Entertainment

Vicente Rodriguez Speaks About His Vision for the Romani People

26.6.2017 23:40 On 8 June, during the launch of the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC) in Berlin, the Huffington Post met with activist Vicente Rodríguez, the Romani organizer of the RomaPop alliance. Rodríguez discussed his mission to have Romani people portrayed in a positive light in popular culture.  full story

videoEgypt: Band Introduces Traditional Romani Music to the Egyptian Jazz Scene

16.6.2017 12:00 The Gypsy Jazz Project is an Egyptian band that has pioneered Romani-based music in the jazz scene there. The band is set to perform with Egyptian singer and actress Dalia Farid this Saturday 17 June at 9:30pm in the ROOM Art Space and Cafe in Garden City.  full story

videoIndonesia: Hijab-Wearing Female Metal Group Defies Stereotypes

15.6.2017 17:25 Voice of Baceprot, (VoB) is a female Indonesian metal group consisting of three young women who choose to wear hijabs, a type of Islamic headscarf. The band formed in 2014 in West Java, “and use their music to combat the stereotype of Muslim women as submissive or voiceless” according to reuters.com.  full story

Czech-French film features young Romani actor in lead role

1.6.2017 7:53 A new Czech-French film from director and screenwriter Petr Václav, "Skokan" ("The Jumper"), tells a story of the search for happiness. Its theatrical premiere will be 8 June.  full story

Czech Radio marks International Romani Language Day by premiering radio drama based on a Romani fairytale

8.11.2016 9:57 Czech Radio's "Vltava" station, which focuses on culture, broadcast a segment dedicated to the Romani language and literature on 5 November at 9 AM as part of its "Weekend Edition" program. At 10 AM the station broadcast the premiere of a dramatized reading of the Romani fairytale "About the clever (but deceitful thief) Bajcúr".  full story

Palestinian and Romani hiphop artists: "Rap is the CNN of ordinary people"

20.7.2015 2:46 Three weeks ago the "Days of Jerusalem" festival was held in the Czech cities of Prague and Plzeň, an event which for several years has presented the culture of this divided Middle Eastern City. Organizers included an appearance by Palestinian rapper Muhammad Mughrabi on this year's rich program.  full story

Czech director defends his depiction of Romani people in tv serial

Prague, 6.11.2013 0:17, (ROMEA) Lukáš Senft, a documentary filmmaker and student at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague has written an open letter to the creators of the television serial "Sanitka 2", screenwriter Ivan Hubač and director Filip Renč. In his letter, which was also published by news server Romea.cz, Senft takes the serial's creators to task for lying about Romani people and depicting them as a bloodthirsty, dangerous, foreign and incomprehensible minority.  full story

Open letter to the writers of the Czech television serial "Sanitka 2"

Prague, 5.11.2013 17:04, (ROMEA) Mr Hubač, Mr Renč,  full story

Lukáš Houdek: When Romani people don't speak "gypsy" right

Prague, 26.9.2013 22:44, (ROMEA) Here it is! Romani people causing problems once more!  full story

Events scheduled for International Romani Day - 8 April 2013

Czech Republic, 1.4.2013 16:38, (ROMEA) On Monday, 8 April 2013 Romani people worldwide will celebrate International Romani Day. They will commemorate the historic first World Congress of the International Romani Union, which took place near London in 1971, primarily thanks to the initiative of Grattan Puxon and Donald Kenrick of Great Britain, Matéo Maximoff representing French Romani people (the Manouche), Jarko Jovanović of the former Yugoslavia, and other Romani individuals and Romani studies scholars.  full story

Benefit concert in Prague for resisters of gentrification in Ostrava

Prague, 14.3.2013 15:14, (ROMEA) A benefit concert to raise money to repair building no. 8 on Přednádraží street in Ostrava will be held this Sunday 17 March at 20:00 at the Café V Lese in Prague (http://cafevlese.cz/en). The program is jam-packed.  full story

