This panel discussion explores how international law mechanisms can help Armenians seek justice for victims of human rights violations and war crimes and hold criminals accountable.

Date & Time: 15 December, 5 pm London time/9 pm Yerevan time on Zoom

Speakers:

Sheila Paylan is an international criminal lawyer, war crimes investigator, human rights and gender expert, and former legal advisor to the United Nations. She spent more than 15 years advising the judges and senior officials of various UN-backed international criminal tribunals, including for Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. From 2019 to 2021, she was appointed by the UN Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights as the Legal Advisor and Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Specialist to a Team of International Experts mandated to assist the judicial and military authorities of the Democratic Republic of Congo with investigating and prosecuting war crimes, crimes against humanity, and gross human rights violations. 

Yeghishe Kirakosyan is the representative of the Republic of Armenia to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Kirakosyan received his LLB and PhD from Yerevan State University as well as an LLM from Georgetown and a Master’s from Stanford.

The Honorable Gassia Apkarian is a Judge of the Superior Court of California appointed by Governor Brown in 2014. She is a trial judge presiding over felony cases in Orange County, California. She was born in Aleppo, Syria during the 6 day war between Israel and Syria in 1967 and grew up in the civil war in Beirut, Lebanon. She holds a BA in political science from the University of California, Irvine. She received her JD from the University of LaVerne, College of Law.

She worked as a Deputy Public Defender for 8 years. In 2008, she started her own law firm, Apkarian Defense, APC. Days after the ceasefire of the 44-Day War in Artsakh, she helped establish the Center for Truth and Justice, teaching young law students and lawyers in Armenia and Artsakh how to collect testimonial evidence on war crimes. Judge Apkarian was awarded the 2022 Alba Witkin Humanitarian Award by both the California Judges and the Witkin Foundations.

Anna Karapetyan is the Head of the International Cooperation Department of the Office of the Human Rights Defender of Armenia. Having previously worked at the Ministry of Justice of the RA, she has significant experience of elaborating and implementing policies regarding the protection of human rights, as well as planning and organizing international cooperation of public institutions with foreign state bodies and international organizations. Currently, among other things, she is responsible for elaborating and presenting the Human Rights Defender’s communications, as well as the applications to relevant UN monitoring bodies regarding the violations of the rights of civilians by Azerbaijani armed forces, rights of missing persons, POWs, etc.

Heghine Yengoyan is the Assistant to the Human Rights Defender of Armenia. Throughout her career, she has worked on devising policies and legislation aimed at combating discrimination and hate speech, and was also involved in the finalization of the new Criminal Code, among other things being also responsible for revising provisions on crimes against humanity and hate speech. Currently, Heghine continues to be mainly engaged in activities related to the fight against discrimination, hate speech and hate crime, implementing the activities of the Office of the Human Rights Defender in these fields. She is also responsible for analyzing the Armenophobic policy of Azerbaijan and outlining the main developments, trends and patterns regarding Armenophobia in the Azerbaijani public.

Moderator:

A native of Gyumri, Armenia, Dr. Artyom Tonoyan is a sociologist and Visiting Professor of Global Studies at Hamline University, in St. Paul, Minnesota. His research interests include sociology of religion, religion and politics in the South Caucasus, and religion and nationalism in post-Soviet Russia. His articles have appeared in Demokratizatsiva: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization, Society, and Modern Greek Studies Yearbook, among others. He has been a frequent guest on the BBC, Deutsche Welle, France 24, and other outlets. He is the editor of the recently published volume Black Garden Aflame: The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict in the Soviet and Russian Press. 

This event is an in-person launch of our digital exhibition Armenia Unboxed: Treasures of Cultural Heritage from AI Collections which showcases the gems of our Library & Archives collections and wraps up AI's activities delivered within the project Broadening Access to Armenian Heritage Through Engagement and Resilience generously funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

The grant supports a range of activities aimed at expanding participation and audiences and enables AI to provide a safe space for understanding difference and learning about shared heritage. Four main themes emerging from AI’s past work became a framework for this project’s programming: 1) Exploring Gender, 2) Migration, Displacement and Refugees, 3) Neighbours, Historic and Present, 4) Literary Heritage.

Inspired by the richness of our Library & Archives collections, we placed a special focus on exploring influences of Armenian literature, language, and writing on Armenian identity and heritage today. The 9,000-volume Library collection includes works in English, Armenian, and other languages, with some rare items dating from the 17th century. The holdings include information about historical, modern and contemporary events and a wealth of literature and poetry, folklore and art-related works. They are a valuable resource for the community and for researchers and give us a wonderfully rich understanding of Armenian heritage and shared histories. The Armenian Institute holds ten archival collections, including those of Prof. Charles Dowsett, concert pianist Elena Kudian, translator Mischa Kudian and photojournalist Harry Koundakjian. 

A rich Armenian Library, later on named the Nubar Library, was founded in Paris in 1928, under the responsibility of the former journalist and author Aram Andonian. Its existence was jeopardized in 1941, when the German authorities decided to requisition the Nubar Library, something they also did with the Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Czech and Jewish libraries in occupied Paris. While in most cases historians can only study these spoliations through the eyes of the perpetrators, the looting of this Armenian institution is narrated day by day in Aram Andonian’s unknown diary. Showing the materiality of the spoliation in its smallest details, Andonian’s account highlights the agency of Armenian individuals and organisations confronted with the spoliation, between resistance and collaboration. The numerous interpolations visible in the text raise questions about the processes of its writing in 1941 and apparently its rewriting after the end of the war, when the restitution of stolen books was at stake. A controversy in the Armenian press opposed Andonian to Ardashes Apeghian, an Armenian scholar sent from Berlin whom he accused of having supported the Nazis and benefited from the spoliation. Beyond the history of the looting of the Library, Aram Andonian’s pseudo-diary is revealing of his relationship with writing and witnessing, especially in the post-1945 context.

Bio: Boris Adjemian is a historian and the director of the AGBU Nubar Library, Paris. He defended his PhD in 2011 at École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS, France) and Università degli Studi di Napoli (Italy). He is the co-founder and co-editor of the academic journal Études arméniennes contemporaines and an editorial board member of 20 & 21: Revue d’histoire. He is also an affiliated researcher at the Centre de recherches historiques (CRH - EHESS) and the Institut Convergences Migrations (ICM). His research and publications are related to the Armenian genocide, the history and memories of Armenian immigration and the diaspora. He has recently defended his habilitation à diriger des recherches (HDR) at École normale supérieure (ENS, Paris) on the following topic: Archives, Exile and Politics: Aram Andonian and the Armenian Library of Paris (1927-1951).

