No Other Words by Karén Karslyan is an experimental collection of haikus composed exclusively of the words from Yeghishe Charents’ “My Sweet Armenia.” Through the haikus crafted with the technique of constrained writing, Karslyan engages in a dialogue with Charents, at times poking fun, and at times raising profound questions about contemporary matters, identity, recent wars, and love.

Karén Karslyan (b. 1979) is a poet, visual artist, translator, holds a PhD in English and is the chairman of the Writers for Peace Committee of PEN Armenia. He is the author of six books including, Lezvi Tsayrin (On the Tip of the Tongue), a collection of poetry (Granish, 2022); and Aterazma, a typographic film-novel (Inknagir, 2016). His Armenian translation of Lust by Kathy Acker was published by Inknagir in 2015. His writing has been featured in anthologies across multiple languages, including English, Spanish, and French. His performative lectures of Aterazma have been hosted by Coimbra University (2018) and the University of Michigan (2022). His visual art includes flipbooks and video art pieces that have been exhibited at film and art festivals. He is the recipient of the Granish Best Short Story Award (2024) and Best Poetry Award (2021), as well as NPAK’s Young Artists Award (2004). In 2003, he was recognized as Armenia’s “Scandalous Writer of the Year” by Public TV. Born and raised in Armenia, he now lives in Wisconsin.

Day/Time: Sunday, January 26, 2025 5:00 PM – 10:00 PM

The book is dedicated to exploration of historical origins and development of ceremonial vestments for the pontiff of the Armenian Apostolic Church-the Catholicos. It explores the dressing ritual, protocol and the symbolism of it. In medieval manuscripts created in Armenia prior or in main book-making centers of the Armenian diaspora, there are portraits of famous Catholicoi depicted wearing ceremonial garments. Those portraits are the base for investigating Catholicos’ vestments of the XIII-XVIII centuries, uncovering their symbolism and discussing several artistic and iconographic issues of those illustrations. This book is aimed to specialists dealing with issues of the Armenian Church culture, religious scholars, historians, ethnographers, culturalists, philologists, and the general reading public.

Sofi Khachmanyan was born in Yerevan. After graduating from school, she studied at the Art College No. 8 in Yerevan, attained the title of Master of Needlework Arts. Since 1988, Sofi has lived in the United States. She received her professional education in fashion design and textile science from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in 1993 (AA degree), and received her bachelor’s degree in 2006 and master’s degree in 2008 from Cal State LA. In 2014, she became a candidate at the Institute of Arts, National Academy of Science of the Republic of Armenia. In 2019, she defended her dissertation at the same institute on the topic “The Symbolism of Catholicos’ Vestments and its Iconography in Medieval Miniature Painting”, which became the basis of her First book.

For over two decades, Sofi has taught courses in fashion design, garment construction, textile science, and history of fashion at various higher education institutions in Los Angeles. In addition to teaching, she researches and curates two historical collections in Los Angeles belonging to the Telfeyan families, who were wealthy merchants from Caesarea. Sofi also collaborates with the Ararat Museum in Mission Hills through scientific consulting and practical work, directs the Creative Hands Art School, and is engaged in lacemaking and “Nuno” felting.

Day/Time: Thursday, December 12, 2024 – 7:00 PM