The Zohrab Information Center

☀️ Is learning the ✨Badarak✨ one of your goals for 2026? ☀️

The Zohrab Center warmly invites you to sign up for "Խորհուրդ Խորին / Mystery Profound," the second half of a Գրաբար reading course to take place on Mondays 2:00–4:00pm ET from February 2nd to May 25th via Zoom.

Register for the course at this Zoom registration link: https://bit.ly/4pUNZLZ

The course will be led by Zohrab Center director Dr. Jesse Arlen and will focus on the hymns, chants, and prayers of the Divine Liturgy of the Armenian Church (Ս. Պատարագ), including hymn verses not commonly sung in contemporary practice as well as prayers of the service said silently by the celebrant.

The first part of this course covered the rite of vesting and preparation as well as the Liturgy of the Word, while the second half of the course will focus upon the Eucharistic Liturgy proper.

In order to benefit from the course, participants should be able to comfortably read the Armenian alphabet and have some prior experience with classical or modern Armenian.

For questions about the course, email [email protected]

On Wednesday, October 27th, the Zohrab Center's Lily E. Jelalian intern Luiza Ghazaryan (NYU '26) presented original research at the NYU Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholars Program Research Symposium, entitled "Handwritten Memory: Manuscripts and Literary Journals of Armenian Migrants."

Conducted under the supervision of Zohrab Center director, Dr. Jesse S. Arlen, and Zohrab Center special projects coordinator and research associate, Arthur Ipek , Luiza surveyed and described 9 and of Ottoman Armenians from the late 19th and early 20th centuries kept in the special collections of the Zohrab Center library.

Luiza chose one such handwritten journal to make the focus of her poster presentation, a collection of love poems penned by Harutyun G. Iskenderian between 1905–1906.

Born around 1887 in ( [ #Կեսարիա, ], ), Harutyun was a freshman at St. Paul's Institute in during the 1905-1906 academic year. During this time, he composed an 87-page manuscript of love poems in , dedicated to his beloved Ms. Marine Dadourian. Luiza translated these from Western Armenian into English and situated them within the context of late life and education in the provinces.

#հայերէն #Հայերեն

If you missed the online book launch of Tenny Arlen's groundbreaking book of poetry, you can now watch the recording on YouTube.

100 friends, family, colleagues, and literature enthusiasts gathered to hear the book presented by Zohrab director Jesse Arlen, Hagop Gulludjian (UCLA), Arthur Ipek (NYU), and Susan Barba (NY Review of Books).

You'll hear from me about how the book came together and a little background on Tenny's life and works, and what is included in this new edition.

Learn from Hagop Gulludjian about how Tenny and her literary accomplishments revolutionized the method of language instruction at UCLA, leading to the "creative literacy" method that has inspired hundreds of students after her to make their own attempts at producing and creating in Armenian.

You'll also hear readings and perceptive literary analysis from Arthur Ipek (NYU) and Susan Barba (NY Review of Books).

Thank you to the sponsors and co-sponsors of the event!

National Association for Armenian Studies and Research - NAASR

Literary Lights 2025: Featuring Tenny Arlen’s To Say with Passion: Why Am I Here? The final installment of our Literary Lights 2025 reading series featured Tenny Arlen’s posthumous poetry collection To Say with Passion: Why Am I Here?Jesse...

✨PEAK INSIDE THE BOOK✨

Now available from NAASR bookstore (https://naasr.org/products/to-say-with-passion) and via Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FY9RPWYQ)

Nos. 1-2: Cover design by Meghan Arlen based on the of one of Tenny's favorite pieces of art.

No. 3: Title Page: Կիրքով ըսելու՝ ինչո՞ւ հոս եմ:
To Say with Passion: Why Am I Here?
by Tenny Arlen
Translated by Tenny and Jesse Arlen
Bilingual edition, Tarkmaneal Press, 2025

Nos. 4-5: Praise for the book and author by Prof. Sebouh Aslanian, Prof. Peter Cowe, Zarmine Boghosian, Arpi Sarafian, David Garyan, and Alexia Hatun

No. 6: Tenny's collage using words from the Book of Lamentation Մատեան ողբերգութեան by St. Gregory of Narek Սբ. Գրիգոր Նարեկացի

No. 7: The book's foreword by Jesse Arlen (in English and Armenian)

Nos. 8-13: Poems by Tenny Arlen in Armenian and English. Thank you to Matthew Sarkisian for the beautiful layout, using Tenny's favorite font (Bell MT) and Quivira for the Armenian.

