The Zohrab Center invites you to a screening of Khachaturian: An Archival Film at 7:00pm on Tuesday, June 6, 2023, to commemorate Aram Khachaturian’s 120th birthday. Before the screening, introductory remarks will be made by pianist and composer Şahan Arzruni.
Our next Literary Lights event features poet Susan Barba, editor of American Wildflowers: A Literary Field Guide (Abrams Books, 2022) in conversation with Zohrab Center director Dr. Jesse S. Arlen. The event will take place on May 17, 2023 at 7:30 PM Eastern, at the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) in Belmont, Massachusetts (No registration required).
Literary Lights is a monthly reading series organized by the International Armenian Literary Alliance (IALA), NAASR, and the Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center. The series, which launched in February 2023, will be held until November in a mixed online and in-person format. You are invited to read along with the series!
American Wildflowers, edited by Susan Barba and illustrated by Leanne Shapton, is a literary anthology filled with classic and contemporary poems, essays, and letters inspired by wildflowers—perfect for writers, artists, and botanists alike.
On Pentecost Sunday, May 28th, St. Vartan Cathedral and the Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center will host a book presentation by author David Karamian with a piano performance and poetry recital after Badarak in Kavookjian Hall. All are welcome to attend!
In his book, Armenia – The Lone Stone, David Karamian brings a deeply personal and spiritual perspective to his Armenian heritage through breathtaking color and black-and-white photographs of the most spectacular monasteries and monuments in Armenia and Artsakh, taken over nearly two decades. While The Lone Stone can be experienced merely on a visual level, it has a multi-themed focus and is complimented by Armenia’s rugged and magnificent geography, architectural innovations, and aesthetic achievements in art, poetry, music, and literature, selections from which it contains within its pages. Armenia – The Lone Stone is a passionate love letter to Armenians everywhere, as well as an intelligent and emotionally compelling introduction to this extraordinary country, aimed at Armenians and non-Armenians alike.
David Karamian has worked and consulted for five Fortune 20 companies (United Technologies, Ford, GM, HP, and Microsoft) and has visited over 25 countries on five continents. In the mid-2000s, he was the founder and CEO of two technology firms (Siamanto and PACE). He is a part-time artist and photographer who loves history and architecture, especially in Armenia. His abstract photos have been published in the magazine Black and White Photography, and his book Armenia – The Lone Stone has been featured in Armenian Weekly, the Armenian Museum of Fresno, and the Armenian Museum of Moscow. He is the founder and CEO of NorArtGallery Publishing and is working on the second volume of The Lone Stone, as well as a book of his abstract photographs.
We invite you to join us for three upcoming in-person literary events in New York City, the first two of which are part of the Literary Lights series organized by the International Armenian Literary Alliance (IALA), the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), and the Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center: Deanna Cachoian-Schanz, translator of Shushan Avagyan’sA Book, Untitled, will be in conversation with Dr. Lisa Gulesserian on March 29, and Aram Mrjoian, editor of the anthology We Are All Armenian: Voices from the Diaspora, will be joined by volume contributors Chris Bohjalian, Nancy Kricorian, Scout Tufankjian, and Hrag Vartanian on April 3.
On April 13, the Zohrab Information Center is hosting a poetry night (քերթուածի գիշեր), featuring experimental and innovative young poets reading from their original works in English and Armenian: Hrayr Varaz (Հրայր Վարազ), Alina Gregorian (Ալինա Գրիգորեան), Aram Ronaldo (Արամ Ռոնալտօ), Jesse Arlen (Ճեսի Արլէն), Lillian Avedian (Լիլիան Աւետեան), Sharisse Zeroonian (Շարիս Ծերունեան).
The book is about an imagined encounter between two early twentieth-century feminist writers, Zabel Yesayan and Shushanik Kurghinian, juxtaposed with a conversation between the author and a friend. To learn more about the book and to purchase a copy, click here. Copies will also be available for purchase at the event along with a book signing by the translator.
