Washington – Prague”. Prof. Vilém Prečan prepared the Czech-English version for publishing from unique archive materials which the American State Department released for this purpose.

In three parts, this publication offers three ways of remembering the totalitarian everyday life.

We invite you to a satirical performance by the Puppet Theatre Czechoslovakia. It will take place in the Montmartre Gallery (Řetězová Street 7, Prague 1) on the 12th June at 19:00.

The second issue of the Václav Havel Library Notebooks entitled “Instigation and Punishment” (“Podněcování a trest”) was published on 2nd June 2009. “Instigation and Punishment” is a unique and absurd text. It is the actual court trial record of Václav Havel from February 1989, converted into the form of a theatrical drama – “almost another play by Václav Havel”.

The second issue of the Václav Havel Library Notebooks entitled “Instigation and Punishment” (“Podněcování a trest”) has been published. The first release of the Notebooks will take place in the Montmartre Gallery (Řetězová 7, Prague 1) on 9th June from 18:00.

The Václav Havel Library announces the first annual Literary Competition for students of Secondary Schools, competing for the Václav Havel Library Award for Student Essay.

Once more, after some time, we would like to invite you to a theatrical performance - “Jeans Generation” -  by the Belarus Free Theatre.

The Václav Havel Library and Fórum 50 % would like to invite you to the Women’s Housing Seminar on the forms of feminine resistance during normalisation, which will take place in the Montmartre Gallery (Řetězová 7, Praha 1 - Old Town) on Wednesday, 29th April 2009 at 18:30.

The Václav Havel Library, Respect and Opona, o.p.s. warmly extends its invitation to you for the launch of this book which is part of the Cirkus totality (Circus of Totalitarianism) project: VĚČNÉ ČASY (Eternal Times)

The song. “Havel in a Nutshell”,  was composed for the occasion of the opening of the  old-new exposition: "Václav Havel - Czech Myth”, the new subtitle of which is just “Havel in a Nutshell”.

The exposition on Václav Havel - Czech Myth or Havel in a Nutshell - is open in the Montmartre Gallery (Řetězová 7, Praha 1). You can view it from Tuesdays to Sundays between 12:00 and 18:00.

The first issue of the Václav Havel Library Notebooks quarterly was published on 11th March 2009.

The Václav Havel Library invites you to an exhibition on Václav Havel with poetry of the Czech Underground 1977-1989.