Tamejavi Festival

For its founders, Tamejavi symbolizes the remembrance of a public space in which a community gathers together to exchange goods, produce, crafts, important news, and to celebrate seasonal events. It brings to mind the place where community members speak about day-to-day happenings and oftentimes about more weighty matters, such as whether or not not public officials are complying with their civic duties. As the product of collective organizing among diverse Central Valley immigrant communities, Tamejavi Festival strives to create a public space for intercultural learning and expression. Tamejavi recognizes the strengths, contributions, concerns and cultural perspectives of the Valley's diverse immigrant communities. Today, Tamejavi is not only a three day multi-media arts and cultural festival, but is also a year-round learning community comprised of youth and elders, artists and organizers, chiefs and healers, educators and students. Through workshops, forums, exhibits, and cultural gatherings, we come together to explore complex and changing perspectives as well as identities and the future of our democracy. We hope that our work can inspire others by being an example of how valley communities can come together to exercise cultural and political rights through ongoing intercultural learning and collective action.