The Armenian Age of Pearl
--> “Express yourself”
by Paul Chaderjian
Many of us are always trying to find a meaning or reasons for how life
unfolds. It's human nature to ask why, especially when it comes to our
raison d’etre. While many may believe in the Chaos Theory, the
Butterfly Effect, or Existentialism, I take my cues from others who
come into my world to introduce new ideas, new ways of thinking, or to
challenge what I know or how I see things.
In each impossible situation, difficult personality, or life hurdle,
I look for the windows that open when a door is slammed in my life. In
each work of art, entertainment, or news story I encounter, I note the
messages and ideas that speak to my heart. I find inspiration in and
ideas from events that may seem circumstantial but indeed may be the
illumination of the path we are individually supposed to take to make
the collective journey that I believe was predestined.
I decided to write this prologue because of an “Aha!” moment at the
Eastern Religion section of the Barnes & Noble in Bakersfield, where I
made a pit stop on my way home to Fresno this week. (And, by the way,
a chain bookstore with clean bathrooms and a coffee shop is the
easiest one-stop location to find inspiration and caffeine on road
trips.)
A book called Teachings of the Buddha talked about creating our own
path and speaking into reality the future that we want. I realized
that week after week, this gem of a section called “Arts and Culture”
doesn't just report about members of our extended community creating
art, but it is a personal challenge to me and to all of you to follow
the divine message from the great 20th-century poetess Madonna Louise
Veronica Ciccone Ritchie. (Somehow I doubt Lory Bedikian will write
about her in Poetry Matters.)
For months on end, on the radio in 1989 were Madonna's lyrics, her
anti-ode, her plea for humanity to “Express Yourself.” Though the song
was about love, any creative work, be it pop art, infotainment, or
high art, is for the receiver of the art to interpret.
For me, Madonna's plea was to not hold back the song, the dance, the
words, and the colors that are in all of us. Her words that resonate
in me to this day are not to hold back the personal, not to guard the
life source and the soul that wants to shine in each of us.
As humans, we are storytellers and creators. We not only look like
the image of God, but we are asked to live Godlike, to create like the
Creator. We were created to create and should create to be at peace,
and there has been no better time in the history of humankind than the
now, when all the tools and freedoms of creation are ripe for the
picking like the fruits in Eden.
If Armenian culture had its Golden Age of literature in the 5th
century, let's call the present the Armenian Age of Pearl. So much has
been deposited into our sea of history, that we're ripe to create
gemstones. We just have to stop clamming up and be open to expressing
what's inside each of us.
In this day and age, in the Pearl Age of our diasporan culture, we
have the freedom and the tools, the resources and the inspiration to
write the words we think and share them with others, to make the
movies we envision with our home camera and post them on the Internet,
to record our songs and mix them on our home computers, to use the
free computer labs at public libraries and join community dance groups
or take art classes at adult schools to express what's in us.
No matter what you have to say, no matter what insight you have, no
matter the innate and inane fear that what we want to create is not
good enough or that it has been done before, we must do what Madonna
and the Buddha preached: express ourselves and speak our own future
into existence. Hey, there are only some 31 original ideas, anyway,
and everything else is a variation (or is that there are only 31
original flavors? I forget).
So take heed artists of either gender, of all ages, whatever your
background, education, socioeconomic status, or lot in life. Thumb
through the next 21 pages and be inspired by Vaco and Sonya Varoujian.
One earns a living as a mechanic but has touched the lives of
thousands of kids. The other is not holding back the songs in her, and
she is taking the stage this weekend at Mosaic II -- our community's
unique talent show.
Read on and you'll witness Alina, a young filmmaker winning accolades
in Munich, and her sister Alexandra winning accolades in California.
Both not holding back. Witness Mrs. Bezdigian, who is not realted to
Alina and Alexandra, becoming a children's book guru in her own right.
Note David Barsamian and his unstoppable sense of justice, democracy,
and the freedom of speech. And these types of stories echo and
resonate every week in the pages of the Reporter.
But the art and words we share aren't just by the experienced writers
among us. Young Serli, at 14, shares her thoughts on being the
recipient of media content. She cues us about the age in which we live
and the technologies that are abundant to us, to create our own poetry
in text messages, our own videos on Current TV and YouTube.
