Generated by All in One SEO v5.0.0.1, this is an llms.txt file, used by LLMs to index the site. # Stories Exchange Project ## Sitemaps - [XML Sitemap](https://stories-exchange.org/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website. ## Posts - [The Individuality of Everyone: Los Angeles and Tangier in Conversation](https://stories-exchange.org/uncategorized/the-individuality-of-everyone-los-angeles-and-tangier-in-conversation/) - The Individuality of Everyone: Los Angeles and Tangier in Conversation videostreamed 22 May 2014 Robbie McCauley, Artistic Director, The Stories Exchange Project (in Los Angeles) The Stories Exchange Project has been collecting stories about people learning from difficult situations. I remember that the last time I was with you in Tangier-- at the women’s - [Stories Exchange Project Los Angeles and Tangier 2014](https://stories-exchange.org/news/stories-exchange-project-los-angeles-and-tangier-2014/) - In conjunction with the upcoming residency of the OBIE-Award-winning African-American playwright, director, and performance artist Robbie McCauley in the “Connecting Seas” program at the Getty Research Institute, the Stories Exchange Project (www.stories-exchange.org) is gathering women and men of Los Angeles arts, educational, and other professional communities to take part in workshops with her during May - [Don't close up!](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-holocaust/dont-close-up/) - ARTS OF TOLERANCE Workshops, Performances and Discussions organized by the Stories Exchange Project Terezin Czech Republic 18 and 19 September 2000 Eva Bajgerova Romany Advisor Regional Government Office Usti nad Labem I think the worst thing that can happen to Roms is to close up. There's one thing that I'm happy about: that young people - [You can have a great influence](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-holocaust/you-can-have-a-great-influence/) - Helga Weissova-Hoskova Terezin survivor, Painter Jewish Museum Prague 18 January 2000 I have been invited to tell you about what I lived through when I was a child. Usually I speak to children. So I am a bit at a loss when I see so many adults. But I see many young people here, and - [You can always count on us](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-myself/you-can-always-count-on-us/) - Zdenek Ridaj Nove Straseci July 2000 I come from a Romany family. We're seven brothers and sisters. I'm the eldest. These days, children and young people are in danger of drugs. Unfortunately, it struck our family, too. I was trying to decided whether I should write about this and finally decided that I would: it's - [The only weapon I have is to go around telling my story](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-holocaust/the-only-weapon-i-have-is-to-go-around-telling-my-story/) - ARTS OF TOLERANCE Workshops, Performances and Discussions organized by the Stories Exchange Project 18-19 September 2000 Terezin, Czech Republic Helga Weissova-Hoskova Prague You’ve all had the opportunity to tell your stories today, or you will later this evening. And I know that the story I have to tell is not so exceptional. I am one - [Heda, Eva, and Janko make catastrophe dance](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-holocaust/heda-eva-and-janko-make-catastrophe-dance/) - Black eyes, black eyes: Why do they cry? No one would give water to the black rose, But she goes on growing. Black eyes, black eyes: Why do they smile? The black rose is alone no longer: Her white sister is growing beside her. One next to the other, They will not let each other - [To Let the Young and the Old, the Past and the Future Meet and Discuss ](https://stories-exchange.org/news/to-let-the-young-and-the-old-the-past-and-the-future-meet-and-discuss/) - A Ben M’sik and Tangier Stories Exchange Project Stories Exchange Project Morocco is working to help realize the potential for social and economic development in an historic linking voiced on June 17, 2011 by His Majesty Mohammed VI. “Constitutionalizing the Amazigh [Berber] language as an official language of the Kingdom alongside Arabic,” the King recognized - [Staging Moroccan Power](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-a-citizen/staging-moroccan-power/) - [excerpted from John W. Erwin, Virtuoso Citizens-- a book to be completed during 2012] i. What politics can be like Morocco has as its center of gravity the amphitheatre of planes and plateaus which climbs in steps from the Atlantic coast to the arc of mountain ranges which hem it into a semi-circle from the - [To improve the conditions of living in these parts-- it works both ways](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-a-citizen/to-improve-the-conditions-of-living-in-these-parts-it-works-both-ways/) - President Roosevelt Invites Future King Mohammed V to Dinner at SYMBOL [ excerpts from John W. Erwin, Virtuoso Citizens (a book to be completed during 2012)] βάλλω [ballo] to throw, cast, hurl at, properly of a missile… to strike… συμβάλλω [symballo] to throw or dash together … to bring men together, match them to - [Home-Grown Alternatives to Terror and War ](https://stories-exchange.org/news/home-grown-alternatives-to-terror-and-war/) - A Ben M’sik and Tangier Stories Exchange Project The Prague-based first round of the Stories Exchange Project (www.stories-exchange.org) was about learning to live with cultural differences. The Project focused primarily on building better relations today among members of the Romani (Gypsy) minority and the Czech majority. Our work with leaders and members of the Czech - [Vaclav Havel Did Not Die Today](https://stories-exchange.org/news/1151/) - 18 December 2011 "Historical experience teaches us that any genuinely meaningful point of departure in an individual’s life usually has an element of universality about it. In other words, it is not something partial, accessible only to a restricted community, and not transferable to any other. On the contrary it must be potentially accessible to - [Translating Atlas](https://stories-exchange.org/news/1079/) - Presented in Tangier, Morocco on June 5, 2011 at ICPS annual international conference "Intermediality and Theatre" Writing from London on one of its greyer and definitely less swinging days, I have to envy your being in bright, colorful Tangier. There you are, scanning intersections between theater and new media near the geopolitically crucial meeting-point of - [Stories Exchange Project Morocco](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-a-citizen/stories-exchange-project-morocco/) - I. Introduction Stories Exchange Project Morocco will apply the rich and diverse traditions of Moroccan storytelling to participants’ everyday experience, enabling them to respond actively and creatively to new opportunities for personal, social, economic, and political development. The project will be organized by the Rabat-based non-governmental organization SEP Maroc in cooperation with the Fund for - [Public Presentations](https://stories-exchange.org/news/public-presentations/) - International Workshops26-27 September 2000Vienna, AustriaHosted by Ambassador Jiri Grusa atthe Czech Embassy and Czech CulturalCentre, a press conference,presentations and discussions of StoriesExchange Project methods andpossibilities of adapting the Project inAustria and Southeastern Europe.____________________11-15 September 2000London, United KingdomHosted by Ambassador Pavel Seifter atthe Czech Embassy and Czech CulturalCentre in London, presentations anddiscussions of the Stories ExchangeProject. - [Romany Recording Studio Project](https://stories-exchange.org/news/romany-recording-studio-project/) - 5/9/01Drom Recording Studio ProjectThe Romany CenterBratislavská 41602 00 BrnoCzech RepublicI. IntroductionTomás SenkyríkMuseum of Romany CultureBrnoRoms have immense musical talent. They have a natural sense of rhythm and harmony, and their vocal expression is passionate and urgent. But young Romany musicians often sell out to the tasteless concepts of the commercial music world. This is why - [Stories Exchange Project Phase III: 2001-2002](https://stories-exchange.org/news/stories-exchange-project-phase-iii-2001-2002/) - 8/18/01THE STORIES EXCHANGE PROJECT IN THE CZECH REPUBLICPhase Three (2001-2002) "The Stories Exchange Project is a way of getting people to talk about things that matter to them: things that are in their hearts and in their backgrounds.People often see each other in settings where they speak abstractly. But the Stories Exchange Project gets them - [Cooperation with the U.N. Center, Prague](https://stories-exchange.org/news/cooperation-with-the-un-center-prague/) - 04/05/01The United Nations Information Center in Prague has prepared a photographic competition for the pupils of primary schools: "Do you know how we live at home?"Pupils from selected schools will be provided with disposable cameras and their task will be to capture the life of their family or the families of their schoolmates. The results - [Usti nad Labem Schools and Library](https://stories-exchange.org/news/usti-nad-labem-schools-and-library/) - March 2001The activity of the Stories Exchange Project is not only concentrated in Prague. Our project is alive and well in other towns of the Czech Republic. One of them is Usti nad Labem, a northern Bohemian town which became internationally famous for the wall which Czech residents on Maticni street put up during the - [Stories Exchange Education Project](https://stories-exchange.org/news/stories-exchange-education-project/) - 14 December 2000New YorkTHE STORIES EXCHANGE EDUCATION PROJECT The Stories Exchange Project has completed its second phase, and we are ready to bring the work to more people of all ages and different ethnic backgrounds in the Czech Republic, throughout Europe, and around the world. But especially to young people: to students in primary and - [How's your leg, mother?](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-myself/hows-your-leg-mother/) - Author: Ivana Simikova/Julia and Marta KotlarovaLocation: BrnoJulia Kotlarova is my colleague at DROM, the Romani center in Brno."I was trained to be a hairdresser. After my training was over I worked for ten years in that profession. People liked me and I had regular clients: I gave them the love I feel for fellow creatures.When - [I didn't know exactly what to be afraid of](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/i-didnt-know-exactly-what-to-be-afraid-of/) - Author: Martin ZaplatilekLocation: BrnoThese stories were told by Hanka Veselovska, my pretty girlfriend: a law student.We were sitting on the floor in the kitchen/study of our little apartment in the largest housing development in Brno, drinking mulled apple wine with one of our friends who had been spending a few days with us.At first Hana - [You don't like what you see, right?](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/you-dont-like-what-you-see-right/) - Author: Jan VeselyLocation: BrnoThis happened in the spring of 1996. I was serving my term in the army in the music group "Ondrás."We had come to Písek to give a performance. It was a beautiful sunny day, and we had about two hours to kill. So we decided to get a drink. We found a - [Why'd you gape at me like that?](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/whyd-you-gape-at-me-like-that/) - Author: Michal KratochvilLocation: BrnoThis encounter with a Rom wasn't entirely pleasant for me, but it taught me something about how Roms think.Late one evening I went to a tram stop. It was dark, the weather was nasty, and the stop was in the middle of a large housing development, surrounded by woods. It's generally considered - [I became one of them](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/i-became-one-of-them/) - Author: Ivana SimikovaLocation: BrnoThis is my own story. It dates back to my childhood, and my memories of it are still vivid and important to me.I used to spend the summer holidays with my grandmother. The Romani population in her village was quite large and had a positive impact on the life of the place. - [They went and sat up front](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/they-went-and-sat-up-front/) - Author: Honza Cerny/Honza HusakLocation: Usti nad LabemHonza Husak is a Rom who lives in Teplice. He is about twenty-seven, and a very nice fellow. When I met him it was friendship at first sight. He had phoned to discuss a short-term association with our office and arrived shortly after that. He started gushing ideas about - [Sebek, Leader of the Skinheads](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/sebek-leader-of-the-skinheads/) - Author: Michal SlavikLocation: Usti Nad LabemAt our last meeting in Prague in January we talked about collecting stories from the other side too. I managed to get a story from a skinhead. He is twenty-eight, lives in Bilina, finished high school in Decin and university in Prague, at the Technological University. He is an engineer. - [Tears are our traces on this planet](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-myself/tears-are-our-traces-on-this-planet/) - Author: Vera Dudikot'oLocation: OstravaOn a train I met a sad-eyed old man. After a moment of silence, we started talking. He told me he was traveling to Pardubice to lay flowers on the grave of his daughter. She had married a professional boxer, and three years ago he beat her to death. The old man - [I too had walls in my head](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/i-too-had-walls-in-my-head/) - Author: Honza Cerny/Iveta FoniokovaLocation: Usti nad LabemI first met Iveta last December: Martin Cichy introduced her to me at a Romani party in Trmice. Iveta is a student at the Lovosice High School. She lives alone with her mother in Usti and travels to the school every morning. She is about seventeen.At first she was - [As if we were divided by gray glass](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/as-if-we-were-divided-by-gray-glass/) - Author: Martina Hudeckova/Zbynek AndrstLocation: DoubravkaZbynek told me his story one evening in the club room after a Romani youth meeting."When I was a kid I was interested in other cultures. I read lots of adventure and travel books. Most of all I was interested the Indians, and longed to meet them. When I got older - [Imagine a stretch of road eight kilometers long](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/imagine-a-stretch-of-road-eight-kilometers-long/) - Author: Jiri ValecekLocation: OstravaOne weekend my friend Kamil and I went to a dance in Holasovice. We had a good time as usual. We had a few beers, we chased babes and the time went quickly. So we missed our train and had to walk home: about twelve kilometers. And it was raining. We were - [For a moment, she was beautiful](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-myself/for-a-moment-she-was-beautiful/) - Author: Eva Bajgerova/Ms. ZapasnikovaLocation: Usti nad LabemMs. Zapasnikova is about fifty, a simple woman but a great storyteller.She told me this story in my office, where she likes to come. She always tells me something new and interesting."I was about fifteen when some boys from our village were playing in a cafe in Rimavska Sobota. - [They seldom stop to think](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/they-seldom-stop-to-think/) - Author: Martina HudeckováLocation: BrnoVery few people know about the Tour of Tolerance. At least, as a member, that's how I see it.The week before Easter I went with the Tour to Havírov and Karviná in the Ostrava region, where the statistics say that there are the most racially motivated attacks. I didn't know what to - [We're trying to make the horse thirsty](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/were-trying-to-make-the-horse-thirsty/) - Author: Tereza VrbováLocation: PragueLast week our friend Filip came to visit us, and we thought we could ask him to tell us a story. Filip is about thirty, quite handsome and an introvert - unless he grabs a drink. For several years he's been living in a housing estate in Prague. There's a Romany community - [They have a dog too and know what it's like](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/they-have-a-dog-too-and-know-what-its-like/) - Author: Tereza Vrbová and Ludek ŠtastnýLocation: PragueWe heard this story in a pub from Bóda, a barfly, on Friday, June 30. Bóda seems to have no family name. He is between thirty and eighty, and looks like an unsuccessful imitator of Lou Reed who decided to drown his sorrows in beer. We don't know whether - [It's only white people who steal here](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/its-only-white-people-who-steal-here/) - Author: Tereza VrbovaLocation: PragueI heard this story from Jana Zavadilová, who sells suitcases and purses in a shop. She is a tidy, slim brunette in her forties. She looks very self-confident, has a high style of expression, and in my view is an ideal shop assistant. She told me this story in a café at - [If they kick me with those boots, I would not survive](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/if-they-kick-me-with-those-boots-i-would-not-survive/) - Author: Martina HudeckováLocation: BrnoThis is a story I collected from my mother. It is not a new one, but we remembered it by chance, so I thought it was not a bad idea to write it. My mother is five feet two inches tall. She is, as they say, in her best age. And she - [The Czechs could have whistled until they were blue in the face](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/the-czechs-could-have-whistled-until-they-were-blue-in-the-face/) - Author: