By Ara Topouzian, Detroit Hye Times

I have been working on Detroit Hye Times from the moment I knew I was a recipient of funds from the Knight Foundation. Some may disagree with me, but the hardest part is putting the narrative script together.

I have interviewed over a dozen musicians and their relatives and have (and continue to do) collected close to 100 rare photographs of Armenian musicians from Detroit. I have also collected archival footage of musicians in action and a recent highlight for me was while I was playing Armenian music for a local community dance, an old 16mm film of one of the musicians I am profiling was on the screen behind me from 1948. I almost fell off my chair!

The collecting of material was and has been the fun part of this project. The hard part is putting all the pieces together in time for a Spring 2015 airing on Public Television. This video interview  chronicles the process to date.

Ara Topouzian in front of the old Findlater Armenian Community Center in Delray, one of the first areas Armenians emigrated to when they arrived in Detroit