Indeed, the media platforms from blogs to cable TV, from
self-publishing companies to Internet malls, are all hungry for
content, ready to help sell your art and bring you fans. And rest
assured, the gemstones we create in this Age of Pearl will rise to the
top. Witness the number of hits the ArdeshirKhan (AKA Vahe Berberian,
Ara Madzounian, and crew) Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation video has
received on YouTube. People want art, crave it, and will help you
spread it to new audiences.
Just as I am writing you of my Aha! moment, my colleague and friend
Lory Tatoulian will soon take to the airwaves with her one-woman
sketch comedy show. Our copy editor Ishkhan Jinbashian will continue
setting the Armenian literary scene on fire with his second novel.
Sevag Koundakjian will take his experiences on the road with System Of
A Down to rock the film world. Roger Kupelian, Ara Madzounian, and our
own Adrineh Gregorian will, too. Kristen Kidd in Denver will write her
screenplays. Tamar Sarkissian will conquer network media, and Shahen
Hagopian, Shahan Sanossian, James Martin, Lola Koundakjian, and
Armina Lamanna will reach greater heights with their art.
But that's just the start. Sara Anjargolian and Aram Kouyoumdjian,
who earn a living as attorneys, will create a permanent home for the
arts in Southern California with the former's magical photographs and
the latter's golden playwrighting pen and their collective dream to
create an Armenian Center for the Arts. Sirusho and Sofi will make you
dance with their pop hits. Hrant Tokhatyan will inspire new actors.
Arsen Serobian will make the world fall in love with dance. And the
Reporter will spread the word about their individual voices by
reaching a million readers with these pages.
Our art is world art; our media is mainstream media.
So, why are you holding your stories back? Why are you holding back
your rhythm, your taste, your beat, and your moves? Write, sing,
dance, paint, experiment with cuisine in your own kitchen, sing in the
shower, take photographs. Then share.
The world, me, your family, your friends and total strangers, we are
all waiting for you to be the artist, the storyteller, the creator
that we were created to be.
* * *
Paul Chaderjian was last seen near the pets section of the Barnes &
Noble in Fresno, searching for a book that can persuade his mother to
cut down on the number and variety of treats she feeds his overweight
Chihuahua-Terrier.
by Paul Chaderjian
Many of us are always trying to find a meaning or reasons for how life
unfolds. It's human nature to ask why, especially when it comes to our
raison d’etre. While many may believe in the Chaos Theory, the
Butterfly Effect, or Existentialism, I take my cues from others who
come into my world to introduce new ideas, new ways of thinking, or to
challenge what I know or how I see things.
In each impossible situation, difficult personality, or life hurdle,
I look for the windows that open when a door is slammed in my life. In
each work of art, entertainment, or news story I encounter, I note the
messages and ideas that speak to my heart. I find inspiration in and
ideas from events that may seem circumstantial but indeed may be the
illumination of the path we are individually supposed to take to make
the collective journey that I believe was predestined.
I decided to write this prologue because of an “Aha!” moment at the
Eastern Religion section of the Barnes & Noble in Bakersfield, where I
made a pit stop on my way home to Fresno this week. (And, by the way,
a chain bookstore with clean bathrooms and a coffee shop is the
easiest one-stop location to find inspiration and caffeine on road
trips.)
A book called Teachings of the Buddha talked about creating our own
path and speaking into reality the future that we want. I realized
that week after week, this gem of a section called “Arts and Culture”
doesn't just report about members of our extended community creating
art, but it is a personal challenge to me and to all of you to follow
the divine message from the great 20th-century poetess Madonna Louise
Veronica Ciccone Ritchie. (Somehow I doubt Lory Bedikian will write
about her in Poetry Matters.)
For months on end, on the radio in 1989 were Madonna's lyrics, her
anti-ode, her plea for humanity to “Express Yourself.” Though the song
was about love, any creative work, be it pop art, infotainment, or
high art, is for the receiver of the art to interpret.
For me, Madonna's plea was to not hold back the song, the dance, the
words, and the colors that are in all of us. Her words that resonate
in me to this day are not to hold back the personal, not to guard the
life source and the soul that wants to shine in each of us.
As humans, we are storytellers and creators. We not only look like
the image of God, but we are asked to live Godlike, to create like the
Creator. We were created to create and should create to be at peace,
and there has been no better time in the history of humankind than the
now, when all the tools and freedoms of creation are ripe for the
picking like the fruits in Eden.
