NY: Bohemian Hall or Czech Center? / NY: Bohemka nebo Narodni budova?

New York has two friendly rivals: the Bohemian Hall of Astonia and the National building belonging to the Czech center. Both are very active in promoting the Czech culture. So, what is the difference between these two “sisters”?

Bohemian Hall:

• has a greater history; it’s been around since 1920’s, entertaining the Czech community of Manhattan
• It has a Czech restaurant (hmm….) serving traditional Czech cuisine, Czech beer and even Czech music
• One of the trees in the Bohemian Hall garden was planted by Vaclav Havel himself
• it is a home of Czech and Slovak school which currently enrolls about 60 children
• Activities planed for the future are:
  • October Fest
  • Wine Fest
  • Polk Fest
  • St. Nicolas Day (Mikulase)
  • New Year’s Party (Silvestr)

National Building:

• had just been finished
• is owned by the Czech government (via the Czech Center of NY)
• is more fancy; can afford to host activities such as plays performed by the National Theater (of Prague) acting crew

Which of the “rival sisters” do you like better?? I vote for the Bohemian Hall…


CZ: New York je domovem dvou rivalu (nebo rivalek?): Bohemky a Narodni budovy, ktera je vlastnena Ceskym Centrem (NY). Obe jsou velmi aktivni v prosazovani ceske kultury. Tak jaky je mezi nimi rozdil??

Bohemka:

• ma delsi historii; bavi Manhattanske Cechy jiz od 20. let
• ma tradicni ceskou restauraci, kde se serviruje pouze ceske pivo za doprovodu autenticke ceske hudby
• jeden ze stromu v zahrade Bohemky byl zasazen samotnym Vaclavem Havlem
• vlastni Ceskou a Slovenskou skolu, ktera nyni uci kolem 60-ti deti
• Akce planovane do budoucnosti jsou:
  • podzimni festival
  • vinobrani
  • festival polky
  • Den Sv. Mikulase
  • Silvestr

Narodni Budova:

• byla pred nedavnem dokoncena
• je vlasntena Ceskou repulikou skrze Ceske Centrum v New Yorku
• je “bohatsi”, tzn. ze si muze dovolit poradat akce jako bylo predstaveni Sluhy dvou panu hrane herci samotneho Narodniho Divadla

Ktera rivalka se vam zamlouva lepe?? Me osobne sedi vic Bohemka…

Source: interview with Peter Bisek, president of the Bohemian Hall (http://krajane.radio.cz/cs/article_detail/1052)