Aracheener or “Firsts”
In honor of LGBTQ Pride Month, the International Armenian Literary Alliance, with Hye-Phen Magazine and the Queer Armenian Library, hosted Aracheener, or “Firsts,” on June 12, 2021. Watch the recording below! It…
The Hye-Phen Magazine
The Hye-Phen Magazine was founded in 2014 as an online magazine and global collective to connect queer-minded Armenian artists, scholars, writers, and amplify our under-spoken stories, issues, ideas, and visions of the future.
Tangerine directed by Sean Baker
Released in 2015, Tangerine by writer/director Sean Baker was a historic first in a number of regards, including the fact that the film featured two transgender women as the lead characters, Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor.
Yeghishe Charents: Poet of the Revolution
Published in 2003, Yeghishe Charents: Poet of the Revolution edited by Marc Nichanian is a collection of essays from the first international conference about a modern Armenian poet, Charents, held at a Western university.
Of note to this library are the essays The Armenian Counterculture That Never Was and Charents the Prophet by James R. Russell.
Unzipped: Gay Armenia by Mika Artyan
Published in 2007 and continuing through 2020, Unzipped: Gay Armenia by Mika Artyan is the most prolific and phenomenal blog about the lives, literature, arts, news, and public policies of Queer Armenians.
This library would not exist if it weren’t for Unzipped, which has reviewed books and films for the past thirteen years.
Queered: What’s To Be Done With Xcentric Art
Published in 2011, Queered: What’s To Be Done With Xcentric Art by the Queering Yerevan (QY) collective is their first publication and one of the first [*] collections of queer art, photography, experimental writing, critical texts, and email correspondences.
Pride & Joy by Kathleen Archambeau
Published in 2017, Pride & Joy: LGBTQ Artists, Icons, and Everyday Heroes by Kathleen Archambeau is a celebration of queer lives as she writes biographies, profiles, and stories of queer folx.
One of the artists she writes about is Thea Farhadian
Princess Freak by Nancy Agabian
Published in 2000, Princess Freak by Nancy Agabian is the first [*] collection of poems and performance texts by a bisexual Armenian-American.
Agabian is the author of the memoir Me as Her Again: True Stories of an Armenian Daughter, which was a finalist
My Gay Dream by Alex Ikke-Tuppel
Published in 2011, My Gay Dream by Alex Ikke-Tuppel is one of the first [*] novels featuring a gay main character by an author who is a native of Yerevan, Armenia.
Ikke-Tuppel is in sales for a manufacturer of semiconductors.
Dancing Man by Bob Avian
ublished in 2020, Dancing Man: A Broadway Choreographer’s Journey by Bob Avian, with Tom Santopietro, is the first [*] memoir by a Gay Armenian-American. Avian is an American choreographer, theatrical producer, and stage director. Early in his career