Tereza VrbovaLocation: PragueMy uncle Jan Vrba, a hardworking, well-traveled man in his early sixties, tells this story."When I was a kid I didn't know any Gypsies. I paid very little attention to that sort of travelling people. I had heard that they often put up their camp close to landfills outside our suburbs. And - [No agreement on minority rights will turn fools into better people](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/no-agreement-on-minority-rights-will-turn-fools-into-better-people/) - Author: Honza CernyLocation: Usti nad LabemI went to Romania as a member of a Czech delegation to participate in a seminar on the protection of minorities. The seminar was organized under the auspices of the Romanian government and the EU and took place in Praedal, a beautiful Transylvanian town. Most of the fifty-odd participants were - [It's black and white](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/its-black-and-white/) - Author: Hana KozurikovaLocation: Libice nad CidlinouOne day when I was on my way home from a friend's house I saw a pond by the side of the road and decided to take a dip. When I'd hit the grass to catch some sun, I saw a young couple trying to convince their little girl to - [What a bunch of ungrateful shits](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/what-a-bunch-of-ungrateful-shits/) - Author: Honza CernyLocation: Usti nad LabemMaticni Street in Usti nad Labem was the location of a wall which Czech residents built in 1999 between themselves and their Romany neighbors.The "tent-in" protest of Romany activists against the Maticni wall took place last fall. The weather was cold and rainy, and we offered the group shelter in - [Are you surprised that some of us emigrate?](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/are-you-surprised-that-some-of-us-emigrate/) - Author: Vera GynovaLocation: Kolin[transcribed by Jan Horvath, Jr.]Every young person wants to have fun: that's natural. These days you have places to go, and you have your favorite disco. Of course if they don't want to let you in because your skin is darker than theirs, that's not so good. Probably every Rom, like me, - [Even if a Rom were made of solid gold](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/even-if-a-rom-were-made-of-solid-gold/) - Author: Pavel HorvathLocation: Kolin[transcribed by Jan Horvath Jr.]I'm eighteen, and I had this bad experience six month ago, when I went into a shop to buy some food. I walked into the shop and already when I took the shopping basket, I noticed the saleswoman looking me over. I picked out some stuff in the - [Nothing can stand in the way](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/nothing-can-stand-in-the-way/) - Author: Jan Horvath, Sr.Location: StudenkaIt all started about four years ago in Brno, where my family was living at the time. In those days I was working with documents in the Museum of Romany Culture. Someone came to see me and introduced himself as Adolf Vesely. He asked me if I could help him see - [We can speak whatever language we like](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/we-can-speak-whatever-language-we-like/) - Author: Martina HudeckovaLocation: BrnoOne day a friend of mine called Katka and her cousin took a tram to see their aunt. They were speaking Romany. An older man shouted at them to speak Czech. Katka reacted angrily: "It's none of your business what language we speak. What makes you angry is that you don't understand - [We showed the whites that we were also human](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/we-showed-the-whites-that-we-were-also-human/) - Author: Jan Horváth, Sr.Location: StudenkaNot long ago our organization "Romano jilo" (Roma Heart) organized an event with the title "Traditional Romany Folklore and Music." Whoever organizes similar actions and is active with Romany issues knows what that involves. But we fear nothing and we have demonstrated to the town leaders, to Madame Mayor and the - [None of our guys would have done anything like that](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/none-of-our-guys-would-have-done-anything-like-that/) - Author: David FerkoLocation: Usti nad LabemChristine told me this story."I went to a bank to withdraw some money. As I was waiting in line I was looking around, watching people.Suddenly a big ugly fat guy came up close to me and said, 'Well, you really gave me some last night. It wasn't bad.'I stood there - [My heart flew out of my body and hovered](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/my-heart-flew-out-of-my-body-and-hovered/) - Author: David FerkoLocation: Usti nad LabemI'll tell you something that happened to me. I was employed by a company that had a social gathering every year for the employees. We were invited for dinner to a restaurant. We had a great time, drank a little, and--, it was all very nice. It was around eleven - [I told him that I know them](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/i-told-him-that-i-know-them/) - Author: Ivana Simikova, BrnoLocation: EastWest Institute - PragueI just successfully completed an international project.We had eight young Germans from Leipzig come to our Center in Brno. Four of them were Russian Germans, immigrants from Russia, and three-- and the leader-- were Germans. They met with our Romany kids and also with Czech students. We spent - [Roma are free people](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/roma-are-free-people/) - ROMA ARE FREE PEOPLEZdenka SimovaNymburkAugust 2000 The following story was told to me by Mrs. Vejtrubova, an officer at the Social Affairs Department in the Nymburk City Hall . She was very kind and told me about experiences that she has had working there. "I met a very interesting man at a training session recently. - [Cheerio!](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/cheerio/) - Olga FecovaPragueAugust 2000One day an old Romany village woman decided to get some shopping done in the nearby town. She got in the bus and a few minutes later she was downtown shopping. Excited by the traffic and lively atmosphere, she bought just about anything that attracted her attention. After an hour's shopping spree the - [The Change](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-myself/the-change/) - Emilie HorackovaMimonWaist-long golden hair and eyes like the sky: I longed for this beauty. I wanted people's hearts to melt the moment they saw me. I wanted to change at any cost.I wanted to change, and change I would!I invoked both God and the devil to come and grant me what I asked."I want to - [People can't look down from the heights](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-myself/people-cant-look-down-from-the-heights/) - People Can't Look Down from the HeightsInterviewer: Kveta ConkováSpeaker: AnonymousPragueJune 2000 It all started in 1997 when I was eighteen. I had a job that I really liked. I worked as a clerk in a small electronics store. I would go to work each morning, and was happy all day long. When I came home - [Guess what I have in my backpack, mate!](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/guess-what-i-have-in-my-backpack-mate/) - Zdenka ŠímováNymburkAugust 2000Mrs. Vejtrubová works in the social department of our district council. Through her work she often meets Romanies and she has told me a few stories drawing on her practical experience with them. I probed further, wanting to know whether she had also had some experience with skinheads. In response to that question - [Mind your own business, nigger!](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/mind-your-own-business-nigger/) - Michal BasikRoztoky, near PragueJuly 2000The story I'm about to tell you isn't very nice, even though it's about me.It happened one summer about twelve years ago. My father, my stepmother, my sisters and I used to go every year to Mostek, in eastern Bohemia. There wasn't anything unique about it. We would go mushroom-picking, look - [I did not keep my promise](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-myself/i-did-not-keep-my-promise/) - Dezidor Lacko [written by Hana Kozuriková]Jarovnice, Slovakia August 2000My daughter Darina was very pretty. She had long wavy hair and full lips. She had her first baby when she was sixteen, and by the time she was thirty she had eight children. She looked after them all. She was also a good housekeeper and a - [I had let them know who I am](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/i-had-let-them-know-who-i-am/) - Lucie ConkováDoubravka Training CenterJune 2000My friend and I went to a discotheque. The bouncer told us he would not let us in. Since I worked as an office assistant, I knew what to do.The owner of the place told us: "I don´t let Gypsies in." He told us to open our own discotheque, turned away - [We weren't in the U.S. during segregation](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/we-werent-in-the-us-during-segregation/) - Ludek ŠtastnýPragueJuly 2000The events described in my story took place this summer in the Rewaston settlement where we have a cottage. By reading the story you'll learn something about us, about our neighbors, and also about Roma. The other day we were having a chat with one of our neighbors, hoping that he might have - [Can those boys still be considered skinheads?](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/can-those-boys-still-be-considered-skinheads/) - Lucie HrdlickováPragueSeptember 2000Standa Tiser is a boxing coach. A former national champion, he has been coaching young boys, mostly Roma, for a few years now. He's a Rom too and knows how difficult it is for Romany youngsters from Zizkov to get motivated to do any sports properly-- let alone boxing--, and to turn up - [I'll never let anyone slander the Gypsies](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/ill-never-let-anyone-slander-the-gypsies/) - Zdenka SvobodováPragueJuly 2000I heard this story from Tomáš Szalay, an eighteen-year-old student whom I met at a festival of Hungarian films. Afterwards we sat down in a park on the Kampa and had a chat in Hungarian-- a language in which the word "Gypsy" does not have a negative connotation. "I was born in the - [I'd lost my taste for apples](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/id-lost-my-taste-for-apples/) - Emilie HoráckováPragueJune 2000 It was a beautiful morning. I had had a good sleep. The sun was pouring its warmth all over the countryside, and I was in a good mood because I didn't have to go to work. I enjoyed that feeling a lot. I made some coffee and was thinking about cooking lunch - [Romany families can be decent like anyone else](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/romany-families-can-be-decent-like-anyone-else/) - Kveta ConkováPragueJuly 2000Jana was a beautiful girl from a Czech family. She lived with her mother, stepfather, and an older and a younger brother. Tthough her parents were divorced, Jana grew up in a peaceful household. She still gets together with her Dad and his second wife, who has always treated her husband's children with - [You also have to be prepared to tell your own story](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-myself/you-also-have-to-be-prepared-to-tell-your-own-story/) - John ShattuckU.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republicin conversation withJohn W. ErwinDirectorThe Stories Exchange ProjectU.S. Ambassador's ResidencePrague28 November 2000John ErwinWhat about you? What did you learn here?John Shattuck:Well, I think I learned more patience, and I learned to listen. Americans are often much too impatient. We tend to jump from one thing to another. We also - [So instead of teaching, I learned](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/so-instead-of-teaching-i-learned/) - Author: Lucie ConkovaLocation: Usti nad LabemLucie Rohanova talked to me in our office In the 7th Elementary School in Predlice. She was a bit nervous, but I had the feeling that if there were more people like her in the world, there would be no need to talk about indifference or racism."For my training I - [I got my second wind](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/i-got-my-second-wind/) - Author: Martina HudeckováLocation: BrnoPavel Oracko and I were sitting and sipping coffee in his kitchen, a place where visitors usually do not get to see."I already liked the violin when I was in nursery school, " Pavel said. "My older brother was taking lessons, and when I saw him practice at home I really liked - [My daughter is smart enough](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/my-daughter-is-smart-enough/) - Author: Marketa Vaculova/Elena MirgovaLocation: OstravaElena is a lively shorter woman, a brown-eyed brunette, and a mother of two. She takes care of children in a pre-school."This happened many years ago in a small village in Slovakia. My parents and I moved there when I was about ten.There were only four Romani families. We were never - [You are not chosen](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-broken-mirror/you-are-not-chosen/) - Author: Lucie OrackovaLocation: PragueLucie is a sixteen year-old Romany girl who lives in Prague.A long, long time ago when the Earth was still as young as everything that was growing or living on it, on the eighth day God created seven children. They were not all the same, not at all. Two, a boy and - [She'd got rid of the gyppos](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/shed-got-rid-of-the-gyppos/) - Author: Katerina HolubováLocation: BrnoThis happened about four years ago at one of the junior training centers in Brno. Lucie Horváthová, a Rom who today is 22 years old, told me about it. She was studying here to be a baker. "One morning I went to the cloakroom, and four skinheads stopped me. One of them - [How to do something as good as Terezin with the Romany Holocaust](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-broken-mirror/how-to-do-something-as-good-as-terezin-with-the-romany-holocaust/) - ARTS OF TOLERANCEWorkshops, Performances and Discussions organized by the Stories Exchange ProjectTerezinCzech Republic18 and 19 September 2000Ilona Laznickova DirectorMuseum of Romany Culture BrnoThe building in which we will open the Museum is about to be finished. But for quite a while we’ve been thinking about what the Museum should look like inside, to show both - [May his hand with the bow in it do what he wants](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/working/may-his-hand-with-the-bow-in-it-do-what-he-wants/) - Author: Katerina HolubovaLocation: BrnoLukás Conka is a nineteen year-old Romany boy, who now studies at the Junior High School for the Arts in Kosice, Slovakia. The violin means everything to him. He fills up every moment of spare time by picking up the violin and starting to play.I knew the story about how he came - [A mulo will never look you in the eye](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-broken-mirror/a-mulo-will-never-look-you-in-the-eye/) - Lenka BudilovaSviniaJune 2000The other day we met Emil Cina in the cemetery and he started telling us about mulos. You could see that he really believed in those ghosts, and he had plenty of stories to tell about them. Then he took us to the Romany section of the cemetery. It was terribly run down - [All the jobs are taken](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/working/all-the-jobs-are-taken/) - Author: Martina HudeckováLocation: BrnoGábina Oláhová told me this story in her room, which looks like the rooms of most twenty-one year-old girls."I've been listed at the Employment Office for two years, and now I'm looking for work. But I often think that it is hard for me to find a job because I'm a Rom. - [What really matters](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/what-really-matters/) - Author: Vera Dudi-KotoLocation: OstravaI've been working at this school as a teaching assistant for five years now, but my best experience happened last year. For three years I've had a white pupil in my class. His name is Stana, and he is dyslexic, and not very healthy either-- but that is not what I want - [It's our last chance to give him anything](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-broken-mirror/its-our-last-chance-to-give-him-anything/) - Emílie HoráckováMimon3 July 2000 I wake up at five a.m. to the insistent ringing of my alarm clock. I light a cigarette and think about a lot of things. Then I drink a cup of coffee, and that helps me get going. I won't be going to school today as usual. I have to attend - [As an entrepreneur, Mr. Banom …](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/working/as-an-entrepreneur-mr-banom-/) - Author: Martin CichyLocation: Usti nad LabemMiss Jirina Banomová was glad to have this conversation, which I recorded in her kitchen. I had a good time. Jirina is thirty-one, slim, and approximately 170cm tall. She has brown eyes and black hair. She is Romany too."This story, which I love to remember, happened a year and a - [She reminds me of a rubber toy on an elastic](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/she-reminds-me-of-a-rubber-toy-on-an-elastic/) - Author: Verka Dudi K'otoLocation: OstravaThis story was told to me by Eva, a twenty-five year-old nursery school teacher."Liduska is a poor Romany kid. A year ago she fell out of a third floor window and landed on her head. Since then she's been hyperactive, and her eyesight is bad: she has to wear thick glasses. - [Mulos give us