Transcription of Annie Kiladjian for the show Intercultural Understanding #241
Lisa: In the studio with us today I have two dear friends who I’ve known for quite a while and are really wonderful people in their own right, so I’m glad I have the chance to finally have time to speak with them on air. These are Gerard and Annie Kiladjian. Gerard is the general manager of the Portland Harbor Hotel, Diamond’s Edge Restaurant and Marina and the newly opened Inn at Diamond Cove on Great Diamond Island. His passion for hospitality began with a hotel management degree from Boston University. Gerard is a first generation immigrant from Syria.
Shortly after settling in Maine in 2000, Gerard and Annie established the Armenian Cultural Association of Maine to promote and preserve their Armenian culture. Among events they brought to Portland are lectures by notable authors, accomplished speakers, and Armenian folk dance and music performances. Thanks for coming in, Gerard.
Gerard: Thank you.
Lisa: We also have Annie with us. Annie grew up among the rich culture and diversity of Montreal, Canada. The child of Armenian immigrants from Cairo, Egypt, she was raised with a close sense of family and community her entire life. When she married Gerard Kiladjian in July of 1991, her adventure began. After living in Montreal for 5 years, they made their way first to New Jersey then finally Portland, Maine.
Annie began her career in education of the fashion and design industry in Montreal. Shortly after moving to Maine, she studied and worked in the interior design field. She is currently the owner of Annie K Designs, LLC, an interior design firm that has created beautiful spaces throughout Maine, Boston, New York, and Los Angeles. After living in Portland, Maine for 16 years and raising two beautiful children, she cannot see herself living anywhere else. Thanks for being here.
Annie: Thanks for having us, Lisa.
Lisa: I can’t really see you guys living anywhere else, either, because you’re fixtures in the Portland community.
Annie: Thank you.
Gerard: Thank you. We enjoy it very much.
Lisa: Let’s talk about Montreal, Annie. I’m interested because having been there, you know, a few times now, it’s this very artistic and creative and wonderful place that’s not that far from Portland and yet it seems very European in some ways.
Annie: It’s very European and very diverse. Growing up in a place like Montreal actually grounded me in so many ways to so many different aspects whether it be arts or fashion or design or anything else. The people I grew up with, this is the difference between Portland that we moved into in 2000 and where I grew up, was that there was just so much diversity and so many ways, whether it was food. So many different things.
I loved growing up there. I loved being able to speak maybe language. I speak Armenian fluently as does Gerard. Having the Armenian culture and family around was a huge part of how I was raised. That’s what we tried to do when we came here.
Lisa: It must have been interesting to be in Portland and have it be 16 years ago, still relatively non-diverse. I guess you could speak to that, both of you, better than me.
Gerard: I think it changed quite a bit. If you compare it to Montreal, perhaps not, but the Portland we new 16 years ago was very different what it is now. I feel that I find it to be a lot more diverse. There’s a lot more culture. Different heritages are coming into the city and making contributions and making their presence known and sharing their culture with everybody else. I think Portland has come a long way in the last even 10 years of what we saw when we came in.
Lisa: It’s interesting to me that Montreal and Portland are similar in some ways. They both are relatively cold climates and somewhat metropolitan, but Montreal for some reason has just attracted a broader range of people to live there. Is it because it’s maybe a bigger presence within the general landscape of Canada than Portland is?
Gerard: I think it’s because it’s little bit of existing cultural diversity with being French Canadian. Part of Montreal’s French Canadian. Part of it’s English speaking. That makes it a little more international. There has been a lot of migration from different cultures all around the world to Montreal because of the way it is and all of the cultures that it has from food to music to theatre to everything else. I think that’s what’s been attractive to immigrants and Canadians in general to go to Montreal. Portland is the miniature. I find it a little bit a miniature of that.
It’s not to that scale, but yet we have a lot of things that we enjoyed in Montreal that we can have a small taste of it here in Portland.
Annie: Now?
Gerard: Now we do, yes.
Annie: 16 years ago, I don’t feel it was the same.
Gerard: It was a lot less. Yeah.
Annie: It was definitely a lot less.
Lisa: I have to admit that until I think I was in Boston and we went into a convention center and we saw that there was an Armenian convention that was going on down there. We also saw that there was a monument in Boston. I mean, I could feel like I have some degree of education behind me, but I didn’t really know that much about Armenia and what had happened. I wonder if this felt strange to you, coming to a country where that just wasn’t talked about all that much?
