Cal Shakes acknowledges that we work on the ancestral, occupied, and unceded lands of the Bay Miwok people and the Chochenyo-speaking Ohlone people. We acknowledge that this land was taken and colonized through violent means, as part of a legacy of land theft, labor exploitation, resource extraction and genocide that created this nation, and we acknowledge this process of colonization as on-going. We recognize that we currently benefit from living and working on their traditional homelands, and affirm their sovereign rights as first peoples. For those who are not Indigenous to this land, the Shuumi Land Tax is a way to acknowledge the true history of the land we are on, facilitate the return of ancestral lands in the Bay Area, and contribute to the Ohlone community’s ongoing work to create a vibrant future.

We also acknowledge that America as we know it today was built at the often fatal expense of forcefully enslaved Black people. We must recognize and acknowledge the enslaved Africans who have lived, been subjugated to free labor, and toiled the grounds where many theaters have been built and resurrected. Black Lives Matter.

(Thank you to the Black Theatre Caucus and the authors of the We See You, White American Theatre demands for providing the framework for this language.)

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