Nos. 14-15: A newly discovered poem by Tenny Arlen written in class after a reading of Myrna Douzjian's Մեր Արարատը

No. 16: Manuscript of Tenny's first draft of one of her poems «Բառեր» "Words"

Nos. 17-18: Թենին ու Սողովմէն "Tenny and Soghovme" by Hagop Gulludjian, translated by Jesse Arlen

Nos. 19-20: Ահա օբիսպոսեան փիլոմելը՝ Թենի Արլէն եւ իր ներդրումը ժամանակակից հայ բանաստեղծութեան "Ecce philomela obispoensis: Tenny Arlen and her contribution to contemporary Armenian poetry" by Arthur Ipek recently the Society for Armenian Studies "Best Conference Paper Award" for 2024-2025

The book is available via link in bio or from National Association for Armenian Studies and Research - NAASR bookstore.

#հայերէն #բանաստեղծութիւն #արեւմտահայերէն #երկլեզու

Literary Lights 2025: Featuring Tenny Arlen's To Say with Passion: Why Am I Here? - International Armenian Literary Alliance Join us on December 6, 2025 for a Literary Lights event featuring Tenny Arlen's posthumous poetry collection To Say with Passion: Why Am I Here?

Thank you, Asbarez!

Bilingual Edition of Tenny Arlen's 'To Say with Passion: Why Am I Here?' Published - Asbarez.com Tarkmaneal Press announced the release of a facing-page bilingual edition of Tenny Arlen’s (1991–2015) book of Armenian poetry, first published posthumously in 2021 by ARI Literature Foundation, with the support of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, under the title "To Say with Passion: Why Am ...

We are pleased to announce an online book launch of Tenny Arlen's (1991–2015) groundbreaking bilingual book of poetry. Zohrab Center director Dr. Jesse Arlen will be in conversation with Susan Barba (The New York Review of Books), Hagop Gulludjian (UCLA), and Arthur Ipek (NYU) on December 6, 2025, at 9:00 AM Pacific | 12:00 PM Eastern | 9:00 PM Armenia time.

The event is organized as the final installment of the Literary Lights 2025 reading series, an initiative of the International Armenian Literary Alliance, National Association for Armenian Studies and Research - NAASR, and the Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center at Eastern Diocese.

The virtual event is co-sponsored by UCLA's Narekatsi Chair of Armenian Studies, Promise Armenian Institute, Richard Hovannisian Endowed Chair in Modern Armenian History and Center for Armenian Studies, University of Michigan.

Register for the Zoom at this link (https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/ogGgwRBnRuK7M8OTF_pxNw #/registration).

The book is available for sale through Amazon marketplaces internationally (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FY9RPWYQ) and from the NAASR bookstore (https://naasr.org/products/to-say-with-passion)

Congratulations to our own Arthur Ipek on winning the Society for Armenian Studies "Best Conference Paper Award" for his paper "Ecce philomela obispoensis (Tenny Arlen and her contribution to contemporary Armenian poetry)."
A bilingual (Armenian and English) version of this paper is published as an afterword to the new edition of Tenny Arlen's To Say with Passion: Why Am I Here? published by Tarkmaneal Press in 2025.
Now available for purchase through the NAASR bookstore (https://naasr.org/products/to-say-with-passion) or via Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FY9RPWYQ).

Congratulations, Arthur!!

Book available from National Association for Armenian Studies and Research - NAASR bookstore (https://naasr.org/products/to-say-with-passion) or via Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FY9RPWYQ)

To Say with Passion: Why Am I Here? is a bilingual edition of Tenny Arlen’s poetry, an extraordinary body of work written in a language she began learning only a few years before her passing in 2015.