Gerard: Well, it was a little bit strange, but also Armenians in general didn’t talk a lot about it growing up. When the Armenians moved to different parts of the world after the genocide in 1915, they tried to assimilate so it wasn’t a topic. The genocide itself wasn’t a big topic everybody talked about. When I moved to Boston, that was one of the reasons I moved to Boston is because there was an Armenian community and they were an active community. That was a piece of home, moving into Boston when I went to college.
That kept my Armenian culture alive and actually got me even more interested in it as the time passed and I graduated, started working. I started connecting with the culture. It wasn’t a big surprise. It was something that I enjoyed and helped me stay connected with my culture even though I moved away from Syria.
Lisa: It seems as though, you’ve been calling it the Armenian genocide, has only taken route perhaps within the last 10 years. Yet it’s interesting that other genocides obviously have taken place over the last centuries and those have been specifically called that.
Gerard: Correct.
Lisa: Why is that?
Annie: We’re still fighting for that.
Gerard: I think it’s because in the United States because of the strategic alliance with Turkey. I think the United States as a government, as a whole are reluctant to call it a genocide, because they feel that they don’t want to upset Turkey in the strategic alliance. I think different states within the United States have recognized it. Certainly the state of Maine for the last 15 years. There have been recognizing it every year at the state legislature level. Many other states do so, but as the United States government, they have not come around to do that because of t political pressure coming from their relationship with Turky.
Lisa: How does that make you feel to know that your families were impacted by this and it’s something that still isn’t quite as mainstream as some of the other genocides that are talked about?
Gerard: It is frustrating. Like Annie said, we keep fighting for that. We keep trying to get the US legislators to acknowledge it. It is very frustrating. It’s been going on for many, many years and we continue to lobby with the legislators and explain or story and ask them to step forward and call it what it is. It’s been a difficult road for Armenians in general not to get recognized as a genocide.
Annie: Every April 24th we try. I mean, we try throughout the entire year, but on April 24th we try to bring light to it and try to get recognized and unfortunately so Armenia it hasn’t happened but hopefully it will at Federal level. State level we have recognition. Maine recognizes it. We go up to Augusta every April 24th around that time whenever it falls during the week. As of last year, I think it was last year that we had a proclamation that the state of Maine gave us. It’s wonderful. It’s a great feeling to be recognized on the state level.
Gerard: Because there have been a lot of Armenian community, people in the community here that really contributed throughout their life in the state of Maine.
Annie: They really have.
Gerard: It’s great to recognize.
Lisa: What’s the significance of April 24th?
Gerard: It’s the date of the Armenian genocide. 1915. April 24th is when the genocide started at the hands of the Ottoman Turks. They tried to eliminate the Armenian race in Turkey, the Ottoman Empire at the time.
Lisa: I’m interested in your daughter’s experience with Armenia. I know Annie, you and I were talking about a time that she spent over there actually doing some work in I believe the public health field.
Annie: Yes. Alexandra studied health sciences and was very much interested in going to Armenia and serving in some form. She decided I think it was August of last year she went to Armenia for 5 months and worked for an organization called COAF. It’s Children of Armenia Fund that a very dear friend of ours started. An incredible organization that a lot of our friends are a part of, one in general who started this organization to basically create entities inside villages, where he could help a certain village at a time in whatever capacity was necessary, whether it was building hospitals, schools. He does so with the help of funding from the diaspora. Mostly from the diaspora.
Alexandra, being in the medical field, let’s say, really wanted to somehow or another get into that with COAF. She ended up working at the office in Yerevan, which is the capital of Armenia. She would go weekly, 2 or 3 times a week, to the different villages, help out in whatever way she could. We work on so many levels here where whether it’s the medical field or, you know, anti-bullying or any of these fields that actually assimilate together, she decided that she wanted to take on just as an example, an anti-bullying campaign in Armenia. Does not exist. It creates anxiety for different kids.
It’s all this domino effect. Alexander was put in charge. This was probably right at the end of her almost coming home of this anti-bullying campaign. It was incredible how it was received by this kids in these villages, because that was just not something that they even recognized, truly. There’s just so much growing that still has to be done in these countries. It’s not a third world country, but in so many ways, it’s so backwards. We’re still the diaspora along with the government is trying to push forward so many different aspects of whether it be medicine or education or government policy, there’s just so many different aspects of Armenia that we could still help to bring to the 21st century.
