Tag: Armenia

TOMORROW! Book presentation on 20th century Armenian American Culture and Politics by Dr. Ben Alexander (Nov 20)

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The Zohrab Center warmly invites you to a book presentation with Dr. Ben Alexander on Thursday, November 20th at 7:00pm, who will present his book Ararat in America: Armenian American Culture and Politics in the Twentieth Century. Copies of the book may be ordered here and will also be available for purchase at the event. All are warmly invited to attend!

The contents of the book relate directly to the history of the Diocese of the Armenian Church and the Armenian American community of New York and the East Coast in general, and much of the research for the book was conducted in the Zohrab Center itself, which is warmly acknowledged by Dr. Alexander at the outset of the book.

Table of Contents

List of Figures
List of Maps
AcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. The Contested Homeland: World War I and the Genocide
2. Years of Adjustment: Armenian Americans in the 1920s
3. The Tourian Affair: Contested Memories and an Archbishop’s Murder
4. “To Supply Armenia with Architects”: The Coming-of-Age of the American-Born Generations
5. Fighting on Many Fronts: World War II and Its Aftermath
6. The Armenian Americans’ Cold War
7. A House of God Divided: The Formalization of the Church Split
8. The Power of a Word: Naming and Claiming the Genocide

Bibliography
Epilogue
Index

AUA Co-Founder and President Emeritus Armen Der Kiureghian in conversation with Jesse Arlen this Wednesday Oct 22nd

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The Zohrab Center warmly invites you to an in-person conversation between AUA co-founder and President Emeritus Armen Der Kiureghian with Jesse Arlen this Wednesday, October 22nd at 7:00pm, based on Dr. Der Kiureghian’s recent book From Earthquake to Tragedy to Beacon of Light: The Story of the American University of Armenia.

Copies of the book may be ordered here and will also be available for purchase at the event.

Armen Der Kiureghian is President Emeritus of the American University of Armenia and Taisei Professor of Civil Engineering Emeritus of the University of California, Berkeley. He was born in New Julfa, Isfahan, Iran, and attended local Armenian schools. He received his BS and MS degrees in Civil Engineering from Tehran University and his PhD in Structural Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His teaching and research are in the areas of risk and reliability of constructed facilities, stochastic structural dynamics, earthquake engineering, and engineering decision making. He has authored more than 400 publications, including over 130 in archival journals. Among other awards, he is a recipient of the American Society of Civil Engineer’s Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize, Alfred M. Freudenthal Medal, Thomas A. Middlebrooks Award, and George Winter Medal. For his efforts in advancing education in Armenia, he was awarded the Movses Khorenatsi Medal by the Government of Armenia and the Saint Sahak-Saint Mesrob Medal by His Holiness Garegin II, Catholicos of All Armenians. Der Kiureghian is a Distinguished Alumnus of both Tehran University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, an elected foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, and an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.

Book presentation on 20th century Armenian American Culture and Politics by Dr. Ben Alexander (Nov 20)

On By zohrabcenterIn Zohrab Center EventsLeave a comment

The Zohrab Center warmly invites you to a book presentation with Dr. Ben Alexander on Thursday, November 20th at 7:00pm, who will present his book Ararat in America: Armenian American Culture and Politics in the Twentieth Century. Copies of the book may be ordered here and will also be available for purchase at the event. All are warmly invited to attend!

The contents of the book relate directly to the history of the Diocese of the Armenian Church and the Armenian American community of New York and the East Coast in general, and much of the research for the book was conducted in the Zohrab Center itself, which is warmly acknowledged by Dr. Alexander at the outset of the book.

Table of Contents

List of Figures
List of Maps
Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. The Contested Homeland: World War I and the Genocide
2. Years of Adjustment: Armenian Americans in the 1920s
3. The Tourian Affair: Contested Memories and an Archbishop’s Murder
4. “To Supply Armenia with Architects”: The Coming-of-Age of the American-Born Generations
5. Fighting on Many Fronts: World War II and Its Aftermath
6. The Armenian Americans’ Cold War
7. A House of God Divided: The Formalization of the Church Split
8. The Power of a Word: Naming and Claiming the Genocide

Bibliography
Epilogue
Index

Book presentation on AUA with Armen Der Kiureghian in-person on October 22nd

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The Zohrab Center warmly invites you to a book presentation and signing with Armen Der Kiureghian on Wednesday, October 22nd at 7:00pm, who will present his book From Earthquake to Tragedy to Beacon of Light: The Story of the American University of Armenia. Copies of the book may be ordered here and will also be available for purchase at the event.

