May 1: A date etched in labor, legacy and the printed word

In 1886, workers in Chicago sparked a movement, demanding the eight-hour workday. Three years later, May 1 was declared International Workers’ Day: a global stand for labor rights.

Exactly a decade later, on May 1, 1899, another historic movement quietly took root. The Hairenik—our mother newspaper—launched its very first issue in the back of a New York City tailor shop. Nicknamed the “Oven of Galata,” the shop was one of many humble spaces where a displaced people began to re-define themselves. 

The Hairenik’s founding editor, Tovmas Charshafjian, captured the spirit of these early communal outposts:

“An Armenian tailor shop could always be found in those days in any large community of Armenians in the United States—also an Armenian barber, a grocer and a baker. These stores served as forums of the Armenian community, for ‘hot-stove’ discussions on the community’s affairs, on matters relating to Armenian political party, national and religious business. All helpful or harmful movements were either first conceived in these centers, or else were outrightedly born there.”

Among the Hairenik’s earliest editors were Siamanto and Arshak Vramian—writers, thinkers, revolutionaries—who would later return to the Hairenik, the homeland, only to be murdered in the Armenian Genocide.

As we marked the 110th anniversary of that dark chapter last week, we are reminded of those early voices who re-drew a future into the present. 

At three cents an issue, the Hairenik became a breeding ground for the voices, minds and spirits of the emerging Western Armenian diaspora. Through both pen and purpose, a community scattered by violence dared to envision, speak and organize.

The paper’s very first headline: THE HAIRENIK’S DIRECTION.

Today, 126 years later, we honor the fortitude and spirit of a community who, through the pen and yarn, dared to direct, weaving a course for a scattered people.

From all of us at The Armenian Weekly, we wish you a meaningful May 1—a day of solidarity, action and justice.

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Lilly Torosyan

Editor

Lilly Torosyan is editor of the Armenian Weekly and a member of the Armenian Nutmegger community. (That’s Connecticut nutmegs by way of Sasun walnuts). Her writing focuses on the confluence of identity, cultural continuity and language – especially within the global Armenian communities. She previously served as the assistant project manager at h-pem, an Armenian cultural platform launched by the Hamazkayin Central Executive Board, and a freelance writer in Armenia.

Latest posts by Lilly Torosyan (see all)

• May 1: A date etched in labor, legacy and the printed word - May 1, 2025
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