This weekend Zohrab Center director Dr. Jesse Arlen will give two presentations as part of parish Lenten programming in the Tri-State area.

On Friday, February 20th, following the 7:30pm Lenten vigil at St. Leon Armenian Church in Fair Lawn, NJ and then on Sunday, February 22nd, following Badarak, at St. Gregory the Enlightener Armenian Church in White Plains, NY.

His presentations will introduce the life and poetry of Tenny Arlen, whose 2021 book of verse Կիրքով ըսելու՝ ինչո՞ւ հոս եմ (To Say with Passion: Why Am I Here?) (Yerevan: ARI Literature Foundation) marked a watershed moment in the Armenian literary tradition, being the first full-length volume of creative literature published in Armenian by an American-born writer.

In 2025, a bilingual (English and Armenian) language edition was published by Tarkmaneal Press, along with afterwords by Hagop Gulludjian and Arthur Ipek.

In consonance with the season of Great Lent, Dr. Arlen will reflect on the some of the spiritual themes in Tenny’s poetry, such as solitude, iconic seeing, and the transcendence and immanence of the ineffable realm of the spirit.