2001_12 Hye Sharzhoom Newspaper December 2001

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Hye Sharzhoom
December 2001
Henry Madden Library Collection:
Multicultural Children's Literature
Nazik Arisian
Staff Writer
On October 13, 2001, the
Women's League ofthe Armenian
Community School of Fresno
(ACSF) and the Arne Nixon Center Advocates (ANCA) ofthe Arne
Nixon Center for the Study of
Children's Literature held a luncheon at the Smittcamp Alumni
House on the campus of California
State University, Fresno. The Arne
Nixon Center is housed at the
Fresno State Henry Madden Library. Angelica Carpenter, Curator of the Arne Nixon Center, was
the featured speaker whose topic
was "Arne Nixon's Vision:   Cel-
Ms. Carpenter gave her lecture and showed a video about the
Arne Nixon Center and showed
slides of how she came to write
books with her mother. The audience enjoyed her presentation because there were several mother-
daughters in the audience who related to Ms. Carpenter very well.
Then, Ms. Carpenter explained
that Dr. Nixon began teaching at
Fresno State in 1961. He was loved
and respected by many and was a
sought-after speaker who delighted
in telling stories to children. During his many travels around the
world, he bought children's books
and it was his vision to build a
collection of multicultural
children's literature in the Library.
Ms. Angelica Carpenter, Curator of the Arne Nixon Center,
left, with Ms. Nazik Arisian.
ebrating Multicultural Children's
Literature."
Friends and members of the
Women's League of ACSF (a support group for the Armenian
School) and ANCA (a support
group for the Arne Nixon Center),
as well as parents of the Armenian
Community School ofFresno were
invited guests to the luncheon. Ms.
Carpenter talked about Dr. Arne
Nixon, The Ame Nixon Center,
and Dr. Nixon's ideas on the value
of multicultural children's literature. The other part of her lecture
was on what inspired her to be a
writer of children's literature.
Before lunch was served, the
guests mingled and tasted assorted
Armenian mezza (appetizers) such
as rolled grape leaves, boregs,
tourshi, hummous, and flat bread.
Then University Catering served a
wonderful lunch with several different kinds of Armenian desserts
that included gata, namura and
Napoleons. All the mezza and dessert items were made by the members ofthe Women's League.
When lunch was over, Penny
Mirigian-Emerzian, President of
the Women's League, welcomed
everyone and expressed how wonderful it was that the Women's
League and ANCA are working
together to help enhance the collection at the Ame Nixon Center by
adding Armenian childrens' literature to it. Denise Sciandra, President of ANCA, also spoke and expressed how delighted she and her
group were that the Women's
League and ANCA were working
together for the Ame Nixon Center.
In 1995, Dr. Nixon donated his
collection of 22,000 children's
books to the Henry Madden Library and founded the Ame Nixon
Center for the Study of Children's
Literature. Upon his death in 1997,
he bequeathed a generous gift to
the Henry Madden Library in sup:
port of the Ame Nixon Center.
Although Ms. Carpenter never
met Dr. Nixon, she felt she has
gotten to know him very well
through his books and the stories
his friends have told her about him.
Since the grand opening ofthe Ame
Nixon Center in 2001, over 130
individuals have joined ANCA in
support of the center.
Ms. Carpenter discussed Dr.
Nixon's international vision of
children's literature in various languages and described her plan to
add children's books in Armenian
to the Ame Nixon Center. She
encouraged the donation of Armenian children's books to the center.
As Fresno has a large Armenian
population, it is fitting that there be
such a collection in the library and
Ms. Carpenter certainly has the right
spot for it. Asa matter of fact, right
after the lecture, Zar
DerMugrdechian and several others donated a number of Armenian
children's books to the Ame Nixon
Center.
Ms. Carpenter became the curator of the Ame Nixon Center in
1996 after a nationwide search. She
earned a bachelor's degree in
French and master's degrees in
education and library science, from
the University of Illinois. She was
the Director of the Public Library
in Palm Springs, Florida.She co-
authored with her mother, the late
Jean Shirley, three illustrated biographies geared towards young readers. They are entitled Frances
Hodgson Burnett: Beyond the Secret Garden, published in 1990, L.
Frank Baum: Royal Historian of
Oz (1992), and Robert Louis
Stevenson: Finding Treasure Is-
land(\991). She is currently working on a fourth book entitled Lewis
Carroll: Through the Looking-
Glass to be published in 2002. Ms.
Carpenter is a member of the board
of directors of the International
Wizard of Oz and a contributing
editor to the Baum Bugle.
