Shared Histories and Testimonies from Survivors of The Holocaust and Genocide

Source: http://sfi.usc.edu



The USC Shoah Foundation was founded by Steven Spielberg after the completion of the movie, Schindler’s List.  The organization’s initial focus was to gather video testimony from Holocaust survivors. Hopscotch’s co-founder and board member, Brenda Smith,  was a part of the launch, interviewed approximately 100 survivors over a few years.  Brenda shared. “ it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life”.  The organization has since expanded the focus to include testimonies from survivors of genocide from across the globe, including Rwanda, Guatemala, Armenia, etc.  The link is to a piece about an Armenian man, survivor of the Armenian genocide. I’m so glad all of these testimonies and histories are being curated for our future generations.

Read more.

Music to Madness - the Story of Komitas" to Benefit SOAR

"Music to Madness - the Story of Komitas" to Benefit SOAR

A new film, "Music to Madness - the Story of Komitas," about the life of Komitas, the famous Armenian priest and musical composer who was an orphan and who suffered tragically during the Armenian Genocide, is nearing completion.  To complete the film, a fundraising campaign has just launched on Indiegogo.  Details about "Music to Madness - the Story of Komitas," including a trailer and Reward Perks for financial contributions, are provided on Indiegogo. 

ALL net revenues from the sale and distribution of the film will go to SOAR. 

Please consider helping with the fundraising campaign, not only through a financial contribution, but also by spreading the word (email, phone, social networking) about the film.  This is your opportunity to help tell the world about Komitas and the Armenian Genocide and to help Armenian orphaned children throughout the world.

Thank you in advance for your support!

The Society for Orphaned Armenian Relief (SOAR) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to providing humanitarian relief to orphaned Armenian children and adults. Working with a loyal donor base and a trusted network of partners, SOAR distributes clothing, educational supplies, medicine, and other essential resources to orphaned Armenians throughout the world.

SOCIETY FOR ORPHANED ARMENIAN RELIEF (SOAR)
1060 First Avenue, Suite 400, King of Prussia, PA 19406
Office: 610.213.3452   Fax: 610.229.5168 
Email: gyacoubian@soar-us.org   Web: www.soar-us.org

Genocide in Armenia

"With faith and courage, generations of Armenians have overcome great suffering and proudly preserved their culture, traditions, and religion and have told the story of the genocide to an often indifferent world."
~Jerry Costello

Meet the Author of "The Sandcastle Girls"

Friday, April 26 @ 7:30 PM
Where? St. Sahag & St. Mesrob Armenian Apostolic Church
630 Clothier Road
Wynnewood, PA 19096
Adults $20 in advance $25 at door; Students $10

Download the Invitation (PDF)

Robin Sizemore shared, "I've read all of Chris Bohjalian's books and was thrilled to finally have a book that draws upon his own history. If you have not read the book, I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about the Armenian genocide or simply loves a story with lots of twists!"

The Sandcastle Girls is a sweeping historical love story steeped in Chris Bohjalian's Armenian heritage.

When Elizabeth Endicott arrives in Aleppo, Syria she has a diploma from Mount Holyoke, a crash course in nursing,  and only the most basic grasp of the Armenian language.  The year is 1915 and she has volunteered on behalf of the Boston-based Friends of Armenia to help deliver food and medical aid to refugees of the Armenian genocide.  There Elizabeth becomes friendly with Armen, a young Armenian engineer who has already lost his wife and infant daughter.  When Armen leaves Aleppo and travels south into Egypt to join the British army, he begins to write Elizabeth letters, and comes to realize that he has fallen in love with the wealthy, young American woman who is so different from the wife he lost.  Fast forward to the present day, where we meet Laura Petrosian, a novelist living in suburban New York.  Although her grandparents' ornate Pelham home was affectionately nicknamed "The Ottoman Annex," Laura has never really given her Armenian heritage much thought. But when an old friend calls, claiming to have seen a newspaper photo of Laura's grandmother promoting an exhibit at a Boston museum, Laura embarks on a journey back through her family's history that reveals love, loss - and a wrenching secret that has been buried for generations.

