On Friday, December 15, 2017, the literary-educative committee of Hamazkayin Kuwait once again organized a literary evening for the Kuwaiti Armenian book lovers at the newly built St.Vardanants Church of Kuwait. This time the event was dedicated to one of the greatest figures of the Armenian literature of the 20th century-Yeghishe Charents, the 120th anniversary of his birthday and 80th anniversary of his death.
The essential element of this evening was the beautiful Christmas tree decorated with books. Angela Sarkissian opened the program, after which the audience followed Narine Arapatlyan’s beautiful arrangement from The Tagharan by Charents, and also the poet’s another masterpiece – the song My Sweet Armenia by Atom Keheyan and Vatche Tashjian.
Then, a 15-minute video film called The Great Genius - Yeghishe Charents was screened. It was scrupulously made by the committee members in Armenia with the assistance of the RA Ministry of Culture and the Hamazkayin Armenia Office through visiting the House-Museum of Charents and interviewing the prominent scholars of Charents.
After the screening, the audience enjoyed Hakob Tadoian's song Until Tomorrow, Maria Sarkissian’s recitation Soma, Garo Boghosyan’s Pepo’s Song on duduk, and Mayda Movsesian's recitation of the poet’s horrific Death Phantom.
Eventually, George Arapatlyan briefly analyzed Charents’ literary path until his tragic death. He focused on the poet's patriotism and bold truth speaking at the time when Stalin's axe was reaping the Armenian intellectuals, and there was a great threat for the poet’s life.
At the end of the evening, Prelate, Very Rev Masis Zoboyan emphasized Charents' patriotism, which fully expressed his nation's feelings, highly appreciated the organizing committee, and expressed hope that such evenings would be organized frequently in our community life.