News

On October 18, 2012, Kelly was honored to be commissioned and featured as a guest performer for Tyra Banks’ Flawsome Ball hosted by Drake raising funds for the Lower East Side Girls’ Club T-Zone program. For more info on the Flawsome Ball, visit http://www.flawsomeball.org.

Kelly with Tyra Banks

Kelly with the youth poets of Lower East Side Girls’ Club

Join us in NYC for SAY YOU HEARD MY ECHO’s 6-show premiere run (Wed. Sept. 12-Sun. Sept. 16) during Asian American Arts Alliance’s Locating the Sacred Festival!

For tickets and information: http://www.here.org/shows/detail/1014/”>http://www.here.org/shows/detail/1014/.

6 PERFORMANCES ONLY (Wed. 9/12-Sat. 9/16). All Performances at HERE Arts Center, 145 6th Ave. (Enter on Dominick St.), NYC.(C/E- Spring, 1-Houston, N/R-Prince).

$18 General / $15 Students. Use discount code: FESTIVAL for $15 tickets.

WED. 9/12: 7 pm sharp
THURS. 9/13: 7 pm sharp + Audience Talk-Back w/ Cast & Moderator: Dan Balcazo (NYU, Peeling)
FRI. 9/14: 7 pm sharp + Audience Talk-Back w/ Cast & Nico Daswani (Asian Am. Arts Alliance) Moderator: playwright & screenwriter Kia Corthron (The Wire, Light Raise the Roof) – SOLD OUT
SAT. 9/15: 2 pm sharp
SAT. 9/15: 7 pm sharp – SOLD OUT
SUN. 9/16: 2 pm sharp + Audience Talk-Back w/ Cast & Moderator: Kamilah Forbes (Hip Hop Theater Festival, HBO Def Poetry) – SOLD OUT

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What connects a Catholic burlesque dancer who survived the Twin Towers, a Buddhist Iraq war veteran and hip hop emcee who returns home, and a Muslim librarian whose family suffers detention and interrogation?

An evening-length spoken-word poetry theater project written by Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai (500 performances worldwide including the White House & three seasons of the award-winning Russell Simmons Presents HBO Def Poetry), Say You Heard My Echo explores the lives of three fictional Asian American women in New York City a decade after 9/11. With choral poems, prayers, activist folk songs, and raps, the play weaves together the characters’ struggles with survivorship and faith and their intimate relationships with Mary Magdalene, Guan Yin, and Aisha.

Performed by Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai, YaliniDream, and Adeeba Rana with stage direction by Jesse Jou.

Costumes: Valérie Thérèse Bart / Lighting: Alan Edwards / Set: Chien-Yu Peng / Sound: Mike Skinner / Producers: Nancy Kim, Ying Le / Associate Producer: Rising Circle Theater Collective / Stage Management: John Nehlich / Associate Director: Devin Brain

The creation of “Say You Heard My Echo” was supported, in part, through a commission for Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai from Asian American Arts Alliance with major support from Asian Women’s Giving Circle and additional support from Flushing Council on the Arts and New York University’s A / P / A Institute. Presented by Moving Earth Productions in association with Rising Circle Theater Collective.

This production is a part of HEREstay, HERE’s curated rental program, which provides artists with subsidized space and equipment, as well as technical support.

Moving Earth Productions LLC is proud to announce that Kelly’s solo show “Formosa” (Directed by Jesse Y. Jou, Choreographed by Jessica Chen, Produced by Chie Morita) is an award recipient of Asian Women Giving Circle in 2012. The project was selected as 1 of 9 projects to be supported by AWGC which is a donor-sponsored fund affiliated with the Ms. Foundation.

For more info on Asian Women Giving Circle, visit http://www.asianwomengivingcircle.org/.

For more info on Kelly’s solo show “Formosa,” click here.

Moving Earth Productions is proud to announce that Kelly was invited by the Ford Foundation as an artist presenter for the White House Asian American Pacific Islander Initiative Philanthropic Briefing on April 2, 2012.

The convening at the White House was a strategy session for top leaders in the philanthropic, public, and not-for-profit sectors to increase the effectiveness of philanthropic efforts towards the AAPI community, which currently only receives .5% of all national philanthropic dollars despite being 4.4% of the American population.

Kelly was proud to share the stage on this historic day with slam poet Kealoha from Honolulu and bhangra funk band Red Baraat from Brooklyn. For Kelly’s reflections on her White House experience, check out her blog here:

Kelly’s choreo solo show “Formosa” has been selected for 2012 ANTFest produced by Ars Nova – “NYC’s premier hub for new talent.” For more info on Ars Nova, visit here/. For more info on “Formosa,” click here. The presentation will take place on June 12, 2012, 8:00 PM. Tickets are $10.

The creation of “Formosa” was supported, in part, through a commission from New York Live Arts’ Studio Series program with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the Jerome Foundation and with public funds from the Fund for Creative Communities, supported by New York State Council on the Arts and administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

Moving Earth Productions is very excited to announce Kelly’s directorial debut with her video “Love is Easy…Relationships are Hard,” launched on Valentine’s Day 2012. To watch the video, click below!

Moving Earth Productions is proud to announce that Kelly’s ensemble spoken word poetry theater project, “Say You Heard My Echo,” has been selected for Rising Circle Theater Collective’s inkTANK Playwrights Lab and PlayRISE Festival alongside projects by playwrights Raquel Almazan, Matthew Paul Olmos, and Susan Soon He Stanton.

The intensive 12 week playwrights lab will culminate in the PlayRISE Festival in June 2012 that will feature all of the playwrights’ full-length works. “Say You Heard My Echo” is a spoken word theater project dealing with Asian Pacific Islander American women in NYC 10 years after 9/11 grappling with ideas of the sacred, that will premiere for Asian American Arts Alliance’s Locating the Sacred Festival in NYC in September 2012. For more info on Rising Circle Theater Collective, click here. For more info on “Say You Heard My Echo,” click here.

Moving Earth Productions is very pleased to announce that Kelly’s spoken word dance solo show exploring ideas of global economy, beauty myth, and plastic surgery as related to the history of Barbie doll manufacturing in Taiwan has been selected as a recipient of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Fund for Creative Communities Award. This will support the continued development of the project with her collaborators as it moves towards full production in 2013. For more info on “Formosa,” click here.

Michelle Park of NY1 covered the first public presentation of Kelly’s new spoken word theater project “Say You Heard My Echo” alongside Nico Daswani (Program Director) & Andrea Louie (Executive Director) of Asian American Arts Alliance.

To see the NY1 interview, click below!

Kelly has just been selected as Urban Word NYC & New York Live Art’s Artist-In-Residence for 2011-2012 during New York Live Arts (formerly Dance Theater Workshop) Inaugural Season under the joint leadership of Bill T. Jones & Carla Peterson.

As a part of the New York Live Arts’ Studio Series, Kelly will be developing a new spoken word poetry movement theater solo show. Post-show talks will be moderated by Kamilah Forbes (Hip Hop Theater Festival, Def Poetry). In-progress viewings of the solo show will be on January 20-21, 2012 at New York Live Arts. For info, click here.

Kelly will also be mentoring six youth poets in their own solo shows which will premiere at New York Live Arts in November.

For more info on Urban Word NYC: http://www.urbanwordnyc.org/uwnyc/.

For more info on New York Live Arts (formerly Dance Theater Workshop): http://www.newyorklivearts.org/, http://www.dancetheaterworkshop.org/.