The visual/musical piece called “Reuniting” is very much about what we’ve been going through. It’s basically saying: we cannot lose our humanity by losing our connection, because it is the connection between us that makes us beautiful and humane.
I am one of the co-founders of Zulal, an Armenian a cappella trio, with whom I’ve performed in venues around the world. I recorded two albums with guitarist Anna Garano: Ansahman, and Saltless Sea. My original theater pieces have been produced in Europe and the United States. I’m a native of San Francisco but now reside in New York City which isn’t ‘the place’ anymore at all. There’s a sense of grief that comes with that, for sure. I want to give my support to other artists. It’s not like I have to agree with an artist about everything but in a fight that’s this fundamental—where the morality is so clearly wrong versus right—how do I support fellow artists who are on the wrong side of history right now?
I’m currently working on songs that obviously are very inspired by the idea of freedom, questioning, and motherhood. I am a mother; I have two girls. A teenager and a nine-year-old. I’m homeschooling the younger one now because I pulled her out of school. I couldn’t take anymore of the child abuse. The older one still goes to school because she wanted to finish up her education. She is able to better psychologically withstand the current situation. She can protect herself and she knows enough to ask questions. The little one too, knows what’s up (laughs) and she’s so much happier now!
I lost my mother 17 years ago and even before she passed I’d always been very connected to her and my grandmothers. I’ve always felt the strength of motherhood and that’s been very important to me. The theme of motherhood has always found its way into my music and into my writing. Even more so when I lost my mother and even more so when I became a mother. In this plandemic, one of the things that awakened me most was seeing the effects on the children. I saw what was happening in the schools and that was the first huge siren. Digitalizing education, masking the children etc. It was a huge red flag to me. I never did things traditionally. I raised them without screens. I was never one to go with the mainstream anyway.
How do we make our kids understand that the world has fundamentally shifted? That’s one of the topics I’m dealing with in my writing. I started a Substack recently and I have two essays out so far. The second is about the contradictions we have to deal with in life, which are normal and healthy. For example as a mother: I am both slave and dictator.
There is a difference between being able to understand a healthy contradiction and cognitive dissonance, which is something else entirely. The latter being shoved down our throats right now. One of the things I worry about about is how to explain this to a child. It’s hard because you want to make them feel safe in the world, make them feel like people are good but you have to actually account for the fact that there’s so much evil in the world.
The lockdown made me focus more on the idea of composition, in terms of my music. I’m lucky that I was able to record still. The performance aspect was taken away but the writing is something I can do by myself.
I suppose my own art has been therapeutic to me in a time where we’re made to feel crazy. It helps to give voice to your own beliefs and feelings. I had a lot of response when I put out my first essay. I aimed it at people whom I love but who have not understood the cognitive dissonance. Who have not fully admitted to the lunacy that we’re being subjected to.
I definitely consider myself part of the medical freedom movement. Kevin Nathaniel is a leader. He has created spaces for people to gather together. I have done something similar on a smaller scale. In the fall of 2020 I would count on my fingers the people I knew who were dissidents. That number just grew and grew. I’m so lucky that I know dozens and dozens of people who are with us. I’ve had several gatherings at my home, mostly women. We’ve been able to strengthen each other and take action. For me it was a political action to take my child out of school and I wrote to the Department of Education and told them clearly why I was removing her. It’s often through the prism of motherhood that I’m taking my stand. I’ve been very vocal in my writing: “A Dissenter’s Rationale” explains why I’m not conforming to the narrative, as does “Standing Still to Move Forward”.
In the challenge of homeschooling my child I’ve realized how much more I have to learn from her than I have to teach her! It’s true, this whole adventure has taken me on a journey that obviously I was meant to go on.
My second name is Alexandra and it means defender of humanity, which is something I want to live up to. I sensed things were literally threatening our sense of humanity towards each other. The challenge is to accept what I see. I’ve not been able to pursue my artistic career exactly the way that I would have foreseen. The journey I’m on is hard but it feels absolutely right, so I need to go with it. There is a sense of serving a purpose that’s beyond myself.
The highest purpose of art is to bring beauty into the world and it’s not just aesthetic beauty, but a kinder, a more evolved way of thinking. I struggle a little bit to see people fall into the narrative and indulge in medical apartheid and hatred towards those who refuse to submit to an experimental vaccine. It feels like a complete violation of the purpose of art. I think art needs to serve. It’s not that the artist knows better, but the artist, in creating art, is searching for that more beautiful way of being, and is striving to help others visualize and yearn for that more beautiful way of being.
https://anaistekerian.bandcamp.com/
https://anaistekerian.substack.com/p/a-dissenters-rationale?showWelcome=true