On Thursday, February 23rd at 7:00pm by ZOOM, Zohrab Information Center director Dr. Jesse Arlen’s lecture series on Medieval Armenian Poetry continues with a lecture devoted to the poetry of 15th-century poet and priest, Mkrtich Naghash.
This lecture coincides with the start of the North American debut tour of The Naghash Ensemble, a musical group that performs the poetry of Mkrtich Naghash in original compositions arranged by John Hodian.
The lecture and performances offer a one-of-a-kind opportunity to delve into the life, context, and works of this little known but very talented and profound poet of the fifteenth century and experience medieval poetry alive today in the twenty-first century.
The Zohrab Information Center and St. Leon’s Armenian Church, along with Constantinople Armenian Relief Society (C.A.R.S.), Esayan-Getronagan Alumni Inc., Gomidas Choir, St. Nersess Armenian Seminary, and Tibrevank Alumni Inc. are pleased to sponsor an Armenian-languagelecture, entitled “Կ. Պոլսոյ Պատրիարքութեան Վանական-Դպրեվանականը Կեանքը” (“Monastic and Seminarian Life within the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople”) by Fr. Harutyun Vartabed Damadyan, with Prof. Roberta Ervine, Dr. Jesse Arlen, and Arthur Ipek, in-person and by Zoomon Friday, February 17 at 7:30pm at St. Leon Armenian Church (12-61 Saddle River Rd, Fair Lawn, NJ 07410).
Join us for the launch of our reading series, Literary Lights, on Tuesday, February 7th at 8 PM ET by Zoom with Taleen Voskuni, author of Sorry, Bro. Click here to register.
The Zohrab Information Center is pleased to announce the following upcoming events:
ZIC director Dr. Jesse S. Arlen will deliver part 2 of a two-semester public lecture series offered through St. Nersess Armenian Seminary on Medieval Armenian Poetry, with six lectures scheduled for the following Thursday evenings: February 2, 9, 16 and 23, March 2 and 9. All sessions are offered on Zoom from 7 PM – 8 PM. To learn more about the series and for Zoom registration, click here. To watch part 1 of this series on YouTube, click here.
ZIC and St. Leon’s Armenian Church, along with Constantinople Armenian Relief Society (C.A.R.S.), Esayan-Getronagan Alumni Inc., Gomidas Choir, St. Nersess Armenian Seminary, and Tibrevank Alumni Inc. are pleased to sponsor an Armenian-languagelecture, entitled “Կ. Պոլսոյ Պատրիարքութեան Վանական-Դպրեվանականը Կեանքը” (“Monastic and Seminarian Life within the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople”) by Fr. Harutyun Vartabed Damadyan, with Prof. Roberta Ervine, Dr. Jesse Arlen, and Arthur Ipek, in-person and by Zoomon Friday, February 17 at 7:30pm at St. Leon Armenian Church (12-61 Saddle River Rd, Fair Lawn, NJ 07410). All proceedings will take place in Armenian. Registration requested for in-person and Zoom attendance at: https://bit.ly/Saint-Leon-Monastic-Life-Bolis. To watch on YouTube, click onhttps://bit.ly/StLeonEventsat the beginning of the program.
The reading series “Literary Lights” continues in-person at the Eastern Diocese on Wednesday, March 29th at 7 PM with A Book, Untitled, with author Shushan Avagyan and translator Deanna Cachoian-Schanz, joined by Harvard preceptor on Armenian language and culture Lisa Gulesserian.
The Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center along with the International Armenian Literary Alliance (IALA), and the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) will host Literary Lights, a monthly reading series in 2023 featuring new works of literature by Armenian authors. Each event—held from February to December in a mixed online and in-person format—will feature a writer, editor or translator reading from their work, followed by a discussion with an interviewer and audience members. Audience members are invited to read along with the series.