An invitation was extended to
all to visit the Ame Nixon Center
housed at the Henry Madden Library on the Fresno State campus.
The Ame Nixon Center is a research library; its materials do not
circulate. The Center's materials
are listed in the library's computerized catalogue at
www.lib.csufresnor.edu. The lee1
ture concluded after Ms. Carpenter
answered a number of questions
from the audience. The Women's
League presented a gift basket to
Ms. Carpenter as an expression of
thanks for her work.
A special thanks goes to the
following sponsors ofthe event and
all ofthe individuals who made the
luncheon a success: Anoush
Chamlian, Peter and Raffi Dorian,
Richard and Mimi Gunner, Penny
Mirigian-Emerzian and Dr. Thomas Shekoyan.
HEWSEN, Cont, from Page 1
prior to the Christianization, which
took place in the early fourth cen-
tury AD.
The conversion of Armenia to
. Christianity is said to have occurred
in 301 AD, but there were many
different factors which led to the
conversion. Dr. Hewsen talked
about three early Armenian kingdoms, those ofthe Yervanduni, the
Arshakuni, and the Arsaciddynasty.
He explained the three dynasties
and talked about each of them relating to their religion, political
system, and the area ruled by the
different dynasties.
Something that everyone
wanted to know was what kind of
religion the Armenian people practiced before being converted to
Christianity. Dr. Hewsen did a great
job explaining in detail the pagan
religion of the Armenians before
the conversion. He explained Zo-
roastrianism, which was originally
a Persian religion. Zoroastrianism,
accordingtoProfessorHewsen,has
very unique characteristics that
appealed to the Armenian people.
It was deep rooted in the Armenian
people, as it was their religion for
about 800 years before Christianity. Zoroastrianism involves worshipping gods and goddesses, the
most important of whom was
Anahit, the main goddess of the
Armenian people. She was the goddess of fertility, beauty, and wisdom. Armenians built many shrines
for the gods and goddesses, but
after 301 AD, most ofthe shrines
were torn down and Christian
churches were built on the sites.
Fresno Armenians
Republished for Holidays
The Fresno Armenian
Berge Bulbulian's The
Fresno Armenians has been
reprinted by Quill Driver
Books/Word Dancer Press,
Inc., and is now available for
purchase.
The new edition has a forward by Professor Dickran
Kouymjian, Haig and Isabel
Berberian Chair of Armenian
Studies at Fresno State.
The second edition has
been updated with added information.
Order Form
 copy(ies) at $19.00 each of
Please send me	
The Fresno Armenians.
(Add $2.00 for the first copy and $.50 for each additional copy for
postage and handling.)
Name	
Street — —4	
City/State/Zip
Total Enclosed
Send to: Armenian Studies Program
5245 N. Backer Ave., M/S PB4
Fresno, CA 93740-8001
Check or money order, made payable to the
Armenian Studies Program, must accompany orders.
History would not exist today
if historians had not spent a lot of
time writing down what was happening at the time, but some ofthe
historians' works can also be questioned. As Dr. Hewsen explained,
the history of the Armenian conversion to Christianity was recorded
by an Armenian historian named
Agathangelos, who claimed to be
an eyewitness to the conversion.
Recent evidence has shown that it
would have been impossible for
him to be an eyewitness and it places
his account in the 5th century.
In his book History ofthe Armenians, Agathangelos tells the
Story of the conversion of Armenians to Christianity. According to
him, the king of Armenia at the
time, King Trdat, had martyred 32
Christian nuns who had fled to Armenia to escape from Emperor
Diocletian. King Trdat was in love
with one of the nuns, named
Hripsime, and after she refused to
marry the king, he had all 32 nuns
martyred. According to
Agathangelos, the king then started
acting like a wild boar. A Christian
priest named Gregory, who had
been held prisoner by the king for
13 years, was brought to the king.
Gregory prayed with the king for
forty days and, as the story goes,
the king was healed. He ordered
that Christianity become the state
religion of Armenia. The date of
the conversion is controversial to
scholars, but it is widely accepted
(the Armenian Church recognizes
this date) that it occurred in 301
AD.
After this lecture, people received so much information in such
great detail that it not only taught
them about the conversion of the
Armenians to Christianity but also
gave them a concise summary of
Armenian history up to the event.
Second Annual Henry S. Khanzadian Kazan
Lectures iii Armenian Studies
by Dr. Robert H. Hewsen
Thursday, December 6,2001 • 7:30 PM
The lecture will take place in the Alice Peters Auditorium
of the University Business Center on the Fresno State campus
All lectures are free and open to the public.