GLENDALE – A star-studded panel featuring the community’s brightest women in media, followed by a live performance by Bei Ru, will kick off this year’s ANCA-WR Grassroots Conference, the signature gathering of experts in law, politics, media, and advocacy that takes place biennially and is organized by the Armenian National Committee – Western Region. The conference will take place on October 18 and 19 at the Pasadena Convention Center at 300 E Green St, Pasadena, CA 91101.

The Armenian Women in Media panel will feature Sona Movsesian from Conan, Araksya Karapetyan from KTTV Fox 11’s Good Day L.A., Anna Kachikyan from The Armenian Report, Ella Sogomonian from KRON ON, and Ellina Abovian from KTLA 5 News.

For more information and to secure seats, please visit: https://bit.ly/2m5C2bN

“Over the years, this conference has established itself as the premier venue to discuss some of the most urgent and important matters for our community,” remarked 2019 ANCA-WR Grassroots Conference Organizing Committee Chair Nyree Tognozzi Apik. “We look forward to building on that legacy as we gear up for the highly-anticipated 5th ANCA-WR Grassroots Conference.” “As in the past, we expect this year’s Grassroots Conference to attract hundreds of participants,” remarked ANCA-WR Board Member and organizing committee liaison Ayk Dikijian, Esq. “The organizing committee has been hard at work for months undertaking the necessary preparations to bring some of the brightest minds together to share their knowledge and expertise with our community, ensuring the success of this event.”

The media is an essential tool to promote and advance important issues and can be a challenge to navigate when it comes to issues important to the Armenian community. This panel will discuss various media opportunities, as well as the factors and considerations that go into media content. Each panelist will bring her unique experience and knowledge to educate the conference on the dynamics of today’s media in the United States and abroad.

The panel will take place on Friday, October 18 at 7:30pm at the Pasadena Convention Center and will be followed by the ANCA-PN welcome cocktail reception and live performance by acclaimed artist, Bei Ru.

The two-day conference will continue the following morning of Saturday October 19th at the same location, and include a live performance by the Element Band, compelling panels covering Civic Engagement, Artsakh and Activism, Turkey, Homeland and the Diaspora. Lunch is included for all registered attendees.

The Armenian National Committee – Western Region (ANC-WR) is a grassroots public affairs organization devoted to advancing issues of concern to the Armenian American community.

By F. Kathleen Foley

L.A.’s theater scene is loaded with premieres this week, with new plays centered on the Armenian genocide (“Constantinople” in North Hollywood), family discord (“Last Swallows” in West Hollywood), CIA intrigue (“The Surveillance Trilogy” in Beverly Hills) and the fallout of a political sex scandal (“Representative Behavior” in Burbank).

‘Constantinople’ at the Secret Rose

The essentials: In 1919 Constantinople, an Armenian women’s rights activist and an intrepid guerrilla fighter join forces to smuggle weapons and supplies into their ravaged homeland while spiriting out women and children abducted during the genocide. Other characters — a dying poet rushing to complete his magnum opus, a young feminist rescued from abduction, a rape victim forced to bear her assailant’s child— strive for some semblance of normalcy.

Why this? Playwright Aram Kouyoumdjian, who also directs, clarifies the historical intricacies of a turbulent period. Kouyoumdjian intends his strikingly contemporary play not as a period piece, but as a reflection of our current geopolitical climate. “A century later, we find ourselves contending with the same struggles as the play’s protagonists,” he says. “Displacement, anti-immigrant sentiment, populism, demagoguery and a struggle for women’s rights.”

Details: Vista Players at Secret Rose Theatre, 11246 W. Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood. 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays, through Nov. 2. $20-$40. (818) 538-4911. itsmyseat.com/constantinople

Glendale – The Armenian National Committee of America – Western Region (ANCA-WR) announced that it will award journalist and TV personality Araksya Karapetyan with the “Excellence in Media” Award at the 2019 ANCA-WR Gala on Sunday, October 20 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.

“Throughout her illustrious career in journalism, Araksya has always stayed true to her Armenian roots by spreading the message of the Armenian Cause through her public platform,” remarked ANCA-WR Chair Nora Hovsepian, Esq. “We are proud to honor her at our upcoming gala banquet for her tireless work in raising awareness about issues important to our community as well as for serving as a good example to the new generation on how they too can make a positive impact in the public sphere for the benefit of our nation.”

Araksya Karapetyan joined the FOX 11 team in March of 2012. She co-anchors Good Day LA from 6am to 9am alongside Tony McEwing. A native of Armenia, Karapetyan moved to the U.S. when she was seven years old. A devastating earthquake, a brewing conflict with Azerbaijan, and the demise of the Soviet Union all contributed to her family’s decision to leave their homeland. She grew up in Palos Verdes Estates. Karapetyan worked as a general assignment reporter and fill-in host at KOIN-TV in Portland, Oregon. Prior to that, she was a reporter, anchor, and producer at KIDK-TV in Idaho Falls. Karapetyan began her television career as an intern at KABC-TV in Los Angeles and KFI 640 AM radio in Burbank. Her interest in journalism sparked when she went back for a summer visit to Armenia. She decided to spend her time there not by being a tourist, but by exploring to see what everyday life was like for the majority. Karapetyan has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in International Relations and Broadcast Journalism from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. Last year’s Gala attracted over 1,000 attendees as it honored a variety of individuals who have served their community and their country. Past Gala honorees in attendance include Armenian member of the Turkish Parliament Garo Paylan, United States Senator Robert Menendez, Congressman Ed Royce, California Senate President Pro Tempore Kevin de Leon, California Assemblymembers Katcho Achadjian and Paul Krekorian, CA State Senator Anthony Portantino, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, artist/musician Serj Tankian, Excellence in Media

recipients David & Laura McKenzie, Elizabeth Stanton, Dean Cain and Montel Williams, and legendary late coach Jerry Tarkanian, among many other distinguished honorees. 