advice](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-broken-mirror/mulos-give-us-advice/) - Lucie HrdlickovaSeptember 2000PragueI heard this story from Emil Cína, a Romany poet, about two years ago. Emil is fifty-odd years old and comes from eastern Slovakia. He lives in Prague but goes back to Slovakia now and then. He told me about something that happened during one of those visits. Like any other Romany, Emil - [Don't hit it!](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/working/dont-hit-it/) - Author: Martin CichyLocation: Usti nad LabemMilan told me this story at his parents' flat in Usti."Who am I? What do I look like? My name is Milan D. I'm 28 years old and I have black hair like all Gypsies. I'm 172 cm tall and I weigh 102 kg, so I'm a little heavyset. I - [Whoever rested even for minute got yelled at](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/whoever-rested-even-for-minute-got-yelled-at/) - Author: Jan Horvath Jr.Location: KolinMy visit to Khamoro 2000 began when the founder of our school, Dr. Emil Scuka, arranged for us to be the ushers at the week-long festival. For the whole week we lived at the Na Zapoli hostel in Michle.In the morning we had to be in Parliament, where there were seminars - [Roma are at home all around the world](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-broken-mirror/roma-are-at-home-all-around-the-world/) - Eva RidajováPragueWhen we were kids we loved to spend our summer vacation at our grandparents´ house in Slovakia. They lived right under the slopes of the Malá Fatra mountains in a beautiful little village called Malinová. My grandpa was both very clever and very wise. Strangers might have considered him an ordinary Rom, but in - [She really put all of herself into it](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/working/she-really-put-all-of-herself-into-it/) - Author: Martin Zaplatilek, BrnoLocation: Stories Exchange Project Workshop #4EastWest InstitutePragueThe lady in Hradec Kralove who told me this story died two weeks after she told it to me. That was really strange. When she was telling me the story, I could feel that she really put all of herself into it. I could see that - [How strong is her need for human dignity](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/how-strong-is-her-need-for-human-dignity/) - Author: Verka Dudi K'otoLocation: OstravaThis story was told to me by Eva, a twenty-five year-old nursery school teacher."Our school primarily focuses on working with Romany kids. There is a saying that every person is about his or her own story. In our school, this is really true. Each and every kid is a story of - [I know that he is near](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-broken-mirror/i-know-that-he-is-near/) - Eva RidajovaNova Straseci7 July 2000Many Roma believe in the "mula": the supernatural. Many of us were given an ability to penetrate the secrets of the supernatural and to read the future, from cards or in some other way. That has been my luck too, as I discovered not long ago.I come from a Romany family - [Since then I've been known as a fast and reliable worker](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/working/since-then-ive-been-known-as-a-fast-and-reliable-worker/) - Author: Martin CichyLocation: Usti nad LabemI recorded this story in the town of Rehlovice with Jozef Pohlod, a Rom from Usti nad Labem. I went to see him on a Saturday when he and his wife and kids were working in the garden. It was a beautiful day, so we sat down and began talking - [I didn't want my family to live the way I had to](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-broken-mirror/i-didnt-want-my-family-to-live-the-way-i-had-to/) - Zdenek RidajNove StraseciJuly 2000My father-in-law was born in Slovakia in the village of Cicmany. He is one of thirteen brothers and sisters, and the oldest of the boys. He is now sixty-three, and doesn't like to recall his childhood. It was very difficult.Recently he paid us a visit. I told him I was recording stories - [We stopped playing there](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/working/we-stopped-playing-there/) - Author: Martin CichyLocation: Usti nad LabemOne day I met a friend I hadn't seen for a long time. His name is Chumaj. When I asked him where he had been for so long, he told me this story."I've been playing guitar since I was little boy. I used to play with the Roma folklore ensemble - [She wanted to help, though she needed help herself](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/she-wanted-to-help-though-she-needed-help-herself/) - Author: Emilie HorackovaLocation: PragueThis is the story of my daughter, whose nickname is Cíca.She was born in Prague in an ordinary Romany family. Her childhood was almost carefree, although she was ill. She started elementary school with symptoms of epilepsy, a permanent physical handicap, and a speech impediment. Her first days at school were traumatic. - [Family is the most precious thing a Romany can have](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-broken-mirror/family-is-the-most-precious-thing-a-romany-can-have/) - Eva RidajováNové StrasecíSeptember 2000The other day I was visiting my parents in Chomutov. An elderly Romany woman, an acquaintance of my mother, had come for a chat and was sitting in the kitchen. A beautiful tawny girl, her granddaughter, was running around the flat. I sat down next to the visitor and chatted her up. - [If they started working](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/working/if-they-started-working/) - Author: Martin CichyLocation: Usti nad LabemI spoke with a Romany entrepreneur who wants to remain anonymous."I am in the construction business. Some time ago I got an offer to dig a trench half a kilometer long to lay phone cables. I started hiring people, offering a couple of days of well-paid work.Surprisingly enough, I encountered - [There is hidden discrimination](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-a-citizen/there-is-hidden-discrimination/) - Author: Rudolf ZajdaLocation: BrnoJan is married with two children, and is presently employed as a Romany Adviser to the County office of Chomutov."I began to be active in Romany issues right after the 1989 revolution. My experience is that Roms are not proud enough of being Roms. During the past regime we could not point - [They couldn't save him](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/they-couldnt-save-him/) - Author: Lucka BrandyovaLocation: Kolin[transcribed by Jan Horvath, Jr.]My friend Lukas came from a pretty decent family. His father worked, and his mother was on maternity leave. They never had any problems with him, but towards the end of school his grades got worse. Already by that time he had started going to the disco and - [I wanted them to suffer as little as possible](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-holocaust/i-wanted-them-to-suffer-as-little-as-possible/) - John W. ErwinDirectorThe Stories Exchange ProjectNew YorkAnd then there was Ethela Ferkova: sixteen at the beginning of the Stories Exchange Project in 1994. Fiercely bright but shy and giggly, and at first not seeming to take all this seriously. All this delving into the past of her people: hers at that point only in fact, - [When non-Roma intervene in child-rearing...](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-broken-mirror/when-non-roma-intervene-in-child-rearing/) - Emílie HoráckováMimonJuly 2000The Dunka family lived in Mimon. Mrs. Dunka was an unassuming woman. She was tiny, skinny and looked older than she was. She was the type of Romany woman who stuck to the Romany way of life no matter how many times she moved from place to place. Her husband was skinny too, - [I didn't have the heart](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/working/i-didnt-have-the-heart/) - Author: Martin CichyLocation: Usti nad LabemMr. Nemec-- who is not a Rom-- is a good friend of my father. He lives in our street, and told me this story in our garden while he was fixing our boiler. At fifty-two he is tall and stocky with light hair and blue eyes: a great guy."Before the - [Welcome, Mr. Bishop!](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-a-citizen/welcome-mr-bishop/) - Author: Zuzana Gaborova/Jan OrackoLocation: BrnoI taped this story with my grandfather.Grandpa is seventy-five. He was born in Holmunica, a beautiful village near Tatry in Slovakia. He lived there until his fifties, when he moved with his family to Brno in search of a job and a better life.Grandma was also home when I went to - [Gimme the money](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/gimme-the-money/) - KatkaStudent, Business AcademyUsti nad LabemThis story happened a long time ago. I was eight and I wanted to have a ride on a carousel. I went there with some money I had wheedled from my mom.I rode on the carousel for an hour or so. Then I went back home.Just in front of our house - [Begin with the youngest generation](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/begin-with-the-youngest-generation/) - Aneta Ta Duc ThinhStudent, Business AcademyUsti nad LabemWhen I was reading the Web-page of the Stories Exchange Project for the first time I was surprised by finding people called Rom or Gypsy, Czech or "gadjo" etc. I’m not used to differentiating people that way. Though of course I understand that some distinctions are important.I’m a - [Our hair is our pride](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/our-hair-is-our-pride/) - Zdenka SímováLysá nad LabemAugust 2000 This story was told to me by Mrs. Helena Prodanová, a member and employee of the Romany Association in Lysá nad Labem. She was very kind and ready to tell stories in a lively and rich manner. We met in a pleasant atmosphere of the Romany center in Lysá nad - [Black eyes, why do you cry?](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-holocaust/black-eyes-why-do-you-cry/) - Author: Jan HorvathLocation: Stories Exchange Project Workshop #4EastWest InstitutePragueAt the third international poetry festival in Lanciano, Italy I competed with other Romanies in Europe and ranked third. I had submitted a poem which I wrote after visiting Auschwitz. I had many impressions from this visit, and I worked them into a poem about how Romanies - [As a Rom I represented my country](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-a-citizen/as-a-rom-i-represented-my-country/) - Author: Katerina HolubovaLocation: BrnoThis is a story about me. It all began in 1991 when I was attending an elementary school in Brno, and we got invitations to enroll in a course on self-defense.I thought it wouldn't do any harm to know how to defend myself-- and I was curious too. So I went to - [You need one on your black snout!](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/you-need-one-on-your-black-snout/) - David SvarcPragueAugust 2000It is March 21, 2000 and the Pocaply ESN school has organized a trip to the zoo in Prague. There are several classes on the trip, including the class of a fourteen-year-old Romany boy Jirka Paluska. The bus leaves for Prague and everybody is looking forward to beautiful experiences. Jirka, comfortably seated in - [They liked my being so honest](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/working/they-liked-my-being-so-honest/) - Author: Eva BajgerováLocation: Usti nad LabemOne sunny afternoon we had my auntie Marta over. She is sixty-seven, and one of my dead father's sisters. Sipping soda, she was remembering her youth."Evicka, my girl, life was much different when we were kids. Often we helped out on farms in return for bread, flour, lard, etc. : - [She is free to choose a way of living](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-broken-mirror/she-is-free-to-choose-a-way-of-living/) - Emílie HoráckováMimonJuly 2000 The Romany people are divided into several groups, and each group observes certain traditions. This is a story about two young people who came from families to whom tradition was very important. Seventeen-year-old Tereza was sad about breaking up with her boyfriend. So her new hobby was to make boys fall in - [She paid no attention to us](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-a-citizen/she-paid-no-attention-to-us/) - Author: Emile KondasovaLocation: Usti Nad LabemI went to the welfare bureau with my pregnant daughter and her smallchildren. A woman there treated us very badly: she paid no attention to us.I needed to file papers for a housing allowance, and my daughter wanted to take care of her maternity support and child allowances. When it - [I hope that she'll be strong enough](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/i-hope-that-shell-be-strong-enough/) - Eva RidajovaNove StraseciAugust 2000 We are a Romany family. Most people in the Czech Republic say that there is no racism or discrimination here. They only say that because they have never experienced it themselves. That's is why they are puzzled when they hear that Czechs are racists.I too used to think that I would - [This person I will talk to, that person I won't](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/working/this-person-i-will-talk-to-that-person-i-wont/) - Author: Workshop VLocation: EastWest Institute - Prague[If we are going to apply methods of the Stories Exchange Project to relationships between Drom and the Romany community,] there are several Romany leaders in Brno whom we could involve. The problem is that there are groups of people that back up these leaders; they're really like political - [Mother, why did you abandon me?](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-broken-mirror/mother-why-did-you-abandon-me/) - David FerkoÚstí nad LabemJune 2000This is what my father told me one day about himself. "I will tell you the story of one boy who had it very bad. His parents were poor, and they lived in a hovel in Slovakia. It was cold there, everything was damp, and the beds stank. He was often - [Even though our house had been destroyed](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-holocaust/even-though-our-house-had-been-destroyed/) - Author: Verka Dudi Kot'oLocation: OstravaMy Romany father told me this story. He is now sixty-two."I was born in Slovakia: in Snina, in Humenné county. I had nine sisters and brothers, and I was the second youngest. We lived in a house my father built. I have very bad memories of the War. When I was - [He'll tell you all about the benefits](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-a-citizen/hell-tell-you-all-about-the-benefits/) - Author: Eva BajgerovaLocation: Usti nad LabemOne Sunday afternoon I was taking the international fast train from Ustí nad Labem to Brno. I slept the whole way to Kolín, where a group of three young people with backpacks got on and sat right behind me. They were talking very loudly, so I couldn't help listening.They were - [I'm not a merchant: I'm a student!](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/im-not-a-merchant-im-a-student/) - Hana KozurikováBýchory11 July 2000In order to finish my third year at the School of Social Work in Prague, I had to work as an intern. The student social worker was supposed to accomplish two things: to learn a lot, and to perform a community service she could be proud of. I had always wanted to - [I told him not to lie to my face](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/working/i-told-him-not-to-lie-to-my-face/) - Author: Jan Horvath, Jr.Location: KolinTomás Slanina is twenty-two and lives in Kolín."I'm a graduate of hotel school, and one day I decided to go look for a job. I called about ten restaurants. Only two of them were looking for new employees, but both said that they would take me immediately. So I shaved, dressed - [Roms can be helped only by people from abroad](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-broken-mirror/roms-can-be-helped-only-by-people-from-abroad/) - David FerkoUsti nad Labem I think that Roms in the Czech Republic can be helped only by people from abroad, by people in other countries who are interested in Romany issues.In the past the Czech state—the Communist state-- didn’t care whether you’re Romany or not. Whereas now it’s difficult for Roms to join a wider - [How lucky I am to be doing what I'm doing](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-holocaust/how-lucky-i-am-to-be-doing-what-im-doing/) - Ronan LefkowitzViolinist, Boston Symphony Orchestra [during "Arts of Tolerance" a series of workshops, performances and discussions organized by the Stories Exchange Project, 18-19 September 2000]TerezinCzech RepublicRonan LefkowitzEven before I heard all the details, I imagined exactly what they’re talking about here: the concept of sharing under great hardship, the life lessons that they learned. Zuzana - [I started to record everything](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-a-citizen/i-started-to-record-everything/) - Author: Lucie ConkováLocation: Usti nad LabemMs. Kondásová has had a lot of bad luck lately and nobody seems to want to help her. I was there when the last thing that she tells about happened. I was listening and boiling with anger."My neighbor Ms. Prosková bought my apartment. She bought it without me realizing it - [Pregnant women are sacred](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-broken-mirror/pregnant-women-are-sacred/) - Lucie HrdlickováPragueSeptember 2000In pregnancy a Romany woman has to cope with various restrictions. According to Romany tradition, pregnant women should not watch horror movies or wild-life programs. The