Ing. Jarmila Levko

* 1969

  • "When it burst here in Liberec, or it was just starting here, it was basically Saturday night, so I didn't call my mother, I didn't call my father, I called my grandmother and grandfather to Slatina, I thought they would be very happy, because in 1969 they were for those ideals, believing that we would make it. But they were not happy about it, they learned from everything that it brought them. After a moment of silence, they began to persuade me to come home, that we would sew something nice for ourselves, that we would bake buns, so that I wouldn't get involved in anything. It was clear that they had the experience. I was expecting the excitement that it would come now, and it was the other way around, which is why it must take some time for the next generation to dive headfirst.”

  • "As I was going to Prague to the DISK theatre for a strike committee, so various personalities went there to support us, it was very nice to meet them, famous actors went there to greet us. Karel Kryl came, of course we loved all his songs, so I thought: 'It would be so great if he could come to Liberec.' So, I came to him and told him that there was a lot of it all in Prague, what supports the students, but that there is not much in the countryside, and if he would come to Liberec. And he said, "I would, you're right, there's a lot here." So, he canceled what he had the next day at three faculties in Prague and went to Liberec."

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    Liberec, 29.06.2021

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I asked Karel Kryl to play for the students in Liberec. And he came.

Jarmila Levko Pešlová at the age of 18 in a picture from the university student´s record book (year 1987)
Jarmila Levko Pešlová at the age of 18 in a picture from the university student´s record book (year 1987)
photo: archive of Jarmila Levko

She was born on May 14, 1969 as Jarmila Pešlová in Valtice in southern Moravia, and moved to Turnov with her mother at the age of two. She entered the fourth grade in Semily, where her mother got a job at the district national committee. She sang in the Jizerka children’s choir, and after entering the textile high school, she was accepted by the Uherkas couple to join the Severáček ensemble. After graduating, she started studying economics and management at the University of Mechanical Engineering and Textiles from September 1987. In November 1989, she joined the striking students and traveled on behalf of the Liberec Strike Committee to Prague for nationwide meetings. On one of them, she asked the singer Karel Kryl to come to Liberec. On December 6, 1989, he really performed in Liberec. After graduating from VŠST (the University of Mechanical Engineering and Textiles), she worked in the textile field, and later she worked as a moderator for Radio Contact Liberec. From 1998 to 2003, she was the director of the Jablonec Exhibition Center. After maternity leave, she worked in the Liberec newsroom of Czech Radio. Since 2011 she worked at the F. X. Šalda Theater, since 2014 she was the director of the theatre. In February 2022 she became a Member of Parliament.