Purchase tickets now.

Stay tuned for more information on the announcement of honorees. For more information, visit our Facebook page. For any additional questions, send an email or call 818-500-1918.

The Armenian National Committee of America – Western Region is the largest and most influential nonpartisan Armenian American grassroots advocacy organization in the Western United States. Working in coordination with a network of offices, chapters, and supporters throughout the Western United States and affiliated organizations around the country, the ANCA-WR advances the concerns of the Armenian American community on a broad range of issues in pursuit of the Armenian Cause.

Founder of Children of Armenia Fund (COAF) Garo Armen and Javier Garcia Gomez, CTO of Ericsson for Europe and Latin America, will be keynote speakers at the WCIT 2019.

WCIT 2019 will be held in Yerevan on October 6-9, 2019. The Congress is hosted by Armenia with the support and under the high patronage of the Government of the Republic of Armenia. The World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) was established by the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA). Its main organizing body is the Union of Advanced Technology Enterprises (UATE). 

TEHRAN – The 51st edition of the annual Armenian Olympics were inaugurated in Tehran Friday night.

The opening ceremony was held at the Ararat Sports Complex and was attended by Tehran City Council Chairman Mohsen Hashemi Rafsanjani.

The event has brought 700 Armenian athletes from across the country together.

Armenian Olympics is one of the longest-standing sports events in the world’s Armenian community.

The athletes compete in nine events in the 10-day competition.

Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble is pleased to announce three Bay Area concerts next month with renowned Armenian folk singer Hasmik Harutyunyan. Their program, titled Gorani: Love Songs to Lost Homelands, will commemorate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Komitas Vardapet (1869-1935), a composer, folk song collector and an icon in the history of Armenia.

Performances will take place at the Green Music Center’s Schroeder Hall at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, Thursday, October 17 at 6:30 p.m.; at St. Vartan’s Armenian Church in Oakland, Friday, October 18 at 8 p.m.; and at the Hammer Theatre Center at San Jose State University, Saturday, October 19 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for all events may be purchased online via direct links at kitka.org/events.

One of Armenia’s leading folk singers, Harutyunyan has received international acclaim for her mellifluous renditions of Armenian lullabies and her work with Yerevan’s Shoghaken Ensemble. Her nuanced and passionate interpretations of traditional melodies from historical villages across the Armenian plateau offer a mesmerizing glimpse into a lost world.

Together with Kitka’s eight vocalists, Harutyunyan will perform a program featuring lullabies and love songs, as well as emigrant and work songs, many collected and arranged by Komitas, considered the founder of modern Armenian classical music, and a pioneer in the field of ethnomusicology. Thanks to his painstaking work, countless traditional songs survived the Armenian Genocide.

Gorani is a ritual Armenian song and dance form. Gorani signifies death and resurrection, symbolized by a sheaf of wheat, a perennial crop which returns in the spring each year. Gorani appears often in songs of remembrance and longing for one’s homeland or beloved.

Kitka’s concerts will also celebrate the release of Ororotsayin, Harutyunyan’s new book and CD anthology of 57 historical Armenian lullabies, most never previously recorded. Lullabies documented by Komitas are included in this collection and will be performed collaboratively by Harutyunyan and Kitka in the concert program.

In addition to these concerts, Kitka will host three public workshops in which Harutyunyan will share traditional Armenian dances and songs. Folk dance workshops will take place at Bethany Lutheran Church in Menlo Park, Friday, October 4 at 7:30 p.m., and at Monroe Hall in Santa Rosa on Tuesday, October 8 at 7 p.m. On Saturday, October 12 at 2 p.m., Harutyunyan will lead a vocal workshop focused on Armenian lullabies and love songs at Silk Road House in Berkeley.

Next month’s concert and workshop series marks Kitka’s second major collaboration with Harutyunyan. Their first joint project, Caucasus Connections, a concert tour throughout California and Armenia, took place in 2009 and 2010 under the sponsorship of the Trust for Mutual Understanding and the National Endowment for the Arts. Next month’s activities have received support from WESTAF Tour West and the City of Oakland Cultural Funding Program.

For more information, visit kitka.org.

Harutyunyan draws strength and inspiration from her ancestors in the province of Moush in historic (Western) Armenia, especially her grandmother, Mafo, who sang to her as a child. In addition to songs sung by her family, Harutyunyan learned many of the songs in her repertoire from elder women who had emigrated from Western to Eastern Armenia before or during the Armenian Genocide of 1914-1923, as well as from their descendants and old song collections.

Harutyunyan’s Shoghaken Ensemble has performed throughout Armenia, Georgia, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Europe and North America. In 2002, the Ensemble was honored to take part in Yo-Yo Ma‘s Silk Road Project. Their music can also be heard on the soundtrack of the film Ararat.

Harutyunyan’s first solo recording, Armenian Lullabies (Traditional Crossroads, 2004), was praised as “The best Armenian recording worldwide” (The New York Times).
Harutyunyan passes her cultural heritage on to the next generation as director of the Hayrik Mouradyan Children’s Traditional Song and Dance Ensemble. Of her lifelong commitment to the art of the Armenian lullaby, Harutyunyan writes: “Lullabies guide a person throughout their entire life. In the beginning, they are sung to you, later, you are the one who sings… in this way, the cosmic melody of love and affection continues forever.”

Source: http://road-to-armenia.com/hasmik/hasmik.html

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