Ráday Salon

Photos and audio from Roma Rights Salon

 We've posted a new photo album with a few pictures from our last official Salon of the spring -- our Roma Rights salon on June 12, with special guest Mr. Larry Olomoofe, Director of Human Rights Education at the European Roma Rights Centre.

Also, with many thanks to our good friend JD, we also have audio of the event, available below. JD has divided the audio into different sections, but if you notice, the last player link contains the full unedited file. Enjoy!

Introduction to the Raday Salon by Michael Simmons

Introduction of Larry Olomoofe by Michael Simmons

Larry Olomoofe speaks

Questions and Answers with Larry Olomoofe

Full length and unedited Raday Salon Night

• .mp3 + .ogg audio files hosted at Archive.org
• recorded and edited by http://LMV.hu/redjade

Further reading on abortion in Argentina

Maria Lis Baiocchi, who discussed the criminalization of abortion in Argentina at our last Salon, was kind enough to pass along a few links for those who are interested in learning more about the topic. First, she directs us to a report from Human Rights Watch -- Decisions Denied: Women's Access to Contraceptives and Abortion in Argentina, which can be downloaded or read online at the Human Rights Watch website. Those who read Spanish (or are familiar with online translation tools such as Google Translate :o) ) may also want to take a look at despenalizacion.org.ar and abortolegal.com.ar.

Photos from "Women's Rights Are Human Rights" Salon

We've posted a new photo album on the blog with pictures from our "Women's Rights Are Human Rights" Salon.  Enjoy!

US Elections Salon featured on McDaniel College website

Those of you who were able to join us for our Nov. 25th Salon, in which we looked back on the issues raised by the 2008 US Presidential Election, know we owe a great round of applause to the McDaniel College students who so capably led four simultaneous discussions on topics they chose and prepared. We give our warm thanks to the students - Orsolya Bader, Chelsea Blair, Laura Kim, Estefania Luraschi, John Meyers, Jason Norton, Joseph Ogundipe, Philipp Sigrist, and Jenai Towuru. Some of the students will soon be returning to the US campus of McDaniel College. We wish them the very best in their future endeavors -- and they will be missed in Budapest!

Our Salon was featured on the McDaniel College website, in an article with a brief summary and photos. You can also view more photos of the Elections salon on our own photo album.

Ráday Salon on Funzine

Our October 30, 2008 Salon evening, which included a screening of the documentary film Freedom's Fury and a discussion on the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, was featured in a story on the website of the Budapest Funzine, one of our favorite sources of English-language information in Budapest.   Click the picture to read the story (with photos!).

1956 Hungarian Revolution Salon -- audio

Dear friends,

We know it's been a long time since you've heard from us, but, as often happens, holiday plans and long-distance travel have intervened to keep the Salon on hold.  But fear not!  We expect to be coming back with our next event in a few weeks.

In the meantime, we do have something new to offer you.  Thanks again to our wonderful friend JD, we now have audio available of our last Salon, in which our friend Gaston Vadász shared his recollections of witnessing and experiencing the 1956 Hungarian Revolution first-hand as a youngster in Budapest.  The feedback we have received about this Salon has been overwhelming -- Gaston thoroughly captivated the crowd with his vivid and moving retelling of the events he lived through, starting with the first spontaneous gatherings on the streets, and leading up to his furtive escape with his mother over the border to Austria across an open field in the middle of the night.

We have two versions of the audio available:  the short version (approx. 30 mins) contains only the main part of Gaston's presentation; whereas the long verson (approx. 1 hr 30 mins) contains Gaston's presentation plus all the discussion that followed, which includes comments and recollections of the events from others as well.  (Also, the story of the midnight border crossing is in this longer version, as it comes up in the discussion section.)

To download the audio, right click on the desired link and select "Save Target As...."  From there you may select the location where you would like to save the file.  To listen online right now, simply (left-)click on the link.

Short version (presentation only) [mp3, 13 MB]
Long version (presentation with discussion)  [mp3, 46 MB]

1956 Hungarian Revolution Salon -- photos

Our thanks to all who made our last Salon evening such a success! It was so nice for us to have a very full house after such a long hiatus.  And we are greatly indebted to Gaston for his captivating re-telling of his experiences in 1956.  It was an evening none of us will soon forget!

We hope to see you all again before long - either for another Salon or just informally.  In the meantime, we invite you to visit our photo album for the Nov. 2 Salon. Enjoy!

New! Audio from last Salon

Thanks to our friend JD, we have a special feature to offer -- an audio recording of our last Salon, featuring the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union.  In case you didn't make it, or in case you just want to re-visit the evening, you can now download the audio recording in mp3 format and listen to the discussion at your own convenience.  (To download and save the file, right-click the link and select "Save Target As...". File size: approx. 22MB.  Length of audio:  approx. 1hr 35min.)

Back for a new season (plus, new photos!)

Dear friends,

Yes, we're still here.  After an extended summer hiatus the Ráday Salon blog is back!  With many apologies for our extended period of silence, occasioned largely by serious technical difficulties on our end (read: near-catastrophic and still not perfectly resolved computer crash). 

We've had several inquiries from friends new and old, wondering when they'd be seeing a new Salon event.  Well, rest assured, we are working hard on pulling together the first event of Fall 2006.  We are most grateful for your patience and hope to be able to announce a date very, very soon.

In the meantime, we're getting caught up on a couple things we lost track of before we lost our minds to the summer heat. :o) To start you off, we have photos from our last Salon, at which Balázs Dénes and Eszter Csernus of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union gave a presentation on civil rights issues in Hungary.  (You can also find the photos by clicking the link in the Salon Photos menu to the left.)

Enjoy!

Photos from recent Salons

Many thanks to all of you who attended the June 1st showing of Aishah Shahidah Simmons’ documentary film NO!. The event attracted a wide group of people – not just old friends but also some new faces – and the film itself generated an extremely active and spirited discussion, which lasted well after the end of the film. You can get a sense of just how much people were involved in the discussion from the photos, available here or by clicking the link in the Salon Photos menu to the left.

Also newly available in the Salon Photos section are a (very) few photos from our first Salon of the new cycle, when we showed the film Murder on a Sunday Morning.