Members of ADE at FON Preview

The Armenian Dance Ensemble represented Armenia at the 2018 International Institute's Festival of Nations.

The schedule below shows the dates and times we performed.

 2018 Festival of Nations Dance Schedule

Armenian
Thursday May 3       11:00    1st Group World Stage Student
Thursday May 3         1:00    1st Group World Stage Student

Friday May 4            11:00    7th Group World Stage Student
Friday May 4              1:00    7th Group World Stage Student

Friday May 4              6:00    2nd Group World Stage
Friday May 4              8:00    1st Group World Stage
Friday May 4              8:00    6th Group Learn-a-dance World Stage

Saturday May 5          3:00    1st Group World Stage
Saturday May 5          5:00    Atrium

Sunday May 6            4:00    4th Group World Stage

The tenth session in the ongoing series "What Was It Like Growing Up Armenian In ..." Features Tom Keljik who grew up in the Twin Cities, Armineh Khachatoorian who grew up in Iran, and Reena Ghannoum who grew up in Syria. The event was held on March 18th 2018 at the Merriam Park Library in St. Paul and was open and publicized to the general public as well as to the Armenian Community. The three presenters gave their interesting perspectives on growing up in their communities. Tom, who like many children of immigrants was not immersed in the culture until he was older and began to discover the stories about his parents and older relatives. Armineh grew up in an Iran that was still welcoming to Armenians and there was always the Armenian presence available to her. Reena grew up in Syria and also had many Armenian friends and neighbors. During the last few years the troubles in Syria were escalating but she was still at ease in her home area. The session was moderated by ACOM President Nairy Digris. As always, the session prompted a lively discussion session. Of the 27 attendees, there were two attending that were outside of the general Armenian community. But were verry interested in the session and hopefully came away with a greater understanding of Armenians and their lives.

The ACOM Book Club met on Thursday, March 15, 2018, at Francis Bulbulian's house. Attendees this month were Azad, Karen, Joe, Judy, Francis, Natasha, Andrea, Dana and me. Unfortunately, Barb wasn't feeling well so she didn't sit in with us. This month's book was "The Spice Box Letters" by Eve Makis.

The ACOM Book Club met on Thursday, February 22, 2018, at Joe Tashjian's house. Attending the meeting were Natasha, Barb, Tom, Fran, Dana, Joe, Al, Francis, Cynthia and Leroy. Andrea joined the group by way of a phone call. Our book for this month was "Silences: My Mother's Will To Survive" by Alice Agnes Tashjian, the mother of Joe and Fran.

Joe and Fran mentioned that their brother Ed wrote the preface to the book.

The ACOM Book Club held its first meeting of the new year on Thursday, January 18, 2018, at the home of club member Tom and his wife Jennifer. We had a large gathering this month with 12 members and/or visitors in attendance: Tom, Jennifer, Mark, Caren, Leroy, Cynthia, Andrea, Azad, Karen, Kristi, Tashina, Joan, and, not to be left out, Maggie. There were many treats to eat and good wine to drink.

The book for this month was "An Armenian Odyssey: From the Euphrates to the Mississippi" by Mark and Thomas Keljik. This "book" is actually an offprint of one chapter from the "Modern Greek Studies Yearbook", Volume 32/33 for 2016/2017, which is a publication of the University of Minnesota. The chapter is a short biography of the life of their grandfather, Bedros Keljik. Mark and Tom provided printed copies of the chapter for everyone to read. There has been enough demand for it that they had to make a second printing!

 The ACOM Book Club met on December 15th in the St. Sahag Armenian Church Fellowship Hall. We normally meet in the Fireside    Lounge, but we couldn't get the fireplace to work and it was just a bit too chilly in there without a fire. Attending this month were Francis, Azad, Andrea, Tanisha and Leroy. This month we shared a bottle of Muirwood Cabernet Savignon, some sarma and Brazilian nuts.

The ACOM Book Club met on Thursday, October 19, 2017, in the St. Sahag Fireside Parlor. Attending this month were Andrea, Francis, Peter, Al and me. We shared a bottle of Muirwood cabernet with a wonderful apple salad which Andrea provided. This month's book was "The Doves of Ohanavank" by Vahan Zanoyan.

ACOM's annual Voski Ashoun Celebration was held this year at the Pine Tree Apple Orchard in White Bear Lake.

The day was a perfect autumn day for an excursion and picnic at an apple orchard. About 30 people attended and shared food, stories, a trivia game and wandering around the orchard and visiting the gift and bake shop. Peter Hajinian formulated an Armenian trivia quiz that most of the attendees perticipated in. There seemed to be no clear winner, even after a number of run-off questions all correctly answered by the 5 finalists. Peter finally announced that the first prize would go to "Poly" for a question that Poly asked of the trivia master that he couldn't answer. Everyone in attendence enjoyed the outing.

ACOM has a book club which meets monthly, normally on the third Thursday of the month in the St. Sahag Armenian Church lounge. Meetings start at 7:00 PM and normally go to about 9:00 PM. If you would like to join the book club, or just be informed about what the book club is discussing, send a request to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to be added to the mailing list.

The ACOM Book Club has been meeting since March of 2014. For the list of the books that we have discussed, click here.

The Armenian Genocide Commemoration for Minnesota Armenians took place on April 24th  2017 at St, Sahag Armenian Church. The event was organized by ACOM and St. Sahag.