The Sandcastle Girls

"Chris Bohjalian is at his very finest in this searing story of love and war. I was mesmerized from page one. Bravo!"
-- Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife

26 June, 2012

Dear Friends Who Read and Readers Who are Friends,

I hope your summers are off to a wondrous start. Certainly mine has been, enhanced by terrific new books from John Grisham (Calico Joe), John Irving (In One Person), and Maggie Shipstead (Seating Arrangements). And, of course, there are the new paperbacks of Maine (J. Courtney Sullivan) and The Night Circus (Erin Morgenstern).

And thanks to Fifty Shades of Grey (E.L. James), people are no longer just reading in bed, they’re. . .

Never mind.

In any case, roughly three weeks from today my new novel, The Sandcastle Girls, arrives. I know in my heart this is the most important book I will ever write – and the most personal. Truly. I knew this when I was in Armenia and Lebanon earlier this year, with photos of my late father and grandparents on my iPhone for company.

The book is a love story set in the midst of the Armenian Genocide in the First World War, and it has three of my favorite fictional heroines I’ve ever spent time with in my work: 22-year-old Elizabeth Endicott, Mount Holyoke Class of 1915; Nevart, a doctor’s wife who has endured the worst the Syrian desert can offer; and Hatoun, a quiet, watchful, and intense little girl.

The early reviews have thrilled me:

"Bohjalian powerfully narrates an intricately nuanced romance with a complicated historical event at the forefront. With the centennial of the Armenian genocide fast approaching, this is not to be missed. Simply astounding."
-- Julie Kane, Library Journal (starred review)

"Bohjalian's storytelling makes this a beautiful, frightening, and unforgettable read."
-- Publishers' Weekly

"An unforgettable exposition of the still too-little-known facts of the Armenian genocide and its multigenerational consequences."
-- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"A powerful and moving story based on real events seldom discussed. It will leave you reeling."
-- Elizabeth Dickie, Booklist

"The Sandcastle Girls will remain ingrained in your consciousness."
-- Wendy Plotkin, The Armenian Weekly

You can learn more about the novel – and watch a :30 video trailer or read an excerpt -- here

And, of course, you can preorder a copy at your local bookstore or from any of the online sources.

But I may also be coming to your city or town. Beginning in Los Angeles, California on July 16 and ending in Montpelier, Vermont on August 7, The Sandcastle Girls rock-and-roll book tour will be coming to 22 venues in 14 states. (Fear not: There will again be rock-and-roll t-shirts.)

Here is the link to a list of the book tour events.

I hope I see many of you at these appearances – and I hope with all my heart that you spend a part of your summer with The Sandcastle Girls.

All the best,
Chris B.

"The Sandcastle Girls is deft, layered, eye-opening, and riveting. I was deeply moved."
-- Wally Lamb, author of The Hour I First Believed

Armenian Genocide Memorial April 24, 2012

Your Dancing Brown Eyes

April 22nd, 2012
by Mariam Matossian

Your dancing brown eyes,
long
dark lashes
have grown dim
your once swollen cheeks
starved, skeletal
gaunt.
Your parched lips,
with tongue stuck to the roof of your mouth,
try to utter a word:
silence.
Cries of anguish deafen you
Where is the music of your childhood that
marked your days and nights?
The hypnotic rhythms of the dumbek,
oud and
mandolin
That provided the soundscape for your blissful youth?
You take a step
dragging your dirt covered blistered bruised feet
across the desert
Straining ahead
Muscles cramped
you remember the taste of figs, the juice of pomegranate dripping down your
chin
Your protruding belly once filled
now empty,
emaciated.
You close your once dancing brown eyes,
long dark lashes heavy with dust and tears and sweat, meet.
Your close your five year old eyes
And remember what was.

By Mariam Matossian "for my grandmother, upon reflecting on her journey during 1915"