{"id":100,"date":"2015-08-14T23:55:52","date_gmt":"2015-08-14T23:55:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sarahignatius.com\/staging\/4657\/?p=100"},"modified":"2026-05-25T12:35:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T16:35:00","slug":"remembering-the-armenian-genocide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sarahignatius.com\/staging\/4657\/2015\/08\/remembering-the-armenian-genocide\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering the Armenian Genocide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I was lucky to meet up with Doug Holder of Ibbetson Street Press recently, who wrote about my good fortune in being selected as a Somerville Arts Council Literature Artist Fellow this year and my efforts toward the 100-year commemoration of the Armenian Genocide. Here\u2019s his article from <\/em>The Somerville Times. Thanks Doug!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Somerville\u2019s Sarah Ignatius met me on a warm spring morning, at my unofficial office in the backroom of the Bloc 11 Caf\u00e9 in Union Square. Ignatius is the Executive Director of the Political Asylum\/Immigration Representation Project in Boston, and also a Somerville Arts Council Grant Fellow, who presented a talk and visual presentation at the Somerville Public Library entitled \u201cRemembering 1915: The 100-Year Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide.\u201d She is also the author of a young adult novel (not yet published) The Devil\u2019s Kaleidoscope<\/em>. The novel concerns a 14-year-old Armenian boy caught up in the genocide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Sarah<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sarah Ignatius<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ignatius has lived in a carriage house in the Union Square section of Somerville since 1992. She was born in Boston, but has lived in many other places. She told me, \u201cI love Somerville, the community events, the special dynamic that the city offers. Some of the homes here are so beautiful, and I love the public spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ignatius, in her role of the Executive Director of the Immigration Representation Project, helps immigrants from Africa, the Middle East, and elsewhere to achieve asylum in this country. She claims she has a 90% success rate. Prominent law firms like Ropes & Gray and others send their young lawyers to train at the project, and in turn they provide valuable services for asylum-seekers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Armenian Genocide, Ignatius\u2019 focus as of late, occurred in 1915 when 1.5 million Armenians were slaughtered by the Turks. Ignatius told me that she was delighted with the Pope\u2019s decision to call the Armenian Holocaust a \u201cgenocide,\u201d a word that has been quite controversial as of late. Ignatius\u2019 presentation at the Somerville Public Library consisted of a PowerPoint presentation, along with a slideshow, which is meant for the Armenian and non-Armenian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ignatius\u2019 young adult novel, The Devil\u2019s Kaleidoscope<\/em>, has as a 14-year-old boy as the protagonist, who is caught up in the genocide. According to Ignatius, \u201cThe book does not focus on violence, and is geared to promote peace in a world that is often filled with blood lust.\u201d Ignatius said she had a great deal of help with her book from teachers at Grub Street in Boston. And indeed, Ignatius has another novel in the works that concerns two girls, 18 years old, Berkeley, the 70s\u2014well you get the picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ignatius wished me a quick goodbye, because like most of us in the Paris of New England, we always have a lot to do, people to meet, and many miles to go before we sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Originally posted on The Somerville Times<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was lucky to meet up with Doug Holder of Ibbetson Street Press recently, who wrote about my good fortune in being selected as a Somerville Arts Council Literature Artist Fellow this year and my efforts toward the 100-year commemoration of the Armenian Genocide. Here\u2019s his article from The Somerville Times. Thanks Doug! Somerville\u2019s Sarah […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":323,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","event_title":"","event_details":"","event_timezone":"","event_gmap":"","event_image":"","event_image_url":"","event_calendar_link":"","event_location":"","event_location_name":"","event_location_address":"","event_location_unit":"","event_location_city":"","event_location_state":"","event_location_country":"","event_location_zip":"","event_datetime_with_summary":"","event_datetime":"","event_date":"","event_time":"","event_date_type":"","event_rulesummary":"","event_ticket_rsvp":"","event_capacity":"","event_capacity_remaining":"","event_capacity_sold":"","event_sold_out":"","event_low_stock":"","event_ticket_count":"","event_ticket_summary":"","event_sales_start":"","event_sales_end":"","event_ticket_price_from":"","event_ticket_price_to":"","event_ticket_price_range":"","event_date_year":"","event_date_month":"","event_date_month_short":"","event_date_day":"","event_date_day_name":"","event_date_iso":"","event_rsvp_capacity":"","event_rsvp_remaining":"","event_rsvp_going":"","event_rsvp_full":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sarahignatius.com\/staging\/4657\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/ignatius_web.webp?fit=216%2C262&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahignatius.com\/staging\/4657\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahignatius.com\/staging\/4657\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahignatius.com\/staging\/4657\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahignatius.com\/staging\/4657\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahignatius.com\/staging\/4657\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahignatius.com\/staging\/4657\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":325,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahignatius.com\/staging\/4657\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions\/325"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahignatius.com\/staging\/4657\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahignatius.com\/staging\/4657\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahignatius.com\/staging\/4657\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahignatius.com\/staging\/4657\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}