BBLA Commentary on Current Events

Dear Friends of BBLA, Supporters, and Neighbors,

I am taking this opportunity to communicate about an upcoming rental event involving an outside group known as Moms For Liberty.

For the past 130 years, BBLA has successfully supported Czech and Slovak heritage using the Bohemian National Hall as our cultural platform. Tens of thousands of people have enjoyed and appreciated the work done by our small staff and us, a group of enthusiastic volunteers running the various programs.

During the year, we occasionally rent space to other independent organizations, schools, companies, and concert promoters, with whom we have no affiliation. We have never had a mechanism in place to pre-screen event sponsors and never felt the need to do so.

Beginning of January, our staff rented one of our smaller rooms to a group called Moms for Liberty, for a three-hour window, and inadvertently stirred up quite a bit of controversy. I am sure you can appreciate that it feels like our peaceful existence was hit with a tornado when an avalanche of letters and calls commenting on the event started landing on us. Naturally, members of our community, as well as representatives of the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs (our partner in the building), were alarmed by the notoriety of the event.

Based on strong and thorough advice from our counsel, we concluded that we are not in any position to break the contract. Notably, some who initially reached out to us requesting that we cancel the event now strongly recommend we let it pass, thus not giving legitimacy to it by attempting cancellation. We are also very grateful to many of our regular visitors for their kind words throughout this and for their understanding.

We are a completely apolitical organization concentrating on cultural performances, and – this particular group clearly does not fit our strong non-political stance. Be aware that BBLA is neither organizing, hosting, nor supporting this specific rental event. Furthermore, as a first-generation immigrant who years ago escaped a dictatorship and absolute censorship, I am personally very sensitive to concepts like book banning, thought, and expression controls, and so on, which this highly politically charged turmoil around this event brings out.

I will personally match the rental fee BBLA received for this event, and this “double-sum” will be donated to one of our organizations which actively supports young, future leaders. I trust and hope that the leaders of the next generations will shape a world where personal freedoms, truth, freedom of expression, and dialogue will be unshaken.

On behalf of the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association, I thank you for your continuous support and for sharing your thoughts, ideas, and wisdom with us during these challenging days. We cannot wait to return to fulfilling our core mission of producing beautiful programs. 

Joseph Balaz, President
Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association