Alexandra was absolutely loving ever second she was there, because she was able to give just a little bit of herself to her homeland. You have to understand, my daughter was born in Montreal. Gerard and I were born in the Middle East. Her ties to Armenia were not very strong in the sense that we didn’t really have family that live in Armenia. We were those families that had to leave Armenia, our homeland, and assimilate into a different country, he being in Syria and myself in Egypt.
From there, we came here, so we don’t really know Armenia. We went 3 and a half years ago to an incredible event that a friend of ours hosted. We were there for two weeks and got to see Armenia. Our kids at that time, the message was, give back. We were hundred Armenian friends that went. The message was give back to Armenia. Some way or another, give back. This is what we need, the diaspora, to do. Alex and even our son Aaron really has that goal of someway or another giving back to our homeland.
Lisa: What did it mean to each of you if you’re both Armenian, but Gerard, you’re from Syria, and Annie, your family went to Egypt? How did that influence the way that you looked at the world and maybe your Armenian culture? How did that influence your families?
Gerard: You know, I think the Middle Eastern influence is similar between Syria and Egypt. There’s a lot of hospitality, family life, preservation of culture, preservation of language. Our families were not very different, Annie’s family and my family being from two different countries. It did influence in terms of growing up and how we raise our kids to make sure that they understand other cultures, they understand where they came from but also what goes on in different cultures.
That gives them a broad understanding of different societies in the world. That also helped them in public schools in Portland where they grew up because they had the different backgrounds and a little bit of the Armenian language and some Arabic that I speak. I didn’t speak at home, but my son’s always been intrigued about it. It helped them connect better with the students. They got involved socially with the students, because they understood the different cultures. I think it was a plus for the family here to grow up in Maine and to have that background for us and for our kids.
Lisa: As part of the work that you do with the Armenian Cultural Association, you’ve brought in authors and speakers. You’ve done folk dance and musical performances. Talk to me a little bit about the Armenian culture and what types of things are important.
Gerard: Food, music, and dance are very important. I think every time you put a little bit of food and some music you can get the Armenians to get together. That’s part of the culture that we wanted to keep. That’s why we’ve hosted some musical events. Also intellectually there’s a lot of authors that talked about the Armenian genocide and the Armenian culture and how the Armenians grew up. We’ve done a little bit of that as well because we found that in Maine, the Armenians are second and third generation Armenians. They moved in right after the genocide.
As the generations pass by, the Armenians assimilate more, so you end up families with half Armenian, quarter Armenian, because they start marrying non-Armenian and they start dispersing a little bit. We found that was an important part rather than let it fade away, let’s keep the Armenianism in everybody who has part Armenian. You’ve noticed also in the last 15 years, all around the United States people are beginning to connect a little bit with their cultures, whatever that is. The timing was right for that.
We focus on culture. We focus on music and food every change we get. Annie did a couple of cooking classes for Armenians, so they can learn certain things that they’ve heard from their grandmothers that used to do this or that. Annie has a couple of classes and help them cook it and learn it. We keep it fun and interesting.
Annie: We tried to do language classes right in the beginning.
Gerard: For the kids.
Annie: For the kids, which was a little difficult in trying to tie people down, because I went to Saturday school to learn how to speak. We both speak Armenian. To write and to read Armenian. I found that it was a lot more difficult to tie kids down here. I gave 4 classes and it was barely enough to just get them to say a few words.
My kids speak. They don’t speak very well, but they do speak. If they are put in a position where they have to speak, they both do beautifully. I think that’s true of just about any language. When you’ve heard it and you know what it’s supposed to sound like, you can try harder and you know what you’re trying to say. I find with our kids, that’s really true. When they go to Montreal, when they’re speaking with their family, they speak Armenian. They can do it, but when they’re at home with us, they speak English.
I think for us starting the Armenian Cultural Association, and let’s just say that there was an Armenian Cultural Association already here in the ’70s and-
Gerard: For many years.
Annie: ’80s.
Gerard: Even before that.
Annie: Even before that with a lot of big families in-
Gerard: It was called the Portland Armenian Club, I believe.
