Marie Provaznikova with her Sokol brothers
A tribute to Marie Provaznikova, a visionary innovator in international women's gymnastics, progressive Czechoslovak Sokol leader, and powerful proponent of women's rights. Artist Anna VA Polesny, Marie Provaznikova’s granddaughter, and playwright Petr Dudek will be in conversation with historians, colleagues, family members, and friends remembering and celebrating the life and work of this extraordinary woman.
When President of the Women's Technical Committee of the International Gymnastics Federation, Marie Provanizkova (1890-1991) led the Czechoslovak gymnastic team to a gold medal at the 1948 London Olympics and became one of the first political defectors at the games. A victim of the Cold War, Provaznikova continued dedicating her life to democracy and the survival of Sokol ideals, tirelessly working in the United States until her death at the age of 100. She received the French Legion of Honor for her work.
Sokol Marie Provaznikova
Participants will include: historians Harry Blutstein (Cold War Olympics), Peter Paul Dusek, Jr. (Marie Provazníková: Her life and Contributions to International Gymnastics), Vaclav Sotola (The Struggles, and Development of the Women's Sokol Movement as illustrated by the Life of Marie Provaznikova, 1996), Robert Tomanek (Czech Immigrants and the Sokol Movement, 2021), Milan Kocourek (BBC, reporter), Jean Hruby (Sokol USA president), Norma Zabka (Sokol NY president and U.S. Gymnastics Hall of Fame Inductee), Katerina Pohlova and Martin Klement (Sokol archivists in Prague), and family members and other colleagues.
Sokol celebrates its 160th anniversary this year! Sokol was founded on the philosophy that physically fit, mentally alert and culturally developed people can make a nation strong. The word “sokol” translates to “falcon” and is symbolic of the Sokol ideals: Courage, Strength, Endurance, Fraternalism, Love of democratic principles, and Pride in the country.
MODERATORS
Anna VA Polesny, native of Mlada Boleslav, is a granddaughter of Marie Provaznikova. After the communist putsch in 1948, her family left Czechoslovakia, lived as refugees in Germany, West Pakistan, and ultimately came to the United States to join Provaznikova in NYC. The family settled in Flushing, NY, and became members of the local Sokol community. Anna studied Art History at the University of Michigan and received her MS, degrees from SUNY, Albany and MFA from Rochester Institute of Technology. Anna is an accomplished visual artist using materials, words and images to convey thoughts, make statements and engage the imagination. Her work has been exhibited in major museums and recently featured at the Bellevue Art Museum, the Museum of Art and Design in NYC and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where she is represented in the permanent collection. Anna has three grown children and lives with her husband in Northampton, MA.
Petr Dudek is a Prague-based radio journalist in charge of special broadcasts at the Czech Radio (Radiožurnál and Radio Plus). Before joining the Czech Radio, he worked at the Czech Tyden (Week) magazine, Lidové noviny daily and the Czech BBC in London. Dudek studied Czech and English at Charles University in Prague. After the Velvet Revolution, he taught briefly at the university’s Department of English and studied one year as a graduate student at the University of Illinois in Chicago. He is the author of two excellent radio plays about Marie Provaznikova: Falcon’s flight/Vzletem sokolím 1948 and Vzletem sokolím 1968.
Free and open to the public. Suggested donation $5. RSVP through Eventbrite to receive the Zoom link.
For more information about the event and the guests, visit www.svu200.org/newyork.
This event is organized by Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU), New York Chapter, in collaboration with Czech Sokol (Česká obec sokolská) with the support of the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association in New York.