Notes from Diaspora - Issue #1

Hi all,

Thank you for signing up for my newsletter. Today I'm hosting an event titled "Artists Imagining Armenian Liberation," which has invited four artists to discuss their own projects that may help us think about notions of liberation in the 21st century. The conversation should be roughly 30 minutes and is designed to expose people to art projects they probably don't know and start conversations that we all would like to have without the confines of established organizations and -isms.

There are a few tickets (free) left.

In other news, I've added some links below from my Twitter feed and elsewhere for fun (including the crushing Kimye news 😭 but then again who's surprised). I also added a link to my weekly Required Reading.

For Armenian speakers, I want to mention that the classic 1938 Soviet Armenian film, Zangezur, which was made by the great film pioneer Hamo Beknazarian with music by Aram Khachaturian and writing by Axel Bakunts, is now available for free on YouTube. Sure it's Soviet propaganda, like all cultural production in that region during the era, but the cinematography, music, etc. is quite excellent.

Thanks for reading my first newsletter. Each one should be quite different from the next so thanks for joining me on the ride.

Warmly,

Hrag

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Kim Kardashian Files for Divorce from Kanye West — www.tmz.com Kim Kardashian and Kanye West have filed for divorce.

Hrag @hragv

So New Museum wouldn't allow BLM protesters in (not to mention boarding up the museum during protests) but now they're doing a Black grief show? I'll leave it there.

hyperallergic.comArtists Parody New Museum, Calling Out Its “Political Inaction”The group Artists for Workers has created a website replicating that of the museum, but instead provides resources for anti-racist organizing.

Required Reading — hyperallergic.com This week, NASA lands on Mars, retiring the Group of Seven, the Pentagon's algorithm-driven weapons, the life of Stan Lee, Stonehenge's Welsh origins, and more.

Seth Frantzman @sfrantzman

How authoritarian regimes get headlines: 1. Arrange a military trip for journalists from West, they only meet pro-regime voices 2. Have regime media claim a foreign report legitimizes occupation, laundering nationalist-government-authoritarian narrative through western media.