Category: 2017

LOS ANGELES—The administration of the Rose and Alex Pilibos Armenian school informed Asbarez that two girls posing as Pilibos students are targeting elderly residents at apartment buildings and homes claiming to be raising money for the school library.

In a post on the school’s Facebook page, the Pilibos administration appealed to parents, students and school stakeholders, making it clear that the school is in no way conducting door-to-door fundraising and warned that the impostors are running a scam. The school also urged community members to call local law enforcement officials if they are approached by the impostors.

The impostors were caught on camera while entering a building (See above video)

Below is the text of the post by the Pilibos school administration.

Dear Pilibos Family,

It has come to our attention that two girls (not from our School) have been going to apartment buildings and homes, targeting the elderly, claiming to be Pilibos students and collecting money for the school library.

We need all of us to work together to ensure that this deceitful act comes to an end.

We have notified the authorities and they are working with us on this matter. Attached is grainy surveillance footage of the two girls, as well as two screenshots. If they approach you, or if you recognize them, please call your local police department immediately.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Graduates Seeking Careers in Washington should Submit Applications by November 15th; Student Internship Opportunities Also Available

WASHINGTON—The Armenian National Committee of America kicked off a 30-university tour recently, promoting the Winter 2018 Hovig Apo Saghdejian Capital Gateway Program (ANCA CGP) and the broad range of national and regional career development and internship opportunities the organization has to offer.

“This is the ‘no university left behind tour,’” said ANCA Hovig Apo Saghdejian Capital Gateway Program Director Tereza Yerimyan. “We’re looking to meet every Armenian American student, graduate, and activist who has an interest in building their career in Washington, DC or pursuing the other regional or local opportunities that the ANCA has to offer. And the best part is that we’re coming to you! There’s no Armenian Student Club too small – let us know that you’re interested and we’ll be happy to share how we can help you achieve your career goals.”

The Fall University tour started in sunny Burbank, CA, where the Woodbury University Armenian Student Association (ASA) hosted the first presentation. “The purpose of Woodbury’s Armenian Students Association is to inspire our peers to get involved and be active within the community,” noted ASA president Anahit Kardzhyan. “We especially want to create a sense of belonging for Armenian students on campus and also give everyone the opportunity to meet and mingle with professionals. This is why we loved having Tereza Yerimyan from ANCA come by to speak to our members! They got a sense of what internships are available to them – now and in the long run – and learned about ways to make sure our message is heard locally and nationally. It was also a great chance to network and gain career advice from someone who has gone down a similar path as the rest of us.”

Students from the University of California, Riverside (UCR) welcomed Yerimyan and Fall 2017 ANCA CGP Fellow Sipan Dehjet as they spoke about program and Dehjet’s job search experiences in D.C. “We really enjoyed hearing from a UCR alumnus about his journey in D.C. post-graduation,” said UCR ASA president Vasken Najarian. “The presentation was informative, leaving our members more aware of what ANCA is and does and more interested in how they can be involved.”

Additional presentations held at the University of Southern California and University of California San Diego were equally well received by students anxious to learn about career and internship prospects in government, policy and media.

Over the course of the summer, Yerimyan teamed up with ANCA Western Region and ANCA Eastern Region representatives to connect with thousands of youth and community members at the Homenetmen Western USA Navasartian Games and the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF) Olympics, sharing the various programs the ANCA family has to offer, from the ANCA WR Internship in Los Angeles, to the Walter and Laurel Karabian Fellowship in Sacramento, to the internship and fellowship opportunities in DC.

The ANCA Capital Gateway Program offers fellows three months of free housing, career-building workshops and networking opportunities. Applications for the Winter 2018 session are now due by November 15 and are available at anca.org/gateway. The session begins January 2018. In addition to recent graduates, the ANCA CGP also serves university students interested in Washington, DC internship opportunities– both at the ANCA offices and various governmental agencies, space permitting.

Launched in 2003 with a founding grant by the Cafesjian Family Foundation, the ANCA CGP has helped over 120 Armenian American professionals from across the U.S. explore career prospects in Washington DC. Gateway Program fellows are offered three months of free housing at the ANCA’s Aramian House, located in the heart of Washington, DC in the Dupont Circle neighborhood, just blocks from the ANCA offices. Yerimyan and the Capital Gateway Program Advisory Committee (CGPAC) coordinate a series of career placement workshops on a range of issues including resume and cover letter preparation, effective interview strategies and networking. The CGPAC also connects fellows with mentors most closely aligned with their career goals for one-on-one advice and encouragement.

