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Literary Armenia: Harout Yeretzian
By SIRAN BABAYAN
Wednesday, April 19, 2006 - 3:00 pm
LA Weekly, CA
April 20 2006
Instead of the musty smell of old novels, one is more likely to
get a whiff of cigarette smoke rising from the back of Abril Books,
where owner Harout Yeretzian sits flicking his ashes into a coffee
cup, surrounded by "No Smoking" signs. A bespectacled man with
salt-and-pepper hair and a walrus mustache, Yeretzian mans Abril's vast
collection of Armenian literature - an avocation that began when he
moved from Beirut to a pre-Little Armenia East Hollywood in the late
'70s and started publishing a magazine of the same name (meaning "to
live" as well as the month of April). "There were only two political
newspapers here," Yeretzian says. "I did all the interviews with
artists, musicians and historians. I thought I was filling a void."
The monthly publication evolved into a printing company, then a
bookstore off Santa Monica Boulevard. Changing demographics and a
few robberies, one of which Yeretzian remembers happening on Labor
Day weekend, led the bookstore in 1998 to its current digs on a
quaint Glendale block adjacent to City Hall. "Thirty percent of the
population in Glendale is Armenian," says Yeretzian. "But, of course,
not all Armenians read."
As with any mom-and-pop shop, Abril is a family operation: Wife and
artist Seeroon Yeretzian runs the nearby Roslin Gallery, and her
calligraphic posters and post cards of the Armenian alphabet are
found not only here but in many local establishments and beyond. And
son Arno Yeretzian's documentary on the late artist Jirayr Zorthian,
Planet Zorthian, was screened at the ArcLight two years ago.
Abril stocks the essential classics by poets, novelists and satirists,
including Hagop Baronian, Yeghishe Charents, Hovhannes Toumanian,
Baruyr Sevag, Avetik Isahakian and Siamanto; children's folktales,
like David of Sassoun and Nazar the Brave; works by Armenian-American
authors Peter Balakian (Black Dog of Fate), Michael J. Arlen (Passage
to Ararat) and Micheline Aharonian Marcom (Three Apples Fell From
Heaven); and just about every book on distinct Armenian art, from
tapestries to embroidery to the religious stone crosses known as
khatchkars.
There's also an increasing number of English translations - including
one of the most beloved novels in Armenian literature, Raffi's The
Fool, first published in 1881. Yeretzian says these translations will
soon encompass half the store, partly due to the always curious stream
of odars (gringos) "coming in to see what Armenian culture is, what
Armenian music is, what Armenian art is." Another factor: "It's very
difficult here in the States to get young people to read in Armenian."
http://www.laweekly.com/la-people-2006 /literary-armenia/13244/
By SIRAN BABAYAN
Wednesday, April 19, 2006 - 3:00 pm
LA Weekly, CA
April 20 2006
Instead of the musty smell of old novels, one is more likely to
get a whiff of cigarette smoke rising from the back of Abril Books,
where owner Harout Yeretzian sits flicking his ashes into a coffee
cup, surrounded by "No Smoking" signs. A bespectacled man with
salt-and-pepper hair and a walrus mustache, Yeretzian mans Abril's vast
collection of Armenian literature - an avocation that began when he
moved from Beirut to a pre-Little Armenia East Hollywood in the late
'70s and started publishing a magazine of the same name (meaning "to
live" as well as the month of April). "There were only two political
newspapers here," Yeretzian says. "I did all the interviews with
artists, musicians and historians. I thought I was filling a void."
The monthly publication evolved into a printing company, then a
bookstore off Santa Monica Boulevard. Changing demographics and a
few robberies, one of which Yeretzian remembers happening on Labor
Day weekend, led the bookstore in 1998 to its current digs on a
quaint Glendale block adjacent to City Hall. "Thirty percent of the
population in Glendale is Armenian," says Yeretzian. "But, of course,
not all Armenians read."
As with any mom-and-pop shop, Abril is a family operation: Wife and
artist Seeroon Yeretzian runs the nearby Roslin Gallery, and her
calligraphic posters and post cards of the Armenian alphabet are
found not only here but in many local establishments and beyond. And
son Arno Yeretzian's documentary on the late artist Jirayr Zorthian,
Planet Zorthian, was screened at the ArcLight two years ago.
Abril stocks the essential classics by poets, novelists and satirists,
including Hagop Baronian, Yeghishe Charents, Hovhannes Toumanian,
Baruyr Sevag, Avetik Isahakian and Siamanto; children's folktales,
like David of Sassoun and Nazar the Brave; works by Armenian-American
authors Peter Balakian (Black Dog of Fate), Michael J. Arlen (Passage
to Ararat) and Micheline Aharonian Marcom (Three Apples Fell From
Heaven); and just about every book on distinct Armenian art, from
tapestries to embroidery to the religious stone crosses known as
khatchkars.
There's also an increasing number of English translations - including
one of the most beloved novels in Armenian literature, Raffi's The
Fool, first published in 1881. Yeretzian says these translations will
soon encompass half the store, partly due to the always curious stream
of odars (gringos) "coming in to see what Armenian culture is, what
Armenian music is, what Armenian art is." Another factor: "It's very
difficult here in the States to get young people to read in Armenian."
http://www.laweekly.com/la-people-2006 /literary-armenia/13244/