The aftermath of mass killings and deportations in 1915 still reverberates in Turkey today. In this talk, Professor Ronald Grigor Suny will discuss the complex interconnections among the Armenians, Kurds, and Turks, and the architecture of current politics in Turkey. The experience of genocide has irrevocably shaped the lives of the descendants of those perpetrators and victims of the events 107 years ago, as well as distorted the politics of Turkey today.

10 November, 7 pm, in person

Venue: UCL Gideon Schreier Lecture Theatre, 124 Bentham House, 4-8 Endsleigh Gardens, London WC1H 0EG

This event is free but please register below

Bio:

RONALD GRIGOR SUNY is the William H. Sewell Jr. Distinguished University Professor of History and Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan and Emeritus Professor of Political Science and History at the University of Chicago. First holder of the Alex Manoogian Chair in Modern Armenian History at the University of Michigan (1981-1995), he founded and directed the Armenian Studies Program there. Prof. Suny is author of numerous books from The Baku Commune, 1917-1918: Class and Nationality in the Russian Revolution (1972) to more recent publications: “They Can Live in the Desert But Nowhere Else”: A History of the Armenian Genocide (2015) [Winner of the Wayne S. Vucinich Book Prize from the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies]; Red Flag Unfurled: Historians, the Russian Revolution, and the Soviet Experiment (2017); and Stalin: Passage to Revolution (2020), winner of the Isaac Deutscher Memorial Prize. Influential books he has edited or co-edited include Intellectuals and the Articulation of the Nation (1999); A State of Nations: Empire and Nation-making in the Age of Lenin and Stalin (2001); and A Question of Genocide: Armenians and Turks at the End of the Ottoman Empire (2011). Professor Suny’s intellectual interests have centered on the non-Russian nationalities of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, particularly those of the South Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia).

BOTH EVENTS ARE IN PERSON. THE WORKSHOP IS PAID AND THE TALK IS FREE.

11:00 AM - 1:30 PM: Artist’s Book Workshop with Karen Babayan

(In Person & Ticket Required)

Artists have long experimented with artists’ books: that is, art in a book form, subverting their audience’s expectations and presenting books in new and surprising ways. In this workshop, Karen will show you her own artists books and will teach you a range of experimental book-making techniques. From the book made from just one piece of paper, to the concertina book, to the lotus fold or flower fold book form. This creative and fun workshop is open to all, especially those trying out book-making for the first time!

6PM - 7 PM: Artist's Book Talk with Chris Taylor

‘Shifting Borders / Breaking Boundaries: the Artists’ Book as Primary Medium’

(In Person & Free)

In this illustrated talk, artist, curator and publisher Chris Taylor will look at the origins of the ‘artist’s book’, what it is, how artists have exploited and utilised the book structure, and where the future of the genre lies within the broader art canon. Over the past three decades he has collaborated on numerous projects with artists including Karen Babayan, Nicky Bird and Craig Wood, where the book format has been pivotal in the development of ideas and centre stage in the works’ final outcomes and presentation.

He says: “This familiar object– the book– remains as important a vehicle for visual communication as the white cube space might be to the contemporary exhibition or the proscenium arch is for opera. Beyond our everyday experiences of the text book, the novel or the technical manual, artists’ books in their many guises can be intimate yet highly accessible containers of creative thought, providing a platform for words, images or sounds, or a combination of these, in which we can immerse ourselves as artists and audience.”

Bios:

Karen Babayan is an artist, writer, and curator. Born in Iran to British-Armenian parents, her family moved to the UK in 1978 due to the impending Islamic Revolution. Ever since she has been trying to make sense of who she is and where she belongs. Now based in Cumbria, her first book of short stories on the Armenians of Iran, "Blood Oranges Dipped in Salt" (2012) was born out of a PhD in Contemporary Art Practice and described by her external examiner Professor Eric Knudson as ‘the best piece of auto-ethnography I have ever read’. Her award for ‘Cumbria Artist of the Year 2016’ finally established her creative reputation in her own county, followed by a chance discovery which informed Babayan’s second book of short stories. "Swallows and Armenians" (2019) championed the children from Aleppo, Syria who inspired Arthur Ransome to write his first book of fiction for children. An exhibition of the same name, supported by Arts Council, England toured venues in Cumbria and Northumberland during 2020-21. In July 2022, a musical version of Swallows and Armenians had its world premiere with Cumbria Opera Group, in Appleby, county town of Westmorland, Cumbria. Karen Babayan’s first piece of writing was published in The Guardian: Waiting for Father Christmas in Tehran (22.12.14) and her epic poem Armenian Coffee on the 2020 war between Azerbaijan and Armenia, in The Big Issue, North: (01.2021). Karen’s paintings, prints and artists books can be found in many public collections, including Tate Britain Library, London; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; National Art Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Rank Xerox, Marlow; Provident Financial Group, Bradford; Dean Clough Collection, Halifax; Harris Art Gallery Museum, Preston and Leeds Art Gallery & Museums.

Chris Taylor is Professor of Fine Art Practice at the University of Leeds specialising in the field of contemporary printmaking and focusing on the role of the artist’s book as primary medium. His current research draws on material housed in the university’s Special Collections for the exhibition Shifting Borders: Journey to the Centre of Our World(s). Curated for The Treasures of the Brotherton Gallery (January – December 2023), it is a comparative exploration between historic artifacts and contemporary artists’ book works examining how travel and movement by individuals or groups has been documented and illustrated through maps over the centuries within the arts and sciences. Chris is co-Director of PAGES, promoting the development of artists’ books, and their dissemination and reception through activities including the biennial International Contemporary Artists’ Book Fair (1998- ) and touring projects such as ARCHIVE (2003- ) and New Voices (2019- ). He is co-Director of the Artists’ Writings & Publications Research Centre (AWP) at Leeds and co-Editor of the Wild Pansy Press, a university-based imprint advancing publication in its widest sense as both distributional strategy and mode of production. His artist's books and printed matter can be accessed in numerous collections including MoMA and Cooper Hewitt, New York, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Chicago Institute of Art, AGO, Toronto, Tate Britain and V&A Museum, London, and Centre Pompidou, Paris.

