Taleen Kali’s music will take you on a journey that can at once be dreamlike, cosmic, and full of the defiance that the world oftentimes provokes. A musician, singer, songwriter, and more, she makes music that is polished and raw, intense and subtle, and defies being contained in just one genre.  Anahit Cass: I love […]

30 October 2023 | Kristin Anahit Cass

By Kristin Anahit Cass Articulate, charming, thoughtful, socially engaged, and genuinely kind, author Nancy Agabian is the sort of person you immediately want to know better. Her writing is at once vulnerable and sharp, and she gets to the raw places where individual identity confronts the conformity that marginalized groups often demand in search of […]

04 August 2023 | Kristin Anahit Cass

Speaking with SWANA drag king Vera Hannush is an event filled with lots of laughter, playful absurdity, and enough love to make you forget for a few hilarious moments about all the difficulties that queer SWANA folks face. And then there are the performances…  Kristin Anahit Cass: I loved the photos and videos from the […]

07 September 2022 | Kristin Anahit Cass

Have you experienced a drag performance where the artists are wearing traditional taraz or tatreez costumes? As many people of different SWANA (South West Asia and North Africa or Middle Eastern) backgrounds can attest, our communities aren’t always very accepting of queer folks. In a world where it feels difficult to hold all our identities […]

10 August 2022 | Kristin Anahit Cass

Narek Shamamyan is the founder of the first queer-friendly Armenian language school. A+ Academy is based in Yerevan and connects diasporans around the world with teachers in Armenia, building transnational community through learning.

24 May 2022 | Kristin Anahit Cass

Growing up in Yerevan, Babken Sakanyan felt constrained, unable to explore their gender and artistic identities. When they moved to Berlin, they started to explore drag and other art forms. Eventually they were inspired by their drag character, Bala Bimbambum to create a world with no limits where they could explore all elements of Armenianness, queerness, art, drag, imagination, and expression.

19 January 2022 | Kristin Anahit Cass

By Kristin Anahit Cass This article is done as a collaboration with Entanik, a global organization dedicated to uplifting and showcasing people in queer Armenian, SWANA, and allied communities.  In vibrant red threads on hanging sheets, clothes, and even pads, Zepure explores the shame and public rules that regulate a woman’s body. Zepure is a queer, […]

23 November 2021 | Kristin Anahit Cass