Armen Der Kiureghian is President Emeritus of the American University of Armenia and Taisei Professor of Civil Engineering Emeritus of the University of California, Berkeley. He was born in New Julfa, Isfahan, Iran, and attended local Armenian schools. He received his BS and MS degrees in Civil Engineering from Tehran University and his PhD in Structural Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His teaching and research are in the areas of risk and reliability of constructed facilities, stochastic structural dynamics, earthquake engineering, and engineering decision making. He has authored more than 400 publications, including over 130 in archival journals. Among other awards, he is a recipient of the American Society of Civil Engineer’s Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize, Alfred M. Freudenthal Medal, Thomas A. Middlebrooks Award, and George Winter Medal. For his efforts in advancing education in Armenia, he was awarded the Movses Khorenatsi Medal by the Government of Armenia and the Saint Sahak-Saint Mesrob Medal by His Holiness Garegin II, Catholicos of All Armenians. Der Kiureghian is a Distinguished Alumnus of both Tehran University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, an elected foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, and an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.

Arin Shahjahanian’s composition Յղի [Hghi] (2024) featuring the poetry of Tenny Arlen wins Second Prize at Mansurian International Competition in Armenia

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Los Angeles composer and pianist Arin Shahjahanian‘s composition Յղի [Hghi] (“Pregnant”), written for soprano, voice, clarinet, and piano (2024) and featuring the poetry of Tenny Arlen, recently was awarded Second Prize at the Mansurian International Competition in Yerevan, Armenia.

The U.S. premiere of the award-winning piece will take place at the Hear Now Music Festival in Los Angeles on May 18th.

 

The text of the piece is derived from Tenny Arlen’s poem «Մերելածին», [mereladzin] or “Stillborn”, from her collection To Say with Passion: Why Am I Here? (Yerevan: ARI Literature Foundation, 2021). The title and the refrain «Յղի» [hghi] translate to “pregnant.”

In Armenian:

Ես եմ
անկարողութիւնը։
Մէջս կը կրեմ զայն,
բառերու կողով մը անխօս,
[…]
Յղի,
կեանք մը կը կազմուի բառերու—
ոչ ինչպէս հարկ էր ըլլար։
Ծայրանդամներ, չպատմուած ծագում
—ծուռ, սուր ակռաներ—
քսան ծիրանագոյն ոտնամատ:
Բերքը վիժելը
միտքը փոխել չէ։
[…]
Ահա կը շնչեմ, ահա կը կ՛ըմպեմ, ահա
եմ։
[…]
[Յղի]
[…]
[…] կեանք տալով մեռեալին,
մոռցուելիքին,
մտաբերում մարդկութեան։
Կը հասկնա՞ս
ասիկա։
[…]
[…] բերքս—
մեռեալ է ծնած։
Եւ—ես եմ—ընծայուած—
անձայն։

In English:

I am
the inability.
I carry it in me,
a basket of unspoken words,
[…]
Pregnant,
A life of words is forming—
not as it should be.
Limbs, unaccounted spring
—crooked, sharp teeth—
twenty apricot-colored toes.
To abort the growth
is not to unthink.
[…]
Here I breathe, here I drink, here
I am.
[…]
[Pregnant]
[…]
[…] giving life to the dead,
The would be forgotten,
evocation of humanity.
Do you understand
this?
[…]
[…] my growth—
is stillborn.
And—I am—rendered—
silent.

Premiered June, 2024
Yerevan, Armenia

Shahane Aghakaryan, soprano
Arsen Grigoryan – clarinet
Anahit Dilbaryan – piano

REMINDER: Architect David Hotson to Speak on “Raising Awareness of Armenian History through the design of Saint Sarkis Armenian Church”

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Come to Kavookjian Hall at the Diocesan Center this Wednesday, Nov. 1st, to hear architect David Hotson speak on “Raising Awareness of Armenian History through the Design of Saint Sarkis Armenian Church,” the award-winning church in Dallas, Texas. A reception will follow the illustrated presentation, which is organized by the Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center under the auspices of Bishop Mesrop Parsamyan, primate of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America (Eastern).

Precious Paper Trail Leads from ZIC to Constantinople to Holland and Beyond…

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Armenian art historian Dr. Sylvie Merian examines woodcut prints in an 18th century Armenian hymnal from the Zohrab Center's collection of rare books.
Armenian art historian Dr. Sylvie Merian examines woodcut prints in an 18th century Armenian hymnal (Sharagnots) from the Zohrab Center’s collection of rare books.

The Zohrab Center has seen a good deal of noted Armenian art historian Dr. Sylvie Merian in recent weeks. In preparation for an academic conference paper, the scholar has been paging through some of the Zohrab Center’s most precious rare books.

She tenderly turns the pages searching for woodcut illustrations printed in Armenian religious books, most of them printed in Constantinople. “There’s another one!” she calls out, pointing to an intricate, full-page illustration featuring biblical images and saints with remarkably detailed facial expressions.

The woodcuts that were produced by Armenian artists in Constantinople are exceptional because many of the compositions for these illustrations were actually closely modeled after western European prints, especially Dutch. The ever-cosmopolitan Armenian artisans became familiar with the designs through the many books printed in Latin, various European languages, and Armenian, which contained them as illustrations. Many such printed books found their way to Armenian communities in Ottoman Turkey and Safavid Iran in the 17th to 18th centuries.

