january 11, 2012; yerevan
Dear Yasemin,
How are you? I was given your e-mail address by the chair of the Women’s Resource Center of Armenia, Lara Aharonian. I am a volunteer at the center and I have been talking to Lara about having a joint creative project with Turkish and Armenian young women. Last year I helped organize the V-Day movement in Armenia and we had a performance of the Vagina Monologues in Yerevan, as well as in Tbilisi with our Georgian and Azerbaijani neighbors. After that, I encouraged the women working with me to write their own stories and monologues so that we wouldn’t have to translate a Western perspective into our own, very different realities. We have written about 8 such monologues so far and we want to have a performance of it eventually.
Recently FRIDA had a call for proposals and I have been thinking that it would be an amazing opportunity to collaborate with our sisters in Turkey. Do you think that your organization would be interested in perhaps having a joint performance, with stories written by women active at Amargi? If you are interested I can send you a few examples of what we have written to give you a better idea of our approach. And if you have any other questions or comments, please let me know. The Women’s Resource Center and I are truly excited about the prospect of collaborating with Amargi and you!
Much love and light,
Maral Bavakan