PG and Bill Shipsey, photographed in London, September 2024 by York Tillyer.
Peter was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Vaclav Havel Center‘s annual gala on 25 September, at the Bohemian National Hall, in New York.
Peter was not able to attend in person, but was filmed receiving the award by Bill Shipsey in London. Laurie Anderson presented the award at the event itself.
The Vaclav Havel Center is a nonprofit organization established in the United States to honour, preserve, and build upon the legacy of playwright, dissident, and former President of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel. The Center promotes democratic freedoms, universal human rights, and the power of the arts to uplift and transform our lives in the spirit of Vaclav Havel.
The theme of this year’s Gala was “Bridge for Hope,” with the aim to promote unity and encourage dialogue in our world at a time of unprecedented polarization and division.
Alongside the presentation of the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ to Peter, the Vaclav Havel Center ‘Disturbing the Peace’ Award to a Courageous Writer at Risk was jointly awarded to Arundhati Roy & Toomaj Salehi, whilst the Presentation of the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association Award for ‘Unparalleled Service to the Czech and Slovak Communities’ went to Martina Navratilova.
