Join us for a special Celebration Brunch honoring the 65th Anniversary of St. Nersess Armenian Seminary.

Saturday, September 26, 2026
10:30am–1:00pm
Claremont Resort & Spa
41 Tunnel Road, Berkeley

We’re honored to welcome His Eminence Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, along with Rev. Fr. Mardiros Chevian, Dean of St. Nersess, and other clergy and friends of the Seminary.

We hope you can join us as we celebrate this wonderful milestone together!

Reservations & Sponsorships: stnersess.edu/western-diocese/
Suggested individual donation: $100 

For additional information, please contact Valina Agbabian at vagbabian@yahoo.com.

This talk is based on a collaborative digital mapping project that critically examines the interplay of erasure, power, and empire in Soviet-era ethnographic maps of the Caucasus. Using the 1959 census and ensuing maps as an example, Goff will discuss why these maps should be analyzed as argumentative sites rather than as illustrations of statistical data. How are maps representations of the concerns and subjectivities of Soviet mapmakers and how do the aesthetic qualities of maps complicate the historical narratives that we can tell?

Speaker’s Bio:

Krista Goff is an associate professor of history at the University of Miami and co-editor of Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History. She is the award-winning author of Nested Nationalism: Making and Unmaking Nations in the Soviet Caucasus and co-editor of Empire and Belonging in the Eurasian Borderlands. Goff is currently working on a new manuscript about the experience of World War Two in the Caucasus and the long life of war-related deportations, forced resettlements, and prosecutions.

4 p.m.
Dwinelle 3335 UC Berkeley

https://events.berkeley.edu/armenian/event/331319-lines-of-control-the-hidden-politics-of-soviet

voskidancecollective@gmail.com

The Other Minds Festival turns 30! On Thursday–Sunday, October 8–11, 2026, our annual showcase for composers will be held at the Brava Theater in San Francisco’s Mission District.

The Festival opens with Joseph Bohigian’sI Am He Whose Life and Soul Are Torment, an evening-length multimedia work about the life of Armenian film director Sergei Parajanov performed by Khatchadour Khatchadourian and Ensemble Decipher. Tara Baghdassarian, art director; Karo Yagjian, costume designer.

On Night 2, the Swiss-born, New York-based Sylvie Courvoisier combines European chamber music and American avant-jazz in a performance for solo piano. Mahsa Vahdat performs original song settings of Persian poetry, accompanied by setar player Atabak Elyasi. Night 2 ends with string quartet music by Juri Seo performed by Friction Quartet.

Night 3 opens with Kristin Norderval and Elizabeth Gaver, who will present a program for voice, live electronics, Hardanger fiddle, and rebec that reflects on historical and contemporary Norwegian-American exchange. Foreign/Domestic – Zachary James Watkins and John Diaz presents a duo of guitar/electronics and drums. The evening ends with an enlivening set of “Blacktronika” from one of the world’s experts: King Britt on live electronics.

At the final concert of OM 30, Charlemagne Palestine, sovereign of embodied minimalism, graces us with a performance for solo piano.

About Other Minds:

Founded in 1993, Other Minds is a leading proponent for new and experimental music in all its forms, bringing together artists and audiences of diverse traditions, generations, and cultural backgrounds. By fostering cross- cultural exchange and creative dialogue, and by encouraging exploration of areas in new music seldom touched upon by mainstream music institutions, OM is committed to expanding and reshaping the definition of what constitutes “serious music.” From festival concerts, weekly radio broadcasts, and the commissioning of new works, to producing and releasing CDs, to archival preservation of thousands of concerts and composer interviews (which OM distributes free on the internet), OM has become one of the world’s major conservators of new music’s ecology.

An Evening of Culture and Art – Roger Kupelian

Date: October 24, Saturday, at 5pm

Place: St. Andrew Armenian Church, Cupertino

Join us for a special evening with Roger Kupelian—an Armenian-American filmmaker, visual artist, author, and Hollywood visual effects artist whose credits include:

 The Lord of the Rings trilogy

 Alice in Wonderland

 Moon Knight

 The Chronicles of Riddick

 Flags of Our Fathers

 Space Jam

 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End

Spider-Man: Homecoming

 Beauty and the Beast

And many more…

Enjoy an inspiring evening featuring:

 30-minute film screening

 Book signing

 Live sketching demonstration

 Original artwork available for purchase

 Light refreshments

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to meet Roger Kupelian, hear his story, and experience an evening of film, art, and Armenian storytelling.