With support from the California Arts Council, NAKA will sustain its programs, staff and operations from July 2023 to June 2025. Our programs will include: Producing LIVE ARTS IN RESISTANCE performance showcase series; touring Y Basta Ya!, a dance-theater performance and community workshop series and shines a light on the stories of Latina and Indigenous Maya Mam women and their experiences with invisibility, labor rights, domestic violence, and sexual abuse; producing Dismantling Tactic X artist residency in collaboration with SAFEhouse Arts; Co-Facilitating ongoing Circulos de Aprendizaje (Collaborative Learning Circles) with Oakland Latina and Indigenous Maya Mam (Guatemala) immigrant women – using art for healing and addressing issues such as racism and colorism in the Latine community.
-Producing LIVE ARTS IN RESISTANCE, a series of performance showcases, artist residencies and community town halls that address racial inequity & white supremacy in popular culture.
-Creating and touring experimental performance works; including Y Basta Ya!, a series of touring dance performances and movement workshops to shine a light on the stories of Latine and Indigenous Maya Mam women and their experiences with invisibility, labor rights, domestic violence, and sexual abuse. Y Basta Ya! Is funded by a New England Foundation for the Arts National Dance Production award, Rainin Fellowship and Guggenheim Fellowship.
-Research residencies in Japan and Mexico as part of NAKA’s work in community-based ritual practices
-Producing Dismantling Tactic X artist residency and philanthropic forums – convening a cohort of radical, social-practice artists who center their work on the topic of race and white supremacy.
-Co-Facilitating ongoing Circulos de Aprendizaje (Collaborative Learning Circles) with San Francisco Latina and Indigenous Maya Mam (Guatemala) immigrant women – using art for healing and addressing issues such as racism and colorism in the Latine community.
-Pro-Bono Language Justice Access Consulting, to arts and social justice organizations who want to hire in-person or online sign language interpreters. This includes: referrals for culturally appropriate interpreters who would be a good match for the situation (including trilingual Spanish-English-ASL / Chinese-English-ASL interpreters); sharing best practices about publicity and outreach (best done by Deaf-led organizations); sharing best practices about budgeting for interpreters, necessary prep information that interpreters will need prior to an assignment, interpreter placement, lighting; advocacy for the hiring of Deaf Interpreters. On occasion, NAKA Artistic Co-Director, Debby Kajiyama will serve as a pro-bono coordinator of interpreter services for events, such as the KH FRESH Festival (2023, 2024) Jess Curtis’ Memorial service and Melissa Lewis Wong’s recent show, flowers and fog.

