ACOM Hosted an In-Person Voski Ashoun - 2022

This years Voski Ashoun, hosted by ACOM, took place ion a somewhat chilly Fall day this year. This year the date and time for Voski Ashoun was on Sunday, October 16. The day was a bit cloudy but the sun did poke out a couple of times. Temperatures hovered in the low 40s with variable wind. 

^{New Book by Chuck "Garbo" Hajinian}

I have written this book of short stories and it came out two weeks ago. Sales have been strong and Calumet Publishing and I are quite pleased. I wrote a number of Armenian stories. Many are funny.

This one (Click here to read) is more somber.

I am getting it out to you to review and figure out who might be interested in this story and the book in the complete Diaspora and Armenia. I don't have all the contacts. Feel free to forward this email. The Society for Orphan Armenian Relief is using the profits from the book as a fundraiser.

Profits from the book sales will go to the Fallen Soldiers Fund for Soar. Over 5000 soldiers have died. We want to help those left behind. Other Charities can also benefit, just let me know how I can help. Can you get this story and the book info to your friends? It can be posted to your FB page. But first let me know if you like the story. How will the people of Armenia react to it? Perhaps you know literary societies in Armenia or world wide who might appreciate this and other stories.

Forward this Page Link to friends and relatives. perhaps they might be interested in the book or know groups who might be interested.

43 stories, get yourself a copy- you will enjoy it.

thank you, for helping me. Chuck "Garbo" Hajinian 262-352-4140

Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1950743942

Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BDMXW1RB

The ACOM Book Club met at Mim's on Thursday, September 15, 2022. Attendees were Azad, Francis, Tashina, Margaret, Jim, Bradley and me. This month's book was "Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes" by Tamim Ansary.
Almost everyone greatly enjoyed the book. Margaret expressed the opinion that it was too much just straight history and so she found it a little bit too dry.
I liked the author's breakdown of the ancient world into three regions:
- the Mediterranean World where the primary communication was by sea, so it included all the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and the land areas close by those shores.
- the Far Eastern World, or China, which was bounded by the ocean to the east, the southeast Asian jungles, the Tibetan mountains and the Gobi Desert.
- the Middle World which was bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the west, the Black & Caspian Seas and Caucasus mountains to the north, the Indian Ocean and Indus River to the south, and the Tibetan mountains and Gobi Desert to the east. For the Middle World, the primary means of communication was overland travel.

On a clear early August evening, the Armenian Dance Enseble again performed at the Centennial Lakes Amphitheater in Edina. We had a good crowd and they seemed to thouroughly enjoy the performance. We were able to get a large number of people up after the formal dance set to do a simple Armenian dance. 

Link to a video of the performance - Click Here

We received the email below from our contact at Centennial Lakes.

As we wrap up our summer concert season at Centennial Lakes Park, I wanted to reach out and thank you for your amazing performance in August. We got lots of positive comments from audience members for multiple days after your performance!

Many thanks to all the members of the Ensemble for representing Armenian music and dance for our community in the Twin Cities.

ADE was, again, invited to perform at the Minnesota State Fair this year (2022). We had the opportunity to present Armenian dances during two performances each day on Sunday and Monday (8/28 & 8/29). We had good audiences and the weather was reasonable (although very windy for the Monday performances). The group enjoys performing at the fair and we all had a great time.

If you would like to see our perfromances, Click Here to go to a video.

The ACOM Book Club met at Mim's on Thursday, May 19, 2022. Attendees were Azad, Al, Peter, Tashina and me. The book under discussion this month was "The Hundred-Year Walk: An Armenian Odyssey" by Dawn Anahid MacKeen.
The book is described in brief as "The inspiring story of a young Armenian’s harrowing escape from genocide and of his granddaughter’s quest to retrace his steps."
The first question that was raised was by Al. He wondered exactly what Der Zor was and what made it so deadly for the Armenians who were sent there. Several of us gave answers: it was a desert area with no water or food, the Armenians were sent there and left with no shelter or means of support, the Turkish guards prevented other people from giving them any food or water or medical help. Several hundred thousand Armenians died at Der Zor.

ACOM Genocide Remembrance

ACOM held it's Genocide Remembrance this year on April 24th 2022. We have Zoomed the event over the past two years and were happy to host it in-person this year.

The ACOM Book Club met via Zoom on Thursday, March 17, 2022. Attendees were Jim, Margaret, Andrea, Francis, Tom, Joe, Tashina, Peter, Cynthia and me. We continued last month's discussion of "Cloud Cuckoo Land" by Anthony Doerr.
As an introduction to the book, I'll paraphrase what Wikipedia has to say about it:
"Cloud Cuckoo Land is the story of five characters spanning eight centuries. In the fifteenth-century Byzantine Empire, Anna is a young seamstress living in Constantinople, and Omier is a village boy conscripted into the Ottoman army which is preparing to take the city. In the present day, Zeno, a Korean War veteran, works in a library in Idaho translating Ancient Greek texts, while Seymour, a disturbed autistic youngster, becomes caught up with a group of eco-terrorists. In the twenty-second century, Konstance is a young girl aboard the Argos, a generation starship heading for a planet called Beta Oph2.
Their stories are bound by an Ancient Greek codex entitled Cloud Cuckoo Land that each of the five characters discovers and finds solace in. It is a fictional book supposedly written by real Greek novelist Antonius Diogenes in the second century, and tells the story of Aethon, a shepherd on a quest to find the fabled paradise in the sky. In his travels, he is transformed into a donkey, a sea bass, and finally a crow, which allows him to fly to the gates of the city in the clouds."

ACOM Gaghant 2022

Virtual, again

Plans were well underway for a return to a traditional in-person Gaghant for 2022. However, the best laid plans got laid low by that insidious virus that is still around and interfering with our everyday lives and with our celebrations. We had found a new event space at a community center in Roseville (MidPointe fell victim to the times and to some destructive violence during early 2020 and had ceased to exist). We had the caterer (Mim's again) ready to go, band (Music Mundial) signed up and early preparations in hand when we found out that we didn't have the numbers of people confirming their attendance to make it economically feasible for ACOM to hold the in-person event.

(This month's notes by Peter)
The ACOM Book Club met on January 20, 2022. We met over Zoom. Outside it was -3 (-11 with the wind).
In attendance was Margaret & Jim, Leroy & Cynthia, Azad, Francis, Peter and Tom.
This month we read A Beginner's Guide to America: For the Immigrant and the Curious by Roya Hakkakian.