Roma believe that if the woman´s attention were attracted by a monkey and she spent a long time gazing at it, her child would be ugly. At - [To remember well, we have to know a lot more](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-holocaust/to-remember-well-we-have-to-know-a-lot-more/) - A story and responses to it in Terezin, the former Nazi transport camp in the Czech Republic, during the opening session of ARTS OF TOLERANCE: a review of options for the Stories Exchange Project, 18-19 September 2000Zuzana PodmelovaLecturer, Jewish Museum, PragueTerezin servivorMy life was the standard life of a Jewish person in the Czech lands. - [Why people try to make decisions about other people's lives](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-a-citizen/why-people-try-to-make-decisions-about-other-peoples-lives/) - Author: Lucie ConkováLocation: Usti nad LabemThough we have the same last name, I am not related to the Conkova in this story.I work in Predlice, a neighborhood in which the population is ninety-eight per cent Romany. When you go there, you are struck by the legacy of the past Communist regime. But recently things have - [Problems should be solved where they occur](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/problems-should-be-solved-where-they-occur/) - Author: Jan Horvath Sr.Location: StudenkaIf he were alive today, Jan Amos Komensky-- Comenius-- would be horrified to see the havoc in our Czech school system. The pupils are exposed every day to the stress and arrogance of teachers. It's the price of living in these times. Money decides everything, and everyone runs after profit-- no - [A Rom here would rather do something for gadjos than for other Roma](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/working/a-rom-here-would-rather-do-something-for-gadjos-than-for-other-roma/) - Jan Horvath Jr.KolinA Romany woman-- I won't name her-- asked us to play at a party in her restaurant. We said we would, and agreed on a fee. The party was supposed to be in exactly a week.That day we came home from work, bathed, dressed and went to rehearse. At seven in the evening - [We must never lose our Romany spirit, language and culture](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-broken-mirror/we-must-never-lose-our-romany-spirit-language-and-culture/) - Jan Horváth Sr.August 2000StudénkaMrs. Elena Lacková is one of our most important Romany personalities and one of the most important Romany writers. She was born in March 1921 in a Romany community in eastern Slovakia to the family of a Romany first violinist and vaida - mayor of the community. She was the only girl - [It's very close to us, the past](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-holocaust/its-very-close-to-us-the-past/) - Zuzana PodmelovaTerezin survivorLecturer, Jewish Museum, PragueHelga Weissova-HoskovaTerezin survivorPainter, Prague [during "Arts of Tolerance" a series of workshops, performances and discussions organized by the Stories Exchange Project, 18-19 September 2000]TerezinCzech RepublicZuzana PodmelovaHelga has so many duties in her family but she always finds time to do something for the community, and I really—Helga Weissova-HoskovaWe spent twenty - [But why should the others be denied entry?](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-a-citizen/but-why-should-the-others-be-denied-entry/) - Author: Iveta DirdováLocation: Brno[recorded by Katka Holubová]I'm Romany, twenty-eight years old, and I have two daughters. I also run a group of dancers called Red Rose. A year ago this summer my grandmother registered us at Drom, the Romany cultural center. They were interested in starting a folk dancing group, and because I'm interested in - [I'm laughing or crying](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/working/im-laughing-or-crying/) - Author: Helena JavurkovaNational Project CoordinatorLocation: Stories Exchange Project Workshop #4EastWest InstitutePragueI spend a lot of time in the office here, calling people, receiving e-mails, calling the Mayor's office in Brno asking when would be a good time to put the computer in and what type of cable we should use, and I feel like an - [Aunt Margita hasn't forgotten who she is](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-broken-mirror/aunt-margita-hasnt-forgotten-who-she-is/) - Emilie HorackovaMimonJuly 2000My aunt Margita grew up in the Slovak village of Dubrava. She and her family were the only Roma in the village, and were very poor. But they lived in harmony with the other villagers.Like other Roma, Aunt Margita came from Slovakia to Bohemia to find work. Workers were needed in the Czech - [The heart of Prague had been ripped out](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-holocaust/the-heart-of-prague-had-been-ripped-out/) - John ShattuckU.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republicin conversation withJohn W. ErwinDirectorThe Stories Exchange ProjectU.S. Ambassador's ResidencePrague28 November 2000John ErwinWhen we were in Terezin together in September-- on that day of course one dark-skinned member of our group, Kumar Vishwanathan from India who works with Roms in this country was detained by the local police because - [And we want to get into Europe?](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-a-citizen/and-we-want-to-get-into-europe/) - Author: Jan Horváth, Sr.Location: StudenkaOn April 23 a Romany boy was walking down a street in the little town of Bílovec, not far from Ostrava. A police car stopped, the policemen slapped and kicked the boy, and threw him into the car. Only when they got to the police station did they explain why he - [Call him by his first name](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/call-him-by-his-first-name/) - Author: Jolana GaborovaLocation: BrnoOne day I went to a school as an assistant teacher.There was a Romani boy, Lubas, the head teacher warned me. He misbehaved."What does he do?" I asked."He puts his legs up on the desks. He runs up and down the corridors. He doesn't behave. I say to him, 'Listen to me, - [It's a much more beautiful welcome to the child](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-broken-mirror/its-a-much-more-beautiful-welcome-to-the-child/) - Eva RidajováNové StrasecíAugust 2000I have a non-Romany friend, Jitka. A short time ago she came to see me and asked for a piece of advice. She had given birth to a baby boy. They called him David, and he was about three months old. "I've come to ask you how I should go about christening - [Does it open up your world?](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-holocaust/does-it-open-up-your-world/) - Mark Ludwig Violist, Boston Symphony OrchestraDirector, Terezin Chamber Music Foundation[during "Arts of Tolerance" a series of workshops, performances and discussions organized by the Stories Exchange Project, 18-19 September 2000]Terezin, Czech RepublicA little over twelve years ago I began to research the music and the history of composers who were incarcerated in Theresienstadt [Terezin]. It really - [The teacher can make the biggest difference](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/the-teacher-can-make-the-biggest-difference/) - Author: Zuzana Gaborova/Vera IvicovaLocation: BrnoToday Vera came to my office on her own to tell me about something that happened when she was little. She had forgotten about it, but she remembered today because her son had got into a similar situation-- but we don't know what will happen with him, so she'll tell me - [You really need to advertise](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/working/you-really-need-to-advertise/) - Author: Martina HudeckovaLocation: BrnoDenisa Lazovkova is a twenty-four year old Rom. She was not able to find a job after she finished school, so she started her own business as a hairdresser. These days it's hard to attract new clients unless your shop is located in a visible place, possibly in the center of town. - [Europe should open to Roms who do not want to live in this country](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-a-citizen/europe-should-open-to-roms-who-do-not-want-to-live-in-this-country/) - "New Roles for Roma in an Integrated Europe?"Session III, ARTS OF TOLERANCEDiscussions, Workshops and Performances organized by the Stories Exchange Project in Terezin, formerly a Nazi concentration camp from which Jews were sent to AuschwitzMita Castle-KanerovaInternational Migration OrganizationPragueWe are running a program focused on voluntary returns to the Czech Republic by Roms who have emigrated - [Hearing the music really opened the kids up](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-broken-mirror/hearing-the-music-really-opened-the-kids-up/) - Monika HorakovaMember of the Czech Parliamentin conversation withJohn W. ErwinDirector, The Stories Exchange ProjectCzech Ministry of Foreign AffairsPrague1 December 2000Jack ErwinAs you know, we're beginning to work in Brno. We just had a very exciting session with Romany musicians in a school. As you know, the Stories Exchange Project is working on a Romany music - [Survivors had to settle on river banks](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-holocaust/survivors-had-to-settle-on-river-banks/) - SURVIVORS HAD TO SETTLE ON RIVER BANKSEmilie HorackovaJarovnice, SlovakiaAugust 2000Anna Husarova is an old lady whose path through life has been full of stones and suffering. Her story takes us as far back as World War II.In 1940 Anna was eighteen, married and living in Jarovnice. At the time the settlement had only six houses, - [Even a skinhead can have a good heart](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/even-a-skinhead-can-have-a-good-heart/) - Katerina SidonovaPragueWhen I was studying at the Pedagogical Faculty, I used to spend one afternoon a week and three weeks in the summer with Romany children from Zizkov. I wanted to become a teacher in specialized classes for Romany kids. Unfortunately this was impossible because there were enough teachers when I finished my studies. So - [I survived, and I'll survive other things too](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/i-survived-and-ill-survive-other-things-too/) - Author: Lucie ConkovaLocation: Usti nad LabemThis happened about three years ago when I was a student at a Veterinary Senior High School in Hradec Kralove. It's something that I will never forget. I would have never expected HIM to say that, the country boy who sat just behind me. Though I had always been aware - [I only worry about our clients lack of motivation](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/working/i-only-worry-about-our-clients-lack-of-motivation/) - Author: Lucie ConkovaLocation: Usti mad LabemA year or so ago I had no idea what a civic association was. But starting a civic group became a kind of fashion among Roms: it brings in easy money.I work in Predlice where the population is ninety-nine per cent Romany. That's why some sort of a civic group - [So you're armed, you dirty Gypsy?](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-a-citizen/so-youre-armed-you-dirty-gypsy/) - Jan Horváth Sr. StudénkaAugust 2000 I am going to tell you what happened to our Indian friend Kumar Vishwanathan, who is well known for helping Roma in the Ostrava region. His organization called Vzájemné souzití (Co-Existence) arranged a summer camp for two groups of Romany children from Ostrava in the beautiful country of the Beskydy - [His tunes meant bread,water,fire,rain and sun](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-broken-mirror/his-tunes-meant-breadwaterfirerain-and-sun/) - Jan Horváth August 2000StudénkaI would like to tell you the story of a man who has made history in Romany music. Unfortunately he is no longer with us. He died three years ago. Jozef Gina was born into a musical family in May 1928 in the Saris region of the Presov district in eastern Slovakia. - [What has he left to me? My name](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-holocaust/what-has-he-left-to-me-my-name/) - Emilie HorackovaMimonJuly 2000My father had a terrible childhood. He and his entire family were sent to Auschwitz. I'm not sure, but I think his family all died there. I know that my father and grandpa were there, and that grandpa died there.My father was the only one of his family who survived.He was transported to - [The main thing is I feel safe](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/the-main-thing-is-i-feel-safe/) - Author: Jan Horvath Jr.Location: StudenkaI am seventeen years old.When I had successfully completing the ninth grade of the Grammar School in Brno, my father enrolled me in the Higher Technical Library and Information Systems School. My story started there. When I began in September as a freshman I was the center of attention. I was - [If we had a real table, real food...](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/working/if-we-had-a-real-table-real-food/) - The Stories Exchange Project 2000 Workshop V EastWest Institute Prague 19 June 2000 Jan Vesely Drug Prevention Program Brno We were looking for a form: how to present stories that have been gathered in the Stories Exchange Project. At first we felt like putting it on stage. So we turned to a guy from a - [You pull the levers of democracy](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-a-citizen/you-pull-the-levers-of-democracy/) - John ShattuckU.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republicin conversation withJohn W. ErwinDirectorThe Stories Exchange ProjectU.S. Ambassador's ResidencePrague28 November 2000John ShattuckThe Stories Exchange Project, I think, is a way of getting people totalk about things that matter to them: things that are in their heartsand in their backgrounds.People often see each other in settings where they speak - [He noticed a hand-carved violin on the kitchen table](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-broken-mirror/he-noticed-a-hand-carved-violin-on-the-kitchen-table/) - Eva Ridajová Nové StrasecíAugust 2000This is the fourth year of my distance studies at the Secondary Social and Legal School in Prague. In the third year I met a Romany assistant-- whose name I will keep to myself. We met in the university residence hall where we stay every three weeks. He was there with - [It's more than your right: it's your duty](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-holocaust/its-more-than-your-right-its-your-duty/) - Ana AraujoVenezuela I’m looking for information about the whole Holocaust. I have found and heard some information in the Jewish community "Bejt Simcha", and in the Terezin Initiative. I have visited Terezin and the Jewish museum about the concentration camp. But I have not found any written information about the Roma Holocaust here in the - [We all come from God](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/we-all-come-from-god/) - Eva RidajováJuly 2000Nové StrasecíI attend distance studies at the Secondary Social and Legal School of the Evangelical Academy in Prague. I have finished my third year. The program runs for five years. In 1977, with the assistance of the Rajko Djuric Foundation, George Soros, and the Open Society Fund in Prague, this school opened the - [I love to entertain people](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/working/i-love-to-entertain-people/) - Author: Martin Mistr(taped by Marketa Vaculova)Location: OstravaEven though I'm a Rom, I've never encountered either hatred or racial discrimination. Teachers neither laughed at me nor denounced me. My schoolmates never beat me up. Just the opposite. When I had some learning difficulties in the first grade, my teachers helped me out. My schoolmates liked me - [They worked together](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-a-citizen/they-worked-together/) - John ShattuckU.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republicin conversation withJohn W. ErwinDirectorThe Stories Exchange ProjectU.S. Ambassador's ResidencePrague28 November 2000John ErwinHow about the Roms? How well do they remember-- and what do they remember? Are they putting themselves into their story, their history, at this point?John ShattuckThey're just beginning to write some of their stories. In Romany - [I was lucky it was a skinhead](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/i-was-lucky-it-was-a-skinhead/) - Lubos DrslíkStudent, Vranovska SchoolBrnoI can’t stop being amazed at the things that are happening. It’s terrible: the anarchists are fighting the skinheads, and the skinheads are fighting the anarchists. And all around us are the victims of these senseless movements. One day I went to the supermarket and saw a skinhead. He was tall, like - [I never saw such respect for old people](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-broken-mirror/i-never-saw-such-respect-for-old-people/) - Tereza VrbováPragueBohous is my sister's husband. At the moment he works as a bus driver, but when my sister first met him, Bohous drove an emergency ambulance. His encounter with a Romany family, described in the following story, took place in those days. I had to make quite an effort to get this story out - [She took the picture from me](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/she-took-the-picture-from-me/) - Author: Lucie ConkováLocation: Usti nad LabemUnfortunately I don't know Denisaês last name. She is a student at the Faculty of Social Studies in Prague. I met her when she was doing her practical training in Maticní Street in Ustí."I will tell you a story that happened to me when I was a little girl. It - [Terezin was much worse than the wall in Maticni Street](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-holocaust/terezin-was-much-worse-than-the-wall-in-maticni-street/) - David FerkoUsti nad LabemI’m in Terezin for the first time, and I have a very bad feeling being here. I’m frightened to stand here, because I can imagine all the people who were here and all the suffering they went through. Somebody told me that there were sixty women in this very, very small room. - [Who wouldn't want to look nice](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/who-wouldnt-want-to-look-nice/) - Author: Eva BajgerovaLocation: Usti nad LabemMy brothers and sisters and I are Romany, but we attended an elementary school. My mother knew all the teachers. My brothers and sisters were average students, and sometimes they were even naughty. But I was very obedient and studied well. When I became a seventh grader I was supposed - [They don't want to participate](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/working/they-dont-want-to-participate/) - Author: Workshop VLocation: EastWest Institute - PragueIvana SimikovaCounsellorDrom CenterBrnoThese people who live in the house where Drom is located: they expect a lot of help from us. And they expect it because they are not able to become active themselves. They are passively waiting for support and they want a finished product in their hands. - [If we're dissatisfied about something, we'll complain](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-a-citizen/if-were-dissatisfied-about-something-well-complain/) - John ShattuckU.