Vaclav Havel Center

Vaclav Havel Center Human rights, theater, literature.

Founded in 2012, the Vaclav Havel Center honors, preserves and builds upon the legacy of Vaclav Havel, a playwright and human rights activist, the former President of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic.

This fall, celebrate Václav Havel’s 90th birthday with us across the United States! 🇺🇸Are you organizing an event inspir...
08/22/2026

This fall, celebrate Václav Havel’s 90th birthday with us across the United States! 🇺🇸

Are you organizing an event inspired by Havel, his work, ideas, or legacy? Add your event to the Havel 90 platform and help us bring together celebrations taking place across the country.

From performances and exhibitions to lectures, screenings, readings, and community gatherings—we want to hear about your event and help spread the word.

🎭 Share your Havel-related event
📍 Join the Havel 90 celebration
🌎 Help us keep Havel’s legacy alive

What leads someone to become a dissident?In the latest episode of Dissent Lab, Venezuelan democracy activist Jesús Armas...
08/11/2026

What leads someone to become a dissident?

In the latest episode of Dissent Lab, Venezuelan democracy activist Jesús Armas Jesús Armas reflects on the moment he realized the true cost of speaking out against authoritarianism. His story reminds us that defending freedom often begins with witnessing injustice—and choosing not to remain silent.

Like Václav Havel, Armas believes that even in the face of repression, individuals have the power and responsibility to stand up for truth.

🎧 Listen to the full conversation through the links in our bio. Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music available…



The 2026 shortlist for the Disturbing the Peace Award to a Courageous Writer at Risk has been announced. 📣This year mark...
08/03/2026

The 2026 shortlist for the Disturbing the Peace Award to a Courageous Writer at Risk has been announced. 📣

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the award (2016–2026), celebrating a decade of honoring courageous writers around the world whose words and moral courage have challenged oppression, defended human dignity, and kept the spirit of freedom alive in the face of persecution.

Each year, the Vaclav Havel Center recognizes writers whose courage to speak the truth has come at a personal cost. Through fiction, nonfiction, drama, memoir, biography, and poetry, these authors have defended democracy and human rights despite persecution, censorship, imprisonment, or exile.

Congratulations to this year’s shortlisted nominees:

• Ali Asadollahi (Iran)
• Gui Minhai (China/Sweden)
• Dawit Isak (Eritrea/Sweden)
• Pham Doan Trang (Vietnam)
• Maryam Shojaei (Iran/Canada)
• Marko Vidojković (Serbia)

The Disturbing the Peace Award recognizes not only literary excellence, but also the enduring power of the written word to challenge oppression, defend freedom, and inspire change. Read more: havelcenter.org

07/11/2026

“Mystery of Man” from the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra's latest record LET FREEDOM SWING features the words of Václav Havel—a dissident playwright repeatedly imprisoned for standing up to the Czechoslovak Communist regime who later became the country’s president.

With music by Emil Viklicky and Havel’s words performed by Alfre Woodard and Mario Van Peebles, the piece reveals the power of the human soul: a “mystery” that tyrants can never fully control.

Listen to “Let Freedom Swing” now at JAZZ.ORG/FREEDOM

(Václav Havel's legacy is carried forward by the Václav Havel Center in New York)

The final night of the 10th Rehearsal for Truth International Theater Festival is here!Join us tomorrow for An Evening o...
06/26/2026

The final night of the 10th Rehearsal for Truth International Theater Festival is here!

Join us tomorrow for An Evening of Comedy featuring stand-up comedians from 🇧🇬 Bulgaria, 🇭🇺 Hungary, 🇸🇮 Slovenia, and 🇺🇿 Uzbekistan.

📅 Saturday, June 27, 2026
🕖 7:00 PM
📍 Bohemian National Hall, New York

The festival comes to a close with an evening of stand-up comedy featuring three distinct regional voices (alongside other special guests). Hear the unique perspectives of comics from Uzbekistan, Slovenia, Hungary, and Bulgaria as they share jokes rooted in their cultural experiences.

Audience members are invited to mingle with festival staff before and after the show in a relaxed, casual final celebration.

Featuring:
Tom Racz (Hungary) - MC
Natan Badalov (Uzbekistan)
Philipp Kostelecky (Slovenia)
Monika Naydenova (Bulgaria)

🎭 Rehearsal for Truth Festival 2026
📍 Bohemian National Hall, New York City
📅 June 16-27
RSVP: https://www.rehearsalfortruth.org/program/an-evening-of-comedy

Celebrating 10 years of theater that challenges, inspires, and speaks truth to power.

Tonight at Rehearsal for Truth: Europeana (Czechia)🇨🇿📅 Friday, June 26, 2026🕖 7:00 PM📍 Bohemian National Hall, New YorkT...
06/26/2026

Tonight at Rehearsal for Truth: Europeana (Czechia)🇨🇿

📅 Friday, June 26, 2026
🕖 7:00 PM
📍 Bohemian National Hall, New York

The history of Europe in the 20th century described with perspective, humor and caustic irony. This original dramatization is a devastating commentary on the last century, in which an important role was played by war, the invention of the bra and perforated toilet paper. Through humor, irony, mystification and precise facts, it creates a bizarre testimony to the world of the twentieth century.