For university students interested in a quarter/semester in Washington, DC, the ANCA CGP can assist with internship guidance and placements both at the ANCA headquarters and other public policy and government institutions. Students are offered up to three months of free housing at The Aramian House depending on space availability and along with assistance to ensure they meet their university program obligations.

Additional information about the ANCA Hovig Apo Saghdejian Capital Gateway Program is available at anca.org/gateway or by emailing [email protected].

The ANCA CGP is named after Hovig Apo Saghdejian, a beloved young community leader who lost his life in a tragic car accident and whose eternal memory continues to inspire new generations of Armenian Americans. His family generously established the Hovig Apo Saghdejian Memorial Fund in his memory and, over the past decade, have played a vital role in the expansion of the program. Substantial support has also been provided by ANCA benefactors Dr. Vahakn Shahinian and the Shahinian Family; Mr. and Mrs. Frank and Barbara Hekimian; and, the Armenian American Veterans Post of Milford, Massachusetts (AAVO).

The 2015 purchase of The Aramian House was made possible through a generous donation by the family of the late community leader and philanthropist Martha Aramian of Providence, Rhode Island. The Aramian family – led by sisters Sue, Margo, and the late Martha – have long been among the most generous benefactors of ANCA programs as well as of charitable projects in the Armenian homeland and the Diaspora.

The much-anticipated screening of “Vahé Oshagan: Between Acts,” a film by Hrayr Anmahouni will take place on Tuesday, October 24, at 7 p.m. at the Glendale Downtown Library. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with UCLA professor Hagop Kouloujian and Taline Voskeritchian, a professor at Boston University and the American University of Armenia. The program will be introduced and moderated by Professor Peter Cowe, the Narekatsi Chair of Armenian Studies at UCLA.

“Vahé Oshagan: Between Acts” is a literary biography of the pre-eminent writer and intellectual of the modern Armenian diaspora.

The film infuses the traditional documentary with visual, sound-text, and scholarly interpretations of Oshagan’s poetry and prose. It features readings and commentary by Oshagan of his own poetry, as well as analyses by well-known literary critics Krikor Beledian, Krikor Chahinian, Marc Nichanian; and electronic compositions by Ohannes Salibian.

Originally commissioned in 1994 by the Hamazkayin Cultural Association, Western Region, US. It was part of the cultural events celebrating Oshagan’s fiftieth jubilee that took place worldwide in 1994-1995.

Since then, several changes and additions have been made to the original. The upscaling and English subtitles of this final version have been made possible through generous grants from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Hamazkayin Educational & Cultural Association.

This landmark documentary shows clearly how Oshagan’s work ranges from the gritty realm of the quotidian to the urgent world of politics to the existential questions that animate living and dying. As Oshagan says, reading his own work toward the end of the film: “squatting under the mossy, thick fences of chaos having understood nothing, unable to move or to stay there and not even return…”
“’Vahé Oshagan: Between Acts’ leaves us as viewers with dirt stuck in our soles, longing lodged in our hearts, and politics pressing on our limbs,” said David Kazanjian Professor of English Program in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory University of Pennsylvania “This is everything an intellectual might want in a biography, and simultaneously everything one might want in a biography of an intellectual. It offers a genuine sense of Vahe Oshagan’s work, from his own readings to the major critical thinkers and their perspectives on his oeuvre.

“Simultaneously accessible to any viewer and rich enough for any scholar, this film is the definitive audiovisual work on Oshagan and a model for would-be film biographers,” said Anahid Kassabian, Aslop Professor Emerita, University of Liverpool Sound, Music and Film Scholar.

“A truly unique film about one of the most radical diasporan Armenian poets of the 20th century,” said Arto Vaun, Senior Lecturer Director, Center for Creative Writing English & Communications Dept. American University of Armenia.

SHUSHI (Armenian Weekly)— American food icon Anthony Bourdain posted a picture to his social media account on Tuesday night of his cameraman, Jerry Risius, boarding a Russian helicopter, likely to make the journey from Armenia to Artsakh, where he has been featured in pictures across social media.

According to a report by ANI Armenian Research Center editor Tatul Hakobyan, Bourdain is traveling with a film crew to produce a segment on the region for his CNN television show “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown.” In Shushi, Artsakh, an interview and lunch were held at the Jdrduz canyon, where Bourdain “enjoyed a spread of ‘jingalov hats,’ ‘shila,’ ‘khorovatz,’ homemade Armenian yogurt, and mulberry and cornelian cherry vodka.”

A short video also appeared two days prior on the social media feed of local nonprofit ONEArmenia, where Bourdain is featured with Armenian comedy duo and stars of the television show Armcomedy, Narek Margaryan and Sergey Sargsyan, touting the name “Spyurk Report.”

