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GARTAL
GARTAL and ADAA collaborate annually to present play readings in the fall in New York City by Armenian writers. ADAA is pleased to host GARTAL on their website.
GARTAL
An Armenian American Literary Reading Series
The Third Anniversary of the Armenian Poetry Project
(http://armenian-poetry.blogspot.com)
Gartal invites you to celebrate
with a reading by
Nishan Akgulian
Time:
Location: Cornelia Street Cafe
|
212 989-9319 for reservations and info
$8 cover includes a drink
BIOS:
NISHAN AKGULIAN is an artist living in Woodside, Queens. He was born and raised in Racine, Wisconsin and is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. His illustrations have appeared in numerous editorial publications throughout the world and his client list includes many major international corporations, greeting card companies and book publishers. His essay, "No More Survivors" is part of a series of writings he has been working on for several years. He has also been writing and illustrating an interpretation of the David of Sassoun epic.
NORA ARMANI is a performer and writer born in Egypt of Armenian parents. Her own stage creations Sojourn at Ararat, Nannto, Nannto and On the Couch with Nora Armani have earned international accolades during extensive tours on four continents in over twenty five cities. In addition to her previous publications and French radio broadcast, two of her poems were recently published in the UK, and her short story ‘Waiting to Arrive’ will appear in the U.S. anthology, “In Our Own Words: A Generation Defining Itself - Volume 8” in May 2009. Recently, she created and performed ‘Evocations of Armenia’, a duo with David Bakamjian (cello) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and she was invited to Armenia to develop an International Theatre initiative sponsored by the Government and the Ministry of Culture. She will return to Yerevan with Mr. Bakamjian in April to perform 'Evocations of Armenia' and to work on a new play in which she will co-star with Armen Djigarkhanian. Nora Armani is based in New York City. www.noraarmani.com
KEVORK K. KALAYJIAN, JR. was born in Azez, Syria (near Aleppo), and is a graduate of the Melkonian Educational Institute of Nicosia, Cyprus. He holds a B.A. in Political Science and Economics from Fairleigh Dickinson University, and a M. Ed. in Counseling Psychology, from William Paterson University. He is a descendant of survivors of the Genocide from the Town of Kilis, in the Cilician region of Occupied Armenia. An accountant by profession, he also paints and writes. His poems have been published in "Ararat", at poetry.com, and at the Armenian Poetry Project. Kevork resides in NY with his wife Maral, and three sons Aramazt, Tro, and Ohanes.
LOLA KOUNDAKJIAN's poems have appeared online on GROONG, and in print in the Armenian Weekly. She has served on the board of Ararat Literary Quarterly and freelanced for the Armenian Reporter, and, the Armenian Weekly. Lola runs the Dead Armenian Poets’ society and the Armenian Poetry Project. She is hoping to print her first collection of bilingual poems. The “Armenian Poetry Project, which she curates and produces in New York, is an online resource provides free audio and text RSS feeds on the internet and podcasts on Apple’s iTunes. Lola researches and records poems in Armenian, English and French, including works written from the late 19th century to the present. Famous, budding and obscure poets from all over the world can be found amongst the over 900 entries to date.
The ARMENIAN POETRY PROJECT can be accessed at http://armenian-poetry.blogspot.com
ABOUT GARTAL: Since December 2002, Gartal ("to read" in Armenian) has been an independent forum for both established and emerging writers of Armenian descent and/or writers dealing with Armenian themes to read their poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction and dramatic texts to the public. Coordinated by writer Nancy Agabian, Gartal brings together, via the dual acts of reading and listening, diverse Armenian constituencies, from the progressive to the traditional. A particular effort is made to give voice to Armenian stories that haven't been widely heard, including those of mixed race, various religions, different economic backgrounds, and queer Armenians. For more information about the series, visit http://armeniandrama.org/GARTAL.php or email nancyagabian@gmail.com.
Second Reading
Will Feature
Milena Abrahamyan
Time:
Location: Downstairs at the Cornelia Street Cafe
|
212 989-9319 for reservations and info
$10 cover includes a drink
ABOUT THE READERS:
Milena Abrahamyan is majoring in Creative Writing, Psychology and Women's Studies at Hunter College. Her poetry and prose, which can be viewed on her blog www.inarmenia.blogspot.com, concentrate on themes of coming into her own as an Armenian, queer woman. She is working on a memoir about immigrating from Armenia at ten years of age and how growing up in New York City has shaped her. She is passionate about women and their stories and hopes that by telling her own story she can reach other women who find themselves in a similar disposition.
