To Artsakh
It’s been raining a lot since I’ve come home,
fruiting mushrooms saluting the El Nino season.
Air marinated in dew greets my lungs
with a warmth opposing its expected dampness.
Children’s Railway Museum
It’s hard to come from a placewhere you can feel wholeand land somewherethat expects you to be halved.The division is sharperwhen it’s on soilyou’re the first to touch in generations—soil where you walk with ease,yet your body knowsto tread lightly. The spring tide pools,the backgammon pieces slapping down—it wasn’t until I saw a manand his […]
27 December 2024 | Denna Berg
The Language of Exile
“Shad tezh-var eh,” her voice betrays how hard it is to carry the now.
She speaks in village Armenian,
the cobbled tongue of those expelled to foreign lands.
Her words hang, weighty, like ripe pomegranates,
bittersweet with memories of home.
28 October 2024 | Nadine Araksi/Նատին Արաքսի
Capturing the City: A Local Artist’s Passion for Cafes and Sketching People
In the post-Covid era, many people’s habits, especially work routines, have transformed, with remote work becoming increasingly common. With the emergence of this trend, one of the most popular work destinations now is coffee shops, providing an ideal mix of comfort and productivity. This shift has led to a resurgence in the use of cafes […]
30 July 2024 | Hena Aposhian
Nine months after being forcibly displaced, Artsakhtsis are working towards a sustainable future
For more than 5 years before the Artsakh Social Developments and Projects Fund (ASDPF) was created, its founders worked in Artsakh with families to create food secure communities. In 2022, they founded the ASDPF, a natural next step in the development of their work with these communities. The ASDPF’s projects center around building greenhouses and […]
28 June 2024 | Béatrice Denise Chahine
Haygagan Bar Part 5: Practice, Affect, and Embodiment: Feeling the Homeland
This piece is part of a research series that will be released in five parts, over a period of 5 weeks. You can find parts one, two, three, and four here. Photo from Lernazang Ensemble. This article was originally written as a thesis for the MA Program in the Social Sciences at the University of Chicago, and has been adapted […]
28 June 2024 | Abbie Tarpinian Porto
Haygagan Bar Part 4: Community as Homeland
This piece is part of a research series that will be released in five parts, over a period of 5 weeks. You can find parts one, two, and three here. Photo from Lernazang Ensemble. This article was originally written as a thesis for the MA Program in the Social Sciences at the University of Chicago, and has been adapted for […]
28 June 2024 | Abbie Tarpinian Porto