More on: poetry

Breathin’ – an Evening of Spoken Word and Music

Mar 10, 2011
» Videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fPuY2wlBd4

About the Event

Facing deportation after 21 years behind bars, Eddy Zheng is grateful just to be breathin’. With music by DOSH and poetry by Paul Dosh, this artistic collaboration brings Eddy Zheng to the stage to tell the remarkable story of the movement he created that freed him from prison and now fights for the rights of Asian prisoners in California. A national advisory board member of the Asian American Law Journal, Eddy Zheng is the recipient of the Asian Law Students Outstanding Leadership Award and the Chinese World Journal Community Hero Award, the editor of Other: An Asian and Pacific Islander Prisoners’ Anthology, and now works for the San Francisco Community Youth Center.

Breathin’

Feb 26, 2010
» Events

An Evening of Spoken Word and Music

with Eddy Zheng and DOSH

Breathin' Event Poster

Breathin' Macalester College Event Poster

7:30 PM – 9:00 PM
Friday Feb 26, 2010
Smail Gallery, Olin-Rice Science Center
Macalester College, St. Paul, MN

About the Event

Facing deportation after 21 years behind bars, Eddy Zheng is grateful just to be breathin’. With music by DOSH and poetry by Paul Dosh, this artistic collaboration brings Eddy Zheng to the stage to tell the remarkable story of the movement he created that freed him from prison and now fights for the rights of Asian prisoners in California. A national advisory board member of the Asian American Law Journal, Eddy Zheng is the recipient of the Asian Law Students Outstanding Leadership Award and the Chinese World Journal Community Hero Award, the editor of Other: An Asian and Pacific Islander Prisoners’ Anthology, and now works for the San Francisco Community Youth Center.

An Unlikely Friendship

Apr 09, 2007
» Articles

One teacher’s lasting friendship with a convicted felon and her involvement in his transformation from prisoner to poet

by Loretta Sheng and Zack Kousnetz, The Paly Voice

excerpt:

When Palo Alto High School teacher Jeanne Loh was a fourth grader living in Huntington Beach, Calif., then-16-year-old Oakland resident Eddy Zheng was committing armed robbery and kidnapping. Thirteen years after he was sentenced to seven-years-to-life, the two met in San Quentin State Prison where Loh was volunteering as a teacher’s assistant.

So began what would be an eight-year friendship that would see the two share hundreds of letters and her volunteering as the transcriber and caretaker of Zheng’s online blog. During this time, Zheng would emerge as one of the Bay Area’s most celebrated reformed convicts. A poet, published author and supporter of prisoners’ rights, Zheng converted himself — in part with Loh’s help — from a troubled teenage immigrant into a dedicated and selfless contributor to society.

The more Loh got to know Zheng, the more she believed in the strength of this transformation. “If you think about your own suffering there’s always someone else who’s suffered more than you,” Loh says.

( read full article online )