Listen: UCLA professor’s art emulates life in Soviet Armenia

The sound of an arriving train brings the audience into Professor Anahid Keshishian’s one-woman show, as she and her family leave their home in pre-revolutionary Iran and arrive in Soviet Armenia to begin their new life. “Ka Yev Chka II,” which means “There Is and There Isn’t” in Armenian, is the second one-woman show the Near Eastern Languages and Cultures professor has written and performed. Radio reporter Lilit Arakelyan sits down to talk with Professor Keshishian about her decision to write and perform her story, how the show came to fruition and what message she hopes her audience – particularly her students – will take away.