Tell Our Stories Closing Program

Assyrian Remembrance Day
Closing Program Event

August 7, 2022
2:00-4:00 p.m.
Snider Recital Hall, Stanislaus State

In commemoration of Assyrian Remembrance Day (Assyrian Martyrs Day), the Tell Our Stories exhibition hosted a closing program on August 7, 2022. This event was free and open to the public, and video from the program will be made available shortly. 

​The event program is listed below.

Assyrian Remembrance Day Closing Program

1:00-2:00 p.m.: Special viewing of the exhibition with exhibition curators  (University Art Gallery)

2:00-4:00 p.m.: Assyrian Remembrance Day Program (Snider Recital Hall)

Welcome remarks:

  • Carmen Morad, Moderator
  • Ator Dina Bakoz, Central California Assyrian Student and Youth Association
  • Alex Kurkal, UC Merced Assyrian-American Club
  • Welcome video from Congresswoman Anna Eshoo

Presenters include:

  • Hannibal Travis, Professor of Law and Genocide Scholar
  • Shabnam Samuel, Author
  • Nora Lacey, Director of the Assyrian Arts Institute
  • Nenous Thabet, Assyrian-Iraqi Artist 
  • Kathy Sayad-Zatari, Exhibition Manager
     

Song performance by Beneil Betyousef
 

5:00pm: Exhibition viewing featuring special collection of paintings by Nenous Thabet

 

About Assyrian Remembrance Day

Assyrian Remembrance Day (Assyrian Martyrs Day) takes place on August 7 of each year to honour Assyrians lost to genocide, atrocities, and persecution. The date itself commemorates the start of the 1933 Simele Massacres in Iraq, in which the newly-independent Iraqi state killed approximately 3,000 Assyrians across northern Iraq, including in the town of Simele, where several hundred unarmed men, women, and children who sought protection in the police station were brutally murdered. Assyrian Martyrs Day was first designated in the 1970s. 

 

Program Support

This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit calhum.org.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this exhibition and program do not necessarily represent those of California Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities. 

This project is also made possible with the support of the Assyrian Arts Institute and the Assyrian Studies Association.