The Yerevan BookFest: A mirror of Armenian literary culture
In Armenia, Yerevan BookFest took place this month for the seventh year, bringing together readers, writers, publishers, literary critics and experts. During the first week of September, various literary events occurred over three days, ranging from book presentations to discussions, debates and stand-ups.
In a conversation with Weekly, head of the festival Ani Ghazaryan said that their expectations were not only met but also exceeded. “We expected up to 15,000 visitors, but there were 20,000. Over 10,000 books were sold in three days. Thirty events took place, with 200 writers and 45 publishing houses participating. Years ago, it was a dream to have a book festival. Now, our whole goal is to make it permanent,” she said. Another important goal is to expand the festival’s scale. “We already have arrangements for next year. We want to make it more international,” she added.
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Glad Bookfest was a success, but I’m not at all surprised to hear about sexism in the stand-up show. I attended a stand-up comedy night some months ago and found the content to be similarly sexist, homophobic, and worst of all just plain bland and uninspired. Thus I’m quite skeptical of Ghazaryan’s denial of the sexist nature of the jokes at this particular event, which admittedly I did not attend so cannot speak to it. However the event I did attend was again all men, with humor on the level of middle school and many of the comedians seemed to parrot the exact same specific stereotypical themes in their joke. While this was just one event, others who have been to other stand-up nights had the same exact experience. It seems local Armenian amateur comedy is not ready for prime time.
I am happy that the festival will tour different regions in Armenia next year. Unfortunately, I had not heard anything about the festival prior to encountering this article. Hopefully it will be advertised more widely for the upcoming year. As the tour ventures to other parts of Armenia, it is my hope that it raises greater awareness to invest more into our libraries and resource centres.