Artist’s Books by Karen Babayan: Evil Eye, Flight of Fancy, Lavashak & Other Stories and Blood Oranges Dipped in Salt.

! THIS EVENT IS CANCELLED

Speaker: Dr. Vrej Nersessian

The thirty studies collected in this volume belong to Charles James Frank Dowsett (1924-1998), the First Calouste Gulbenkian Professor of Armenian Studies in Oxford from 1964 to 1991.

The articles cover a period from 1951 to his retirement in 1990, explore and elaborate topics of Armenian history, literary sources, classical, patristic, medieval and early modern, his lifelong contribution to Armenia’s heritage. The most fascinating aspect of the studies are the titles and the manner in which the content of the studies expand in unpredictable direction thanks to his prodigious range of learning.

Please RSVP here to attend the event in our library.

Please note that the lift to our library is currently out of service, and we apologise for the inconvenience.

In June the US State Department's annual international religious freedom report on Azerbaijan acknowledged for the first time the destruction of Armenian monuments in Artsakh and Nakhichevan, as well as reported efforts of rebranding Armenian heritage as "Caucasian Albanian" by the country. In order to understand the significance of this timely report the Armenian Institute will be hosting a live webinar and inviting key experts, including Simon Maghakyan, Ani Avagyan and Adam T. Smith, to discuss the findings of the report and tangible actions that can be taken as a result to further protect Armenian heritage in the region. This event follows on from previous webinars hosted by the Armenian Institute on cultural destruction and preservation in the region. This event is supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Speakers:

Simon Maghakyan, Founder, Heritage Intel and Visiting Scholar at Tufts University and a non-resident PhD student in heritage crime at Cranfield University

A native of Yerevan, Simon Maghakyan is a Denver-based researcher and organizer. His civic tenure includes nonpartisan service at Colorado’s legislature, human rights monitoring and advocacy at Amnesty International USA, community development for 18 ANCA Western Region states, executive leadership at the Eastern Prelacy’s Save Armenian Monuments initiative, and service on the Western Diocese Artsakh Heritage Committee. Scholastically, Maghakyan is a lecturer at the University of Colorado Denver, non-resident PhD student in heritage crime at Great Britain’s Cranfield University, and Visiting Scholar at Tufts University. His initiatives include the Colorado State Capitol Armenian Genocide Khachkar Memorial, Djulfa.com, and the research firm Heritage Intel. Maghakyan’s writing has appeared in numerous media outlets, including Time Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. His collaborative 2019 Hyperallergic and 2021 The Art Newspaper investigative exposés of Azerbaijan’s cultural genocide in Nakhichevan have been cited in Armenia’s International Court of Justice case against Azerbaijan. The Guardian and Forbes Magazine have rated this research, respectively, “rock solid” and “groundbreaking,” and The Los Angeles Times has called Maghakyan “relentless.” 

Adam T. Smith, distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences in Anthropology at Cornell University and Director of the Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies (CIAMS).

Adam T. Smith is the Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences in Anthropology at Cornell University and Director of the Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies (CIAMS). He is co-founder, with Ruben Badalyan, of Project ArAGATS, a two-decade program of archaeological field research in central Armenia. And he is co-director, with Lori Khatchadourian and Ian Lindsay, of Caucasus Heritage Watch, a heritage research and monitoring program that uses high-resolution satellite imagery to track heritage destruction in the region. Smith has received numerous grants and awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2010. Smith’s publications include several books including The Political Landscape: Constellations of Authority in Early Complex Polities (2003) and The Political Machine: Assembling Sovereignty in the Bronze Age Caucasus (2015).

Ani Avagyan, Executive Director, Armenian Heritage Development Foundation

A cultural heritage management professional with two decades of experience in creating meaningful content in the museums on national and international levels and advocating for the field. A founder head of the Education Department at the National Gallery of Armenia.

Tatiana der Avedissian (Moderator)

A communications specialist, Tatiana is currently serving as head of business development for Economist Impact's World Ocean Initiative at The Economist Group (TEG).  She also sits on the group's sustainability steering committee. Tatiana has extensive experience in business development, strategic communications and management. A creative and solutions-driven thinker, she is passionate about sustainability, human rights, history, politics, philanthropy, and building the next generation of great leaders to champion important global interests that will change the dynamics in a complicated world. She previously worked for the Spectator and the Guardian News and Media. Outside of work Tatiana runs her own consultancy and uses her expertise to advise and support other organisations with their strategic communication and business needs. She helps lead the strategy and fundraising efforts for two charities in the UK, serving as trustee and co-president of Alkionides UK, and trustee and advisor of the Armenian Institute. Tatiana sits on a number of advisory boards and teaches ethics and politics for the Escuela de Gobierno Universidad Hemisferios in Ecuador.

This event is supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

THIS EVENT IS IN PERSON, RSVP BELOW

Please note that the lift to our library is currently out of service, and we apologise for the inconvenience.

Join us for a talk about the 1000th anniversary compilation entitled 'David of Sassoun: an Armenian popular epic' with a particular focus on the 1966 Nairi Zarian prose rendition.

Eddie Arnavoudian’s brief comments on this Armenian epic that is at the same time an Armenian variant of universal human utopias will seek to draw to our attention the telling purchase it has on 21st century life across the globe. Its magical, fantastical tale of honourable superheroes dedicated to the common good all created by the Armenian common folk marks 'The Daredevils of Sassoun' as one of the twin peaks of Armenian culture together with the monumental 'Lamentations' bequeathed to us by Krikor of Narek. Together these two works project that enduring vision and hope that life and humanity can be emancipated from the terrible tragedy, violence, corruption, strife and turmoil of its histories. This event is supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Eddie Arnavoudian is passionate about literature, history and politics. Since the mid-1990s, when he remastered the wonderful Armenian language, he has focussed his energies on Armenian literature, history and politics. Across two decades and more he has contributed his comments and evaluations that have been published on The Critical Corner that is an integral element of the hugely valuable Groong/Armenian News Network founded and edited by Asbed Bedrossian. 

Image credits: Sargis Aleksanyan & Yervand Qochar

Please RSVP here to attend the event in our library.

Please note that the lift to our library is currently out of service, and we apologise for the inconvenience.

Join us on 28 July on Zoom for a poetry open mic! You are welcome to recite your favourite poem in the language of your choice. When choosing a piece to recite, please stick to the following guidelines:

One poem per person
Duration: no longer than 3 min

If you would like to participate, please email us at admin@armenianinstitute.org.uk or fill in the form below providing the title, author, and language of the poem.

Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86918286008

THIS IS AN IN-PERSON EVENT

REGISTER HERE TO ATTEND

This book is about the captivating and exceptional life story of Tamta, a 13th century noblewoman born to an Armenian family in Georgia. After the capture of her father Ivané Zakarian (Mqargrdzeli in Georgian) during a siege, Tamta was surrendered in marriage to a nephew of the famous Saladin. After further marriages to other Muslim rulers, she was taken hostage by the Mongols and spent years in Mongolia before the Mongols returned her to Akhlat on the northwestern coast of Lake Van and made her the ruler of the region. Tamta’s change of status from forced bride, a victim, to a female ruler represents one of the extraordinary transformations of a woman in medieval history. The author, Antony Eastmond, takes the reader along the itinerary of Tamta’s travels and her encounters with various peoples, their languages, cultures and religions. He also weaves into the picture aspects of visual and material culture, trade, politics and war. Eastmond’s clear and fluid style of writing builds up a gripping picture of Tamta’s world and the roles women played in it.

Tickets: £5, £4 concessions

Registration link: https://www.kindlink.com/fundraising/Armenian-Institute/bookondisplay 

To attend the event, please register through KindLink using your full name.

A limited number of tickets will be available on the door.

This event is on Zoom only. Join us here: https://bit.ly/ZabellePanosian

‘Please listen to the Armenian singer Zabelle Panosian. [Her ‘Groung'] is a secret song that steals away the breath of those who are fortunate enough to hear it.’ - Nick Cave

Join us on 17 July at 6pm London / 1 pm EST time for a biographical overview of Armenian-American singer Zabelle Panosian, her life and legacy by Ian Nagoski, Harout Arakelian, and Harry Kezelian. The discussion will be accompanied by musical snippets and photographs.

‘Among the most significant Armenian singers in the early twentieth century, Zabelle Panosian made a small group of recordings in New York City in 1917-’18. Unaccountably, she was then largely neglected as an artist for more than half a century. This volume by three dedicated researchers is the first effort to reconstruct the life and work of a woman who had an exceptional and cultivated voice — who toured the world as a performer and made a significant contribution to the cultural lives of the Armenian diaspora, the elevation of Armenian art song, and the relief of survivors of the Armenian genocide.’ Zabelle Panosian: I Am Servant of Your Voice by Ian Nagoski, Harout Arakelian, Harry Kezelian

Speakers: Ian Nagoski, Harout Arakelian, Harry Kezelian

Speaker bios

Ian Nagoski is a music researcher and reissue record producer in Baltimore, Maryland. He has specialized in early 20th century recordings by immigrants to the U.S. and has produced albums for Dust-to-Digital, Tompkins Square, Mississippi, and other labels including his own Canary imprint. He has spoken about his work widely across the U.S. and Europe, including at the Library of Congress, the University of Chicago, the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at New York University, the Onasis Cultural Center (Athens), The National Library of Finland, the University of California (Santa Barbara and Los Angeles), and Carnegie Mellon University.

Harout Arakelian is a video editor, music collector and researcher based in Los Angeles, California. His focus is the Armenian contribution to the landscape of art and culture, with a specific lens on the American experience. He is working on collecting every known commercial recording from the 78 rpm era (roughly 1890s - 1950s) which estimates to 1200 phonograph discs. His long-term vision is to provide all audio as well as all research documentation to be digitally accessible.

This is a Zoom event. Join us here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81134505830

This panel discussion in our 'Difficult Conversations' series is dedicated to various environmental challenges currently faced by Armenia. In conversation with environmental activists and academics, we will discuss what these challenges are and what is being done by Armenian environmental organisations to facilitate tackling these issues.
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Join the Armenian Institute and the International Armenian Literary Alliance on Sunday, June 5th, 2022 at 6 pm UK / 1 pm EST / 10 am PST / 9 pm EVN for a reading and discussion with 

Peter Balakian on No Sign, the author’s first collection since his Pulitzer Prize-winning Ozone Journal. The discussion will be led by Alan Semerdjian. 

For over 40 years, Peter Balakian has been writing layered, expansive poems that take on trauma, historical memory, and the difficult complexities of our time. Indeed, the Pulitzer committee's description of Ozone Journal might well describe any of Balakian's books, including his newest: "a collection of poems that bear witness to the old losses and tragedies that lie beneath a global age of danger and uncertainty." 

In his recent books, Balakian's inventive, long, multi-sectioned poems ingest traumatic events that include 9 /11, the AIDS crisis of the '80s, the aftermath of the Armenian Genocide, climate change, and the failures of American foreign wars. Out of this darkness, his work affirms the power of art, the endurance of love, and the possibilities of transcendent seeing. 

The poems of No Sign wrestle with current culture and politics, including challenges for the human species and the planet amid planetary transmutation and the impact of mass violence. Whether meditating on the sensual nature of fruits and vegetables, the COVID-19 pandemic, the Armenian genocide, James Baldwin in France, or Arshile Gorky in New York, Balakian's layered, elliptical language, wired phrases, and shifting tempos engage both life's harshness and beauty and define his inventive and distinctive style. At this collection's heart is "No Sign," the latest in Balakian's series of long-form poems, following "A-Train/Ziggurat/ Elegy" (Ziggurat, 2010) and "Ozone Journal" (Ozone Journal, 2015). This dialogical, multi-sectioned poem set in the cliffs of the New Jersey Palisades finds an estranged couple encountering each other for the first time in years. 

Ilya Kaminsky writes, “Balakian understands the bewildered music of our times, and No Sign, more than any other contemporary book of poetry, teaches us about the properties of time; we are inside the speech that is addressing time and opposing it, witnessing it, and walking two steps ahead. This 'time-sense' is explored with depth in the brilliant title poem. Balakian is able to praise the world though he knows its "bitter history." And praise he does! The lyricism here is of utter beauty. No Sign is a splendid, necessary book.”

Peter Balakian is the author of eight books of poems including Ozone Journal, which won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for poetry, and Ziggurat, both published by the University of Chicago Press. His memoir Black Dog of Fate won the PEN/Albrand Award and was a New York Times notable book, and The Burning Tigris won the Raphael Lemkin Prize and was a New York Times bestseller and New York Times notable book. He is Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Professor of the Humanities in the Department of English at Colgate University.