Annie: Yes. These families had great dances and different events that they could probably tell you more about. We didn’t have that when we moved here. We looked at each other and said, “You know, are we going to live in a state where we have nothing Armenian? Absolutely nothing?” We met one family and through that family met a couple of different people. We all honestly thought we were the only Armenians in this state for a little while. As soon as we found this family and we became like family with them-
Gerard: We learned about the history of Armenians here, we decided-
Annie: The history and other families who had made a difference here. We ended up starting this.
Gerard: We decided to continue.
Annie: Yeah. We started the Armenian Cultural Association and then said, “Now what? Let’s get some lists together. Who’s here? What can we do?” I think our first event was the picnic, right? At Two Lights?
Gerard: Mm-hmm.
Annie: I believe that was our first one. We thought we’d get 20, 30 people and 100 and something showed up.
Gerard: More.
Annie: More. Right? That was one of the bigger ones.
Gerard: There were over 300 people that came in. A lot more Armenians. people. Yeah.
Annie: We had too many people for the park, basically.
Gerard: I think what brought up together the first time was when we put the monument on Cumberland Avenue.
Annie: Oh, yeah. That was amazing.
Gerard: There’s a small monument commemorating the Armenia genocide. It’s right in front of the Church of the Immaculate Conception on Cumberland Avenue. That was the first event that we put together because the groundwork was already laid. They had begun talking to the city. The city agreed to give us a plot of land.
Annie: The Portland Club had.
Gerard: We came in and we decided let’s finish this project with them. That was the first event. We had a couple hundred people show up when we first did the inauguration of the monument. That started going, and then we did a picnic. From then on every year we try to do two, maybe three events ever year.
Annie: We’ve got a great group of people with us now. For a very long time, it was just the two of us trying to push through some different events and last I think it’s probably about 5 years we’ve got quite a few people that help us, which you can’t do this alone. You need other people in one form or another. The support that we’ve got right now is quite amazing. We love it. We love the discussions we have, what we can do and what we can’t do, what we should bring forth.
Lisa: I find it fascinating that Gerard, you went into the hospitality business, and Annie, you do interior design. Both of you are very much about the creating of home, whether it’s home away from home or home in home.
Annie: Well put.
Lisa: It’s so interesting that your family was dispersed and now you come to Portland and you are very consciously making this your home, but at the same time you’re pulling in international pieces. You’re designing in Los Angeles, New York, and Boston, Annie. Gerard, of course, you, with the Portland Harbor Hotel and all the properties that you’re a part of, people are coming from everywhere and you’re working with people internationally. There’s this interesting blending of things that both of you have brought into your lives.
Gerard: It is. The hotel side of it definitely it helps connect with many people from across the world that I tend to see. That’s part of that hospitality that I’ve enjoyed. That’s one of the reason I went into the hotel business. It seems it’s part of my personality and I enjoy it. That’s the part I enjoy. I think having that international flare or background from living different places and bringing the culture certainly help our family life but also help our life here and people around us.
Annie: I think for me every space I create, and a lot of people have actually said this to me, I feel part of the space has some kind of influence from my Middle Eastern or my ethnic background. It’s in a very small way, but I find that people like it. I just finished a beautiful place on Munjoy Hill. Interestingly enough, the powder room had this beautiful wallpaper and the homeowner said it brought a little bit of you into our house, which was really nice. It was really nice. I liked that.
Lisa: How did people find out about the Armenian Cultural Association of Maine?
Gerard: Online we have a website. It’s ArmeniansofMaine.com. Usually we post all of our events. We also have a newsletter. People can sign up for a newsletter and we keep them posted and all the different events that are going on.
Lisa: Of course, people can see the work that you do in Maine Home Design and the work that you do Gerard, featured often in Maine Magazine, Old Port Magazine, sometimes Maine Home Design. This has been really interesting for me, really fascinating having known both of you for a while, to know this other layer, this other piece of your background. I really appreciate your coming in and talking to me about it.
Annie: Thank you.
Gerard: Thank you for having us.
Annie: Thanks for having us. Really.
Gerard: It’s a pleasure.
Annie: Truly.
Lisa: We’ve been speaking with Gerard and Annie Kiladjian, who are the founders of the Armenian Cultural Association of Maine. Gerard is the general manager of the Portland Harbor Hotel, Diamond’s Edge Restaurant Marina and the newly opened Inn at Diamond Cove on Great Diamond Island. Annie is the owner of Annie K Designs, LLC. I appreciate you taking the time to be here.
Annie: Thanks, Lisa.
Gerard: Thank you. It’s a pleasure.
Annie: Pleasure.