Armenian studies in the heart of the Armenian diocese
Come together tonight Thursday, September 21st, at 5:00pm for a community gathering in St. Vartan Cathedral, in light of the crisis in Artsakh. The gathering will go forward under the auspices of Fr. Mesrop Parsamyan and Archbishop Anoushavan Tanielian.
Afterwards, come down to Guild Hall for a Zohrab Center sponsored book release event, with Christopher Atamian presenting his translation of a new novel by Denis Donikian.
The Zohrab center invites you to a book presentation and reading from Christopher Atamian’s newly-released translation of the novel Trashland by Denis Donikian in Guild Hall at the Diocesan Center on Thursday, September 21st at 7:00pm. (This event is rescheduled from July).
Trashland starts off with its hero Gam—which in Armenian means both “I exist” and “or else”—a clever play on words, standing atop a hill as he relieves himself on the Armenian capital of Yerevan below. Once a muckraking journalist nicknamed “The Hedgehog,” Gam fled a life-shattering earthquake in his home city of Gyumri into a life of subsistence, living in a small hut near the garbage dump. Trashland offers an insider’s view of an often-insular society. As a diasporan Armenian, the author Denis Donikian writes from a privileged vantage point. Playing devil’s advocate, he has superseded the expectations assigned to diasporans as cash cows to be bilked for imaginary projects or retirees who come to spend their hard-earned money in their golden years. To cross this line, one must love one’s people and community. To lay bare its deepest wounds and expose its most deep-seated corruption—those are the signs of a true patriot and humanist. Few novels deliver quite such acerbic, and at times lively societal criticism. Trashland serves as a dirge to a country abandoned to its worst tendencies.
To read an article about the book, click here. To purchase a copy, click here.
Christopher Atamian is a writer, translator, filmmaker, curator, and critic who has written for leading publications, including The New York Times, The Huffington Post, The Brooklyn Rail, and Hyperallergic. He is the former Dance critic for The New York Press and Co-Editor and Publisher of KGB Magazine. He has curated both art and film, including 12 exhibitions for the non-profit Nor Alik, which he also founded. He co-created Atamian Hovsepian Curatorial Practice (AHCP) with a focus on experimental and conceptual art by underrepresented voices. He has published six books, and edited art catalogues and books. A graduate of Harvard University and Columbia Business School, he has been the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship at the ETH Zürich, a Bronfman Scholarship in Democratic Enterprise, two Tölölyan Literary Prizes and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. He has been nominated for a National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize.
The Zohrab Information Center cordially invites you to attend the Vemkar Zoom lecture series, entitled “Entering the World, Mind, and Soul of St. Nersess Shnorhali.” Organized in commemoration of the 850th anniversary of the saint’s repose and in response to the pontifical encyclical of His Holiness Karekin II issued earlier this year (ARM ENG), the lecture series begins a week from today on Tuesday, August 22nd at 7:00pm ET and runs six consecutive Tuesday evenings through September 26th.
Please register in advance for the Zoom lecture series.
A flyer with the speaker and title info for each session is available below:
The Zohrab Center’s 2023 Lily E. Jelalian summer internship program came to a successful conclusion on Thursday, July 27th. Two high school and two college interns assisted with coordinating donations to the library and processing and cataloging Armenian-related books and periodicals in Armenian, English, Turkish, Russian, Spanish, and Italian, as well as organizing the library’s space and its holdings to make it more functional. All together, over 500 new items were processed and added to the collection, where they are now searchable via the library’s online catalog.
Working under the guidance of director, Dr. Jesse S. Arlen, and special projects coordinator and cataloger, Arthur Ipek, each intern also had a special project they pursued, meant to give them an opportunity to foster and develop their own interests in Armenian culture, history, language, and literature.
Armen Karakashian, a Mathematics major at Rutgers University, where he is also taking classes in Western Armenian, translated the beginning of a novella by Matteos Mamurean and developed a prototype for an AI-based software to assist in the cataloging of books.
Luiza Ghazaryan, a Neuroscience major at NYU, who is also pursuing minors in Creative Writing and Chemistry, translated Eastern Armenian poetry and short stories to English. Three of her translations were published on the Armenian Poetry Project‘s website: My Serene Evenfall by Vahan Teryan; Vernal Equinox by Hovhannes Shiraz; You Are Everything by Hovhannes Shiraz.
Tessa Dadourian Weber, a high school student at Poly Prep in Brooklyn, learned the Armenian alphabet and researched the Kütahya/Jerusalem Ottoman Armenian ceramics and pottery tradition, which she plans to apply in her own ceramics practice.
Aren Yegoryan, a high school student at Saint Demetrios Prep in Queens, researched the history of modern Armenian photography.