If Armenian culture had its Golden Age of literature in the 5th
century, let's call the present the Armenian Age of Pearl. So much has
been deposited into our sea of history, that we're ripe to create
gemstones. We just have to stop clamming up and be open to expressing
what's inside each of us.
In this day and age, in the Pearl Age of our diasporan culture, we
have the freedom and the tools, the resources and the inspiration to
write the words we think and share them with others, to make the
movies we envision with our home camera and post them on the Internet,
to record our songs and mix them on our home computers, to use the
free computer labs at public libraries and join community dance groups
or take art classes at adult schools to express what's in us.
No matter what you have to say, no matter what insight you have, no
matter the innate and inane fear that what we want to create is not
good enough or that it has been done before, we must do what Madonna
and the Buddha preached: express ourselves and speak our own future
into existence. Hey, there are only some 31 original ideas, anyway,
and everything else is a variation (or is that there are only 31
original flavors? I forget).
So take heed artists of either gender, of all ages, whatever your
background, education, socioeconomic status, or lot in life. Thumb
through the next 21 pages and be inspired by Vaco and Sonya Varoujian.
One earns a living as a mechanic but has touched the lives of
thousands of kids. The other is not holding back the songs in her, and
she is taking the stage this weekend at Mosaic II -- our community's
unique talent show.
Read on and you'll witness Alina, a young filmmaker winning accolades
in Munich, and her sister Alexandra winning accolades in California.
Both not holding back. Witness Mrs. Bezdigian, who is not realted to
Alina and Alexandra, becoming a children's book guru in her own right.
Note David Barsamian and his unstoppable sense of justice, democracy,
and the freedom of speech. And these types of stories echo and
resonate every week in the pages of the Reporter.
But the art and words we share aren't just by the experienced writers
among us. Young Serli, at 14, shares her thoughts on being the
recipient of media content. She cues us about the age in which we live
and the technologies that are abundant to us, to create our own poetry
in text messages, our own videos on Current TV and YouTube.
Indeed, the media platforms from blogs to cable TV, from
self-publishing companies to Internet malls, are all hungry for
content, ready to help sell your art and bring you fans. And rest
assured, the gemstones we create in this Age of Pearl will rise to the
top. Witness the number of hits the ArdeshirKhan (AKA Vahe Berberian,
Ara Madzounian, and crew) Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation video has
received on YouTube. People want art, crave it, and will help you
spread it to new audiences.
Just as I am writing you of my Aha! moment, my colleague and friend
Lory Tatoulian will soon take to the airwaves with her one-woman
sketch comedy show. Our copy editor Ishkhan Jinbashian will continue
setting the Armenian literary scene on fire with his second novel.
Sevag Koundakjian will take his experiences on the road with System Of
A Down to rock the film world. Roger Kupelian, Ara Madzounian, and our
own Adrineh Gregorian will, too. Kristen Kidd in Denver will write her
screenplays. Tamar Sarkissian will conquer network media, and Shahen
Hagopian, Shahan Sanossian, James Martin, Lola Koundakjian, and
Armina Lamanna will reach greater heights with their art.
But that's just the start. Sara Anjargolian and Aram Kouyoumdjian,
who earn a living as attorneys, will create a permanent home for the
arts in Southern California with the former's magical photographs and
the latter's golden playwrighting pen and their collective dream to
create an Armenian Center for the Arts. Sirusho and Sofi will make you
dance with their pop hits. Hrant Tokhatyan will inspire new actors.
Arsen Serobian will make the world fall in love with dance. And the
Reporter will spread the word about their individual voices by
reaching a million readers with these pages.
Our art is world art; our media is mainstream media.
So, why are you holding your stories back? Why are you holding back
your rhythm, your taste, your beat, and your moves? Write, sing,
dance, paint, experiment with cuisine in your own kitchen, sing in the
shower, take photographs. Then share.
The world, me, your family, your friends and total strangers, we are
all waiting for you to be the artist, the storyteller, the creator
that we were created to be.
* * *
Paul Chaderjian was last seen near the pets section of the Barnes &
Noble in Fresno, searching for a book that can persuade his mother to
cut down on the number and variety of treats she feeds his overweight
Chihuahua-Terrier.