Described by The New Yorker as a “swaggering chef,” Bourdain has built an empire around food, which started with his New York Times best-selling book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (2000). Today, he is well-known as a TV personality, and has starred in shows on Food Network and his Travel Channel show “Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations,” which saw Bourdain travel to unexpected locations, indulging in region’s the local culinary traditions.

In “Parts Unknown,” Bourdain travels the world uncovering lesser known places and exploring cultures and cuisine. The show has won five Emmy Awards, as well as a 2013 Peabody Award.

BY MEGHEDI MELODY NAZARIAN

The narrative of the Armenian Genocide has been on repeat—both in media and in the minds of Armenians all over the world—for over 100 years now. There are countless chilling facts about the atrocities carried out by the Ottoman Empire of 1915, but one in particular has stuck with Los Angeles-born filmmaker Avo John Kambourian since youth.

On eve of April 24, 1915, hundreds of notable Armenian artists and intellectuals living in Istanbul were taken by force from their homes in the middle of the night, placed under arrest, and eventually executed. That image has been playing like a movie reel in Kambourian’s head since the day he heard it. “I was always aware that art can be a very dangerous thing, but also a beautiful thing that many see as a threat to their political agenda,” the 27-year-old says, reflecting on the poignant killings of intellectual leading up to the systematic massacre of 1.5 million Armenians from 1915 to 1918.

Even decades later—and in an attempt to portray how the culture has survived through the work of Armenian artists—Kambourian was inspired to a create a film, a proverbial mixed tape of Armenian artists that aren’t conventionally known in Armenian communities around the world.

“Echoes of Survival,” which debuted during the centennial of the genocide in 2015, follows a group of creative Armenians as they share their unique story of being Armenians raised in the diaspora, specifically the United States.

The talented subjects include NYC photojournalist Scout Tufankjian, abstract painter from Chicago Jackie Kazarian, LA-based documentary photographer Ara Oshagan, oud player from New Jersey Ara Dinkjian, and New England musicians John Berberian and Mal Barsamian.

Each story in this documentary is meant to inspire in its own way: Scout’s sharing of her experience photographing former President Obama and what it means to be a good Armenian today; Ara Dinkjian’s conversation about his musical influences and showing his extensive record collection; Jackie’s talking about being raised with only two other Armenian families in her community and revealing the giant painting she made in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide; the New England musicians’ performing together in Massachusetts; and Oshagan’s discussion about his family legacy and how he went from being a writer to a documentary photographer…

For the filmmaker himself, each creative character excited him for different reasons: “Jackie inspires me with her resilience and dedication to her craft, which can take weeks or months to do; Ara Dinkjian inspires me with his selfless pursuit of finding ways to keep Western Armenian music alive and changing; Ara Oshagan brings a unique perspective on trauma and how it has affected our communities; Scout is the anthropologist we all wish we could be; and the New England musicians are the last of a sadly dying lineage of musical tradition.” Kambourian recounts the scene with all the New England musicians jamming as one of the best nights of his life.

The full piece—67 minutes total—shows the various shapes the Armenian spirit can take. “I want people to feel happy about diversity and about what these artists are making,” Kambourian says about his passion project. “I love being able to preserve moments and tell stories that I find captivating to me, and then have someone else see that and be inspired.”

One of Kambourian’s personal motivations for creating this film was to better understand who he is as an Armenian American today. “For me it means that I get to have a double life. We’re pretty blessed to be living in a country like the United States. We have it pretty okay compared to a lot of the world.” But, still, Armenia is always on the back of Kambourian’s mind. “I think we as Armenians are obligated to always look backwards and reflect, but for the sake of humanity we must also be forward-thinking and be able to embrace change and diversity.” What’s more, “As persecuted people, we also have an obligation to stand up to fascism when we see it.”

After completing the film, Kambourian understands the importance of artists’ in general sharing their own unique story. “We can’t really force people to be interested in our story without some sort of emotional investment. The best films I’ve seen, whether in French, Spanish, Portuguese, or Japanese, they all aim to tell a universal story at their core. The cultural stuff is always just window dressing.”

One of Kambourian’s personal motivations for creating this film was to better understand who he is as an Armenian American today.

Currently, Kambourian is working on a documentary about the famous rocker Joan Jett called “Bad Reputation,” which will debut in 2018.

“Echoes of Survival” will screen at the 20th Annual Arpa Film Festival at the Egyptian Theatre, in Los Angeles, on Nov. 4; at AGBU Films at Lincoln Center in New York City on Nov. 16; and at the Pomegranate Film Festival in Toronto on Nov. 18. Visit avojohn.com for more information on Avo John Kambourian and his work