Culture

Miroslav Rác: 21st century classical music teaching the lessons of the Holocaust and its Romani victims

30.5.2018 9:57 There has never been a lack of excellent musicians among Romani people. Composers, though, are a rarer phenomenon.  full story

Czech play focuses on hateful commentaries posted to Internet discussions - #nejsemrasista_ale

25.5.2018 18:44 The Divadlo Petra Bezruče theater in Ostrava, Czech Republic has premiered an original production entitled #nejsemrasista_ale ("#I'm not a racist, but..."), directed by Braňo Holiček. The play about anonymous opinions on the Internet that frequently mask emotions of fear and hatred premiered on 18 May.  full story

Hungary: József "Choli" Daróczi, translator of the New Testament into Romanes, has passed away

17.5.2018 17:25 At the age of 79 the eminent Romani author, poet, journalist and teacher József Daróczi, known to his loved ones by the familiar Romani nickname "Choli", passed away in Hungary on 12 May 2018. Mr Daróczi, an all-around gifted artist and charismatic educator, was one of the most eminent Romani figures in Hungarian public life for decades.  full story

Novel about the Holocaust and its Romani victims, "Jacob's Colours", now in Czech translation

30.4.2018 10:09 Te den, cha, te maren, denaš. "If they give you food, accept it, if they beat you, get out of there."  full story

Czech Philharmonic will continue collaboration with Romani musician Ida Kelarová

20.3.2018 16:03 Ida Kelarová, the choir director and jazz singer, tells the Czech News Agency in an interview that the recent recording of the Romani children's choir Čhavorenge is both the high point and just the beginning of the choir's further collaboration with the Czech Philharmonic, which was initiated through their joint summer arts school. "It can be considered that new opportunities will open up with this CD. We may even get invited abroad," she said.  full story

Feminist Roma theater company celebrates the abolition of Roma slavery in Romania

5.3.2018 11:34 February 20th marks the liberation of the Roma population from slavery in Romania. For 500 years, most of the Roma in Romania were enslaved by Orthodox Monasteries and the boyars, who were the Romanian aristocracy. In commemoration of this event the feminist Roma theater company, Giuvlipen, presented Cine a omorât-o pe Szomna Grancsa? (Who killed Szomna Grancsa?) on February 23rd in Bucharest as a reminder that racism against the Romani people continues to persist.  full story

USA: Pianist Tomáš Kačo performs solo at Carnegie Hall - "There is no box for this music"

26.2.2018 6:55 The pianist Tomáš Kačo is one of 12 siblings from a very modest background who has worked his way up through self-instruction to become one of the best jazz piano students at the prestigious Berklee College in Boston, of which he is a graduate. On 22 February yet another dream of his came true - performing at the legendary Carnegie Hall in New York.  full story

Ladislava Gažiová: Romafuturism means change, the opportunity to reject a distorted history of the Roma

25.2.2018 10:19 A three-part series of pieces for the website Artalk.cz is dedicated to exhibiting and presenting art by Romani people and has culminated with an interview between the artist Laďa Gažiová and the curator of the tranzit initiative, Tereza Stejskalová. In the interview, Gažiová says that creating a collection of the literature produced by authors who are Romani in Europe is a very important step for emancipating Romani people and raising their self-confidence.  full story

Eduard Oláh, sculptor and stonemason who designed memorial to the Romani victims of Hodonín concentration camp, has passed away

13.2.2018 7:20 After a brief illness the sculptor and stonemason Eduard Oláh - Izrael Ben Eded has passed away at the age of 63. Funeral services were held on Tuesday, 7 February 2018, for the immediate family, which informed news server Romea.cz of his passing.  full story

Czech capital to see European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture presentation on support for Romani culture

9.2.2018 11:07 On Tuesday, 13 February a presentation will be made by the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC), "SAR DIČOHA ROMAŇI KULTURA DUREDER? – BUDOUCNOST
ROMSKÉ KULTURY" (THE FUTURE OF ROMANI CULTURE) as part of an international conference to be followed by a cultural program that evening. The conference, entitled "Support for the Development of Roma Culture: Contemporary Challenges and Future Opportunities", will begin at 10 AM in the Gallery of the Czech Centres on Rytířská Street in Prague.  full story

