Grantee Database
Nopal
Grant Year
2026-27
Grant Program
Impact Projects
Award Amount
$17,500.00
Project Description
With support from the California Arts Council, NOPAL STOCKTON will bring JOTA, a solo performance by Katherine Bahena-Benitez, back to Stockton as a community-centered arts experience. Katherine is a queer Mexican Indigenous artist born and raised in Stockton. JOTA follows a young queer Mexican Indigenous woman reflecting on identity, family, migration, and queerness as she prepares to leave home.
CAC grant funds would support two free performances of JOTA in Stockton-one during LGBTQ+ History Month at the University of the Pacific and a spring performance at San Joaquin Delta College. Funding would also support artist-led workshops with local youth, stage crew, production costs, artist fees, outreach, and accessibility efforts.
This project strengthens Stockton’s arts ecosystem by investing in a homegrown artist and providing performances that reflect queer, immigrant, and working-class communities in the Central Valley.
Organization Summary
Our work centers four interconnected areas:
Cultural Programming & Storytelling
Through programs like Telling is Political, Noches de Cultura, public storytelling events, and community showcases, we create spaces for youth and community members to share personal and collective stories, honor local histories, and strengthen cultural identity. We use testimonios, oral histories, and artistic expression as tools for healing, visibility, and community connection.
Arts-Based Youth Leadership Development
Through Liberation School, youth internships, and creative workshops, young people engage in storytelling, visual art, public dialogue, and cultural production while developing leadership skills rooted in community responsibility and social awareness.
Community Wellness & Healing Practices
We partner with local artists, healers, herbalists, and cultural practitioners to offer workshops, retreats, and wellness-centered gatherings that reconnect people to ancestral practices, creative expression, and collective care.
Community Sustainability & Cultural Space Building
Through grassroots organizing, mutual support, and social enterprise efforts like Raíz Café y Cultura, we invest in sustainable cultural spaces where community members can gather, create, and build long-term local power.
Organization
Nopal
Address
125 E PINE STO
STOCKTON
95204-0000
County
San Joaquin
Region
Central Valley