Alan Semerdjian is a writer, musician, and educator. His works include In the Architecture of Bone (GenPop Books, 2009), The Serpent and The Crane (a collaboration of poetry and music with Aram Bajakian), and several collections of critically-acclaimed albums covering a wide range of genres from singer-songwriter to free jazz and alternative rock. He has taught English and Creative Writing in public education for 25 years.

Order No Sign from your favorite independent bookstore, through University of Chicago Press, or from Blackwells.

Join an intimate screening of one of the gems of the Armenian cinema, Autumn Sun, to close our Spaces and Places Film Festival. 

The screening will take place at the Armenian Institute. Please book your tickets in advance as the places are strictly limited: https://www.kindlink.com/fundraising/Armenian-Institute/autumnsun

This is a thrilling opportunity to introduce UK audiences to the work of Bagrat Oganesyan and his proto-feminist adaptation of one of Armenia’s most famous novellas by Hrant Mateovsyan. Autumn Sun tells the story of a girl cajoled into marriage with a much older man and her journey to make a meaningful life for herself in a rural village. Shot through with extraordinary cinematography by Gagik Avakyan and Karen Mesyan, and boasting a powerhouse performance by Anida Gukasyan, Autumn Sun is an undiscovered classic of late 70s Armenian cinema.

SPACES AND PLACES: a season of recently restored classics and award-winning contemporary films from Armenia.

From 10 May 2022 until 9 June 2022, the Armenian Institute in partnership with, Klassiki, the world’s first streaming platform dedicated to cinema from Ukraine, Russia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia, will host SPACES AND PLACES, an in-cinema and online film season exploring the contested politics of place and Armenian identity. The films in this season all explore the idea of home – whether that be a place, an idea, or something in-between. They speak to the past and present of Armenia, marked so much by displacement and diaspora: ideas that are sadly as relevant now for international audiences as ever before.

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Garegin Papoyan captures the absurd ironies of a community defined by frozen military conflict in this wry observational documentary. Fully equipped to accommodate civilian flights, the recently rebuilt Stepanakert Airport in the break-away Republic of Artsakh does not operate due to the permanent threat of missile strikes. Unwilling to risk any lives, the airport, nevertheless, remains “open”. The dreary ritual of keeping the standby facility operational turns the workers into a closely-knit family unit, where each individual lives out their personal dreams while continuing to hope for the basic freedoms to cross borders and receive guests.

Screening Tuesday 31 May at the Ciné Lumière, London.

Tickets available here: https://www.institut-francais.org.uk/cine-lumiere/whats-on/special-screenings/bon-voyage/

Supported by National Heritage Lottery Fund

THIS EVENT IS ON ZOOM ONLY.

Join us on 26 May, 7:30 pm, on Zoom for a panel discussion with independent Armenian filmmakers, including Nora Martirosyan (Should The Wind Drop), Tatevik Vardanyan (16 District, 16 Floor, 16 People), Hovig Hagopian and Astrig Chandèze-Avakian (Storgetnya), and Alik Tamar (Antouni). The event will be moderated by Sam Goff from Klassiki. The films will be available on our website from 19 May to 2 June.

SHOULD THE WIND DROP

Alain, an international auditor, arrives to assess the airport of a small self-proclaimed republic in the Caucasus to green-light its eventual reopening. He will discover this isolated territory and risk everything to enable this land to open up to the outside world.

STORGETNYA

March 2020, Yerevan, capital of Armenia. 230 meters underground, in the Avan salt mine, men and women walk to breathe easier. Physical activities and medical consultations set the rhythm of the timeless world of this underground clinic, where lives intersect and stories are told.

16 DISTRICT, 16 FLOORS, 16 PEOPLE

This is a short film featuring a district in Yerevan, where the legacy of the Soviet Union still occupies the minds and daily lives of the residents living in these huge unfinished monolithic structures built in the shape of the letters 'CCCP', as the urban legend holds.

ANTOUNI

A nine-year old Syrian-Armenian girl discovers her father's plans of leaving their beloved homeland.

SPACES AND PLACES: a season of recently restored classics and award-winning contemporary films from Armenia.

Selected as Armenia’s entry for Best International Feature at the 94th Academy Awards, this stunning Armenian-French-Belgian drama is a deeply poetic exploration of state borders. Set in the empty airport of Stepanakert in Nagorno Karabakh, a breakaway state in the South Caucasus, a French engineer must decide whether or not to shutter the building and thereby the hopes and dreams of its workers. A moving portrait of what it means to feel displaced within the space you call home. Directed by Nora Martirosyan.

More details TBC.

From 10 May 2022 until 7 June 2022, the Armenian Institute in partnership with, Klassiki, the world’s first streaming platform dedicated to cinema from Ukraine, Russia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia, will host SPACES AND PLACES, an in-cinema and online film season exploring the contested politics of place and Armenian identity. The films in this season all explore the idea of home – whether that be a place, an idea, or something in-between. They speak to the past and present of Armenia, marked so much by displacement and diaspora: ideas that are sadly as relevant now for international audiences as ever before.

The season will launch with a premiere of Henrik Malyan’s 1969 classic We Are Our Mountains, and is complemented by a month-long programme of online screenings, round table discussions, and director interviews. Curated by the Klassiki team, the Armenian Institute, and the National Cinema Centre of Armenia, the season comprises contemporary award-winning dramas, a series of female-directed shorts, and a newly scored and recently restored silent classic.

Programme supported by Film Hub London, managed by Film London. Proud to be a partner of the BFI Film Audience Network, funded by the National Lottery. The Armenian Institute programme is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

This is an in-person only event. Please register below to attend.

Join us on May 14 for a discussion dedicated to Black Garden Aflame, a collection of articles about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the Soviet and Russian media outlets. The book is edited by Dr. Artyom Tonoyan, a sociologist and political scientist whose research focuses on the intersection of religion and nationalism in Russia and the South Caucasus. Dr. Tonoyan will be joined by Dr. Kevork Oskanian for a conversation about the current state of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the fast changing regional political dynamics and security arrangements.

The event will be in-person at the Armenian Institute (1 Onslow Street, EC1N 8AS) and will be followed by a wine reception.