The book brings together the full contents of the 2021 Armenian publication, ԿԻՐՔՈՎ ԸՍԵԼՈՒ՝ ԻՆՉՈ՞Ւ ՀՈՍ ԵՄ, presenting the original poems alongside English translations by Tenny and her brother, Dr. Jesse S. Arlen. ✍ 📖

What emerges is both a work of poetry and a record of artistic becoming, a book about learning to speak, to belong, and to give voice to existence itself.

🌟 Learn more here: https://bit.ly/491XyDm

P.S. To Say with Passion will be featured in the last installment of our Literary Lights reading series on December 6 (details TBA soon). 💬

ATTENTION: New posthumous book of bilingual poetry by Tenny Arlen; co-translated with a foreword by Jesse Arlen and afterwords by Hagop Gulludjian and Arthur Ipek. Stay tuned for an online book launch in December.

"To Say with Passion: Why Am I Here? is a bilingual (Armenian and English) edition of Tenny Arlen’s poetry, an extraordinary body of work written in a language she began learning only a few years before her passing in 2015. The book brings together the full contents of the 2021 Armenian publication, ԿԻՐՔՈՎ ԸՍԵԼՈՒ՝ ԻՆՉՈ՞Ւ ՀՈՍ ԵՄ, presenting the original poems alongside English translations by Tenny and her brother Dr. Jesse Arlen.

In these poems, the Armenian language itself becomes a living presence, asking why and how it continues to exist in the twenty-first-century Diaspora. With luminous sensitivity, Arlen writes toward that question, turning language into both a home and a mystery. As her brother notes, “The poet courageously faces such questions and is not satisfied by simple or superficial answers, tired clichés. Instead, in her effort to ponder them deeply, she offers meaning to others. This book presents itself as a companion to those readers who seek to think and live life’s most fundamental questions.”

This expanded edition deepens the original collection with three previously unseen writings discovered among Tenny’s papers, facsimiles of early drafts—some marked with her professor Dr. Hagop Gulludjian’s edits—and new critical reflections. Gulludjian’s afterword traces Tenny’s creative journey from eager student to a pioneer of Armenian literature in the Diaspora, while Arthur Ipek’s newly commissioned essay explores her work through the lens of exophony, or creative writing in a non-native tongue, and situates her within a broader Armenian literary continuum.

What emerges is both a work of poetry and a record of artistic becoming, a book about learning to speak, to belong, and to give voice to existence itself."

Book available from National Association for Armenian Studies and Research - NAASR bookstore (https://naasr.org/products/to-say-with-passion) or via Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FY9RPWYQ)

https://armenianliterary.org/to-say-with-passion-why-am-i-here-arlen/

To Say with Passion: Why Am I Here? by Tenny Arlen - International Armenian Literary Alliance To Say with Passion: Why Am I Here? is a bilingual edition of Tenny Arlen’s poetry—written in a language she mastered shortly before her passing.

The Zohrab Center warmly invites you to a book presentation with Dr. Ben Alexander on Thursday, November 20th at 7:00pm, who will present his book Ararat in America: Armenian American Culture and Politics in the Twentieth Century. All are warmly invited to attend!
The contents of the book relate directly to the history of the Diocese of the Armenian Church and the Armenian American community of New York and the East Coast in general, and much of the research for the book was conducted in the Zohrab Center itself, which is warmly acknowledged by Dr. Alexander at the outset of the book.
Table of Contents
List of Figures
List of Maps
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Contested Homeland: World War I and the Genocide
2. Years of Adjustment: Armenian Americans in the 1920s
3. The Tourian Affair: Contested Memories and an Archbishop’s Murder
4. “To Supply Armenia with Architects”: The Coming-of-Age of the American-Born Generations
5. Fighting on Many Fronts: World War II and Its Aftermath
6. The Armenian Americans’ Cold War
7. A House of God Divided: The Formalization of the Church Split
8. The Power of a Word: Naming and Claiming the Genocide
Bibliography
Epilogue
Index