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republicin conversation withJohn W. ErwinDirectorThe Stories Exchange ProjectU.S. Ambassador's ResidencePrague28 November 2000John ErwinThe situations in the States and in the Czech Republic are of course very different. What's been your experience of translating-- and mediating, in a sense-- between these two cultures?John ShattuckThe most important thing to do here, - [Unless you want to end up inside a horse](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-broken-mirror/unless-you-want-to-end-up-inside-a-horse/) - Hana KozurikováNymburkJuly 2000When I was a little girl, my Dad told me a drastic story someone had once told him.As a grown-up I heard it again. This time from a friend who didn't see it himself either. Then, not long ago, I discovered that in the village of Ratenice in Nymburk County lives a Mr. - [They used mallets to break our feet and our legs](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-holocaust/they-used-mallets-to-break-our-feet-and-our-legs/) - Author: Lucie ConkováLocation: Lety u Písku"There used to be wooden huts all over the place," Mrs. Ruzicková said. "There were fences around them. There was a big house here, too. The man who lived there kept stealing food rations delivered by the Germans and stored them in the cellar.They gave us spinach to eat. They - [These children must be offered equal access](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/these-children-must-be-offered-equal-access/) - Zdenka Svobodova PragueJuly 2000[In the Czech Republic a "special school" is a school for retarded children one which Romany (Gypsy) children are assigned if they fail an examination which emphasizes skills in Czech language and culture.]I met twenty-year-old Tereza H. on a bus going to her home town in central Bohemia. Two years earlier this - [These people turn up the volume](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/working/these-people-turn-up-the-volume/) - Author: Workshop VLocation: EastWest Institute - PragueEva BajgerovaRomany Advisor, Usti nad LabemLocal Project Coordinator, Stories Exchange ProjectThere are problems communicating with -- I don't want to say working-class: with socially weak Roms. They look at us as having become too assimilated. They call me a coconut. That is, that I look like a Rom, I'm - [Roma as a nation have a right to have our own representatives](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-a-citizen/roma-as-a-nation-have-a-right-to-have-our-own-representatives/) - Monika HorakovaMember of the Czech Parliamentin conversation withJohn W. ErwinDirector, The Stories Exchange ProjectCzech Ministry of Foreign AffairsPrague1 December 2000Jack ErwinSo what about your story? How did you get to do what you're doing? You're a member of the Czch Parliament, a woman, a Rom, not too old: how did this come about?Monika HorakovaThank you - [He deserves our admiration, gratitude and reverence](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-broken-mirror/he-deserves-our-admiration-gratitude-and-reverence/) - Jan HorvathAugust 2000StudenkaThis modest and caring man is especially known to those of us who are involved in things Romany. A poet, humanist and writer, Vlado Olah was born to a musical Romany family in a Romany village near Presov in eastern Slovakia. From early childhood he experienced rejection and poverty in the Gypsy community. - [I know you can’t compare Lety with Terezin](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-holocaust/i-know-you-cant-compare-lety-with-terezin/) - [Lety was a Czech-administered internment camp for Roma in Southern Bohemia during the Nazi occupation of Bohemia and Moravia. The Nazis used a town near Usti nad Labem, Terezin-- Theresienstadt in German-- as a camp in which to imprison Jews from Czechoslovakia and other countries before deporting them for extermination in AuschwitzEva is talking about - [I studied with them like any white Czech woman](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/i-studied-with-them-like-any-white-czech-woman/) - Zdenka SimovaNymburkSeptember 2000[NOTE: In the Czech Republic a "special school" is a school for children with learning difficulties. Romany (Gypsy) children are assigned to special schools if they fail an examination stressing skills in Czech language and culture.]The following story draws upon the experiences of Mrs. Bila, whom we visited in her house in the - [These people just don't understand](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/working/these-people-just-dont-understand/) - Author: Workshop VLocation: EastWest Institute - PragueZuzana GaborovaLocal Project Coordinator, Stories Exchange ProjectLegal and Social Adviser, Drom CenterBrnoLast year people in Drom's house in Bratislavska Street house could work off rent that they owed. They could contribute a certain number of hours cleaning cellars and attics etc. in exchange for the rent. The conditions were - [If people know their rights, they will know how they should behave](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-a-citizen/if-people-know-their-rights-they-will-know-how-they-should-behave/) - Monika HorakovaMember of the Czech Parliamentin conversation withJohn W. ErwinDirector, The Stories Exchange Projectat the Czech Ministry of Foreign AffairsPrague1 December 2000Jack ErwinThe last time we were together, Monika, we were in Terezin, for the Stories Exchange Project conference "Arts of Tolerance." As you remember, one of the participants in the conference, Kumar Vishnawathan, was - [We Roms have opened ourselves up to you](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-broken-mirror/we-roms-have-opened-ourselves-up-to-you/) - ARTS OF TOLERANCEDiscussions, Workshops and Performances organized by the Stories Exchange Project in Terezin, 18-19 September 2000Session ThreeHana KozurikováNymburkTalking about these stories, how they help me get new opportunities--. Of course working on the stories helps me develop my own imagination, and teaches me to work and write better. But above all, what it’s given - [They don't know how to discuss things freely](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/they-dont-know-how-to-discuss-things-freely/) - Jiri ImlaufTeacher of Czech Language and LiteratureBusiness AcademyUsti nad Labemin conversation withJohn W. ErwinDirectorThe Stories Exchange ProjectJack Erwin:What’s the good of having Eva [Bajgerova, Local Coordinator, The Stories Exchange Project] come to talk with your class, do you think?Jiri ImlaufI think our school system is still living in the past. I think we need every - [You have to get up in the morning and go back and go on working with them](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/working/you-have-to-get-up-in-the-morning-and-go-back-and-go-on-working-with-them/) - Author: Workshop VLocation: EastWest Institute - PragueHelena JavurkovaCoordinatorThe Stories Exchange ProjectThe Drom Center in Brno, the Romany social and cultural center, is very active. But I also understand that people complain about what Drom is doing. For people who work for Drom it must be frustrating, because they try to do something and they're alwaysbeing - [Czechs don't know how to live in a democracy](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-a-citizen/czechs-dont-know-how-to-live-in-a-democracy/) - MirekStudent, Business AcademyUsti nad Labemillmaic@post.cz. Sometimes a demented child is born to a white family. And sometimes a child is born among Gypsies who is able to live in our-- not ideal, that’s true-- society.It seems to me the way it is when you move animals into your flat. You can spend time, money and - [It was like a performance, funny and scary](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-broken-mirror/it-was-like-a-performance-funny-and-scary/) - Author: Hana KozurikovaLocation: PragueWhenever our parents had a fight, my mother and all of us kids went to Lucivna in Slovakia. Dad never stopped us, because he knew that we would be back in a few days. He knew that Mom was missing her family, and that the fight was only a pretext for a - [I spend the rest of the day cursing](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/working/i-spend-the-rest-of-the-day-cursing/) - Jan CernyUsti nad LabemJune 2000When I come to Maticni Street on this very nice late May day I just miss the postman delivering welfare to the local needy. Instead, I run into "Fig" Kurej, furious and cursing.He turned eighteen last month and is now eligible for welfare. He had to fill out loads of paperwork-- - [God was on our side/I'm a German swine/I was happy going to Auschwitz](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-holocaust/god-was-on-our-sideim-a-german-swinei-was-happy-going-to-auschwitz/) - Katerina SidonovaPragueWhen I would go into my father's study when was a little girl, my attention was always caught by a picture hanging on the wall just above his typewriter. It was a very dark and gloomy oil painting of my father's father: my grandfather. He was killed in the Little Fortress in Terezin. That - [He lost his own life trying to save the violin that had been his livelihood](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/working/he-lost-his-own-life-trying-to-save-the-violin-that-had-been-his-livelihood/) - Milo Husár(written by Emilie Horackova, Prague Group)20 July 2000Jarovnice, Mocidlany, SlovakiaYou often hear that the Roma have an inborn sense of rhythm, and that they inherit an ear for music and talent for it from their forefathers. Every baby boy is considered a musician from the very moment he is born. Music means a lot - [I was a revolutionary, but I know I did not keep my promise](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-a-citizen/i-was-a-revolutionary-but-i-know-i-did-not-keep-my-promise/) - Katerina SidonovaPragueIt was early in the winter of 1989. The Velvet Revolution had just got under way, and I was a student at the Pedagogical Faculty.I remember standing on a stage in a hall full of Roma. I don’t remember the name of the town where this meeting took place. I only remember that I - [To retain your humanity in any circumstances](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-broken-mirror/to-retain-your-humanity-in-any-circumstances/) - My grandmother was born in May, 1902, in the Grun gypsy settlement of the Spisska Nova Ves region in Eastern Slovakia. She came from a large family. Her father, Josef Horvath, was a Romany musician, and her mother Marie raised the children. My grandmother Helena Horvathova got married very young: she wasn't even eighteen. Well, - [She didn't give a damn about education](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/she-didnt-give-a-damn-about-education/) - Author: David SvarcLocation: BerounI.17 March 2000It's raining. I watch the drops slide down the window. Anna is crying. I see tears running down her cheeks. It's Friday afternoon and she is restless, waiting for visitors to fill her apartment with noise and laughter. Soon she will get to see her children again. It's been quite - [Now I can't get rid of him](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/working/now-i-cant-get-rid-of-him/) - Author: David Ferko, Usti nad LabemLocation: Stories Exchange Project Workshop #4EastWest InstitutePragueI never used to get along with my father. We had conflicts over money, and we were always getting into arguments.But when this project started I went to my father and asked him if he could tell me a story. He said to me, - [The number of educated Roma is increasing](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/the-number-of-educated-roma-is-increasing/) - Monika HorakovaMember of the Czech Parliamentin conversation withJohn W. ErwinDirector, The Stories Exchange ProjectCzech Ministry of Foreign AffairsPrague1 December 2000Jack ErwinWhat kind of school did you go to in Brno, Monika? Monika HorakovaI studied psychology at the Philosophical Faculty.Jack ErwinI was thinking about when you were younger, but-- what was your experience at university?Monika HorakovaIt - [I'd like to be a stewardess on Czech Airlines](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/working/id-like-to-be-a-stewardess-on-czech-airlines/) - John ErwinDirector, The Stories Exchange ProjectNew York "Well-- I think... Really, I think I'd like to be a stewardess on Czech Airlines."It's 1993, and Irina is standing in the center of her grandmother's kitchen in Prague: tall, slender, tentative. About sixteen. She smiles, then tosses her head-- as if to free it from wanting what - [Slavery was like what happened in Terezin, and we're still wrestling with its legacy](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-a-citizen/slavery-was-like-what-happened-in-terezin-and-were-still-wrestling-with-its-legacy/) - "New Roles for Roma in an Integrated Europe?"Session III, ARTS OF TOLERANCEDiscussions, Workshops and Performances organized by the Stories Exchange Project in Terezin, formerly a Nazi concentration camp from which Jews were sent to AuschwitzJohn ShattuckU.S. Ambassador to the Czech RepublicWe should remember where we are right now: we’re in Terezin. And this is the - [I wanted to be a Gypsy boy](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-broken-mirror/i-wanted-to-be-a-gypsy-boy/) - Katerina SidonovaPragueWhen I was a little girl, my father used to come to my room every night as I was about to go to sleep and tell me a bedtime story. He told me stories about Janosik, a robber from Slovak mountains who stole from the rich and gave to the poor. He told me - [It's a good thing to be a gypsy](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/its-a-good-thing-to-be-a-gypsy/) - Author: Katka HolubovaLocation: BrnoThis happened to Marta when she was ten. She was in the fifth grade.They were learning a poem by Karel Jaromir Erben. Marta was very sensitiveabout one verse: "Let the Gypsies finally be quiet."Marta was ashamed to say that.When she recited the poem in class, the teacher had to correct her for - [The door is open](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/the-door-is-open/) - Monika HorakovaMember, Czech Parliamentspeaking atStories Exchange Project 2000: Workshop IEastWest InstitutePrague6 December 1999I think that Roms are participating as much as they can right now. There are more than a hundred citizen associations, and two Romany political parties. But there are two questions: how much support is there for Romany activities? how can Roms solve - [Something was left inside us: we are always afraid](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-holocaust/something-was-left-inside-us-we-are-always-afraid/) - ARTS OF TOLERANCEWorkshops, Performances and Discussions organized by the Stories Exchange Project 18-19 September 2000TerezinCzech RepublicUnidentified Questioner Was the religious life very strong here in Terezin?Helga Weissova-HoskovaWell, the Jewish people who came here were on all different levels as far as religion is concerned. There were Orthodox people, and there were secular Jews. In Bohemia - [Romanek solved the problem in his own way](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/romanek-solved-the-problem-in-his-own-way/) - Author: Jan HorvathLocation: Stories Exchange Project Workshop #1EastWest InstitutePragueMy son Romanek is six.When we lived in Brno, Romanek attended a kindergarten. So we wanted to find one for him when we recently moved to Studenka near Ostrava. He's used to being with other children. The rest of our kids go to school, and he has - [Using stories is the best way to educate people](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/working/using-stories-is-the-best-way-to-educate-people/) - Monika HorakovaMember of the Czech Parliamentin conversation withJohn W. ErwinDirector, The Stories Exchange ProjectCzech Ministry of Foreign AffairsPrague1 December 2000Jack ErwinWhat good is it, do you think, to