Speaker Bios:

Dr. Artyom Tonoyan was born and grew up in Gyumri, Armenia and now makes his home in Minneapolis, USA, where he was a research associate at the University of Minnesota's Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (2015-2021). A sociologist by training, his research focuses on the intersection of religion and nationalism in Russia and the South Caucasus. His articles have appeared in Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization, Society, and Modern Greek Studies Yearbook, among others. He has previously collaborated with RAND Corporation and has been a frequent commentator on the BBC, Deutsche Welle, France 24, and other outlets. Presently, he is guest-editing the Journal of Law and Religion (Cambridge University Press) for a forthcoming symposium on religion and law in Russia. He is also working on a book charting the social, historical, and religious backgrounds of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. He received his Ph.D. from Baylor University, where he held a lectureship at the J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies and the Department of Political Science (2006-2012).

Dr. Kevork Oskanian is a Lecturer at the University of Exeter, UK. He obtained his PhD at the London School of Economics’ Department of International Relations, and has previously taught at the LSE and the Universities of Westminster and Birmingham. His latest monograph - ‘Russian Exceptionalism between East and West: The Ambiguous Empire’ (Palgrave) - provides a novel long-term approach to the role of Russia’s imperial legacies in its interactions with the former Soviet space. His current research interests include the International Relations of Eurasia, and post-liberal approaches to International Society and the state.

We regret to announce that due to unforeseen circumstances the Naghash Ensemble concert in London has been cancelled. We are sorry for any inconvenience this might cause. You still have the chance to see the ensemble perform in Oxford on May 30. For more information, please see https://bit.ly/naghash-oxford.

On May 11, 2022, at 6:30 pm, The Naghash Ensemble will present their “Songs of Exile” at Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre in London. The concert is a co-production of SOAS University of London and the Armenian Institute.

The Naghash Ensemble combines the earthy spirituality of Armenian folk song, new classical music, contemporary post-minimalism, and the energy of jazz and rock. Three brilliant female vocalists and some of Armenia’s finest instrumentalists on duduk, oud, dhol, and piano play new music based on sacred texts by the medieval Armenian mystic poet and priest, Mkrtich Naghash.

Written by Armenian-American composer John Hodian, The Naghash Ensemble’s “Songs of Exile” is a profound meditation on man's relationship to God from the perspective of a monk forced to live in exile for many years. Part folk music, part classical, and profoundly moving.

“The spiritual beauty of the music provokes a mix of joy and ecstasy”
— Les Trans Musicales

“A moment of grace and meditation”
Rolling Stone

“The songs are unmistakably Armenian, but out of this world.”
— Armenisch-Deutsche Korrespondenz

Watch a preview of the ensemble performing one of their new pieces live in Ghent here:

For more information about The Naghash Eemble, please visit: www.naghashensemble.com

High-resolution photos can be found here: http://naghashensemble.com/press-photos

Sound files and video files upon request: wiebke@naghashensemble.com

SPACES AND PLACES: a season of recently restored classics and award-winning contemporary Armenian films.

Մենք ենք, մեր սարերը
dir. Henrik Malyan, with Sos Sarkisyan, Frunzik Mkrtchyan, Khoren Abraamyan

When a petty dispute over a lost sheep gets out of hand, a group of shepherds find their mountain idyll interrupted by the long arm of the law in Henrik Malyan’s cult satire, adapted from his own work by beloved Armenian author Hrant Matevosyan. Matevosyan’s comic pastorale, alternately absurdist and broad, demonstrates that it was not just in Russia, and not just in the cities, that ‘60s debates about authority and rebellion raged. A splendid example of the poetry and humour of the Armenian screen tradition, one of the most storied of the USSR’s so-called “national” cinemas, which remains relatively unknown abroad.

From 10 May 2022 until 7 June 2022, the Armenian Institute in partnership with, Klassiki, the world’s first streaming platform dedicated to cinema from Ukraine, Russia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia, will host SPACES AND PLACES, an in-cinema and online film season exploring the contested politics of place and Armenian identity. The films in this season all explore the idea of home – whether that be a place, an idea, or something in-between. They speak to the past and present of Armenia, marked so much by displacement and diaspora: ideas that are sadly as relevant now for international audiences as ever before.

Adapted from the work of beloved Armenian author Hrant Matevosyan, Henrik Malyan’s cult satire and comic pastorale demonstrates that rebellion and discontent in the 1960s was not limited to Russia and its cities, but instead reared their head throughout the Soviet space. A splendid example of the poetry and humour of the Armenian screen tradition, and widely celebrated as the greatest Armenian film ever made.

The season will launch with a premiere of Henrik Malyan’s 1969 classic We Are Our Mountains, and is complemented by a month-long programme of online screenings, round table discussions, and director interviews. Curated by the Klassiki team, the Armenian Institute, and the National Cinema Centre of Armenia, the season comprises contemporary award-winning dramas, a series of female-directed shorts, and a recently restored classics.

Programme supported by Film Hub London, managed by Film London. Proud to be a partner of the BFI Film Audience Network, funded by the National Lottery. The Armenian Institute programme is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Register to join us in person:

Join us in our library and online for another exciting AI Book Club session with the author Rubina Sevadjian for the launch of her latest book, The Long Shadow, the final instalment of the Shadow trilogy. The other two books are In the Shadow of the Sultan and The Darker Shadow. The event will be followed by a wine reception.

The story follows on immediately from events in The Darker Shadow. It concerns the systematic murder of Armenians between 1915 and 1916, and then the attempts at the annihilation of the nation.

Like its two predecessors, this is a novel written in the hope that the story will provide younger readers and those who do not know the recent history of the Armenian people with enough information to explain events, and in the hope that it will encourage them to find out more. I hope it will go a little way to give answers about what motivated the actions of the Ottoman Empire, and in particular the Committee of Union and Progress triumvirs.

Once again, this is a work of fiction, based on fact. All of the major characters in the story are fictional but based loosely on actual people. However, some of the American missionaries and Europeans who were important eyewitnesses have been named, and sometimes paraphrased.

The story follows twins Bedros and Dzovinar into adulthood as they travel across the landscapes of the final years of the Ottoman Empire. Their journey takes them from the shores of the Black Sea to Cilicia, Syria, Lebanon and Cyprus. Set during the seven years 1915 to 1922, the story describes the horrors of the Armenian Genocide and the final heroic Battle of Aintab.

Reviews

In the same way one’s life flashes before one’s eyes before death, The Long Shadow unpeels the layers of culture, history and daily life for Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire at the end of its era. Accessible to all ages, this wonderful tale is almost an untelling of the Armenian race. On their journey west to safety, following the forced exile of Armenians from decimated cities, Bedros and Dzovig take the reader through not just the horrors that unfold during the genocide, but the history, architecture, cuisine and daily rituals for each region they pass. It is a rich, heartbreaking cultural trip through an Armenia that is rapidly being erased.

