Folded hands await! The message is powerful and, in its simplicity, more eloquent than any words. These hands worked the land, planted crops to feed their families, wove blankets to protect them. These hands guided their little ones in their first steps, held the hands of their children in their first day of school, wiped their tears for their first broken heart and rejoiced with them in gathering their pieces together. These hands built houses and created homes, which later were taken away from them. These hands belonged to a child in the desert grasping the body of his dying mother, and laid to rest the bodies of loved ones. These hands are a detail in the snapshot of a nation awaiting recognition and praying for justice.

April 24, 2003 marks the 88th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Remembering the Armenian Genocide is acknowledging a historical event with far reaching consequences, a permanent page in history which can not be rewritten. It is imbedded in the conscience of a nation, and even after the last survivor has passed on, it will be remembered, and it will remain alive in the universal memory and consciousness of people.

The poets, the writers, the young Armenian intellectuals were the first to perish. Ironically it will be the voices of Armenian artists, poets and writers who will keep the memory alive. Since 1996, the artist Daniel Varoujan Hejinian has been doing just that. The pages of the calendar have turned fast, but the wounds of history are still open and time can not heal. Only recognition and apology can close these wounds still bleeding. These hands are waiting