do this: to get stories from Roma and Czechs about each other, about their experience of each other? Does that accomplish anything?Monika HorakovaFor sure. I think that - [They forced me into the car and took me to the police station](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-a-citizen/they-forced-me-into-the-car-and-took-me-to-the-police-station/) - This story was told and discussed in Terezin, the former Nazi transport camp in the Czech Republic, during the opening session of a Stories Exchange Project workshop, ARTS OF TOLERANCE.18 September 2000John ErwinDirector, The Stories Exchange ProjectWhat happened in Terezin during World War II continues to happen today throughout Europe and throughout the world-- sometimes - [They gather like grasshoppers](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-broken-mirror/they-gather-like-grasshoppers/) - Petra Richter BrnoThere’s not much to write about our family. It’s only my mother, my father and me. I have no brothers and sisters. I think it’s kind of a revenge—for no reason-- by my parents. And all my grandmas and grandpas diedbefore I was born. So I have only aunts and uncles: nothing interesting. - [We all worked together](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/we-all-worked-together/) - Location: Stories Exchange Project Workshop #1EastWest InstitutePragueEva BajgerovaLocal Coordinator, Usti nad LabemMy eight-year old son Martin attends a selective school which accepts pupils of our district upon an entrance examination.Children begin to attend this school when they are eight. You would think that at this age children are equal and wouldn't worry about who is - [I not only see the reflection: I also see behind it](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-broken-mirror/i-not-only-see-the-reflection-i-also-see-behind-it/) - Location: Stories Exchange Project 2000 Workshop #2EastWest InstitutePragueStories Exchange Project 2000Workshop IIEastWest InstitutePragueJanuary 2000Martin ZaplatilekBrnoI think the mirror is a nice symbol of the unity among the people. On the other hand maybe I'm a little skeptical. It seems to me a little naive that in the future it can be good as it used - [Each one of us is a piece of the puzzle](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-broken-mirror/each-one-of-us-is-a-piece-of-the-puzzle/) - Eva SiedtmannovaSchool of Social Studies Usti nad Labem The problem of relations between races is very complicated, especially in our country. It’s a never-ending fight of white against black and vice-versa. Czechs suppress Roma and say that Roma are rubbish no one needs, rubbish that should be cleared away! I can hear all the angry - [Who has a piece of the broken mirror?](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-broken-mirror/who-has-a-piece-of-the-broken-mirror/) - Margita Reiznerova My father was a storyteller. When the adults came to visit, the children were sent out of the room, and the adults would tell each other stories -- fairy tales. Later I realized how clever my father was: how he was using psychology. Of course the children would sneak back in and listen. - [She played first violin](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/she-played-first-violin/) - [In the Czech Republic a "special school" is a school for retarded children to which Romany (Gypsy) children are assigned if they do not pass an examination which emphasizes skills in Czech language and culture.Maticni Street in Usti nad Labem was the location of a wall which Czech residents built in 1999 between themselves and - [I had a vision about how to build a team of people](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/working/i-had-a-vision-about-how-to-build-a-team-of-people/) - Eva BajgerovaRomany AssistantOffice of the Regional GovernmentUsti nad LabemThe Stories Exchange Project is about sharing experience. It’s about meeting other people and getting to know them. It’s a mutual relationship, a mutual communication, an exchange of knowledge and skills.I had a vision about how to build a team of people who would go around town - [How can Roms have a white tent?](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-a-citizen/how-can-roms-have-a-white-tent/) - "New Roles for Roma in an Integrated Europe?"Session III, ARTS OF TOLERANCEDiscussions, Workshops and Performances organized by the Stories Exchange Project in Terezin, formerly a Nazi concentration camp from which Jews were sent to Auschwitz Eva BajgerovaUsti nad LabemRomany AssistantRegional GovernmentLocal CoordinatorThe Stories Exchange Project What has the Stories Exchange Project meant for our region? - [Maybe it's getting worse](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/maybe-its-getting-worse/) - Students at the Vranovska Street School in BrnoNatalie Havrdova, Sandra and Karolina We three are best friends. When something happens to one of us it’s as if it happened to all of us. We're very joyful: that is why we laugh all the time. Our schoolmates call us bad names. Natalka is treated the worst - [So who took the money?](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/so-who-took-the-money/) - I attend the 5th grade of an elementary school in Usti nad Labem. The children from our class like me and accept me, but still they have some kind of an instinct inside telling them I am Romany. I am trying to hold on. It was a normal day like any other at school: you - [Don't keep it a secret: you have parents who can help you](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/dont-keep-it-a-secret-you-have-parents-who-can-help-you/) - Lenka Usti nad Labem I attended the sixth class in an elementary school. There was nothing special about it –- just that I found out that kids in our class were not very happy to have me in the same class because I’m Romany. I don’t know what happened to them, but all of a - [I am Katerina](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-myself/i-am-katerina/) - Katerina SidonovaPraguei.My father’s father was Jewish. I never met him. He died during World War II when my dad was only two years old. He was killed in the Small Fortress in Terezin, the Nazi camp. That was all I knew about my grandfather.ii. There was a portrait of my grandfather, an oil painting. It - [Jews, Jews, Jews: I didn't want to be one of them](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/jews-jews-jews-i-didnt-want-to-be-one-of-them/) - Katerina SidonovaPrague The Czech Jewish Community needed a rabbi. There was nobody else able to do the job, so my dad went to Israel to study to become a rabbi.His father’s father was Jewish. My dad's induction as a rabbi was taking place in the Jerusalem Synagogue in Prague. I arrived half an hour early. - [Is racism a threat that may come true?](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-holocaust/is-racism-a-threat-that-may-come-true/) - Jiri NovakSchool of Social StudiesUsti nad LabemAt the beginning of the past century a not very well known Adolf Hitler who was working as a house painter published a book called "Mein Kampf." In 1945 the people who liberated the Nazi camps were terrified by what they saw: rows and rows of dead bodies, some - [I don't live with them; I don't know them.](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-broken-mirror/i-dont-live-with-them-i-dont-know-them/) - Ivana BroftovaSchool of Social StudiesUsti nad LabemI’m curious about one thing: who are they? What nationality are they? Where did they come from?There's one Romany family in Vedomice where I live. I don't see them very often. I occasionally see their four children. I don't even know their names. I think they try to look - [But I'm not scared of them: why is that?](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/but-im-not-scared-of-them-why-is-that/) - Lucie SlabaSchool of Social Studies Usti nad LabemWhen I was about seven and in first grade I was coming home with a friend. I don’t remember this very well, but I know that we met two Romany boys. We didn’t do anything bad, we were just walking and laughing about something. But all of a - [A little scar on my lip reminds me](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/a-little-scar-on-my-lip-reminds-me/) - Petra Novakova School of Social Studies Usti nad LabemWhen I was six we lived in a panel house. Just two doors from us lived a Romany family. They had a daughter Monika and a son Mirek. The family was decent, clean and hard-working. The children attended school regularly. A normal family.I used to play with - [I know she often missed Vietnam](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/i-know-she-often-missed-vietnam/) - Tereza Stenglova Gymnazium Jan PatockaPragueIt happened when I was starting the eighth grade. Our teacher told us that a new student, a Vietnamese girl, would be coming to our class. I didn’t know then that this girl would become my best friend.Her father was an executive councilor at the Vietnamese embassy, and all the Vietnamese - [My best friend is Romany](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/my-best-friend-is-romany/) - Zdenka Rerichova School of Social Studies Usti nad LabemI have nothing against Roma because I have many friends who are Roma. In fact my best friend is Romany. She had an unpleasant experience. Things were getting lost at school; someone was stealing them. She was seen in the classroom, and she was there all alone, - [He was accused of assault](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/he-was-accused-of-assault/) - Michaela CernaSchool of Social StudiesUsti nad LabemMy uncle worked in Predlice in Technoplyn. One evening he was driving home, and when he was going through Predlice, he heard someone shouting. When he slowed down he saw two Gypsy men beating a Gypsy woman. She was calling for help. My uncle stopped, but didn’t know whether - [Create your own points of view](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/create-your-own-points-of-view/) - L.KristanovaSchool of Social StudiesUsti nad Labem I’m sad that many people don't judge others by their character, but by the color of their skin. They should realize that nobody is able to choose his color. I don't want to take the side of the black, yellow or white people. I only mean that we can’t - [And he was white](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/and-he-was-white/) - Lucie KrupickovaSchool of Social StudiesUsti nad LabemThe situation is better nowadays. At least people are talking about it. And I think there were no Roms in politics in the past, but there are today. That’s a step forward.There is one thing I like about Roms: they respect traditions, and they help each other. I mean - [We don't know them](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/we-dont-know-them/) - Anna StepankovaGymnazium Jan Patocka PragueWhat is my attitude towards Roms and skinheads? I don't know, in fact. When I see a group of Roms or a group of skinheads, I cross the street to avoid them. For me it is the same with Roms and with skinheads. I have no experience with skinheads, I only - [A lot of people have bad experiences with us Roma](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/a-lot-of-people-have-bad-experiences-with-us-roma/) - Eva BajgerovaRomany Adviser to the Regional GovernmentUsti nad LabemA lot of people have bad experiences with us Roma. A man started a store with machines in our neighborhood. Machines for sawing lumber and all that. He repaired the house, and had a new façade put on. Romany kids were playing ball in front of the - [You got him moving](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/you-got-him-moving/) - [8/6/01The following exchange between a Romany adviser to a Czech regional government office and a Jewish survivor of Terezin and Auschwitz focuses on the fact that some seventy per cent of Romany children in the Czech Republic have been placed in so-called special schools for the mentally retarded. This is an issue which the 27 - [Listening to stories wasn't enough for them](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/listening-to-stories-wasnt-enough-for-them/) - Eva BajgerovaRomany Adviser to the Regional GovernmentUsti nad LabemThere is a very large Romany population in Predlice near Usti nad Labem. People say: "Don't go to Predlice, it’s full of Gypsies; something bad could happen to you."I go to schools to talk with students about Roma.I tell them about my life. It’s best to show - [We don't understand that our indifference is racism](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/we-dont-understand-that-our-indifference-is-racism/) - Katerina SidonovaPrague I have been interested in the Romany problem for more than twelve years. My friends and the people around me don’t understand why. Most Czech people tend to look at the Roma as something unpleasant. They always say, "I am no racist." And "Yes, Roma are people too." But: "I don’t like Gypsies. - [The totalitarian regime left its mark on me](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-myself/the-totalitarian-regime-left-its-mark-on-me/) - Eva RidajováNové StrasecíThe totalitarian regime left its mark on my childhood. I come from a Romany family, and the totalitarian system aimed at eradicating Romany culture. As far as our large family is concerned, they very nearly succeeded. Our parents assimilated. They brought us up in the Czech way, as the regime prescribed. They wanted - [I have a heart, and it's not Czech](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-myself/i-have-a-heart-and-its-not-czech/) - Hanka KozurikovaLibice nad CidlinouI was born in Kolin in 1966 to Anna and Koloman Conka. They had already had two boys; I was their first daughter. My mom was from the vicinity of Poprad in Slovakia. The village where she was born is called Lucivna. A Czech historian of the Roms, Milena Hubschmannova, has written - [I mustn't become white](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-myself/i-mustnt-become-white/) - Zdenka SvobodovaJuly 2000Milan H. is a tall and well-built young Romany man. He is twenty-six, and works as a policeman in a town in Central Bohemia. I recorded this story while we were sitting in the kitchen of the council flat where he lives with his wife, who is white. At his request I am - [Foreigners enrich our culture](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/foreigners-enrich-our-culture/) - Mateja SegistudentGymnazium Jan PatockaPragueRoms are citizens of the Czech Republic as much as anyone else. The problem is that most Roms are not educated-- so it is hard for them to find work. Then they do nothing, and expect the state to help them. There are many cases of uneducated parents who don’t want to - [I hope that my generation will overcome](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/i-hope-that-my-generation-will-overcome/) - Mariana WesleyovastudentGymnazium Jan PatockaPrague Roms should be looked at as individuals, not judged in terms of a whole ethnic group.The behavior of young Roms is shaped by their living standards, their interests, their environment etc. There are some who feel that they are different, that they are an ethnic group, that their social status is - [There are good and bad people in every society](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/there-are-good-and-bad-people-in-every-society/) - Lucie MatuskovastudentGymnazium Jan PatockaPragueI don’t have much experience with Roms. I think they are not all to blame; we make mistakes too. A friend of mine who is very dark told me about her stay in a hospital. She was not able to move. Her parents would bring fruit and put it on her bedside - [They shouldn't have been forced to assimilate](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/they-shouldnt-have-been-forced-to-assimilate/) - Filip CapandastudentJan Patocka Grammar SchoolPrague Roms are a minority in the Czech Republic. According to them, they are discriminated against. I think that is true.But what if so-called discrimination is only an excuse for their slow integration into our society? Roms came here a long time ago. They led a nomadic style of life, and - [It was full of joy](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/it-was-full-of-joy/) - Tereza RehakovastudentJan Patocka Grammar SchoolPrague This is my only experience with Roms. It happened when I was less than five years old. I lived in Smichov, where there were a lot of Roms. No Roms lived in our house, but the house across the road was full of them. Like all children I was inquisitive, - [It is not possible to arrest a person because of his physical appearance](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-a-citizen/it-is-not-possible-to-arrest-a-person-because-of-his-physical-appearance/) - [This is a transcription of a sequence in a videotape shot in the police station in Terezin, Czech Republic on 18 September 2000 during the Stories Exchange Project workshop ARTS OF TOLERANCE. It is included in the second video documentary about the project: "MY WAY AND HIS WAY: The Stories Exchange Project"]Cenek RuzickaDirector Romany Holocaust - [A new agency for unemployed Roma in Prague](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/working/a-new-agency-for-unemployed-roma-in-prague/) - Author: Katerina SidonovaLocation: PragueA new service for unemployed Roma in Prague. Free of charge.Personal Agency of Roma is a non-profit agency that was established by the Romani Union in the Czech Republic. The project is supported by the City Council of Prague. Its aim is to help Roma to find work and stay employed. It - [Discrimination](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/discrimination/) - Author: Francesca Roe, U.K.Location: u.kI am not a Romani. But i do speak a lot of the language, have lots of Romani or Sinti friends and have taken up some of the culture. i feel at home with it and when i have finished my education i want to pursue this life even more. But - [ashamed](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/learning/ashamed/) - Author: anonymous, U.K.Location: u.kthere is a boy in my secondary school called Ian. he is a big lad and hates me for being a 'gyppo'. it's never out in the open- always secret. but i'm not even a Romani by blood. i speak lots of the language, have Roma or sinti friends, and i'm abused - [HOLOCAUST](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/the-holocaust/holocaust/) - Author: AndreaAndrea 20/09/03 I am running through a cold nightI can hear somebody crying.I am stepping on flowers...... they fade...Whose was the cry?...nobody´s they say...I am running...drops of blood are cold...I am lying......grim heaven...---all around...and a word that is cold as ice HOLOCAUST - [What Politics Can Be Like: King Hassan II in Tangier](https://stories-exchange.org/stories-and-responses/being-a-citizen/what-politics-can-be-like-king-hassan-ii-in-tangier/) - Mitchell ChanelisDirector, Project DevelopmentThe Fund for New Performance/VideoIt was in 1964. I had planned to leave Tangier days before, but people I knew said, ‘No, you have to wait, you have to wait: the sultan’s coming.’ There are rumors he was going to be assassinated and everybody was on tenterhooks. So I was in the ## Pages - [Home](https://stories-exchange.org/) - Welcome to the Stories Exchange Project The Project is opening a global arena for exchanging life experiences. It is helping communities in many nations to discover their pasts and work together to build open, democratic, and prosperous societies. We are not analyzing problems or projecting solutions. We are beginning real personal and working relationships among - [Videos](https://stories-exchange.org/videos/) - Watch "The Fund for New Performance Video in Prague." Below you will find My Way and His Way: The Stories Exchange Project. My Way and His Way: The Stories Exchange Project - [Contact](https://stories-exchange.org/contact/) - John W. Erwin Director, The Stories Exchange Project // President, The Fund for New Performance/Video fnpv@praguelink.org tel (011 44) 1394 383072 46 Cumberland Woodbridge, Suffolk United Kingdom IP12 4AD Mitchell Chanelis Director, Stories Exchange Project Morocco mitchellchanelis@yahoo.com (00212) 677 93 40 40 - [Mobilizing Cultural Resources for Social and Economic Development](https://stories-exchange.org/workshops/getty-research-institutefnpv-video-conference/mobilizing-cultural-resources-for-social-and-economic-development/) - Andersen Consulting Nationale, Nederlanden Building, Prague - 7 June 1999 Organized by the Fund for New Performance/Video, New York and the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, this Prague-Los Angeles video conference asked how cultural recovery and preservation efforts can generate constructive dialogue among ethnic communities. The 2000 World Bank-funded Stories Exchange Project expansion in the Czech - [Vasil Hudak, Vice President EastWest Institute](https://stories-exchange.org/workshops/sep-expansion-workshop-i/vasil-hudak-vice-president-eastwest-institute/) - Vasil HudakVice PresidentEastWest InstituteStories Exchange Project 2000: Workshop IEastWest InstitutePrague6 December 1999As the EastWest Institute in Prague focuses on both international and local projects in the Central European region, interplay between international and local dimensions will be important in the Stories Exchange Project expansion.Representatives of three Czech cities have come together to expand the Stories - [Workshops](https://stories-exchange.org/workshops/) - [SEP Expansion Workshop I](https://stories-exchange.org/workshops/sep-expansion-workshop-i/) - [U.S. Ambassador John Shattuck](https://stories-exchange.org/workshops/sep-expansion-workshop-i/us-ambassador-john-shattuck/) - U.S. Ambassador John ShattuckStories Exchange Project 2000: Workshop IEastWest InstitutePrague6 December 1999This is a very exciting project and an exciting moment for me personally. Some of you know me as Ambassador, some of you-- fewer, I think-- know me as someone who spent most of his career in the United States in the field of - [Monika Horakova, Member Czech Parliament](https://stories-exchange.org/workshops/sep-expansion-workshop-i/monika-horakova-member-czech-parliament/) - Monika HorakovaMember, Czech ParliamentStories Exchange Project 2000: Workshop IEastWest InstitutePrague6 December 1999I think that Roms are participating as much as they can right now. There are more than a hundred citizen associations, and two Romani political parties. But there are two questions: how much support is there for Romani activities? how can Roms solve the - [Ludek Novak, Executive Director, New School Foundation](https://stories-exchange.org/workshops/sep-expansion-workshop-i/ludek-novak-executive-director-new-school-foundation/) - Ludek NovakExecutive DirectorNadace Nova Skola/New School FoundationStories Exchange Project 2000: Workshop IEastWest InstitutePrague6 December 1999I would like to talk about people's ability to learn. I will be very conservative and start with a story. Why not? This is the Stories Exchange Project.Three stories, in fact. One happened to me; the second comes from the American - [We are very skilled at finding excuses](https://stories-exchange.org/workshops/media-against-intolerance/we-are-very-skilled-at-finding-excuses/) - Prague, Czech RepublicDecember 6, 1993Karol SidonChief Rabbi of Bohemia and MoraviaI think it is dangerous to say that we are in a completely different situation, that because we have fifty years of totalitarianism behind us, we cannot be compared to anybody else. This is typical Czech thinking: we are very skilled in finding excuses. You - [We want to live like normal people](https://stories-exchange.org/workshops/media-against-intolerance/we-want-to-live-like-normal-people/) - Prague, Czech RepublicDecember 6, 1993Milena HubschmannovaChairman, Romany Studies Program, Charles UniversityIn April four Rom families were sent from Usti nad Labem to Slovakia. They were promised that if they gave up their flats in Usti that they would get another flat, and jobs. This did not happen. The family came back to Usti. They lived - [Introduction](https://stories-exchange.org/workshops/sep-expansion-workshop-i/introduction/) - John W. ErwinPresidentThe Fund for New Performance/VideoNew YorkDirectorThe Stories Exchange ProjectStories Exchange Project 2000: Workshop IEastWest InstitutePrague6 December 1999The Stories Exchange Project is mobilizing cultural resources to help form societies which are open, democratic, and prosperous. This is not only a human rights issue: it is also a human responsibility issue. It involves the development - [Eva Bajgerova, Usti nad Labem](https://stories-exchange.org/workshops/sep-expansion-workshop-i/eva-bajgerova-usti-nad-labem/) - Eva BajgerovaRomany Assistant, City HallUsti nad LabemStories Exchange Project 2000: Workshop IEastWest InstitutePrague6 December 1999My eight-year old son attends a selective school which accepts pupils of our district upon an entrance examination.Children begin to attend this school when they are eight. You would think that at this age children are equal and don't worry about - [Media Against Intolerance](https://stories-exchange.org/workshops/media-against-intolerance/) - [The health of the whole society](https://stories-exchange.org/workshops/media-against-intolerance/the-health-of-the-whole-society/) - Prague, Czech RepublicDecember 6, 1993John W. ErwinPresident and Executive DirectorThe Fund for New Performance/VideoWe at the Fund for New Performance/Video feel that the problem of intolerance is not only a humanitarian problem, but that it also has a great deal to do with the economic and political stability of this region. We feel very strongly - [For xenophobia to grow like a tree](https://stories-exchange.org/workshops/media-against-intolerance/for-xenophobia-to-grow-like-a-tree/) - Prague, Czech RepublicDecember 6, 1993Jiri StranskyPresident, Czech P.E.N.The situation in this country and throughout Central Europe differs from the American situation: the consequences are similar, but the causes are different. In the last fifty years, this country has gone through two totalitarian systems. Both Nazism and Communism intensified envy and jealousy and intolerance-- which are - [Never educated for democracy](https://stories-exchange.org/workshops/media-against-intolerance/never-educated-for-democracy/) - Prague, Czech RepublicDecember 6, 1993Milena HubschmannovaChairman, Romany Studies Program, Charles UniversityRacism always has many levels. The historical, political and religious level is just one of these. We should also consider the psychological or, if you want, the human level. Much depends upon how man reacts out of his instinctsand his experience. That should lead to - [If we don't call, no one will hear us](https://stories-exchange.org/workshops/media-against-intolerance/if-we-dont-call-no-one-will-hear-us/) - Prague, Czech RepublicDecember 6, 1993Margita ReiznerovaPoet; Roma Association for Children andYouth[currently (1999) living in exile, in Belgium]The Roma have never provoked violent incidents or incited conflict with other people. There may be conflict inside their communities, but they havenever gone outside to demonstrate or whatever. Today perhaps we should learn how to demonstrate: if we - [Vienna, September 2000](https://stories-exchange.org/performances/vienna-september-2000/) - [A Jewish grave and Romany stories](https://stories-exchange.org/performances/vienna-september-2000/a-jewish-grave-and-romany-stories/) - On 26-27 September, 2000 Czech Ambassador to Austria Jiri Grusa hosted discussions of the Stories Exchange Project at the Czech Embassy and the Czech Centre, Vienna.The program began with presentations by the Ambassador and Project Director John Erwin at the grave of an early victim of anti-Semitism defended by the founder of Czechoslovakia, President Tomas - [Getty Research Institute/FNPV video conference](https://stories-exchange.org/workshops/getty-research-institutefnpv-video-conference/) - [Usti nad Labem, August 2000](https://stories-exchange.org/performances/usti-nad-labem-august-2000/) - [Exchanging stories for coffee](https://stories-exchange.org/performances/usti-nad-labem-august-2000/exchanging-stories-for-coffee/) - Proposing a constructive alternative to the wall between Czech and Romany residents which the city of Usti built last fall, the Stories Exchange Project put up a tent on the main square in Usti nad Labem with a large banner advertising this main project Web-site "WWW.STORIES-EXCHANGE.ORG" on its most visible side. A hundred-odd Czech and - [Performances](https://stories-exchange.org/performances/) - [Terezin, September 2000](https://stories-exchange.org/performances/terezin-september-2000/) - [Networking Europe](https://stories-exchange.org/performances/prague-october-2000/networking-europe/) - Since 1994 the Stories Exchange Project has been collecting and presenting stories about interaction between Czechs and Roma. In 1995 the results of a first round of story-gathering in Prague and Western Bohemia were presented at the Roxy Center in Prague. The Stories Exchange Project returned to the Roxy Center on 17 October 2000. Cafe - [Jewish and Romany stories and music](https://stories-exchange.org/performances/terezin-september-2000/jewish-and-romany-stories-and-music/) - ARTS OF TOLERANCE: Terezin 200018 September 200019:45presentation:"Draw What You See," Helga Hoskova, painter, Terezin survivor[see on this Web-page "Stories and Responses: The Holocaust" "You can have a great influence," a similar presentation by Helga Weissova-Hoskova for the Stories Exchange Project at the Jewish Museum, Prague] 20:30 performance:I. Members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra: music by - [What do they do? They create](https://stories-exchange.org/performances/terezin-september-2000/what-do-they-do-they-create/) - Mark Ludwig Violist, Boston Symphony OrchestraDirector, Terezin Chamber Music Foundationduring ARTS OF TOLERANCE, a series of workshops, performances and discussions organized by the Stories Exchange Project, 18-19 September 2000TerezinCzech RepublicHere we are in the Attic Theater in Terezin. And you’re sitting on bare benches-- as you would have been if you had been here when - [Prague, October 2000](https://stories-exchange.org/performances/prague-october-2000/) - [My father's house, my mother's tears](https://stories-exchange.org/performances/prague-october-1995/my-fathers-house-my-mothers-tears/) - PRIBEHY: SO HAS, SO HIN (STORIES: WHATWAS, WHAT IS)A Workshop Script by Robbie McCauley in collaboration with Ethela and IlonaFerkova, Ondrej Gina, Margita Reiznerova, Hana Syslova, and MiroslavMencl First performed in Czech and Romany atthe Roxy Experimental Space, PragueOctober 12, 13 and 14, 1995MY FATHER'S HOUSE, MY MOTHER'S TEARSSTORYTELLER/ILONA:In TocemesMy father built a house of - [We were afraid of Gypsies](https://stories-exchange.org/performances/prague-october-1995/we-were-afraid-of-gypsies/) - PRIBEHY: SO HAS, SO HIN (STORIES: WHAT WAS, WHAT IS)A Workshop Script by Robbie McCauley in collaboration with Ethela and Ilona Ferkova, Ondrej Gina, Margita Reiznerova, Hana Syslova, and MiroslavMencl First performed in Czech and Romany atthe Roxy Experimental Space, PragueOctober 12, 13 and 14, 1995WE WERE AFRAID OF GYPSIESThe ACTORS sit in a semi-circle - [Father's unfunny joke](https://stories-exchange.org/performances/prague-october-1995/fathers-unfunny-joke/) - RIBEHY: SO HAS, SO HIN (STORIES: WHAT WAS, WHAT IS)A Workshop Script by Robbie McCauley in collaboration with Ethela and Ilona Ferkova, Ondrej Gina, Margita Reiznerova, Hana Syslova, and Miroslav Mencl First performed in Czech and Romany at the Roxy Experimental Space, PragueOctober 12, 13 and 14, 1995FATHER'S UNFUNNY JOKE ILONA:In Slovakia during the war-- - [The Jewish boy's story](https://stories-exchange.org/performances/prague-october-1995/the-jewish-boys-story/) - PRIBEHY: SO HAS, SO HIN (STORIES: WHAT WAS, WHAT IS)A Workshop Script by Robbie McCauley in collaboration with Ethela and Ilona Ferkova, Ondrej Gina, Margita Reiznerova, Hana Syslova, and Miroslav Mencl First performed in Czech and Romany at the Roxy Experimental Space, PragueOctober 12, 13 and 14, 199THE JEWISH BOY'S STORYHANA, ONDREJ and MIREK sit - [Going back to India](https://stories-exchange.org/performances/prague-october-1995/going-back-to-india/) - PRIBEHY: SO HAS, SO HIN (STORIES: WHAT WAS, WHAT IS)A Workshop Script by Robbie McCauley in collaboration with Ethela and Ilona Ferkova, Ondrej Gina, Margita Reiznerova, Hana Syslova, and Miroslav Mencl First performed in Czech and Romany atthe Roxy Experimental Space, PragueOctober 12, 13 and 14, 1995GOING BACK TO INDIAETHELA:How was it when grandfather wanted - [Prague, October 1995](https://stories-exchange.org/performances/prague-october-1995/) - [London, September 2000](https://stories-exchange.org/performances/london-september-2000/) - [Dirt and Hunger, work camp 1944](https://stories-exchange.org/performances/prague-october-1995/dirt-and-hunger-work-camp-1944/) - PRIBEHY: SO HAS, SO HIN (STORIES: WHAT WAS, WHAT IS)A Workshop Script by Robbie McCauley in collaboration with Ethela and Ilona Ferkova, Ondrej Gina, Margita Reiznerova, Hana Syslova, and Miroslav Mencl First performed in Czech and Romany at the Roxy Experimental Space, PragueOctober 12, 13 and 14, 1995DIRT AND HUNGER: WORK CAMP 1944 CHORUS:On August - [Bohemia feels like home](https://stories-exchange.org/performances/prague-october-1995/bohemia-feels-like-home/) - PRIBEHY: SO HAS, SO HIN (STORIES: WHAT WAS, WHAT IS)A Workshop Script by Robbie McCauleyin collaboration with Ethela and Ilona Ferkova, Ondrej Gina, Margita Reiznerova, Hana Syslova, and Miroslav Mencl First performed in Czech and Romany at the Roxy Experimental Space, PragueOctober 12, 13 and 14, 1995BOHEMIA FEELS LIKE HOMEILONA and ETHELA speak to each - [I had walls in my head](https://stories-exchange.org/performances/london-september-2000/i-had-walls-in-my-head/) - "I had always thought of myself as a very tolerant person. But suddenly with so many gypsies around me, prejudices and fears surfaced that I thought I didn't have. I discovered that I too had walls in my head." -- from "I had walls in my head": see "Stories and Responses: Learning" A presentation on - [Methods](https://stories-exchange.org/methods/) - [You can't see the nose on your face](https://stories-exchange.org/methods/you-cant-see-the-nose-on-your-face/) - Stories Exchange Project Workshop #3EastWest InstitutePrague28 February 2000Mitchell ChanelisAssistant Project CoordinatorIt's very interesting about telling stories. Until you tell them, sometimes you find you don't know the story yourself. When I have to tell a story about myself, I find out things about myself and everybody else. When I tell my story to somebody else - [Use these stories to change the world! (VI)](https://stories-exchange.org/methods/use-these-stories-to-change-the-world-vi/) - F. Being MyselfIf we’re not ourselves, we can’t begin to do any of the things we’ve talked about so far: we can’t learnworkmeet otherspick up