Czech Republic: Romafuturismo Library holds its grand opening TODAY

1.2.2018 7:18 Today, 1 February, the grand opening of the Romafuturismo Library will take place at the tranzit office gallery and lecture space (Dittrichova 13, Prague 2). A marathon reading will begin at 7 AM and end at 7 PM of the book Narodila jsem se pod šťastnou hvězdou (A False Dawn) by the eminent Romani author Elena (Ilona) Lacková.  full story

Czech Culture Minister: Buyout of pig farm was important, human dignity cannot be measured in money

19.1.2018 7:31 News server Novinky.cz published an interview on 17 January with Czech Culture Minister Ilja Šmíd in which he said he agrees with the amount of money paid to buy out the pig farm in Lety u Písku that stands on the site of a former concentration camp for Romani people because this was an important step and human dignity cannot be measured in monetary terms. "The last Government made that decision and I am convinced it was absolutely correct as far as the amount paid to buy the farm," the minister said.

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Yvetta Blanarovičová: Talent alone is not enough

30.12.2017 11:25 "Very often children join this project who have chaos inside them, they don't know how to learn, they have no aims - they just have talent. Then it's up to us to give them direction and raise up what is unique in them," says Yvetta Blanarovičová about her aid to gifted children whose families are unable to support them.  full story

Internationally renowned Romani artist Damian Le Bas has passed away

13.12.2017 8:57 Damian Le Bas, a leading artist from the Romani community, passed away on Saturday, 9 December 2017 at the age of 54 at home in the small British town of Worthing in West Sussex. The Kai Dikhas Gallery in Berlin, Germany announced the sad news.  full story

"A Vanished World" exhibit on Wenceslas Square in the Czech capital for the next two weeks

1.11.2017 14:27 The travelling exhibition "A Vanished World" (Zaniklý svět), prepared by the Committee for the Redress of the Roma Holocaust (VPORH) about indigenous Czech Roma and Sinti, has returned to Prague. Through rare archival materials and photographs from the interwar period, the exhibit presents the lives of Roma and Sinti in the Czech lands prior to their imprisonment in Nazi concentration camps.  full story

Exhibition "A Vanished World" about indigenous Czech Roma and Sinti again on display in Prague

17.9.2017 16:20 The traveling exhibition "A Vanished World" ("Zaniklý svět") about the indigenous Czech Roma and Sinti that has been created by the Committee for the Redress of the Roma Holocaust (Výbor pro odškodnění romského holocaustu - VPORH) is returning to Prague. Through rare archival materials and photographs, the exhibition presents the lives of Roma and Sinti in the Czech lands prior to their imprisonment in the Nazi concentration camps.  full story

Exhibit touring Prague shows how Roma lived before being imprisoned in concentration camps

1.8.2017 10:54 Various locations around Prague will once again see the travelling exhibition "A Vanished World" („Zaniklý svět“) this month, about and by indigenous Czech Roma and Sinti people and created by the Committee for the Redress of the Roma Holocaust (Výbor pro odškodnění romského holocaustu - VPORH). Through rare early-20th century photographs and archival materials the exhibition presents the life of the Roma and Sinti in the Czech lands up to and including their imprisonment in the Nazi concentration camps.  full story

Czech PM praises Culture Minister but urges progress on buy-out of pig farm on Roma genocide site

29.7.2017 15:55 Deník Referendum reports that Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (Czech Social Democratic Party - ČSSD) has met with Czech Culture Minister Daniel Herman (Christian Democrats - KDU-ČSL) as part of his regular performance reviews of all cabinet members. Sobotka said he is satisfied with how Herman is drawing from EU funds for his ministry and that the average wages paid to persons working in culture have risen.  full story

Slovakia: Meet Erik D., Romani street artist

26.7.2017 8:22 He is one of the most famous street artists in Slovakia and the only Romani man there to make a living as a professional in this style. Erik Demeter's fate is definitely graffiti.  full story

Romano Voďi magazine reviews new Czech film with Romani leading man, "Skokan"

26.7.2017 7:08 "How am I supposed to start over? I don't have a chance. I'll start selling meth again, getting high, by winter I'll be back in prison," says Julius Oračko, the actor who has created what may be the first Romani leading man in the Czech feature-length film from director Petr Václav and producer Jan Macola, "Skokan" ("The Jumper").  full story