Christopher Atamian is a writer, producer and director. His creative work has appeared in Ararat Magazine, The Armenian Poetry Project and www.yevrobatsi.org, where he writes a column on culture and politics. He recently completed his first novel, "Speaking French," a coming of age story about a precocious Armenian boy and his adventures in the New York City of the eighties. He has translated Nicholas Sarafian and written a one woman play about Zabelle Yessayan. Christopher has directed and/or produced six short films, including a dance film "Psychic Data Mining" with choreographer Luke Wiley and "Shad Shakar Mi Ooder" with Melissa Boyajian and Nancy Agabian. He produced the 2004 Armenian International Film Festival of New York with Anahid Kassabian and the 2006 OBIE Award-wining play "Trouble in Paradise" at the Hudson Guild Theater. He is a frequent contributor to the New York Times, The Village Voice, Dance Magazine, The New York Press, and the Beirut Star. He is currently working on a book of criticism on Armenian film entitled "Deconstructing Ararat," and a feature-legth film script on the poet Hart Crane. Christopher is a graduate of Harvard, Columbia and USC and attended Collegiate School in New York City.
Aida Zilelian-Silak is an English teacher at Long Island City High School. She has written two novels - "The Girl Who Cried Tuscany", a series of stories about her experiences growing up in American as a first-generation American-Armenian, and "The Hollowing Moon", about a young girl escaping from her family and traveling through the Midwest. Her short story "With Great Affection, Sophie" was recently published in the April issue of Pen Pusher magazine in London.
First Reading
Presents
Gregory Djanikian
Time:
Location: Downstairs at the Cornelia Street Cafe
|
212 989-9319 for reservations and info
$10 cover includes a drink
This event is funded in part by Poets & Writers, Inc. through public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
ABOUT GARTAL:
Since December 2002, Gartal ("to read" in Armenian) has been an independent forum for both established and emerging writers of Armenian descent and/or writers dealing with Armenian themes to read their poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction and dramatic texts to the public. Coordinated by writer Nancy Agabian, Gartal brings together, via the dual acts of reading and listening, diverse Armenian constituencies, from the progressive to the traditional. A particular effort is made to give voice to Armenian stories that haven't been widely heard, including those of mixed race, various religions, different economic backgrounds, and gay and lesbian Armenians. For more information about the series, email nancyagabian@gmail.com.
All photo credits: Harry Koundakjian
ABOUT THE READERS:
Gregory Djanikian was born of Armenian parentage in 1949 in Alexandria, Egypt, and came to the United States when he was 8 years old. He has published five collections of poetry with Carnegie Mellon University Press, The Man in the Middle, Falling Deeply into America, About Distance, Years Later, and most recently, So I Will Till the Ground¸ poems dealing with the Armenian genocide of 1915, the author's boyhood in Alexandria, and his eventual immigration to the United States with his family. His poems have appeared in numerous publications including The American Poetry Review, The American Scholar, Boulevard, The Georgia Review, Iowa Review, Poetry, Poetry Northwest, Shenandoah, TriQuarterly, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer , and in over 25 anthologies and textbooks. He directs the creative writing program at the University of Pennsylvania.
Lola Koundakjian's poems have appeared online on GROONG, and in print in the Armenian Weekly; she has interviewed Armenian poets, visual artists and musicians for the Armenian Reporter, and, written book reviews for the Armenian Weekly. Lola runs the Dead Armenian Poets' society and the Armenian Poetry Project, a blog containing text and audio clips.
Arthur Nersesian is a real New York writer. His novels are a celebration of marginal characters living in the East Village and trying to survive. Nersesian's books include The Fuck-Up, The East Village Tetralogy, Unlubricated, Chinese Takeout, Suicide Casanova, Dogrun, Manhattan Loverboy, and most recently, The Swing Voter of Staten Island. He was an editor for The Portable Lower East Side, which was an important magazine during the 1980s and early 90s. When The Fuck-Up came out in 1997, MTV Books picked it up and reprinted it in a new edition for hipsters everywhere. Soon Nersesian was no longer known only to a cabal of young bohemians on Avenue A. His work has been championed by The Village Voice and Time Out.
NANCY AGABIAN
After graduating from Wellesley College with a degree in Studio Art in 1990, Nancy Agabian moved to Los Angeles, where she wrote and presented the poems and solo performance texts collected in Princess Freak. Her writing has also appeared in numerous anthologies. With Ann Perich she formed the folk-punk duo Guitar Boy; their CD Freaks Like Me was released in 2000. In that year she also received the Dolores Zohrab Liebmann fellowship to attend Columbia University’s writing program, from which she graduated in 2003. Her master’s thesis, Me as her again, is a memoir that explores the influence of her Armenian-American family on her coming-of-age. Since Dec. 2002, she has been coordinating Gartal, a literary reading series for Armenian writers at Cornelia Street Café in Greenwich Village. A teaching artist-in-residence from 1994-99 at Beyond Baroque in L.A., she currently teaches creative nonfiction writing at Queens College in NYC.
Sunday, January 22nd, 2006, New York
GARTAL in collaboration with
ADAA - The Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance
Presents an evening of staged readings:
"ARMENIAN VOICES"
by Lisa Kirazian, directed by Zoya Kachadurian
and
"THE BRIDE"
by Zabel Asadour, translated by Nishan Parlakian, directed by Cynthia Ohanian
TBG Studios
312 West 36th Street
New York, NY
LINKS:
www.arthurnersesian.com
www.armenian-poetry.blogspot.com
www.hye-eli.com
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