the pieces of any broken mirror give proper respect to people who have died in one holocaust or another.or be citizens.So to finish this little tour of the seven menus - [Partners](https://stories-exchange.org/partners/) - The Fund for New Performance/Video EastWest Institute The World Bank The United States Information Agency U.S. Embassy Prague The Getty Research Institute The Jewish Museum, Prague The Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic The Soros Foundations The Ministry of Culture, Czech Republic The Trust for Mutual Understanding The Royal Netherlands Embassy, Prague The - [Use these stories to change the world! (IV)](https://stories-exchange.org/methods/use-these-stories-to-change-the-world-iv/) - D. LearningThe heart of your work in the Stories Exchange Project may lie in the stories offered in the Learning menu of Stories and Responses here at this Web-site.And what better subject for classroom discussions than classroom discussions?!Irena and her students at the Jan Patocka Grammar School have already begun to discuss the difficulties and - [Use these stories to change the world! (V)](https://stories-exchange.org/methods/use-these-stories-to-change-the-world-v/) - E. WorkingThis is working too, of course: what you’re beginning to do in the Stories Exchange Project. But it’s the kind of work we want to do: work that’s primarily about making friends-- and making it a little bit more possible for other people to make friends. In "I had a vision about how to - [Use these stories to change the world! (I)](https://stories-exchange.org/methods/use-these-stories-to-change-the-world-i/) - I. WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH STORIESIn the Stories Exchange Project we share our experience with as many people as possible, and we listen to their stories. And then we listen to our own stories and their stories again and again, and we talk about them together—- to try to find out what they’re telling - [Use these stories to change the world! (II)](https://stories-exchange.org/methods/use-these-stories-to-change-the-world-ii/) - II. STORIES YOU CAN USESo now you’ve had a look at a few of the stories from some of the seven menus here in Stories and Responses-- and you’ve typed in responses to some, and you’ve begun to talk with each other and your teacher in class and after class, and with your families and - [Use these stories to change the world! (III)](https://stories-exchange.org/methods/use-these-stories-to-change-the-world-iii/) - C. Meeting OthersBut of course the test of mutual understanding and tolerance occurs when we actually meet and have to interact with people who are members of another social group or race. So spend as much time as you can reading and responding to the many stories we’ve collected about that. Meeting Others is the - [Ask yourself...](https://stories-exchange.org/methods/ask-yourself/) - After you've read all six parts of "Use these stories to change the world!" ask yourself-- and each other: your classmates, your teachers, your friends, your family, your neighbors-- these questions.We’ve asked most of them before, and we may ask them again!Questions from "Use these stories..." Part II1. "You pull the levers of democracy"As you - [Guidelines for seven classroom workshops](https://stories-exchange.org/methods/guidelines-for-seven-classroom-workshops/) - I. IntroductionTo prepare for discussions in each of seven Stories Exchange Project classroom workshops, all of you should read the six parts of "Use these stories to change the world!" here in Methods and answer the questions asked there, summarized in "Ask yourself..." also in Methods. As soon as possible and at least before the - [Guidelines for three classroom workshops](https://stories-exchange.org/methods/guidelines-for-three-classroom-workshops/) - Before the first workshop, 1. Read through these guidelines, paying special attention to the notes about collecting stories at the end: " WHEN YOU ARE PREPARING TO GATHER, PRESENT AND DISCUSS NEW STORIES...."2. Read "Use these stories to change the world!" (I) in the Methods menu at www.stories-exchange and respond on the Web page to - [We are still living in fear](https://stories-exchange.org/interviews/we-are-still-living-in-fear/) - Prague, Czech RepublicOctober 18, 1995Margita ReiznerovaPoet[currently (1999) living in exile, in Belgium]We are still living in fear. My family lives in fear, my parents lived in fear. I live in fear. Almost all the Gypsies live in fear. They never could live in freedom because there was always someone there to stop them.I think that - [We talked about colors](https://stories-exchange.org/interviews/we-talked-about-colors/) - Rokycany, Czech RepublicFebruary 24, 1996Ondrej GinaDirector for the Czech Republic, Romani National Congress;formerly, member of the Czechoslovak Federal ParliamentDuring the Stories Exchange Project we were learning little things: details. They are very important. You can't get that kind of experience in Parliament. That is a completely different situation. In the Project we were analyzing problems - [You're in it because I put you in it](https://stories-exchange.org/interviews/youre-in-it-because-i-put-you-in-it/) - New York, USADecember 9, 1995Prague, Czech RepublicOctober 28, 1994Robbie McCauleyPlaywright, director, actorMy work comes out of performance and I'm basically an actor.Which comes from my own reality. Which comes from having grown up in apartheid United States. I'm from Georgia originally.I first went to Prague to perform a play called "Sally's Rape" which deals with - [You really can't rub out history](https://stories-exchange.org/interviews/you-really-cant-rub-out-history/) - John ShattuckU.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republicin conversation withJohn W. ErwinDirectorThe Stories Exchange ProjectU.S. Ambassador's ResidencePrague28 November 2000John ShattuckThe Stories Exchange Project, I think, is a way of getting people totalk about things that matter to them: things that are in their heartsand in their backgrounds.People often see each other in settings where they speak - [You can change some things by yourself](https://stories-exchange.org/interviews/you-can-change-some-things-by-yourself/) - Monika HorakovaMember of the Czech Parliamentin conversation withJohn W. ErwinDirector, The Stories Exchange ProjectCzech Ministry of Foreign AffairsPrague1 December 2000Jack ErwinThe last time we were together, Monika, we were in Terezin, for the Stories Exchange Project conference "Arts of Tolerance." As you remember, one of the participants in the conference, Kumar Vishnawathan, was detained by - [Suddenly I could hear a violin](https://stories-exchange.org/interviews/suddenly-i-could-hear-a-violin/) - Prague, Czech RepublicMarch 21, 1996Hana SyslovaRomany Studies ProgramCharles UniversityPragueIn the Stories Exchange Project we had meetings every moth in Ina's place. And it was beautiful: everyone was telling his story, or what he heard, or what happened. And sometimes we were discussing how we perceived things as Roms or whites.I tried to remember how I - [To perceive the insides of words](https://stories-exchange.org/interviews/to-perceive-the-insides-of-words/) - Rokycany, Czech RepublicFebruary 24, 1996Ondrej GinaDirector for the Czech Republic, Romani National Congress;formerly, member of the Czechoslovak Federal ParliamentWhat we were to express in the Stories Exchange Project was feelings: what it means to be starving. We were supposed to play how hungry we were. We were supposed to express it. That was a new - [She can find solutions to problems](https://stories-exchange.org/interviews/she-can-find-solutions-to-problems/) - Rokycany, Czech RepublicFebruary 24, 1996Ondrej GinaDirector for the Czech Republic, Romani National Congress;formerly, member of the Czechoslovak Federal ParliamentAnd take Ilona Ferkova. She's a different person. She learned to discuss things in a way that makes people who don't know her pay attention to her: they think that she is a highly educated person. She - [To get people to talk to each other](https://stories-exchange.org/interviews/to-get-people-to-talk-to-each-other/) - New York, USADecember 9, 1995Robbie McCauleyPlaywright, director, actorIn America I had been working with black and white people trying to get them to talk to each other. We came up with stories as a way to get people to talk to each other.When I came to Prague, I became interested in doing the same thing - [Most people condemn things they know nothing about](https://stories-exchange.org/interviews/most-people-condemn-things-they-know-nothing-about/) - Irena Martinkova, a teacher, and her students at Jan Patocka Grammar School, Praguein conversation withGabina Setunska, Prague Coordinator of the Stories Exchange Project[Since February 2001 students at the Jan Patocka Grammar School have participated in the Stories Exchange Project. Irena Martinkova received her diploma at the Technology Faculty in Prague and teaches chemistry and informatics - [Interviews](https://stories-exchange.org/interviews/) - [It was finding another kind of theater](https://stories-exchange.org/interviews/it-was-finding-another-kind-of-theater/) - New York, USADecember 9, 1995Robbie McCauleyPlaywright, director, actorWith the stories, we find a way to tellthem that is dynamic, where the person who is telling it is present. We use as much energy as possible in the telling. It is not story-theater in the sense that we try to show every moment, but we are - [I can be proud that I am Gypsy](https://stories-exchange.org/interviews/i-can-be-proud-that-i-am-gypsy/) - Ethela FerkovaRokycany, Czech RepublicMarch 25, 1996When my mother told me that grandmother was in the camp, I went to grandmother. I said, "I want to know your story. Could you tell me about this? Grandmother, you have to tell me something about how it was in Plovic."My grandmother told me: "We didn't know why they - [I have to understand the other person](https://stories-exchange.org/interviews/i-have-to-understand-the-other-person/) - Rokycany, Czech RepublicFebruary 24, 1996Ondrej GinaDirector for the Czech Republic, Romani National Congress;formerly, member of the Czechoslovak Federal ParliamentWhen we were working at the Roxy [an experimental theater space in Prague where the script developed by the Stories Exchange Project was performed in October, 1995], it was a really tiring job that demanded a lot - [I lived the stories](https://stories-exchange.org/interviews/i-lived-the-stories/) - Rokycany, Czech RepublicFebruary 24, 1996Ilona Ferkova,Writer; Coordinator, Rokycany Roman-Czech KindergartenI used to hear these stories since I was a little girl. I was told them by my granny. But they were not whole stories: they were only pieces, fragments. And when I was a little girl I wasn't able to imagine the settlement with Germans - [Finally she realized that she was Rom](https://stories-exchange.org/interviews/finally-she-realized-that-she-was-rom/) - Rokycany, Czech RepublicFebruary 24, 1996Ilona Ferkova,Writer; Coordinator, Rokycany Roman-Czech KindergartenWe didn't know Ethela this way, did we, Ondrej? I'm her own mother, but I've never known her this way before. She has changed incredibly, her way of thinking. I don't know if I told you, but whenever she spoke about Roms, there was a certain - [I got involved](https://stories-exchange.org/interviews/i-got-involved/) - Rokycany, Czech RepublicFebruary 24, 1996Ondrej Gina Jr. currently (1999) news announcer, CzechTelevisionI see things very differently than I saw them two of three years ago. Three years ago I definitely didn't like things that were happening to Roms, their position in society and so on, but I didn't know how to influence the situation: how - [Stories Exchange Project, Czech Republic 1994-1997](https://stories-exchange.org/history/stories-exchange-project-czech-republic-1994-1997/) - Organized by The Fund for New Performance/Video, New York in cooperation with the Tolerance Foundation, Prague1. BackgroundTheater is a powerful tool that can come to grips with deep-rooted social attitudes not easily influenced by public policy-making. It can act as a forum for the safe exchange of contending ideas and conflicting emotions. It can even - [Stories Exchange Project, Hungary 1995-1997](https://stories-exchange.org/history/stories-exchange-project-hungary-1995-1997/) - Following the October, 1995 Prague workshop "European Partnerships for Inter-Ethnic Dialogue" (see "History: Stories Exchange Project, Czech Republic 1994-1997") the Fund for New Performance/Video began to work on a Hungarian adaptation of the Stories Exchange Project with a new organization founded by the Institute for EastWest Studies, the Carpathian Foundation-- then known as the Fund - [Stories Exchange Project, Czech Republic 1999-2000](https://stories-exchange.org/history/stories-exchange-project-czech-republic-1999-2000/) - I.On 7 June 1999 Karol Sidon, Chief Rabbi of Bohemia and Moravia, spoke with two participants in the Stories Exchange Project: Ondrej Gina, Director of the Romany National Congress in the Czech Republic, and Ilona Ferkova, an internationally recognized Romany writer who later in 1999 emigrated from the Czech Republic to seek political asylum in - [After ten we couldn't speak](https://stories-exchange.org/interviews/after-ten-we-couldnt-speak/) - New York, USADecember 9, 1995IPrague, Czech RepublicOctober 28, 1994Robbie McCauleyPlaywright, director, actorI believe white is a condition that anyone can take in. It causes one to feel superior in order to be okay.You know, we lived in a neighborhood back then down south that had black people and white people, back when they had signs - [Circles of Friends](https://stories-exchange.org/history/circles-of-friends/) - John W. ErwinDirectorThe Stories Exchange ProjectI.October 28, 1994: at a National Day rally in Prague's Old Town Square three thousand right wing extremists howled hatred against foreigners. The roar drowned out tributes to President Tomas G. Masaryk, who founded Czechoslavia in 1918 as a model for multicultural democracy in Central Europe.But the same evening at - [Review of Activities 2000-2001 (Part One)](https://stories-exchange.org/history/review-of-activities-2000-2001-part-one/) - John W. ErwinProject Director18 August 2001I. IntroductionIn cooperation with NGOs, schools, communities, and businesses throughout the Czech Republic and several European partners, the Stories Exchange Project is responding to-- and actively interrelating-- two urgent problems in post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe: A. Political economic, social and cultural disenfranchisement of minorities;B. Low levels of literacy in - [Review of Activities 2000-2001 (Part Two)](https://stories-exchange.org/history/review-of-activities-2000-2001-part-two/) - E. Workshop IV: 10-11 April 2000 Participants reviewed their recent work, both within the Project and in other local community development projects. One Romany participant from Usti nad Labem told about a dramatic change in his relationship with his father which came about because of his becoming known in his community for gathering stories in - [Review of Activities 2000-2001 (Part Three)](https://stories-exchange.org/history/review-of-activities-2000-2001-part-three/) - I. Project Activities, August-September 20001. Stories Cafe-Tent Main Square Usti nad Labem 2-4 August 2000Proposing a constructive alternative to the wall between Czech and Romany residents of Maticni Street in Usti, the Stories Exchange Project put up a cafe-tent on the main square. A large banner advertised this Web-site: WWW.STORIES-EXCHANGE.ORG A hundred-odd Czech and Romany - [Review of Activities 2000-200l (Part Four)](https://stories-exchange.org/history/review-of-activities-2000-200l-part-four/) - 7. Discussion EastWest Institute Prague 24 September 2000Carlos Braga, Manager of the Information for Development Program at the World Bank, primary funder of this phase of the Stories Exchange Project, and Eleanor Fink of the World Bank Development Gateways project came to the EastWest Institute to discuss the project with Institute and Project staff and - [Review of Activities 2000-2001 (Part Five)](https://stories-exchange.org/history/review-of-activities-2000-2001-part-five/) - K. Evaluation and Project Integration: A New Old Story By gathering stories in Brno and presenting and discussing them in Prague, Terezin, Usti nad Labem, London and Vienna the organizers of the Drom recording studio learned to cooperate with diverse communities. But it was the frank and honest presentation in EastWest Institute workshops of misunderstandings - [History](https://stories-exchange.org/history/) ## Categories - [Uncategorized](https://stories-exchange.org/category/uncategorized/) - [News](https://stories-exchange.org/category/news/) - [Stories & Responses](https://stories-exchange.org/category/stories-and-responses/) - [Being a Citizen](https://stories-exchange.org/category/stories-and-responses/being-a-citizen/) - [The Holocaust](https://stories-exchange.org/category/stories-and-responses/the-holocaust/) - [The Broken Mirror](https://stories-exchange.org/category/stories-and-responses/the-broken-mirror/) - [Meeting Others](https://stories-exchange.org/category/stories-and-responses/meeting-others/) - [Learning](https://stories-exchange.org/category/stories-and-responses/learning/) - [Working](https://stories-exchange.org/category/stories-and-responses/working/) - [Being Myself](https://stories-exchange.org/category/stories-and-responses/being-myself/)