Another quiet anniversary

On April 30, 2015, The Armenian Poetry Project turned 9. 

This one was another quiet celebration because the centennial of the Armenian Genocide was commemorated all over the world during the same month. 

I believe APP helped me achieve several goals: bringing Armenian poetry to an international audience; access to the masses, including those who don't have Armenian books in their homes and public libraries; translations of some poems into English, Spanish and French; encouraging readers to discover new writers, while providing forgotten poems and their authors a new readership.

In the last two months, APP organized two readings commemorating the authors who died or survived the Genocide, one on April 21st with a repeat program coming up on May 26, both in New York City. 

Ongoing projects and resources include: 

1 - Information and events around the DEAD ARMENIAN POETS SOCIETY. This was the core of what eventually became APP. I am happy to share guidelines on how to run evenings dedicated to reading works by late Armenian authors.

2. As a way of archiving, I have uploaded audio files to SoundCloud. This will help APP reach a larger audience as the blog format restricts us for posting them all in the same page, and iTunes cannot archive old episodes.
The APP group on SoundCloud is here.

3. We continue to provide support for cultural events and help in finding authors for reading series in the United States and Canada.

4. This was our fifth year with the poetry competition, sponsored by the ASA.

5. Regular postings -- albeit not daily -- of poems, translations and announcements. 

I invite all readers to stay in touch, add comments and share your thoughts.



All best, and thank you for being a reader and supporter of the APP.

Lola Koundakjian
Curator and Director, The Armenian Poetry Project