Victoria Harwood Butler-Sloss, author of The Seamstress of Ourfa

Rubina Sevadjian is a third generation diasporan Armenian, whose family left Asia Minor in the 1800s and was scattered across the world, no members remaining in their ancestral homelands. Born and raised in Africa, she now lives in The United Kingdom. She has researched the Armenians of Ethiopia, and the work of her father B. A. Sevadjian about whom she has given talks in Cyprus, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada. She has also written articles and book reviews for the Armenian Weekly.

In what ways were women targeted as women, and men as men, during the genocide? In this ‘in conversation’ event, Anna Aleksanyan and Becky Jinks will explore how viewing the genocide from the perspective of gender can generate new insights and understandings of the genocide. Using recent research to go beyond the usual discussion of the murder of the men and sexual violence against women, the conversation will also explore victims’ agency, forced marriages, the gender of children, and aftereffects beyond the end of the genocide.

Dr. Rebecca Jinks, Historian of Comparative Genocide & Humanitarianism (Royal Holloway, University of London) and Chair of the Board of Trustees at the Armenian Institute, London. Rebecca’s current research project is a study of ‘genocidal captivity’, using her previous research on the reintegration of Armenian women ‘absorbed’ into Turkish, Kurdish, and Arab households during the genocide.

Anna Aleksanyan is a Ph.D. candidate at the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University. Her dissertation explores gendered aspects of the Armenian Genocide in the experiences of its female victims. Before starting her Ph.D., Anna worked at the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute as a researcher for seven years. She received her BA and MA in History at Yerevan State University. She is currently an adjunct lecturer at the American University of Armenia.

If you would like to join the event in our library, please email admin@armenianinstitute.org.uk as the places are limited.

Join us for a very special event, the London bookfair comes to Armenian Institute! We’ll be holding a very special, all-star panel of Armenian literary and cultural experts, hosted by AI Director Tatevik Ayvazyan. Our panel will discuss the state of Armenian publishing, in Eastern and Western Armenian and in other languages, and both in Armenia and worldwide, including the interests and reading patterns of the global Armenian public, current translation projects, the latest Armenian literary trends, digital publishing and digitisation - and more! The event will be blended in person at AI and on Zoom, for details see above.

Speakers:

Arevik Ashkharoyan is a literary agent with 10-year experience in publishing. Previously, she worked for international and local non-profit and non-trade organizations as administrative manager. In 2016 she established ARI Literary and Talent Agency, representing a dozen of writers of Armenian origin from all over the world. In 2017 she also founded ARI Literature Foundation, a non-profit organization implementing projects aimed at development of local book market, promotion of reading and writing in Armenia and enhancing international dialogue. Some of the project by ARI Foundation are Write in Armenia International Writing Campand Zabel International Women Writers Forum. ARI Foundation coordinates the Calouste Gulbenkian Translation Series Project since 2018. Arevik is also the Secretary of PEN Armenian Center and an advisory board member at International Armenian Literary Alliance (IALA).

Olivia Katrandjian is an Armenian American writer and journalist whose reporting has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the BBC, PBS, ABC News, Quartz, and Ms., among other outlets. Her fiction has been awarded second place in the National Literary Prize of Luxembourg, and long or shortlisted for the Bristol Short Story Prize, the Cambridge Short Story Prize, and the Oxford-BNU Award. A 2021 Creative Armenia-AGBU fellow, Olivia is pursuing a graduate degree in creative writing at Oxford University and is the founder of the International Armenian Literary Alliance. Her work is forthcoming in an anthology of essays by voices from the Armenian diaspora, slated for publication with University of Texas Press in 2022.

Razmik Panossian is Director of the Armenian Communities Department at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon. Prior to his appointment in 2013, he worked at a Canadian governmental agency in Montreal devoted to international human rights promotion and democratic development. He has been a consultant at UNDP in NY. He obtained his PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2000, where he subsequently taught. He is the author of the critically acclaimed book, The Armenians: From Kings and Priests to Merchants and Commissars, and various other academic publications on Armenian identity, diaspora and politics.

POSTPONED

If you would like to join the event in our library, please email nik@armenianinstitute.org.uk as the places are limited.

Join us for the second in our new series, Difficult Conversations, this time on the topic of gendered violence in times of conflict. We’re joined by specialist Anna Arutshyan, in conversation with Arpine Haroyan, to discuss a topic all too pressing in the aftermath of the second Karabakh/Artsakh war of 2020, and now again with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We’ll discuss issues such as the violence inflicted on women by armed forces in conflicts, the increase in domestic violence created by the trauma and hyper-masculinity of war, and more besides. In the spirit of the series, these challenging but important topics will be discussed in a safe space, talking with sensitivity while not shying away from the difficulty.

Speaker Bios:

Anna Arutshyan is a feminist legal scholar and activist advocating for gender equality and long-lasting peace. She has an MSc in Political Science and a recent LLM degree in International Human Rights Law from Oxford Brookes University. In 2001 she co-founded a civil society organisation ''Society Without Violence'' (SWV) working on women's rights in Armenia. In the course of extensive 20 years she has initiated numerous research projects aimed at gender education in secondary schools in partnership with global women’s networks and feminist organisations. Since 2014 she co-founded an Oxford-based ''Women's Solidarity Fund'' (WSF). Its work is to provide a platform for women from post-soviet countries to access educational resources and liaise with Oxford academic circles, as well as organise academic educational programmes with the engagement of high-profile UN special rapporteurs and Human rights advocates.  

Arpine Haroyan is a journalist and researcher focused on Armenian women’s history. She previously worked at EVN Report online magazine where she had a special article series entitled, "From the Forgotten Pages of History" unearthing the work and featuring the lives of remarkable Armenian women of the 19th and 20th centuries. She also worked as a research assistant for Dr. Melissa Bilal (UCLA) and Dr. Lerna Ekmekçioğlu (MIT) for a book and digital archive featuring the history of Western Armenian feminism. Arpine is currently pursuing her master's degree in gender and media at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Join us for the first event in our March programme dedicated to women and gender, in celebration of International Women's Day, a special edition of AI Talks with Cassandra Tavukciyan, founder of the online project Armenian Women Artists. This project is dedicated to raising awareness and giving recognition to the many Armenian women artists found across cultural spheres, including art, music and literature, both in Armenia itself and the Diaspora. For this evening Cassandra will give a presentation of the project and its aims, and showcase a few of her personal favourite figures, before a Q&A chaired by AI director Tatevik Ayvazyan.

