CATEGORY:

Dialogue

You Taught Me How to Say My Name

“Teach it to me,” you insisted.
Shyly, I pronounced it in English, “Nuh-DEEN Ah-ROXY Dis-lee-OG-loo.”
“No, teach it to me the way your parents named you.”

25 March 2024 | Nadine Araksi/Նատին Արաքսի

Khosrov: Bringing Armenian heritage into the realm of couture

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

Depicting Armenia in Another Light: The Creative Voyage of Karishok Dulyan

“I entered the art world at a very young age,” explains the Armenian artist Karishok Dulyan, who held her very first solo exhibition of her 32 artworks, when she was only five years old. Born and raised in Yerevan, Armenia, Karishok’s parents were quick to pick up on her passion for drawing, so they signed […]

02 January 2024 | Hena Aposhian

Dust Never Settled: Interview with Blue Kalamian

Just over one month ago, the Armenian community watched in horror as Azerbaijan launched brutal attacks on Artsakh, finally completing the ethnic cleansing of its entire indigenous population. We remain heartbroken and scared as we continue to see genocide perpetrated on a global scale, while the military invasion of Armenia looms. In these dire times, […]

25 November 2023 | Araxie Cass

Exploring Our Inner Universe with Maria Leonard

“I have noticed that our journey towards self-discovery is often hindered by years of unawareness and a lack of education about the power of our minds and energies, starting from our early years,” explains Maria Leonard, an Armenian spiritual coach and founder of Life Scripting. Born in Kuwait, Maria and her family were on the […]

16 October 2023 | Hena Aposhian

Exploring the Silences: Interview with Nancy Agabian

By Kristin Anahit Cass Articulate, charming, thoughtful, socially engaged, and genuinely kind, author Nancy Agabian is the sort of person you immediately want to know better. Her writing is at once vulnerable and sharp, and she gets to the raw places where individual identity confronts the conformity that marginalized groups often demand in search of […]

04 August 2023 | Kristin Anahit Cass

Azad Sparks: Inclusive Armenian Organizing with Carene Mekertichyan

Carene Mekertichyan is an artist, organizer, educator in Los Angeles. She organizes people for intersectional justice in various arts spaces and online through her platform on Instagram. She is one of the co-founders of Yerazad coalition, an action coalition dedicated to Armenian liberation and building transnational solidarity. Inspired by Carene’s efforts to build inclusivity in the Armenian community, I sat down with her to learn more about her activism, organizing work, and Armenian experience.

26 October 2022 | Araxie Cass

Connecting Homeland and Diaspora through Learning, Culture, and Friendship

Narek Shamamyan is the founder of the first queer-friendly Armenian language school. A+ Academy is based in Yerevan and connects diasporans around the world with teachers in Armenia, building transnational community through learning.

24 May 2022 | Kristin Anahit Cass

The Next Chapter

When I was accepted into my graduate program, the first person I called was my mom. She had told me I was crazy when I got an email from the school inviting me to apply to the program and immediately dismissed it as spam. I thought, why would this program be reaching out to me? […]

26 April 2022 | Gareen Simone

Sorry, Bro: The queer Armenian Rom-Com we didn’t know we needed

Literature and time walk hand in hand. We’ve seen cultures grow and thrive through writings, and most of the time, we forget that without authors “ahead of their time” many would not have had the courage to do what their favorite book characters did in similar situations. However, a reader has to find a certain […]

07 February 2022 | Paula Kjdrian