Book exploring “SWANA Futurity” to be presented in Glendale

Author and artist Kristin Anahit Cass will be in Glendale to promote her new book, “Reparations of the Heart: Toward a SWANA Futurity.” The event will take place on Friday, August 2, at 7 p.m. at the Center for Armenians Arts, 250 N. Orange St. in Glendale, California.

The presentation will include a discussion between the author and Araxie Cass. The event is free and open to the public. 90 minutes of free parking is available. For more information, call (818) 243-4112.

In a vibrant weave of essays, stories, poems, quotes, and detailed, often surreal images, Kristin Anahit Cass’s debut book explores what the world looks like from a futuristic SWANA (Southwest Asia and North Africa) perspective. Reparations of the Heart rejects the imperialist narratives and hopelessness that surround us, and instead proposes an alternative future where creativity, culture, and community thrive. Moving from the past to the present and into the future are memories of beloved ancestors that shape different artistic iterations of the SWANA future, as told through the wide variety of her photographic subjects. Divided into three parts, this book transcends time and boundaries. Ancestors connects us to our past, building on the wisdom of our ancestors and infusing it with a greater openness and liberation for all people.

Reparations of the Heart offers Cass’ unique perspective as an Armenian elder. Her extensive experience as a mother, activist, writer, and artist gives the book a unique perspective on envisioning a future that creates a compassionate and inclusive world where compassion is a core value, a wide range of identities are respected, and the world is one of diverse ways to love and live. Inspired by the aftermath of the 1915 Armenian Genocide, the book was written amidst the recent Artsakh genocide and the ongoing genocide in Gaza. The scars of these atrocities are felt in its pages, but against all odds, it insists that change is possible. This profound book imagines and plans to shape the future, repaying land, making reparations, embracing ethnic and cultural diversity, ancestral customs, and the shared SWANA culture.

Kristin Anahit Cass is a writer and artist working in photography, video, sculpture, and other media. Cass’s work imagines the future, touches on the past, and envisions a better world. As Tamar Boyadjian noted in Hyperallergic, Cass’s work “acknowledges the lived experience of trauma, but possesses the ability for people to individually and collectively reframe that experience in their hearts to make space for reparation.” In addition to her artistic training, Cass has worked with women- and minority-owned businesses, artists, and nonprofits in her career as an attorney. She is one of the founders of the LGBTQ platform Entanik (Family), where she is active in supporting creative people in the global community. Her project “Borderlands Under Fire” was a finalist for the 2018 Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize. Cass is a graduate of the University of Chicago. She lives in Chicago and Denver.