Balakian to Speak at Salem State

The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Salem State University will welcome Dr. Peter Balakian on Wed., March 3, for a special day of education and commemoration of the Armenian Genocide. The day’s events will culminate in a public lecture by Balakian as part of the Sonia Schreiber Weitz Series. An award-winning scholar, poet and author, Balakian is an eloquent voice on the Armenian Genocide.

Balakian is the recipient of many awards, prizes, and civic citations, including a Movses Khorenatsi Medal from the Republic of Armenia; a Guggenheim fellowship; a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship; the Spendlove Prize for Social Justice, Tolerance, and Diplomacy; and the Emily Clark Balch Prize. He has appeared widely on national television and radio, including 60 Minutes, ABC World News Tonight, PBS, and Charlie Rose, and his work has been translated into a dozen languages. He currently serves as Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Professor of the Humanities, professor of English and director of creative writing at Colgate University.

Professor Balakian will read excerpts from his memoir, Black Dog of Fate: An American Son Uncovers His Armenian Past, and discuss his experience growing up in a suburban family haunted by memories of the Armenian Genocide. The memoir won the 1998 PEN/Martha Albrand Prize for the Art of the Memoir, and was selected as best book of the year by The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and Publisher’s Weekly.

The event will take place at 7 p.m., at the Peabody Essex Museum, Morse Auditorium, 161 Essex Street, Salem, Mass. Tickets are free, but must be reserved in advance at salemstate.edu/peter-balakian/. The event is cosponsored by the Cummings Foundation.

 

Source: Armenian Weekly New England