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 […]
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. My father […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. But […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
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