¡OYE! Group Familia and Friends,
For over 10 years, we have been committed to amplifying new voices in the art world, providing spaces for artists to grow, and developing young minds and creativity through education, entertainment, and tools for community and resource-building.

We've come so far- let's keep this going - join us in supporting art and nurturing community in the new year!

This year we continued developing Mercedes, our multifaceted multimedia project inspired by our Founder and Artistic Director, Modesto "Flako" Jimenez’s grandmother.

We kicked off the year with a bang at KAJE by hosting our Mercedes Gallery and getting the ball rolling on our stage play by presenting a three-day stage play workshop! We partnered with the Musical Theatre Factory and they developed original music for the performance. Check out a recap of how it went here!

Originating from the Mercedes production, we partnered with ArtBridge to bring NYCHA Bushwick Houses the Healing Room. The Healing Room is a safe space for community members, seniors, caregivers or anyone connected to someone living with dementia to engage in self-care and creative self-expression in different therapeutic art workshops.

The program culminated with the participants artworks adorning the scaffolding at Bushwick Houses to celebrate their work.

Image by Paul Katcher

For a second year in a row, we also held a Healing Room at Cypress Hills Senior Center, where all the seniors could keep on creating healing art.

We were so excited to partner with Material for the Arts and Musical Theatre Factory to join us in our residency at Governors Island this summer! Our Mercedes Healing Room and Gallery in Building 18 was a hit—over 3,000 people stopped by to create in the house, which was open every weekend all summer.

Our partnership with Media Art Xploration allowed us to keep developing our Mercedes Virtual Reality experience. We held a showcase for presenters at the start of the year and then premiered it at MAXlive 2023 festival in November. We also recently visited Princeton's Center for Science and Technology to present episode 1 of Mercedes VR to keep developing this experience.

One of our biggest highlights this year has to be when we brought back Ghetto Hors D'Oeuvres after five years! We brought in old collaborators and new emerging artists and celebrated Hip Hop's 50th anniversary together. As a Brooklyn-based company, we couldn't miss out on such an important celebration. You can still enjoy some of the amazing artists' music with this Spotify Playlist  we created with their music.

Image by 98 Art Collective

This year, the Summer Arts Festival found a new home in front of the Bushwick Starr. We were still able to bring joy to hundreds of people in the community by offering free food, clothes, live entertainment and backpacks filled with school supplies! 

Thanks to many partnerships in our education programs, we were able to provide reading, writing and creative opportunities to over 500 youth, adults and seniors in the community!

For the third year in a row, we had an amazing time at Little Island for our Corner programming! We were especially lucky to have dancer Stephanie Pena join us to add some extra fun to the activities.

Toward the end of the year we joined forces with Abrons Arts Center to hold our Reading Corner in person with them. Next year the Corners will be changing for the better and we can't wait to share!

Our founder, Modesto Flako Jimenez was a 2022-2023 Public Artist in Residence with the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs which allowed us to join forces with NYC Health + Hospitals to share our Shake on the Block program with the students of Guns Down Life Up, the gun violence prevention program at NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln. Over seven weeks, students participated in workshops led by teaching artists Kenneth Keng and Yadira Guevera and developed a modern adaptation and performance of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. These workshops led to a final performance at Lincoln Hospital, a gallery sharing their work at Material For The Arts, and a showcase at Carnegie Hall's Resnick Education Wing. 

Every year we provide a fellowship opportunity for one or two artists to dig in and develop new and exciting work. The course of the fellowship is theirs to decide while we support the artist by providing the following: financial support, rehearsal space for the writing/development of one work, administrative and production support, meetings with the ¡Oye! Group’s Artistic Director to provide guidance, advice, or any other support the artist feels necessary. This year our Artists In Residence for our 2023-2024 season are WAMOO, real name Juan Álvarez, and Paola Alexandra Soto.

This September, both artists shared their work in development. WAMOO held a gallery of his video art at DigiAna Studios and performances of his non-traditional musical in development and Paola shared a reading of her play La Sosa Sisters. We are excited to see and share what they create in the new year.

October was a big month to continue giving back to the community. Throughout the Mercedes House residency at Governors Island, Naming The Lost Memorials held a space for people who lost loved ones during the pandemic to remember them and write their names. In October we displayed this banner at a Day of the Dead event held in partnership between Mano a Mano and Naming The Lost. It was a beautiful event to remember your loved ones through creating art and enjoying live music and performances.

In October we also partnered with Tony's Pizzeria, El Puente and Stolen Magnolias flower shop to distribute free Halloween costumes and decorations we provided to over 200 families in the community of Brooklyn!

With gratitude, we wish you Happy Holidays,
-The ¡OYE! Group team!

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Any feedback or questions, email us at oyegroupnyc@gmail.com

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Oye Group
1080 Wyckoff Ave A06
Ridgewood, NY 11385

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