Jen Shyu (Co-founder)- Guggenheim Fellow, Rome Prize Fellow, USA Fellow, Doris Duke Artist, Fulbright scholar, vocalist-composer-multiinstrumentalist-dancer Jen Shyu was born in Peoria, Illinois, to Taiwanese and East Timorese immigrants. She’s performed her music at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and speaks 11 languages. Her current instruments include piano, violin, Taiwanese moon lute, Chinese er hu, Japanese biwa, and Korean gayageum. She’s performed with/sung the music of such pioneers as Sumi Tonooka, Terri Lyne Carrington, Nicole Mitchell, Anthony Braxton, Vijay Iyer, Kenny Barron, and Bill Frisell. She’s produced eight albums and a single as a leader, landing on many best-of lists (New York Times, Nation, NPR). “When I Have Power” from her latest solo show Zero Grasses commissioned by John Zorn and album Zero Grasses: Ritual for the Losses made NPR’s “Best Songs of 2021.” Jen is Co-Founder/President/CEO of Mutual Mentorship for Musicians (M³) and a Steinway Artist.
Sara Serpa (Co-founder) – A native from Lisboa, Portuguese Sara Serpa is a singer, composer, improviser, who through her practice and performance, explores the use of the voice as an instrument. Described by the New York Times as “a singer of silvery poise and cosmopolitan outlook,” and by the JazzTimes magazine as “a master of wordless landscapes,” , her ethereal music draws from a broad variety of inspirations including literature, film, visual arts as well as history and nature. As a leader, she has produced and released ten albums, the latest being Intimate Strangers (2021) and Recognition (2020). Serpa was voted 2020 NPR Jazz Vocalist, Rising Star-Female Vocalist 2019 by the Downbeat Magazine Critics Poll, and teaches at The New School. Between 2019-2022 Serpa was Artist-In-Residence at Park Avenue Armory, in New York and she is a recipient of the 2022 NYFA Artist Fellowship, 2022 Copland’s Recording Fund, 2021 Herb Alpert/Ragdale Prize in Composition.
Amy Zhang (Program Administrator) – Amy provides administrative support to the M³ team. She researches and writes primarily about art and art museums in the contemporary global context and teaches courses on art and society. She received a Ph.D. in Cultural Studies from George Mason University, an M.A. in Liberal Studies from The New School for Social Research, and bachelor’s degrees in Art History and Philosophy from The University of Texas.
Naomi Extra (Anthology Development Editor of Volumes 2, 3, & 6) is a freelance writer, poet, and scholar. In both her creative and scholarly work she explores the themes of agency and pleasure in the lives of Black women and girls. Her work has appeared in Boston Review, Zora, Glamour, Lit Hub, The Lily, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. Her manuscript, Ratchet Supreme, was selected by poet Tiana Clark as the winner of the 2019 BOAAT Chapbook Prize. Naomi has been awarded fellowships by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Cave Canem, Crescendo Literary, and the African American Intellectual History Society. Currently, she is an American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Emerging Voices Fellow in Feminist Knowledge and Social Justice at Rutgers University, New Brunswick.
Kyla Marshell (Anthology Development Editor of Volumes 4, 5, & 7) is a writer whose poems, essays, interviews, and reviews have appeared in The Guardian, Kinfolk, O Magazine, Ebony, The Ringer, and The Believer, among others. In her work as an arts & culture writer, she has covered a wide range of musical subjects, including the Afropunk festival and Kendrick Lamar’s Pulitzer win, and interviewed such artists as Esperanza Spalding, Van Hunt, Gretchen Parlato, Kelis, Keyon Harrold, and Dev Hynes. Originally from Boston, she grew up in Silver Spring, MD, Morehead, KY, and Portland, ME, and now lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Jordannah Elizabeth (Guest Editor-in-Chief of inaugural Anthology of Writings- The Art of Being True 2020/2021) Jordannah’s writing, lectures and commentary has been featured in Hearst Magazines, on BBC 2, REELZ Channel, CBC syndicated radio, WYPR, Harvard University, Pratt Institute, Maryland Institute College of Art and Baltimore Book Festival. Jordannah’s writing has been featured in NPR Music, Village Voice, LA Weekly, MTV World, O Magazine, Cosmopolitan, DownBeat Magazine and other publications. She has been a regular entertainment journalist for New York Amsterdam News since 2013 and is the founder of the literary organization, Publik / Private.
