AURORA PRIZE

“I won’t join the revolution unless I can dance,” he says, echoing the words of Emma Goldman. His long, white braids, ear piercings and goatee make him one of the most recognizable men in the Armenian world.

The life of Rakel Dink, widow of the late Turkish journalist and founder of the Agos newspaper Hrant Dink, has been continuously shaped by the past 100 years of Armenians’ history in the Ottoman Empire and present-day Turkey.

Prominent Russian orientalist Mikhail Piotrovsky, the head of St. Petersburg’s State Hermitage Museum for over 20 years, was born in Yerevan. His interest in the Orient is no accident.

Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Michael Aram is best known to the world and to the Armenian community as a creative artist who took a simple idea – working with traditional Indian metal-crafting techniques, which he fell in love as a youth – and transforming it into a global lifestyles brand with a distinct style that also draws from his Armenian roots.

His father named him Antranig in memory of the Manoukian tribe patriarch, who fought as a fedayi under the renowned General Antranig. He goes by his second name, André, but his fans affectionately call their favorite TV presenter “Dédé.” By blood he is 100 percent Armenian, minus the melancholy.

“It might not be a coincidence that I carry the name Sesede,” she says with a sparkle in her eyes. “It’s such a perfect fit to describe my journey through life. After all, Sesede means ‘raise your voice’ in Turkish.”

Abbey Road studios in central London has seen concerts and recordings aplenty since it was immortalized by The Beatles in 1969. But there has never been anything quite like the event that took place in April 2014.