Amity-Renzo Angell Abrams ‘30 is the leader of the recently created Bonsai Club, which made its way onto many Reed students’ radar after requesting $10,000 at Funding Circus. The Quest interviewed Abrams to learn more about the Bonsai Club and the person behind it. Amity-Renzo Angell Abrams carries an almost infectious enthusiasm with her – as she shook my hand and as we sat down to start our interview I couldn’t help but crack a smile. Being known as “The Bonsai Furry of Reed,” Abrams practically lives and breathes all things related to the craft. When asked about the moniker, her face lit up and she said, “My fursona represents my love of bonsai, actually, so to be known as the Bonsai Furry brings me a lot of joy, and I find it very funny. Because that's very much who I am. I am the Bonsai Furry.”
After experiencing a traumatic event, as well as struggling with her mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic, the art of bonsai helped Abrams heal. She explained, “Bonsai is my passion, it's my obsession, and it saved my life, honestly. There's a lot of bonsai artists out there who, when I meet them, I tell them that their work saved my life. In a lot of ways, when I was first getting into bonsai, it did.” Abrams has been involved in the bonsai community for almost a decade, stating, “I've met some of the top people in the field. I've shaken hands with incredible ceramicists. I've carried $200,000 trees.”
Now, Abrams is looking to spread her knowledge and love of bonsai to the rest of the Reed community. While initially proposing the creation of a bonsai garden on campus, she instead established and now heads Reed’s very own Bonsai Club, however this task has been far from easy.
With a palpable sense of frustration in her voice, Abrams explained how her presentation was rejected during the Funding Circus, due to both formatting issues and the fact that she submitted her budget only ten minutes before it was supposed to be presented. In this budget, Abrams requested $10,000 from Senate. However, the Bonsai Club was able to receive $725 from the Finance Committee, but due to the expense of the hobby Abrams is still pursuing her initial $10,000 goal stating, “you need specific tools, you need specific pots, you need wire, you need specific types of soil.”
When asked about the possibility of buying lower quality trees, Abrams explained, “the bonsais that you get at IKEA and malls, we have a name for them. We call them mallsai because they're so low quality, and if you know what you're looking for in bonsai, and you see them, you realize very quickly how much of a scam they are.” She elaborated on this point, saying, “I take this art very seriously, I have a level of standard that I want to uphold within my club.” She hopes to raise more money for the club, but this is difficult due to Reed’s status as a nonprofit. Still, she is planning to hold fundraising events in the future that are in accordance with Reed’s guidelines.
Regardless, the inaugural meeting of the Bonsai club on October 7, 2026 was well-attended. In the Trillium Multipurpose Room, a group of mostly freshmen watched while Abrams made her way through a presentation explaining the history and culture of American bonsai, as well as bonsai tree anatomy and care. The presentation was well constructed and was also attended by Tree, a local bonsai artist and expert under whom Abrams is currently training, who often chimed in to supplement Abrams’s presentation.
Afterwards, the students had a chance to look at books of bonsai designs, as well as trees and Suiseki stones, to draw their inspiration for their own personal bonsai trees which Abrams stated during her presentation that students would be able to access. However, these materials were entirely provided by Tree and Abrams has not made it clear whether this goal is possible with the funding she has received. When asked about her plans for the club moving forward, Abrams hopes to “get as many members as I can interested in it. And then I'm thinking of next year petitioning as hard as I can to get top six.”