Zabuzhko, Znak, Livaneli, Shipsey, Kangarani: The Weight of Hope?

Where do we find hope in a world that seems hopeless today? Václav Havel's ideas and his legacy for the modern world, seen through the eyes of foreign dissidents, writers, and artists.

The debate takes place on the eve of what would have been his 90th birthday. Participants include Belarusian dissident Maxim Znak, Turkish composer and writer Zülfü Livaneli, and Irish human rights activist and lawyer Bill Shipsey. The discussion is moderated by Iranian artist Azadeh Kangarani.

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Azadeh Kangarani is an Iranian theatre director, performer, and dramaturg. She was born and raised in Iran, where she studied dramaturgy. She left Tehran for Dubai, and later spent many years in Prague - studying film and theatre direction, and teaching at the Department of Iranian Studies at Charles University's Faculty of Arts. In her work, she combines personal experience with themes of identity, migration, gender, silence, and intercultural understanding. She is the author of autobiographical one-woman shows My Pink Labyrinth (2016) and Strung Up at the Airport (2017). In recent years, she has organized debates in the USA and Europe devoted to Václav Havel's ideas and legacy. Most recently, she directed Havel's play Vernisáž (1975) in Pittsburgh as part of the Samizdat project of the Bricolage Production Company theatre group.

Zülfü Livaneli is a Turkish writer, musician, film director, and public intellectual, and one of the most widely read contemporary Turkish authors - his novels have been published in dozens of languages. In his work, he interweaves the fates of characters with the political and historical turning points of modern Turkey. His works Štěstí (2008) and Serenáda (2013) have been published in Czech. For his literary work, he has received, among other awards, the Orhan Kemal Novel Prize and the Balkan Literary Award. In Turkey, he is also recognized as a songwriter: he has written over two hundred songs, many of which became folk songs and were performed by Joan Baez, Maria Farantouri, and Udo Lindenberg. Because of his political views, he was imprisoned in the 1970s and spent part of his life in exile.

Bill Shipsey is an Irish human rights activist, organizer of artistic events, and former lawyer. He founded the organization Art for Human