EastSide Arts Alliance / Film Fridays and NAKA Dance Theater presents:
Sorry I Missed Your Show
EastSide Cultural Center
2277 International Blvd
Fri July 11, 2025
7 pm
This series features informal and intimate conversations using archival media to reflect on past performances by Bay Area artists that have left a lasting impact on our performance community. Often, artists and fans find themselves saying, "Sorry I missed your show!" This series aims to revive those memorable performances, capturing their political and artistic significance from a specific era, space, and time.
Don't miss this rare opportunity for an intimate conversation with K.E.V, Leslie Lopez, Simone Nalls and others as they reflect on their contribution to the seminal work of the Anastacio Project.
The Anastasio Project (2015) was a multidisciplinary, roving public performance work that initiated an investigation into racial profiling, state brutality, and border violence, using the story of Anastasio Hernández-Rojas as a point of departure. Hernández-Rojas was a Mexican national who was detained at the U.S.-Mexico border in May 2010 and was subsequently killed by a dozen Border Patrol agents. To this day, none of the agents were held accountable.
By performing the stories of Hernández-Rojas and others, the project invoked memories of shared, deep-rooted pain caused by historic and ongoing state-sanctioned injustices and violence that afflicted Brown and Black communities, particularly within Oakland’s local communities. It aimed to inspire dialogue, unity, solidarity, and community action.
In celebration of Eastside’s 25th Anniversary all programming throughout this year will be free of admission! Please consider donating to people powered programming so that EastSide can continue to grow and provide a haven for revolutionary thought and truth telling.
NAKA Dance Theater
Founded in 2001 by Debby Kajiyama and Jose Ome Mazatl, NAKA Dance Theater creates experimental performance works using dance, storytelling, multimedia installations, and site-specific environments. NAKA builds partnerships with communities, engages with people's histories and folklore, and expresses experiences through accessible performances that challenge the viewer to think critically about social justice issues. Recent themes include racial profiling and state brutality, genetic modification of native crops, the commodification of water, cultural colonization, and the human response to overwhelming disaster. Through its work, NAKA fosters connections among diverse populations, encouraging dialogue and civic participation.
A pivotal moment in NAKA’s history came in 2007 with The Revenge of Huitlacoche, a collaboration with Eastside Arts Alliance, an organization of artists and community organizers of color in East Oakland. This project marked the beginning of a long-term relationship with Eastside, deepening NAKA’s commitment to socially engaged art. Building on the foundation of this collaboration, in 2014, NAKA launched The Anastasio Project, a community-based creation process examining racial violence, state brutality, and social justice. Partnering with Racial Equity Consultant Tammy Johnson, the project included community forums featuring Public Defender Matt Gonzalez, activist Cat Brooks, and Mujeres Unidas y Activas, a social and economic justice organization. The project reinforced NAKA’s commitment to fostering dialogue and amplifying marginalized voices.
This trajectory of deep community engagement evolved further into the Live Arts in Resistance (LAIR) program, which emerged as a platform to support artists addressing urgent social issues through performance. LAIR continues to be a space for radical artistic collaboration, with Eastside Arts Alliance remaining a vital partner.
Sorry I Missed Your Show
Fri, July 11, 2025
In celebration of Eastside’s 25th Anniversary all programming throughout this year will be free of admission! Please consider donating to people powered programming so that EastSide can continue to grow and provide a haven for revolutionary thought and truth telling.