Over the course of the internship program, the interns also visited and received private tours at the Atamian Hovsepian Art Gallery and Cultural Space and The Morgan Library and Museum, and also met by Zoom with Dean V. Shahinian, who generously funded the Lily E. Jelalian summer internship program in loving memory of his aunt.
Each of the interns had an opportunity to reflect on their own experience working at the Zohrab Center.
Armen Karakashian: “I am incredibly grateful for my internship at the Zohrab Center. The internship provided me with the opportunity to continue learning the Armenian language in new and challenging ways, such as interpreting Armenian texts for cataloguing purposes and being introduced to the Eastern Armenian dialect. In addition to cataloguing books, I also practiced translating chapters from the novella Ամիս մը Ծովուն Վրայ by Մատթէոս Մամուրեան (A Month on the Sea by Matteos Mamurean) and programmed a prototype AI-based software to assist in the cataloguing of books. I was also exposed to many Armenians throughout the cathedral and the center who speak the language fluently, which greatly assisted in my own learning of the language.”
Luiza Ghazaryan: “Interning at the Zohrab Information Center gave me the opportunity to be closer to the treasures of Armenian literature, history, and art. During my time as an intern, my mentors and peers inspired me to explore the beauty of my roots, strengthen my skills in Creative Writing, and publish translations of Armenian poems in The Armenian Poetry Project. I spent most of my time cataloging the donated books and in this very captivating process, I encountered new writing styles and forms of art, and learned more about talented Armenians.”
Tessa Dadourian Weber: “During my time spent at the Zohrab Center this summer, I completed various projects and tasks. One reason I became interested in working and researching at the center was to expand my knowledge on Armenian pottery. Next year I plan to engage in an independent study at my school on Armenian pottery. Having the opportunity and access to the Zohrab Center has allowed me to gain a basis of understanding on how these vessels were created and the history behind them. I plan to take what I have learned to my study where I aim to use the same techniques as used in the Ottoman Armenian tradition from Kütahya and Jerusalem. In addition to my research, I spent time at the center helping organize the periodicals, some dating back to the mid-nineteenth century. Sorting through different series of periodicals, for example Hoosharar, broadened my prior knowledge on different subjects, for instance the history of AGBU. Lastly, I spent time studying the Armenian alphabet so I would have the ability to read titles of books and periodicals located in the center.”
Aren Yegoryan: “During my time at the Zohrab Center, I assisted in processing, cataloging, and organizing Armenian books. It was a pleasant experience to participate in as a summer job. It provided a sense of responsibility and gave me my first work experience, which I’m sure will help me with my future endeavors. Being exposed to many different books, people, and information, the environment was great to work in, and I’d certainly do it again.”
The Zohrab Center’s 2023 Lily E. Jelalian summer internship program lasted for six weeks, from June 19th to July 27th, with the interns coming to work in person at the Center three days per week.
The Diocesan Center will host the New York debut of a documentary film, The Mystery of Honey Bee Society, on Friday, July 21, at 7 p.m., in Haik & Alice Kavookjian Auditorium (630 Second Ave., New York).
The film is by an Armenian production team led by longtime public servant Gagik Harutyunyan: the former President of Armenia’s Constitutional Court, who has devoted his retirement from public life to apiculture: the study and care of bees. It describes the intricacies of bee society, and warns about the danger of a possible extinction of bee species.
Click the following links to watch the film trailer on YouTube, and learn more about the project on its website. You can also download a sample of the book by Mr. Harutyunyan, on which the documentary is based.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, the book presentation scheduled for July 6th at the Zohrab Center will be postponed to the Fall. A new date will be announced later in the summer. We apologize for any inconvenience.
St. Nersess Armenian Seminary Professor Dr. Roberta R. Ervine will lead a virtual pilgrimage to Mt. Tabor to celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration. This free Zoom live session will take place on July 15, 2023 at 7:00pm.
To register, go to https://tinyurl.com/2kbp8dtw
To learn more about this and other virtual and in-person pilgrimages to Jerusalem, visit: holylandlights.com
Atamian Hovsepian Curatorial Practice is pleased to present a bilingual reading of Tenny Arlen’s important book of Armenian verse entitled Կիրքով ըսելու՝ ինչո՞ւ հոս եմ (To Say with Passion: Why Am I Here?) (Yerevan: ARI Literature Foundation, 2021). As one of the first full-length volumes of creative literature composed in Armenian by a US-born author after over a century of Armenian-American community development—this is a landmark achievement. Christopher Atamian, Dr. Jesse S. Arlen, and Arthur Ipek will read and discuss selections from Tenny Arlen’s book of verse.
The event will take place at the new gallery of Atamian Hovsepian Curatorial Practice located at 227 E 24th Street New York, NY, 10010 on Tuesday, June 27th at 6:30pm. Note, the gallery is closed on Tuesdays and will open at 5:30 for this special event.
