Kicking off our 40th year, the annual ACOM Gaghant party was held on January 10th, 2020 at MidPointe Event Center in St. Paul.

As usual, our guests were welcomed to the event and for this special year, everyone attending was presented with a red 40th Year Anniversary tote bag displaying ACOM’s new logo. Also, during check-in, "Hye Bingo" cards were given out. The aim of the bingo player was to find people who had the characteristics detailed in the bingo boxes and get those people to sign off on the box. This was a great ice-breaker that encouraged guests to mingle and socialize.

The ACOM Book Club met on Thursday, November 21, 2019, at the Merriam Park library in St. Paul. In attendance were Francis, Tashina, Margaret, Jim and me. This month's book was "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller.

The second in a series of panel talks featuring spouses of Armenians was held Sunday November 3 at Keljik's Oriental Rug store in South Minneapolis. A great venue for an interesting afternoon. 24 people were in attenjdence to hear Donna Azarian and Leroy Erickson talk about their experiences with their Armenian Spouses. A more detailed written narrative is yet to come. In the meantime use the two links below for a replay of the event.

For an audio recording of the session click HERE.

Link to a video of the event - HERE

For pictures from the event click Read More

The ACOM Book Club met on Thursday, October 17, 2019, at the St. Anthony Park library in St. Paul. In attendance were Azad, Tom, Al, Andrea, Joe and me. For snacks, Azad provided date cookies and Andrea provided dates. The book for this month was "Nowhere a Story of Exile" by Anna Astvatsaturian Turcotte.

We all were of the opinion that it was a very worthwhile book to read. Azad was very impressed that the author was able to turn her diary pages, which were written when she was about 11 to 13 years old, into such a powerful account of her experiences.

ACOM Voski Ashoun (Golden Autumn) October 5th 2019

This years Voski Ashoun was again held at the Keljik Rug Store on Bryant avenue in Minneapolis. 

30 people attended this years event. We had a Wine and Brandy Tasting hosted by Sommelier Leroy Erickson. Leroy provided 3 wines and 3 brandies for our tasting pleasure. Information about the wines and brandies selected this year can be found here. Leroy also provided a guide to Knowing your French Brandies.

The ACOM Book Club met on September 19, 2019, at the Merriam Park library in St. Paul. In attendance were Tom, Peter, Azad and me.

One reason for the low attendance might be the book selection for the month: "The Making of Nagorno-Karabagh: From Secession to Republic" edited by Levon Chorbajian. While it is definitely a worthwhile book and contains a lot of information on an area that none of our other books has covered, it was very difficult to obtain copies of. Neither the Ramsey County nor Hennepin County libraries have copies. Three Minnesota university libraries have copies, but they are a bit more difficult to get (but that's how I got a copy to read). Copies are available from Amazon or some used book stores, but are quite expensive (more than $60.) Because of this, only Azad and I had read the book.

Yolun Başinda/Beginnings
(Dir. Somnur Vardar, 2013, 86 mins, in Armenian/English/Turkish)

Beginnings follows a group of youths from Armenia and Turkey who meet in two cities on either side of the divide to reconcile the past, present and future of their perpetual conflict stemming from the Armenian genocide. First in Mush, then in Gyumri, their explorations of conflicting memories open up an intense dialogue about the nature of preserving history as a means of evaluating modernity and educating people to learn from historical error. While close relationships develop, these youth must question notions of friendship and trust within a quest to face issues of memory, history, genocide, denial and the demand for the truth.

Session 12 - "What was it like growing up Armenian in ..."

The 12th in the series - What was it like growing up Armenian in ... was held on Sunday  July 21, 2019 at the Merriam Park Library. Presenters for this session were Mark Wiersbeck and his Mother Sarah Wiersbeck. Nairy moderated the session which was attended by 15 people. After an informative and interesting formal presentation, there was a short Q&A session followed by refreshments.

The ACOM Book Club met on June 20, 2019, at the St. Anthony Park library in St. Paul. In attendance this month were Tom, Lowell, Andrea, Azad and me, a reasonably sized group for June.
Nibbles this month were ... nothing? Well, meeting in the library tends to suppress the red wine and chocolates tendency. Although, nobody ever checks on us. Maybe in September ?
The book for this month was by Lou Ureneck, alternately titled "The Great Fire" and "Smyrna 1922". (Honestly, the soft cover and hardcover editions have different titles but the identical contents.)
The five of us all agreed that we really thought that it was a very good book. The author wrote with a style that drew us in and made us want to continue reading, even though the content was, in many cases, making us absolutely sick to our stomachs.

The ACOM Book Club met on May 16, 2019, at the St. Anthony Park library in St. Paul. In attendance this month were Francis, Jim, Margaret, Azad, Joe, Peter, Andrea and me (a nice, large group). Nibbles this month included date filled pastries from Azad, fruit coated walnuts from Margaret (Sujuk? Rijok? Western Armenian? Eastern Armenian? Who knows, I'm Swedish!!!), and a mix of almonds & raisins from Andrea.

This month's book was "Three Kisses of the Cobra" by Z. T. Balian. Everyone seemed to like the book to different degrees and in different ways. Many of us had objections to different areas of the book, too.