Author Dawn MacKeen Speaks On Armenian Genocide at Newport Beach City Council

By Mihran Toumajan

On April 11, Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly) Western Region office joined author and award-winning investigative journalist, Dawn Anahid MacKeen, at the City Council of Newport Beach, California. Mackeen delivered the city council session’s invocation and educated councilmembers, as well as the audience in attendance, on the Armenian Genocide.

MacKeen was invited by Mayor Kevin Muldoon, with whom she met at the Assembly’s Gala “Celebrating the Future” on March 4 in Newport Beach on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Terjenian-Thomas Assembly Internship Program.

MacKeen is the author of “The Hundred-Year Walk: An Armenian Odyssey,” which chronicles the story of her grandfather, who survived the ravages of the genocide thanks to the kindness of a Muslim sheikh and his family based in Syria. MacKeen’s book is required reading for high school students in the Fullerton (CA) Unified School District, and at the university level throughout the United States.

Previously a staff writer at Salon, Newsday, and Smart Money, MacKeen’s work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Elle, the Los Angeles Times, and several other prominent mainstream publications.