From Divadlo Na zábradlí Divadlo Na zábradlí
Based on the book by Patrik Ouřednik
Dramatized by Dora Štědroňova, Jan Mikulášek
Directed by Jan Mikulášek
Cast: Jiří Vyorálek, Jan Hájek, Dita Kaplanová, Anežka Kubátová, Václav Vašák, Miloslav König and Jiří Kniha
The project is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic Ministerstvo kultury České republiky
In collaboration with the Czech Center Czech Center New York and the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in New York Czech Consulate General in New York

Presented in Czech with English subtitles.

🎭 Rehearsal for Truth Festival 2026
📍 Bohemian National Hall, New York City
📅 June 16-27
RSVP: https://www.rehearsalfortruth.org/program/europeana

Celebrating 10 years of theater that challenges, inspires, and speaks truth to power.

Wednesday's Festival Performance: Out at Sea (Austria / Poland) 🇦🇹🇵🇱📅 Wednesday, June 24, 2026🕖 7:00 PM📍 Bohemian Nation...
06/23/2026

Wednesday's Festival Performance: Out at Sea (Austria / Poland) 🇦🇹🇵🇱

📅 Wednesday, June 24, 2026
🕖 7:00 PM
📍 Bohemian National Hall, New York

A workshop production of the classic absurdist Polish play by Slawomir Mrozek about three shipwrecked men on a raft. In Russian-Austrian director Ira Süssenbach’s interpretation, the raft as an analogy for our society, which has suffered a kind of “shipwreck”: the familiar concepts no longer work in the face of major crises such as climate change, right-wing extremism, wars, natural disasters, and mass migration.

By Slawomir Mrozek
Directed by Ira Süssenbach
With Mariana Novak, Petra Staduan, Ira Süssenbach
Austrian Cultural Forum New York
Polish Cultural Institute New York

Presented in English.

🎭 Rehearsal for Truth Festival 2026
📍 Bohemian National Hall, New York City
📅 June 16-27
RSVP: https://www.rehearsalfortruth.org/program/out-at-sea

Celebrating 10 years of theater that challenges, inspires, and speaks truth to power.

Coming Tuesday to Rehearsal for Truth: A Girl on a Trampoline (Czechia) 🇨🇿 📅 Tuesday, June 23, 2026🕖 7:00 PM📍 Bohemian N...
06/22/2026

Coming Tuesday to Rehearsal for Truth: A Girl on a Trampoline (Czechia) 🇨🇿

📅 Tuesday, June 23, 2026
🕖 7:00 PM
📍 Bohemian National Hall, New York

Inspired by the difficult life of Zdena Salivarová and Josef Škvorecký, two exceptional novelists and translators. The play looks at their specific work and difficult life in communist Czechoslovakia and subsequently in emigration in Toronto, Canada. In 1971, the couple founded the exile publishing house ’68 Publishers, about which their friend Milan Kundera declared that "without it, serious printed Czech literature would cease to exist".

From Švandovo divadlo Švandovo divadlo
by Pavel Jurda and Ensemble
Directed by Martin Františák

The project is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic Ministerstvo kultury České republiky and The City of Prague

In collaboration with the Czech Center New York Czech Center New York and the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in New York Czech Consulate General in New York

Special thanks to Irena Čajková, T. G. Masaryk Czech School, and Vlad Havlik, Remodeling with Style, Inc.

Photo credit: Alena Hrbková

Presented in Czech with English subtitles.

🎭 Rehearsal for Truth Festival 2026
📍 Bohemian National Hall, New York City
📅 June 16-27
RSVP: https://www.rehearsalfortruth.org/program/a-girl-on-a-trampoline

Celebrating 10 years of theater that challenges, inspires, and speaks truth to power.

This Weekend at Rehearsal for Truth: If I Had a Gun I’d Take Them All Down (Poland / Ukraine) 🇵🇱🇺🇦 📅 Saturday, June 20, ...
06/19/2026

This Weekend at Rehearsal for Truth: If I Had a Gun I’d Take Them All Down (Poland / Ukraine) 🇵🇱🇺🇦

📅 Saturday, June 20, 2026
🕖 7:00 PM
📍 Bohemian National Hall, New York

A monodrama, originally created in Kiev by Ukrainian playwright Piotr Armianovski and reinterpreted by Paul Bargetto and Michael Rubenfeld. Inspired by the true story of Dmitry Bogrov, a Ukrainian-Jewish lawyer, double agent, and revolutionary who, in 1911, assassinated Russian Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin at the Kyiv Opera House. Through innovative use of video and sound design, the production immerses audiences in both historical and contemporary Kyiv, tracing the path that led the young Bogrov to his final act, while echoing the author’s own lived experience of conflict in Ukraine today.

Written and with video by Piotr Armianovski
Director/co-creator Paul Bargetto
Performer/co-creator Michael Rubenfeld
From FestivALT FestivALT and Teatr Trans-Atlantyk Teatr Trans-Atlantyk
In partnership with The Adam Mickiewicz Institute and The Polish Cultural Institute in NY Polish Cultural Institute New York

Presented in English.

🎭 Rehearsal for Truth Festival 2026
📍 Bohemian National Hall, New York City
📅 June 16-27
RSVP: https://www.rehearsalfortruth.org/program/if-i-had-a-gun-id-take-them-all-down

Celebrating 10 years of theater that challenges, inspires, and speaks truth to power.

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