This piece is part of a research series that will be released in five parts, over a period of 5 weeks. You can find parts one, two, three, and four here. Photo from Lernazang Ensemble. This article was originally written as a thesis for the MA Program in the Social Sciences at the University of Chicago, and has been adapted […]

28 June 2024 | Abbie Tarpinian Porto

This piece is part of a research series that will be released in five parts, over a period of 5 weeks. You can find parts one, two, and three here. Photo from Lernazang Ensemble. This article was originally written as a thesis for the MA Program in the Social Sciences at the University of Chicago, and has been adapted for […]

28 June 2024 | Abbie Tarpinian Porto

“The battle is not done, and there is no more retreat,” the program describes the next dance, “Battlefield.” Loud zurna and drums play as the men come onto the stage in brown taraz shirts and black pants, and Yerevan’s statue of David of Sassoun, the Armenian hero of legend, shows on the screen in the background. They perform the ancient martial dance yarkhushta49 with intensity and rhythm. The dancers jump, clap, and hit their shoulders together with incredible energy. The audience claps and cheers along. With their vocalizations and forceful movements, the dancers create a powerful energy…

Photo from Lernazang Ensemble.

25 June 2024 | Abbie Tarpinian Porto

The screen raises, and the curtains open for Sardarabad’s last performance of the night, a dance titled “Vaspurakan” after the region of historic Armenia centered around Lake Van. A lively song plays, with brass, strings, drums, and of course, zurna. About 20 men and women dance onto the stage wearing bright taraz44 costumes in a warm yellow-orange color with red aprons, vests, and hats with deep blue detailing. They hold hands and dance in a line, stepping, hopping, and shouting “hey!” to the music…

Photo from Lernazang Ensemble.

18 June 2024 | Abbie Tarpinian Porto

When Armenians still lived throughout Anatolia, a deep connection to the Armenian Highlands inspired folklore and religious belief. Mountains were the homes of dragons, the birthplaces of heroes, the earthly ancestors of the Armenian people, and even the resting place of Noah’s Ark, a belief still widely held today. Then, the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide of 1915 took Armenians away from their mountains…

Photo from Lernazang Ensemble.

02 June 2024 | Abbie Tarpinian Porto

I watched it unfold on social media―months of deprivation, followed by a bloody siege and then a forced evacuation―from the comfortable distance of another country, surrounded by ocean, the one with the strongest, biggest military. No, they didn’t use it to help. Humanitarian is just a word. It means “oil money,” it means “in our […]

25 May 2024 | Lori Yeghiayan Friedman

The conversations our ancestors had with the land were cut short. Discovering and revitalizing their traditional medicinal practices, anchored by their reverence for herbs and their approach to natural materials is active remembrance. The source for the following piece was one that I discovered at the Boston Antiquarian Book Fair this past fall. It was […]

07 May 2024 | Palig

Artistry is in Khosrov Melkonyan’s blood. The Los Angeles-born and bred fashion designer has always been a cinematic thinker, by virtue of his parents who were astute tastemakers in their own right. His father was a Yerevan-raised classically trained artist, and his mother, a culinarian with an ingenuity for lavish entertaining.  Melkonyan is the architect […]

06 March 2024 | Ella Chakarian

Growing up in the Armenian Apostolic Church was a sensory delight, with its flickering candles, rich colors, sparkling gold, and the sonorous chanting of priests and songs of the choir – all shrouded in incense, ritual, and mystery. So powerful are these memories that it felt only natural to turn to this heritage to find […]

07 February 2024 | Melissa Rodgers

In times of unimaginable crisis, Nairy Shahinian, like many of us, turns to music. In her words, “personally, music has been a daily companion throughout my life, with some of my earliest memories of music going as far back as my childhood. I have been especially mesmerised by music’s magical ability to heal the deepest […]

04 January 2024 | Azad Archives