Tag: culture

A perceived absence of agency has led to growing public indifference in Armenia. When those who do take a stand, regardless of their tactics, are left to stand alone, more questions than answers surface. From the recent sentencing of radical opposition activists, to sit-ins and hunger strikes Opera Square to continuing impunity, everyone seems to be forgetting to ask, why?

Director Jivan Avetisyan of Tevanik and The Last Inhabitant talks about surviving the Spitak earthquake, the Karabakh War and the memories and experiences that have become the guiding force of his life and his films.

While contemporary Armenian writers are searching for a new language of expression, Arevik Ashkharoyan, a literary agent, has taken on the task of bringing their voices to a global audience. In this first essay for EVN Report, Ashkharoyan writes about the challenges of representing a book that many believe is about the army but in fact is a metaphor for a repressed society.

From referencing the issue of sex-selective abortions to drinking toasts in honor of women, the grammatically genderless Armenian language, still fails to provide a space for its speakers to develop sensitivity towards the intricacies of gender as social conventions and cultural constructs. Rafik Santrosyan, PhD in Linguistics, explains how.

Jag Bambir, one of Armenia’s most beloved musicians, is an early pioneer of the rock and roll movement in the former Soviet Union. In this piece, Raffi Meneshian reviews a recent concert Jag gave in Gyumri in April where he presented his latest creation – Treaton.

Atoussa S. explores the history of women writing and their absence in the literary canon. In this essay for EVN Report, she seeks answers to the questions: What circumstances make women writing/literature possible? What do women own in their writing? What is the meaning of this ownership?

In this moving piece, Paul Chaderjian writes about belonging and identity, of hovering in a ‘Go Between’ space, suspended between two worlds and how unexpected encounters make connecting to the concept of home a reality.