October 30th: The Croatian Evening -- MIT Student Center, Lobdell Hall

Stratton Student Center

MIT Building W20, Lobdell Hall

Street Address:  84 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Public parking is available on the street in Cambridge on Sundays or check the MIT map at:  http://whereis.mit.edu/

6:00pm The US Book Introduction, MIT Student Center, Lobdell Hall: 

An official introduction to the US audience of a recently published monograph titled “A Fairy Called the Viceroy over the Mountain of Vran” (a first verse of a poem from Konjic), which is coauthored by Fra. Zvonko Martic and Mr. Vido Bagur. Mr. Bagur is visiting Boston and we’ll have a conversation with him about the research project that resulted in this book/dvd.  The monography is focused on the traditions of folk costumes, songs and dances of the Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina. (It is the first one of a three-part project of documenting various cultures in Bosnia and Herzegovina.)  The collection of the costumes, songs and dances took over four years, and in addition to publishing the book accompanied with DVDs, exhibits were organized in Zagreb and Paris. The project was sponsored and supported by both the Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatian government entities and cultural organizations, such as the Ministry of Culture of Croatia, the Parliament of the county of Herzeg-Bosna, the Carmelite Province of St. Joseph and the Croatian National Dance Ensemble Lado, among others.  More about the project at Croatian Heritage Foundation website:  http://www.matis.hr/vijesti.php?id=3707

QUOTE from the book introduction in Croatia:  “Ethnologists Zvonko Martić and Vidoslav Vido Bagur's book “Vila bana zvala priko Vrana” (The Fairy Called the Ban Over Vrana) was presented at the Croatian Heritage Foundation headquarters in Zagreb. Many were on hand for the promotion including leading figures in Croatian and Bosnia-Herzegovina society. CHF director Katarina Fuček, the book's reviewers Nevena Škrbić Alempijević from the ethnology and cultural anthropology department of the University of Zagreb's Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and Joško Ćaleta, a renowned ethnomusicologist from Zagreb's Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research, spoke about the book. This bilingual ethnological study (in Croatian and English) on 200 pages, with numerous photographs from authentic rural and urban locations, also includes a double digital media featuring the images and sounds of folk songs and dances of Croatians from across Bosnia-Herzegovina, which makes it currently the foremost publishing undertaking in the field of traditional culture in this part of Southeast Europe. Joško Ćaleta noted that the book's title is from the opening line of a folk melody from the Konjic area, symbolising the integrity of Bosnia-Herzegovina's cultural space.”

7:30pm:  refreshments – croatian food