FEBRUARY: Sorry, Bro by Taleen Voskuni
The reading series will begin with a virtual event on Taleen Voskuni’s Sorry, Bro, a queer romantic comedy in which an Armenian-American woman rediscovers her roots and embraces who she really is. Voskuni, an Armenian-American writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area, will be in discussion with JP Der Boghossian, writer, founder of the Queer Armenian Library, and host of This Queer Book Saved My Life. Click here for more information.
MARCH: A Book, Untitled by Shushan Avagyan, translated by Deanna Cachoian-Schanz
In March, we’ll host an in-person event at the Zohrab Information Center in New York on A Book, Untitled by Shushan Avagyan, translated by Deanna Cachoian-Schanz. The book is about an imagined encounter between two early twentieth-century feminist writers, Zabel Yesayan and Shushanik Kurghinian, juxtaposed with a conversation between the author and a friend. Avagyan is a translator, author, and the co-founder of the queer-fem Queering Yerevan Collective in Armenia’s capital. Deanna Cachoian-Schanz is a translator working in the geographies of Armenia, Turkey, and their diasporas, at the intersection of critical, feminist and queer theory, archive and critical race studies. Cachoian-Schanz and Avagyan will engage in conversation with translator, scholar, and teacher of the Armenian language, Lisa Gulesserian (Cover design by Cinzia D’Emidio).
APRIL: We Are All Armenian edited by Aram Mrjoian
In April, the series will highlight We Are All Armenian: Voices from the Diaspora edited by Aram Mrjoian, with both in-person and virtual events. We Are All Armenian is a groundbreaking collection of personal essays exploring the multilayered realities of life in the Armenian diaspora. Mrjoian, who will moderate both events, is an author, editor-at-large at the Chicago Review of Books, and an associate fiction editor at Guernica. Click here for more information.
MAY: American Wildflowers edited by Susan Barba
In May, we will host Susan Barba, editor of American Wildflowers: A Literary Field Guide. This anthology is filled with classic and contemporary poems and essays inspired by wildflowers—perfect for writers, artists, and botanists alike. Barba is the author of the poetry collections Fair Sun (2017) and geode (2020), and an editor at New York Review Books based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Barba will discuss the anthology with Jesse Arlen, a writer, researcher and Director of the Zohrab Center. Click here for more information.
JUNE: The Book of Redacted Paintings by Arthur Kayzakian
In June, we present Arthur Kayzakian’s The Book of Redacted Paintings, erasure-ekphrasis poems about a boy in search of his father’s painting, which may or may not exist. The collection won the inaugural 2021 Black Lawrence Immigrant Writing Series award and was selected as a finalist for the 2021 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry. Kayzakian will also discuss his forthcoming chapbook, My Burning City, which integrates the author’s personal history during the Iranian Revolution, his family’s migration to the United States, and the state of living in America as a displaced, bilingual Iranian-Armenian. Kayzakian is an author, teacher, IALA Poetry Chair and Board Member, and a Contributing Editor at Poetry International.
SEPTEMBER: The Fear of Large and Small Nations by Nancy Agabian
The series will resume with an event on Nancy Agabian’s The Fear of Large and Small Nations, a contemporary story of an abusive relationship between a queer couple, set between the Armenian homeland and diaspora. The novel was a finalist for the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. An activist, teacher and IALA Board Member, Agabian is the author of Princess Freak (2000), the first collection of poems and performance texts by a bisexual Armenian-American, and Me as Her Again: True Stories of an Armenian Daughter (2008), finalist for a Lambda Literary Award in LGBT Nonfiction and shortlisted for a William Saroyan International Prize.
OCTOBER: The Institute for Other Intelligences by Mashinka Firunts Hakopian
The reading series will conclude with an event on Mashinka Firunts Hakopian’s The Institute for Other Intelligences, which chronicles the transcription of a symposium at a fictive institute where machine intelligences convene annually for lectures and training on algorithmic justice. Hakopian is a Yerevan-born, Glendale-based writer, artist, researcher, teacher, IALA Advisory Board Member, and a Contributing Editor for Art Papers and ASAP/J. Click here for more information.
