NAKA’s 25th Anniversary
Community Gathering, Performance & Celebration
Join NAKA as we look up at the sky and realize we've been building relationships and making performances together for 25 years.
あっと言う間に
la vida es un suspiro
Blink of an eye
25 years is nothing
We invite you to four days of community gatherings and nightly presentations of José Ome and Debby’s newest installation performance: Mastín.
Mastín explores Ome’s inherited fear of dogs alongside the colonial violence of “aperramiento,” when Spanish conquistadors used mastiffs against Indigenous peoples. Through an immersive visual and sound installation, a large-scale mastiff puppet and video of José’s pit bull, Canelo, bring historical violence into tension with the tenderness of human-animal bonds. The work becomes a test of how historical trauma might be confronted and reconciled.
Friday, Nov 6, 2026: Voces Feministas
Voces Feministas Community Event / Evento comunitario de Voces Feministas (4-6 PM)
Food, poetry, music, and embroidery / Comida, poesía, música y bordadosPerformance of Mastín (7-8 PM)
A new installation performance by Debby and José Ome
English follows…
Acompáñanos a disfrutar de comida, poesía, música y bordados. Facilitaremos una breve discusión sobre la migración y el "extranjerismo" (alteridad/extranjería), y luego guiaremos al grupo a través de un taller de bordado donde crearemos un mosaico colectivo de palabras e imágenes.
Voces Feministas es un colectivo inclusivo de personas migrantes, latines e indígenas del Área de la Bahía de San Francisco. Durante casi cinco años, hemos estado creando espacios seguros para alentarnos mutuamente a alzar la voz y compartir las experiencias que nos hieren, nos afectan profundamente y nos parecen injustas. A través de círculos de aprendizaje colaborativo, presentaciones artísticas y organización comunitaria, nos hemos embarcado en un camino de denuncia colectiva, utilizando el arte como una herramienta de apoyo y transformación.
Evento gratuito — se aceptan donaciones.
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Join us for food, poetry, music, and embroidery. We will facilitate a brief discussion about migration and “extranjerismo” (otherness/foreignness), then lead the group through an embroidery workshop where we create a collective mosaic of words and images.
Voces Feministas is an inclusive collective of migrant, Latine, Indigenous folk from the San Francisco Bay Area. For almost five years, we have been creating safe spaces to encourage each other to speak out and share the experiences that wound us, affect us deeply and feel unjust. Through collaborative learning circles, artistic presentations, and community organizing, we have embarked on a path of collective denunciation, using art as a tool for support and transformation.
Free event — donations welcome.
Saturday, Nov 7, 2026: Grupo Artista Telar Maya Mam
Grupo Artista Telar Maya Mam Community Event / Evento comunitario del Grupo Artista Telar Maya Mam (4-6 PM)
Traditional folk dances and performance from Huehuetenango, Guatemala organized by Grupo Artista Telar Maya Mam. / Danzas folclóricas tradicionales y espectáculos de Huehuetenango, Guatemala.Performance of Mastín (7-8 PM), ASL Interpretation
A new installation performance by Debby and José Ome
English follows…
Acompáñanos a ver los últimos telares creados por el Grupo Artista Telar Maya Mam y a escuchar las historias detrás de ellos. También compartiremos algunas danzas folclóricas tradicionales guatemaltecas de varios municipios de Huehuetenango. Se servirán refrigerios ligeros.
Grupo Artista Telar Maya Mam es un grupo de mujeres indígenas mayas mam, tejedoras de telar de cintura y narradoras de sus historias, que se han estado reuniendo regularmente desde 2024 para practicar su oficio y compartir historias. Sus miembras provienen de tres municipios de Huehuetenango, Guatemala: Xjan Xwan (San Juan Atitán), Chimb’al (Santiago Chimaltenango) y Torasant (Todos Santos Cuchumatán). Aunque estamos lejos de nuestra patria, nos comprometemos a seguir enalteciendo nuestras tradiciones de tejido, así como a evolucionar y crear nuevas prácticas en la diáspora. Estamos cultivando nuestras habilidades de liderazgo. Somos creativas. Somos resilientes. Nos apoyamos mutuamente en la comunidad.
Evento gratuito — donaciones bienvenidas.
