Columns
The World Within Our Reach
What does it mean, that we still exist? And when are we still? With ourselves? With one another? With the voice of the wind in the trees, the cooling summer rain, the tenderness of this […]
Articles by Elise Youssoufian
Columns
The Opposite of Denial
In May, during an online workshop on transforming trauma, the facilitator (who happens to be Armenian) presented a seemingly simple question, “What is the opposite of fear?” In response, one participant jumped in with “trust,” […]
Columns
“You can be small, and you can be smart”
“Who knows the place where we’ve landed, For how many days are we stranded? When our hearts are empty, when love is gone, ‘Tis in a fire we’ve landed.” ~Hovhannes Tumanyan, 1917 *** “You can […]
Columns
The Turkish Question
People are not a question. The fundamentals of human rights—the right to be, become and belong—are not a question. Yet since the late 1800s, Armenians have been forced to endure a flattening of our existence […]
Columns
One Day in Hayasdan
“A world of grief and pain Flowers bloom Even then” ~Kobayashi Issa (b. 1763, Japan) i. In one hand I am holding a slender, gleaming, reddish-brown branch studded with tightly closed, rose-colored buds. In the […]
Columns
The Internal War Against Women
“Is the group feminist?” my Musalertsi friend asked in Armenian, her almond-shaped eyes brimming with excitement. Shaking my head as if on autopilot, I replied half truthfully, “No, we’re a human rights organization.” Her face […]
Columns
Beloved Community
This Black History Month in the US, transformation is in the air as the climate crisis and COVID-19 vaccinations unfold, and spring flowers take root. There is growing awareness that Black history is an integral […]
Literary Corner
An Archaeology of Armenian Agency
This past winter solstice, I set out early to watch the light slowly growing in the east, as the last stars faded from view, and migrating songbirds brought the crisp air to life. In those […]
Literary Corner
Flowers of the Word (for Hrant)
You arrived in my life again, planted in the furrow, A mighty seedling of sight, of memory, of shadow, Easter opening soft as the sun, recollected, Սրտիս նոր ծաղիկները budding with love of fire, Fortitude […]
Poetry
The Path Through the Mountains
When you’re ready, keep it steady. The road will rise to meet you. The wind, it will surprise you, When you’re ready. How could any moment Hold more beauty and torment Than this tender weaving? […]