Jaroslav Erik Frič, a Czech poet, musician, publisher and organiser of
underground culture festivals during communism, died on Friday at the age
of 70.
A polyglot, he travelled extensively throughout Western Europe in 1968,
before the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia, working as a busker.
Unwilling to collaborate with the regime in any way, he worked published
samizdat poems and other texts while working as a waiter.
Soon after the Velvet Revolution of 1989, he founded the Votobia publishing
house. In later years, he founded NGOs to help racial, ethnic and religious
minorities.
Since 2000, he had also organised an annual poetry festival in Brno.