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Come join us to see the latest textiles created by the Grupo Artista Telar Maya Mam and hear the stories behind them. We'll also share some traditional Guatemalan folk dancing from several municipalities in Huehuetenango. Light refreshments will be served.
Grupo Artista Telar Maya Mam is a group of Indigenous Maya Mam women backstrap weavers and storytellers who have been gathering regularly since 2024 to practice their craft and share stories. Their members hail from three municipalities in Huehuetenango, Guatemala: Xjan Xwan (San Juan Atitan), Chimb’al (Santiago Chimaltenango) and Torasant (Todos Santos Cuchumatan). Although we are far from our homeland, we are committed to continuing to uplift our weaving traditions and evolve and create new practices in the Diaspora. We are cultivating our leadership skills. We are creative. We are resilient. We support each other in the community.
Free event — donations welcome.
Sunday, Nov 8, 2026: Book Launch: Dismantling: Dance, Space and Memory in Tallahassee
Book Launch: Dismantling: Dance, Space and Memory in Tallahassee (5-6 PM)
Reception with Profe Juan Manuel Aldape MuñozPerformance of Mastín (7-8 PM), Haptic Tour and Audio Description
A new installation performance by Debby and José Ome
Commissioned by the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (MANCC), Dismantling: Dance, Space and Memory in Tallahassee asks how dancers collaborate, investigate cities, and challenge institutionalized histories to expose enduring structures of discrimination. Through essays, poetry, photobook-inspired visual narratives, and reclaimed symbols developed through performance workshops, eleven contributors document artistic acts of resistance, rehearse possibilities for social transformation, and generate counter-narratives that refuse erasure in Tallahassee, Florida.
From October 11-22, 2024, NAKA Dance Theater came together in residence at the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (MANCC) at Florida State University. Co-founders and directors José Ome Navarrete Mazatl and Debby Kajiyama worked in close exchange with collaborators Amelia Uzategui Bonilla, Cristina López Suárez, Krhistina Giles, Music Research Strategies (Marshall Trammell), Oka Ver, and Juan Manuel Aldape Muñoz, developing a new performance to premiere in 2025. Each artist, based in different cities across the world, brought their own creative processes and inquiries, into an interchange of ideas, tactics, and imaginations. The residency unfolded as a fusion between performance creation and convivio.
This book emerges from that shared time and space.
During our time at MANCC, Marshall Trammell led an Insurgent Learning Workshop (more details about this process are in the book) where participants designed codes to assist people in fleeing, escaping, and becoming a fugitive. These created fugitive codes are found throughout the book.
For those attending the book release on November 8, 2026, we will have fugitive code stamps available to intervene on your own book.
NAKA is committed to donating a minimum of $500 to the Tallahassee Bail Fund from book donations. We are grateful for co-founders of the Tallahassee Bail Fund for engaging with us in community during our MANCC residency. Copies of the book will be available. Suggested donation of $25 per book.
Free admission — donations welcome.
Monday, Nov 9, 2026: A Conversation with NAKA and Cumbia Dance Party
Conversation with Debby Kajiyama and José Ome Navarrete Mazatl (5:30-6:30 PM)
Reflecting on 25 years of NAKA’s artistic work
Performance of Mastín (7-8 PM)
A new installation performance by Debby and José OmeAgua fresca and fiesta with DJ (8-9:30 PM)
DJ Chica Multiple spinning the best cumbiatón playlist para sudar la gota gorda.
Free event — donations welcome.
November 6-9, 2026
at SPACE 124, a project space in Project Artaud
401 Alabama Street #124, San Francisco
Suggested donation $25. No one turned away.
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Friday, November 6
4-6 PM: Voces Feministas Community Event
7-8 PM: Performance of Mastín
Saturday, November 7
4-6 PM: Grupo Artista Telar Maya Mam Community Event
7-8 PM: Performance of Mastín (ASL Interpretation)
Sunday, November 8
5-6 PM: Book Launch: Dismantling: Dance, Space and Memory in Tallahassee
7-8 PM: Performance of Mastín (Haptic Tour and Audio Description)
Monday, November 9
5:30-6:30 PM: Conversation with Debby and José Ome
7-8 PM: Performance of Mastín
8-9:30 PM: DJ Chica Multiple plays cumbia for dancing