ACOM Genocide Commemoration April 24, 2018
ACOM Held a Talk on April 24th 2018 commemorating the Armenian Genocide of 1915.
Tom Keljik was the featured speaker and his topic was:
"Why did it happen? What were the events leading up to the Genocide".
The event was held in the auditorium of the St. Anthony Park Library in St. Paul. The event was well attended (43 at one count). Before the start of the event, Buttons calling for a remembrance of the Genocide were passed out to attendees. Tom also gave selected members of the audience colored cards with various pieces of information about times, places, and actions of historical significance leading up to the time of the Genocide. He used these during his talk, further involving the audience in the presentation.
An audio recording is currently available for the presentation. The talk was a bit under 1 hour in length. Click on the link below to hear the audio.
The link below is to a copy of Speakers Notes and Background Data in the Handout:
Speakers Notes and Background Data
What Was It Like Growing Up Armenian In .... 10th in a Series
The tenth session in the ongoing series "What Was It Like Growing Up Armenian In ..." Features Tom Keljik who grew up in the Twin Cities, Armineh Khachatoorian who grew up in Iran, and Reena Ghannoum who grew up in Syria. The event was held on March 18th 2018 at the Merriam Park Library in St. Paul and was open and publicized to the general public as well as to the Armenian Community. The three presenters gave their interesting perspectives on growing up in their communities. Tom, who like many children of immigrants was not immersed in the culture until he was older and began to discover the stories about his parents and older relatives. Armineh grew up in an Iran that was still welcoming to Armenians and there was always the Armenian presence available to her. Reena grew up in Syria and also had many Armenian friends and neighbors. During the last few years the troubles in Syria were escalating but she was still at ease in her home area. The session was moderated by ACOM President Nairy Digris. As always, the session prompted a lively discussion session. Of the 27 attendees, there were two attending that were outside of the general Armenian community. But were verry interested in the session and hopefully came away with a greater understanding of Armenians and their lives.
ACOM Cinema Saturday for February 2018
ACOM Cinema Saturday was held in the home of Terry and Nairy. Starting at 6:30 PM with a Social "Half-Hour" the 13 attendees viewed the Movie "You don't know Jack". The movie was about Dr. Jack Kevorkian and starred Al Pacino as Jack, Brenda Vacarro as Jack's sister Margo, and Susan Sarrandon as Janet the Hemlock society's president. Thirteen of us viewed the movie and then Aram led the group in a spirited discussion of the movie. Snacks and beverages were provide pot-luck style. Everyone had a pleasant and stimulating evening.
ACOM 2018 Gaghant Party
ACOM's annual Gaghant Party was held at a new venue - Midpointe Event Center - on Friday January 12, 2018. Over 100 people were registered and provided with dinner catered by Mim's Restaurant, a Silent Auction, a Kids Game room (new this year), and dancing to Music Mundial. The new event space was spectacluar with lots of room, separate areas for auction and games, wonderful decorations and special lighting effects on the windows with the Armenian Flag Colors.
A brief program was given by Francis Bulbulian, ACOM current President, that introduced the newly elected board, congratulated board members that are leaving, and gave a presentation recap on ACOM's acheivements over the last year (2017). (You can dowload a copy of the 2017 Recap in the attachment)
Dancing then followed with Armenian Music by Music Mundial. We did get a lot of people up to dance, especially the younger generation. All-in-all a magical evening with very special people in a fabulous setting. A wonderful way to end 2017 and start the new year of 2018 - our 38th year. Hooray!!!
Voski Ashoun 2017
ACOM's annual Voski Ashoun Celebration was held this year at the Pine Tree Apple Orchard in White Bear Lake.
The day was a perfect autumn day for an excursion and picnic at an apple orchard. About 30 people attended and shared food, stories, a trivia game and wandering around the orchard and visiting the gift and bake shop. Peter Hajinian formulated an Armenian trivia quiz that most of the attendees perticipated in. There seemed to be no clear winner, even after a number of run-off questions all correctly answered by the 5 finalists. Peter finally announced that the first prize would go to "Poly" for a question that Poly asked of the trivia master that he couldn't answer. Everyone in attendence enjoyed the outing.
Festival of Nations Flag Ceremony
FESTIVAL of NATIONS
ST. PAUL, MN 2017
Armenians were again represented at the International Institute of Minnesota's Festival of Nation celebration. This Festival has been ongoing since 1932 and Minnesota Armenians have participated in the Festival since its start.
During the Festival every year, there is a Flag ceremony held each day. This ceremony celebrates the varied ethnicities of Minnesota (particularly the Twin Cities) and the current bond that brings them all together - The United States Flag.
This year Bradley Erickson and Reena Ghanoum participated, representing Armenia. The ceremony is quite moving and shows us that we are a united people under this flag.
Genocide Commemoration 2017
The Armenian Genocide Commemoration for Minnesota Armenians took place on April 24th 2017 at St, Sahag Armenian Church. The event was organized by ACOM and St. Sahag.
What was it like growing up Armenian in ...9th in Series
On Sunday, March 12, 2017, the 9th session in the series "What was it like growing up Armenian in ..." was held in fellowship hall at St. Sahag Armenian Church. The three panelists brought some very diverse perspectives on their early years and how those experiences brough them to where they are today. As always, the audience was intrigued by the stories and brought up some interesting questions in the Q&A period following the presentation. Francis B. served as moderator and kept the session moving along. Thanks to the three participants and to all who came to find out more about Armenian heritage and identy.
ACOM Gaghant 2017
ACOM's annual Gaghant was held on Saturday January 14th at Como Dockside Event Center.
What was it like Growing up Armenian in ..... 5th in Series
On Sunday, May 18, 2014, ACOM hosted the 5th session in its series "What It Was Like Grow-ing Up Armenian In ...", with about 70 observers in attendance. This ses-sion's participants, were Father Tadeos Barseghyan, Mariam Kocharian and David Grigoryan. For the first time in these sessions, all three participants spent at least some of their time growing up in ... Armenia.
More...
What was it like Growing up Armenian in ..... 6th in Series
The sixth session of ACOM's popular series of "What it was like growing up Armenian In ..." was held on March 21, 2015. The featured speakers this time were Kristapor Souslian, who grew up in Egypt, Nairy Digris, who also grew up in Egypt, and John Parker Der Boghossian, who grew up in France and the U.S.
What was it like Growing up Armenian in ..... 7th in Series
On Sunday, March 13, 2016, ACOM hosted the 7th session in the "What Was It Like Growing Up Armenian In ..." series. The panelists this time were Peter Hajinian, who grew up in the Milwaukee area, Terese Najarian, who grew up in the Twin Cities area, and Artyom Tonoyan, who grew up in Armenia and the Ukraine. Our host was Francis Bulbulian.
ACOM Cooking Class
On November 5, 2016 master chefs Judy Ohannesian, Adriene Hayes, and Michele Angel instructed participants in the making of Gata and Cheureg breads.
A video (in French with English Subtitles) about Cheureg makig can be found Here
Voski Ashoun 2016
Dr. Charles Hajinian was our Voski Ashoun speaker this September 24, 2016. He gave the attendees a very fascinating talk on Armenian Coins and their history starting with Tigran II, King of Kings, 95 -55 BC thru King Levon’s rule1374-1375 AD. He brought his extensive collection of coins for show and tell. It was a collection worthy of a museum. In his talk he included much of Armenian history for each period when various coins were minted by hand. During his 30 minutes power point presentation Dr. Hajinian passed around coins from a period before Christ was born for the audience to view and hold.
Dr. Hajinian in 2015, along with a few other Milwaukee Armenians formed the Armenian Numismatic Quarterly. of the magazine to the event. He brought samples
The evenings informative talk was a wonderful addition to this year ACOM cultural programming. Thank you to Peter Hajinian’s suggestion for this program which came up in our discussion of Armenian History books we were discussing in our ACOM Book Club earlier this year.
If you are interested in learning more about the Armenian Numismatic Society, check the following website: