Jen Shyu, an award-winning East Timorese-Taiwanese-American composer, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and dancer will plant a tree for each ticket sold to the October 30, 2019 world premiere and select performances of Zero Grasses, her touring one-woman show about regaining humanity's connection to nature and to each other, reclaiming fertility in land and body in this climate crisis. Jen Shyu will have these trees planted in the “Tsu Pin Shyu / 徐澤濱 Forest” in honor of her late father whose love of nature inspired him to give Jen the Chinese name 徐秋雁 meaning “Autumn Goose.” His own name means “From Pond to Ocean Coast,” and he passed down his love of nature to her, as well as nurturing her life as a global artist, using her multidisciplinary and multilingual art to bridge people together from all walks of life and cultural backgrounds. Jen speaks 10 languages and counting, performing and teaching around the world, and through performing her solo ritual music drama Zero Grasses, wishes to shine a light on the following questions: “What is the life you envision? Is it the life you’re living right now? How much time do we really have? We think we can predict with all of our tools and our friends and family at our fingertips, but then someone disappears when you’re really far away, or even when you’re next to each other. How do we regain a connection lost?”