Join us for a special poetry reading to celebrate the literary jewel of the Armenian Middle Ages, Grigor Narekatsi’s Book of Lamentations. Marking the 27th of February, the date Pope Francis I chose to mark Grigor’s canonisation in the Roman Catholic Church, we’ll hear the Narek in seven languages, including the original Classical Armenian (Grabar), Eastern and Western Armenian, English, Dutch, French and Russian.

The evening will be introduced by Theo Van Lint, Calouste Gulbenkian Professor of Armenian Studies at the University of Oxford, a specialist on Grigor Narekatsi and translator into Dutch. We’ll then hear the Narek in all its beautiful, polyglot glory, before ending with some exciting new discoveries in the AI archives from Mischa Kudian, one of Narekatsi’s English translators…

10 years on from the start of the Syrian Revolution and subsequent civil war, and more than 20,000 Syrian Armenians have moved to the Republic of Armenia. Described as “repatriation”, this term hides as much as it captures about the real lived experience of arriving in an often entirely new “homeland”, with different cultural references and variants of the language. At the same time, Syrian Armenians have transformed culture in Hayastan itself, bringing a new prominence to Western Armenian, and a fresh influx of influences from the wider region. At this event we’ll hear from three young Syrian Armenians about their experiences, and, as ever in our Diaspora Forums, bring a grassroots perspective on everyday life which doesn’t shy away from challenging but important conversations.

Participants:
Avedis Aposhian
Hovsep Markarian
Houry Pilibbossian

Chaired by
Tatevik Ayvazyan, Director of the Armenian Institute

BIOS TO COME

Armenian Institute is excited to welcome back our dear friend and renowned poet, Lola Koundakjian, founder of the Armenian Poetry Project for a blended in-person/online follow up to her successful poetry studio at the height of the pandemic in 2020. For the theme, she’s chosen ‘Resilience During Transition: Bringing the Emigrant Experience into Poetry’, and participants will be invited to reflect on this through a series of example pieces. Whether you’re joining us to write your first pieces, or already a practiced hand, Lola will help bring out the best in your creative ability.

Cost: £12 per person (£10 concessions)

If you wish to attend please...

1. Pay

2. Register below:

Lola Koundakjian, born in Beirut, lives in New York City where she regularly reads her work. An invitee to international poetry festivals including Medellin, Lima, Ramallah, Trois-Rivieres and Santiago, she last appeared for a in second time in Medellin’s thirtieth anniversary virtual celebration in 2020. Lola co-curates a poetry reading series at the Zohrab Information Center in midtown Manhattan, and since 2006 has promoted Armenian culture with texts, translations and audio for the Armenian Poetry Project. She is the author of The Accidental Observer (2011 USA), Advice to a Poet (2014 Peru; 2015 USA) and The Moon in the Cusp of My Hand (La luna en la cuspide de mi mano) Nueva York Poetry Press (2020).

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If you are joining us online click the link zoom below:

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Join us for a very special event - a display of photographs and a talk - celebrating the generous donation of Harry Koundakjian’s personal photography archive to the Armenian Institute.

The event is blended in person/on Zoom, with very LIMITED SPACES to attend in person. If you are interested in attending in person please email our programme manager at nik@armenianinstitute.org.uk

Born in Aleppo in 1930 to a family originally from Gaziantep/Aintab, Koundakjian was a photographer with Associated Press from the 1960s to his retirement in 2006, first as a freelancer and then as a full-time staffer. Over his career he covered a startling range of events, from the 1972 Munich Olympics to the Lebanese Civil War, the coronation of the Shah of Iran, the 1978 wedding of King Hussein of Jordan, and much more besides. His photos intimately capture historic moments in the lives of a wide range of late twentieth century figures, including Yasser Arafat, Leila Khaled, Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon, Hafez al-Assad, Barbara Walters, Louis Armstrong, Peter O’Toole and many, many others. Harry Koundakjian was even the sole Armenian photographer present at the raising of the flag of an independent Armenia at the United Nations in 1991.

At this event we’ll be joined in person by Harry’s daughter Lola, and remotely by his son Vicken, to discuss the man and his astonishing career through a presentation of some of the images that will be donated to AI. The event is blended in person/on Zoom, with very limited spaces to attend in person. If you are interested in attending in person please email our programme manager at nik@armenianinstitute.org.uk

Value our work? See here how you can support us and get involved! https://www.gofundme.com/f/20yearsatai

“No one / tasted the difference between glass / shards and sugar beads / piercing the bloated belly / of brioches.”

Shahé Mankerian’s critically-acclaimed debut collection, History of Forgetfulness, takes readers to 1975 Beirut, where an un-civil war is brewing. Mankerian asks, “Who said war didn’t love / the children?” setting the tone for a darkly humorous collection in which memories of love, religion and childhood are entangled amongst street snipers and the confusion of misguided bombings.

Ron Koertge writes, “Shahé Mankerian never leaves a reader un-engaged.” Poet Laureate Emerita Thelma Reyna writes, “A survivor of the Lebanese civil war in the late 20th century, Mankerian unspools in devastating simplicity and directness, in seemingly inconsequential scenes, the horrors and suffering of children, parents, neighbors, schoolmates, friends, lovers navigating daily bombardments, scavenging for food, dodging snipers’ bullets, and trying to find a modicum of normalcy among the ruins.”

Mankerian is the principal of St. Gregory Hovsepian School and the Director of Mentorship at the International Armenian Literary Alliance (IALA). History of Forgetfulness has been a finalist at the Bibby First Book Competition, the Crab Orchard Poetry Open Competition, the Quercus Review Press Poetry Book Award, and the White Pine Press Poetry Prize.

Join the Armenian Institute and the International Armenian Literary Alliance on Sunday, January 30, 2022 at 5 pm GMT / 12 pm EST / 9 am PST / 9 pm EVN for a reading and discussion with the author, led by Dr. Hratch Tchilingirian, a sociologist and an associate of the Faculty of Oriental Studies at Oxford University, specializing in Armenian and Middle Eastern Studies, with a particular focus on identity politics, religion and homeland-diaspora relations.

Order History of Forgetfulness directly from Fly on the Wall Press, or from Abril Books or Amazon

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This event is funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

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