Please RSVP to info@atamianhovsepian.art
The Zohrab center invites you to a book presentation and reading from Christopher Atamian’s newly-released translation of the novel Trashland by Denis Donikian at the Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center on Thursday, July 6th at 7:00pm.
Trashland starts off with its hero Gam—which in Armenian means both “I exist” and “or else”—a clever play on words, standing atop a hill as he relieves himself on the Armenian capital of Yerevan below. Once a muckraking journalist nicknamed “The Hedgehog,” Gam fled a life-shattering earthquake in his home city of Gyumri into a life of subsistence, living in a small hut near the garbage dump. Trashland offers an insider’s view of an often-insular society. As a diasporan Armenian, the author Denis Donikian writes from a privileged vantage point. Playing devil’s advocate, he has superseded the expectations assigned to diasporans as cash cows to be bilked for imaginary projects or retirees who come to spend their hard-earned money in their golden years. To cross this line, one must love one’s people and community. To lay bare its deepest wounds and expose its most deep-seated corruption—those are the signs of a true patriot and humanist. Few novels deliver quite such acerbic, and at times lively societal criticism. Trashland serves as a dirge to a country abandoned to its worst tendencies.
To read an article about the book, click here.
Christopher Atamian is a writer, translator, filmmaker, curator, and critic who has written for leading publications, including The New York Times, The Huffington Post, The Brooklyn Rail, and Hyperallergic. He is the former Dance critic for The New York Press and Co-Editor and Publisher of KGB Magazine. He has curated both art and film, including 12 exhibitions for the non-profit Nor Alik, which he also founded. He co-created Atamian Hovsepian Curatorial Practice (AHCP) with a focus on experimental and conceptual art by underrepresented voices. He has published six books, and edited art catalogues and books. A graduate of Harvard University and Columbia Business School, he has been the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship at the ETH Zürich, a Bronfman Scholarship in Democratic Enterprise, two Tölölyan Literary Prizes and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. He has been nominated for a National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize.
The late Mrs. Dolores Zohrab Liebmann was the daughter of the great early twentieth-century Armenian intellectual, writer, and statesman Krikor Zohrab. During her lifetime, Mrs. Liebmann supported students and educational and charitable organizations, with a primary concern to attract and support students with outstanding character and ability, who would hold promise for achievement and distinction in their chosen fields of study.
Through a generous bequest at her death, Mrs. Liebmann created a perpetual charitable trust designated as “The Dolores Zohrab Liebmann Fund” for the purpose of funding advanced education and graduate study grants, which must be carried out entirely in the United States of America.
Beginning in 2022, the Trustees of the Liebmann Fund, at the suggestion of the Selection Committee, decided that the Eastern Diocese would be among the select institutions eligible to nominate one candidate per year for the Dolores Zohrab Liebmann Graduate Fellowship.
The Eastern Diocese is pleased to announce that Arthur Ipek, a Masters of Science student in Cognitive Neuroscience at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, has been awarded the Dolores Zohrab Liebmann Fund Fellowship for academic year 2023–2024. Fellowships cover the cost of tuition and provide a stipend for living expenses.
In 2020, Mr. Ipek earned two Bachelor of Arts degrees from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in Psychology and Linguistics. While still a high school student, he began interning at the Zohrab Information Center, where he worked for several years between 2015–2017. He has also taught music at Holy Martyrs Armenian Language School. On June 4 of this year, he was ordained to the diaconate at Saint Gregory the Enlightener Armenian Church (White Plains, NY), where he has played the organ and served at the altar since 2020.
With experience in both natural languages (e.g., Armenian, Turkish, French) and programming languages (e.g., Python, R, SPSS), Mr. Ipek is currently pursuing courses in behavioral neuroscience, the cognitive neuroscience of memory, and psycholinguistics during his Masters program. He is also conducting research at the intersection of language, perception, and cognition, conducting studies that measure brain waves upon humans presented with sentences to process.
Mr. Ipek said, “My decision to apply to the fellowship was primarily driven by the legacy of Dolores Zohrab Liebmann and her earnest commitment to research, both to the American community at large, as well as the Armenian community. Apart from the scientific research that I intend to pursue with this generous scholarship, her establishment of the Zohrab Information Center in the heart of the Armenian community, at which I have interned for four years, has been a center of research for scholars of Armenian Studies, looking to enrich their research through its invaluable collections. There I gained experience in the rigor of conducting scholarly research, and I am grateful to be able to continue my graduate research thanks to this generous fellowship.”
The Dolores Zohrab Liebmann Fellowships are awarded only to candidates who have outstanding undergraduate records, have demonstrated a need for financial assistance, are citizens of the United States of America, are enrolled in accredited colleges and universities in the United States, and have received baccalaureate degrees. The trustees welcome applications from students of all national origins who are United States citizens.
Applications for the next cycle of funding will be announced in the Fall.