Czech broadcasting body says tv station spread hatred against Romani people

Prague, 9.3.2013 21:12, (ROMEA) The Czech Council for Radio and Television Broadcasting (Rada pro rozhlasové a televizní vysílání - RRTV) has warned the TV Barrandov station (Barrandov Televizní Studio a.s.) that it has broken the law in its broadcasting. The violation reportedly occurred during the program "Joke for CZK 100" (Vtip za stovku) on 20 February 2013 at 20:00. The program included the following joke:  full story

videoRomani rappers: Avoid Czech practical primary schools

Praha, 12.2.2013 0:08, (ROMEA) "Send him to a grade school/so he can be somebody/he may be a Gypsy/but he's not dilino" ("Pošlete ho do základky, aby z něj něco bylo – i když je Cigán, tak není dilino") budding Romani hip-hop artists from Prague's Žižkov neighborhood rap in their new music video "Nebuď dilino!" (“Don't be stupid!"). The four young Romani men have broken through with their group United GipsyCrew online and a single in which they proudly declare their Romani origin.  full story

Interview with Romani composer Roger Moreno Rathgeb

Prague, 26.12.2012 23:31, (Romano vod'i) Roger Moreno Rathgeb is, like many Romani musicians, self-taught, but he gradually began to use musical notation and to compose. Several years ago he decided to compose a requiem for the victims of the Auschwitz extermination camp, but his work was interrupted by a visit there which strongly impacted him and blocked his creative capabilities for several years. The impulse to complete the work came in the form of a request from Albert Siebelink, who suggested presenting the "Requiem for Auschwitz" at the International Gipsy Festival in Tilburg and then in other European cities.  full story

Czech students against neo-Nazi concerts in their town

Žatec, 10.11.2012 18:55, (ROMEA) News server iDNES.cz reports that hundreds of people in the town of Žatec have signed a petition organized by local students against the fact that neo-Nazi bands perform concerts several times a year in the restaurant of the People's House (Lidový dům) there. Because the restaurant is privately owned, the town does not have many options for intervening against the neo-Nazi events.  full story

Hundreds of videos inciting racial hatred available on YouTube

Prague, 31.10.2012 0:23, (ROMEA) Hundreds of videos inciting racial hatred are freely available on the YouTube website, including videos of songs with Czech-language lyrics, but police do not know how to intervene against their authors. Allegedly the perpetrators cannot be prosecuted because the website belongs to an American company and is not subject to Czech law.  full story

Giving the gadje what they want: NatGeo’s “American Gypsies”

New York, 23.7.2012 16:05, (ROMEA) The National Geographic channel is currently running a program called American Outliers which is being promoted as a documentary series about subcultures in the United States. The series features groups like the Amish, the Roma (or Gypsies), religious groups who believe in the imminence of the Apocalypse, etc. The first installment of the nine-episode American Gypsies series aired on Tuesday 17 July and was as disappointingly trashy as its advertising.  full story

Hindus ask Madonna to highlight Gypsy apartheid issue during her Europe tour

USA, 8.2.2012 11:15, (ROMEA) Hindus have asked entertainer Madonna, who was reportedly booed and jeered by thousands of fans in Romania in 2009 when she sympathized with Roma (Gypsy) people, to take up their cause during her upcoming Europe tour.  full story

"Cigán" ("Gypsy") wins four prizes during Karlovy Vary film festival

Karlovy Vary, 10.7.2011 16:21, (ROMEA) The Czech-Slovak film "Cigán" ("Gypsy") by director Martin Šulík has won the Special Jury Award at the International Film Festival in Karlovy Vary, which includes a prize of USD 20 000. Ján Mižigár, who played the main role, was also awarded special recognition. The film also won two awards from unofficial juries: The International Federation of Film Societies (FICC) called it the best film and awarded it the Don Quijote Prize, while the Europa Cinemas Label association also gave it a best film award.  full story

World premiere of Czech-Slovak film "Cigán" ("Gypsy") at Karlovy Vary film festival, then Toronto

Karlovy Vary, 6.7.2011 17:10, (ROMEA) Speaking at a press conference yesterday at the Karlovy Vary film festival, Slovak director Martin Šulík said his film "Cigán" ("Gypsy") is his most personal work. The film had its world premiere as part of the festival's main competition. Šulík says the image Slovak people have of Romani people is very distorted and incomplete and that his film wants to show what life is really like in the Romani settlements.  full story