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A Moving Send-Off to Poet and Gift of Freedom Recipient Jennifer Tseng

Jennifer Tseng stands outside the historic Silent Movie Theatre.

On March 14, 2005, A Room Of Her Own Foundation and the Dreier Family of Los Angeles gathered friends and supporters to celebrate poet Jennifer Tseng, the 2002 AROHO Gift of Freedom recipient. Held at the historic Silent Movie Theatre in Hollywood, California, guests were treated to an evening of stunning poetry and conversation. Ms. Tseng, the guest of honor, read selections from The Man With My Face, her first published collection of poetry, as well as from her greatly anticipated new work, Dark Logic. The promising young poet, Morry Van, Tseng’s former student, also read selections from her work. And to round out the evening, AROHO Director Darlene Chandler Bassett expressed her thanks to Jennifer Tseng and to all who helped make the Gift of Freedom Award possible.

AROHO Director and Founder Darlene Chandler Bassett

Since its founding in 2000, AROHO has granted three Gifts of Freedom- two in the literary and one in the visual arts. After a rigorous application process, one artist or writer is chosen to receive up to $50,000 in funding to pursue their artistic goals, as well as the professional guidance and support of a mentor. Ms. Tseng was the first recipient of the Gift of Freedom Award.

The following is an excerpt from Jennifer Tseng’s application for the Gift of Freedom Award:

“To write a poem is to create a world. I do so in order to engineer a logic of my own making, an arena in which records are set straight, confusions clarified, lost things found and strange doors opened. In this world lives discipline in the form of truth and in the form of music. In this world lives pathos, history, memory, future and dream. I like a poem to occupy that mysterious space between what is and what can be, between present day world confinement and timeless world possibility.”

Join us in congratulating Ms. Tseng on the upcoming publication of her new work and best wishes for her continued success. She continues to inspire us with her writing and her dedication.