SylvieMerian2Dr. Merian has discovered dozens of Dutch-inspired Armenian woodcut illustrations in the ZIC’s rare book collection. Often she can even identify the Dutch artist whose work lies in the background of the Armenian print.

But the illustrations inspired more than just woodcut artists. Armenian silversmiths from Kayseri adapted the European designs as imagery for silver plaques used on religious books. Similar images in Armenian manuscript illuminations—which continued to be produced up to the early 19th century in the Near East—and even wall paintings in churches of New Julfa (an Armenian suburb of Isfahan, Iran) are abiding proof of the Armenians’ fascination with the European styles and their openness to adopt and adapt them. In this way, new Christian iconography and decorative motifs were disseminated in various media throughout the region—

—as the Zohrab Center’s remarkable early book collection demonstrates.

Sylvie Merian is Reader Services Librarian at at The Morgan Library and Museum in New York City. She received her PhD in Armenian Studies from Columbia University’s Department of Middle East Languages and Cultures, writing her dissertation on Armenian bookbinding. She has published and lectured internationally on Armenian codicology, bookbinding, and manuscript illumination, as well as on the history of the book.

Dr. Merian will present an illustrated lecture on her woodcut research at the Zohrab Information Center on Wednesday, April 9 at 7:00PM.

Wealth, Politics and Medieval Armenian Iconography: Hazel Antaramian Hofman to Speak on November 12 at the ZIC

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Portrait of King Gagik-Abas, Queen Goranduxt, and Princess Marem. Courtesy of Dickran Kouymjian, The Arts of Armenia (Accompanied by a Collection of 300 Slides in Color), Lisbon: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 1992. Photograph Ara Güler, Image No. 69.
Portrait of King Gagik-Abas, Queen Goranduxt, and Princess Marem. Courtesy of Dickran Kouymjian, The Arts of Armenia (Accompanied by a Collection of 300 Slides in Color), Lisbon: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 1992. Photograph Ara Güler, Image No. 69.

Award-winning artist and scholar Hazel Antaramian Hofman will deliver an illustrated lecture entitled, “Dressing the Part: Textile Wealth in an Eleventh-Century Armenian Miniature and its Interpretive Meaning,” at the Zohrab Center on Tuesday, November 12, 2013 at 7:00PM.

In 1911 a single manuscript  folio containing a damaged yet exquisite miniature painting was found in the print shop of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem. It was soon recognized as belonging to perhaps the most famous and important Armenian manuscript of the 11th century, a profusely-illuminated copy of the four Gospels commissioned by King Gagik-Abas of Kars, Jerusalem manuscript no. 2556.

The folio depicts a royal family portrait: King Gagik-Abas, his wife Queen Goranduxt and their daughter, the heir to the throne, Princess Mariam. This is the only known Armenian painting of a Bagratid dynastic family. Though partially defaced, some of the facial features excised, the painting, with its refined style and sumptuous detail, is well-known to art historians.

Artist-Scholar Hazel Antaramian Hofman will speak at the Zohrab Center on Tuesday, November 12 at 7PM.
Artist-Scholar Hazel Antaramian Hofman will speak at the Zohrab Center on Tuesday, November 12 at 7PM.

Hazel Antaramian Hofman asks why the family portrait was represented the way it was? Her analysis concludes that coded in the details of the painting, particularly in its composition and in the careful depiction of opulent textiles, one can read a great deal about the King, his political ambitions and the socio-economic situation of the Bagratid Kingdom of Armenia.

“The image was created during [a] tumultuous period in the history of the Bagratuni’s,” writes Antaramian-Hofman in her 150-page Master’s thesis on the eleventh-century miniature painting of the last Bagratuni dynastic family in Western Armenia. “The composition of the image and the opulence of the represented textiles convey dynastic affluence in an effort to support the central figure, the young daughter, within the socio-political context of medieval life in the region,” the artist-scholar concludes.

Antaramian-Hofman will present her findings and elaborate on her past research, where she integrated the iconographic dimension of the painting with the economic, cultural, and socio-political contact of the royal family and their hegemonic neighbors. She will also discuss her plans to expand her study on this rare Armenian painting for future publication.

Ms. Antaramian Hofman was born in Soviet Armenia and settled in the United States at age five. Her education has both artistic and scientific roots: before earning an M.A. degree in Art and Design from Fresno State University, she already held an associate degree in fashion design and illustration, an undergraduate degree in chemistry with a minor in biology; and am M.S. degree in environmental science. An accomplished artist, she has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions. Her latest creative and scholarly work has focused on the repatriation of Armenians to Soviet Armenia following World War II.

The lecture will take place at the Zohrab Center, Diocese of the Armenian Church, 630 Second Avenue, New York, NY. It is free and open to the public. A reception will follow. For further information contact the Zohrab Center at (212) 686-0710 or zohrabcenter@armeniandiocese.org.