Celebrate Armenian History Month!
Mer Tun, Dzer Tun
Adams Square Mini Park
In 2017 Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathleen Barger proclaimed April as Armenian History Month, recognizing the vast contributions of the Armenian community to our county’s economy and culture. For Glendale residents, a city with the largest Armenian population outside of Yerevan, Armenia, Armenian History Month is a year-long celebration. It is hard not to feel part of the culture and the country when you walk down the streets and smell kabob meat cooking in restaurants and hear the Armenian Rabiz music floating from car windows as they pass by on Brand Boulevard.
This month, Glendale Library, Arts & Culture seeks to embellish our everyday experience with Armenian culture through in-person and online events to honor the people, music and country of Armenia.
We kicked off the month by hearing from one of Glendale’s original Armenian families in our talk with 101-year old Paul Ignatius. Paul’s warm memories of Glendale in the 1920’s and 1930’s is not to be missed. You can view the talk in its entirety on our Youtube channel.
At Adams Square Mini Park, you can view artist Nelli Astvatsatrian’s work “Mer Tun, Dzer Tun” which translates to “our home, your home”. The installation seeks to reclaim and honor history, while laying testament to the resilience of indigenous peoples robbed of homeland everywhere. The finished product will be a quilt which features artwork from the Glendale, as well as people from Armenia and Artsakh, reflecting on what "home" means to them.
On April 14th at 6pm we will host a virtual author talk with Shahé Mankerian, author of the critically-acclaimed collection “History of Forgetfulness”. 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.
Shahé’s talk will be followed two days later on April 16th with an online workshop on writing filmable poetry. Registration links for both can be found on our website.
If you need to get outside, enjoy the sun and move your feet, come down to Artsakh Paseo on Saturday, April 30 at 4pm to join the Lernazang Ensemble for a celebration of Armenian Dance and culture. The event will feature master musicians from Armenia including folk singer Hasmik Harutunyan, Vardan Baghdasaryan on kamancha, Tigran Zakaryan on pku/zurna, Albert Ordinyan on dhol, and more.
Join Glendale Library, Arts & Culture for these events and so much more and follow all of our Armenian History Month celebrations and offerings here: