A Vibrant Fusion of Art, Sound, and Story at Tacoma Arts Live

🍋 Lemon Sessions: In the Company of the Ancestors

At the Tacoma Armory this November, art met ancestry in a luminous way during Tacoma Arts Live’s Lemon Sessions: In the Company of the Ancestors. The two-night event transformed the space into a sensory world of color, rhythm, and reflection — where the past and present danced together in harmony.

A Space Transformed

The Lemon Sessions take their name from a simple, playful observation: the massive, curved screen at the center of the installation resembled the shape of a lemon — and the name stuck. From that seed of inspiration, a distinctive and immersive series was born.

The Tacoma Armory’s parade floor became a living canvas. Light and projection curved across walls, echoing with the sound of drums, poetry, and song. Guests were welcomed into an experience that blurred the lines between concert, gallery, and ritual — an artistic gathering that honored both tradition and innovation.

In the Company of the Ancestors

This installment of Lemon Sessions was curated by Antonio M. Gómez, Tacoma Arts Live’s Chief Engagement Officer, in collaboration with sound artist Julia Francis, and centered around the theme In the Company of the Ancestors. The program nods to Dia de los Muertos (just one week earlier) celebrated cultural continuity — how creativity is shaped by heritage, lineage, and memory.

Dancer Sheimawu Awal grabbed Antonio "Tony" by the hand, leading him to an impromptu dance together on stage.

🎻 Antonio M. Gómez – Curator, Musician & Cultural Connector

Gómez has built a career at the intersection of music, education and cultural discourse. As a percussionist specializing in Afro-Latin, Mediterranean and Arabic styles, and as a former K-12 teacher and curriculum designer, he brings a deep emphasis to cultural accessibility and arts engagement.

Through projects like “Raíz y Rama” and his exhibition LINEAJES at the Frye Art Museum (Seattle), Antonio M. Gómez: LINEAJES | Frye Art Museum, he explores the ways musical traditions travel, overlap and transform.

In curating Lemon Sessions, Gómez shaped a space in Tacoma where performance, projection and participation converge — inviting the audience not just to observe but to enter into art grounded in ancestral presence and contemporary reflection.

Tony's mastery of multi instruments is astounding, impressive, and a pure delight to witness.

🎶 Julia Francis – Singer, Songwriter, and Sound-Therapist

When Julia Francis began her meditative sound-bath, the room itself seemed to exhale.

Her performance filled the Armory not only with melody but with vibration — tones that rippled through the audience like light across water.

Known for blending soulful vocals with the healing resonance of sound therapy, Francis creates experiences that invite stillness and emotional release.

In this space, sound became ceremony — a shared act of listening, remembering, and renewal.

🎨 Fulgencio Lazo – Painter and Visual Artist

Born in Oaxaca, Mexico, Fulgencio Lazo brought color and cultural memory to life through dynamic projected imagery. His visual art, infused with the spirit of Mexican folk tradition, transformed the curved “lemon-shaped” screen into a radiant celebration of movement and meaning. With swirling lines and vivid tones, Lazo’s work spoke to the cyclical nature of life — the blending of past and present, earth and spirit — creating a living canvas that anchored the evening’s theme of ancestry and continuity.

🌼 Marian Seibert – Soprano, Rehearsal Director & Early Music Specialist

Marian Seibert serves as Assistant Director and Rehearsal Director with the Medieval Women’s Choir in Seattle. medievalwomenschoir.org+1  A soprano in her own right, she also performs as a soloist with the Trinity Consort and has appeared with a wide range of local ensembles including the Tudor Choir, Northwest Baroque, Seattle Opera and more.

Seibert’s specialization lies in early music — music from the medieval and Renaissance eras — where clarity of voice and historical insight blend. Outside the concert hall, she works in a letterpress print shop, a craft rooted in tradition and materiality — fitting for someone equally at home with centuries-old musical traditions.

Today, Seibert’s presence and voice added a layer of reflection: one that honored the continuity of artistic practice across time, and invited the audience to consider the layered paths of heritage and expression that connect us.

🖋 Raúl Sánchez – Poet and Cultural Storyteller

Raúl Sánchez, a bilingual poet and community voice, carried the rhythm of language like music. His spoken-word performance wove together English and Spanish and Nahuatl (the language of the Mexica, or Aztecs), modern and ancient, intimate and universal.

Sánchez’s words resonated like echoes from generations past — a lyrical bridge between memory and identity. His presence reminded the audience that poetry, too, is an ancestral art form: one that speaks for those who cannot and keeps history alive through voice and cadence.

🇮🇹 Kate Causbie, Dharma Dailey & Vittoria Todisco — South Italian Dance

Dancer and educator Kate Causbie brought the rhythms of Southern Italy to the Lemon Sessions stage, joined by fellow performers Dharma Dailey and Vittoria Todisco. Together, they performed the traditional “Tarantella del Gargano,” a beloved dance from the Puglia region known for its joyful energy and rhythmic footwork. Causbie’s work—shaped by her studies through the La Danza International Residency and collaborations with the Melbourne School of Tarantella—celebrates the living relationship between cultural heritage, community, and contemporary performance.

The trio’s vibrant sequence filled the Tacoma Armory with the pulse of swirling movement, inviting the audience to feel the heartbeat of Southern Italian tradition. Their performance offered a spirited reflection of the Lemon Sessions theme, In the Company of the Ancestors—a joyful conversation between past and present, carried through dance and rhythm.

🕺 Awal Alhassan & Sohoyini Dance – Dance and Drums of Ghana

The energy shifted when Sheimawu took the floor. A Ghanaian dancer, her performance felt both celebratory and sacred. Each rhythm invited participation, each gesture carried history. She came down to the audience and brought back a guest who was a good sport to try her dance steps on the stage!

Sheimawu's dance, accompanied by Sohoyini (group) and her husband Awal Alhassan's traditional percussion, reminded the audience that music is more than sound — it is language, archive, and heartbeat. Together they filled the Armory with an undeniable sense of joy and reverence.

🌿 Saiyare Refaei – Printmaker and Muralist

Saiyare Refaei, a Chinese-Iranian artist based in Tacoma, brought a contemplative visual layer to the performance. Known for their intricate prints and expansive murals, Refaei’s work explores belonging, displacement, and resilience.

Within In the Company of the Ancestors, their art mirrored the collective story — patterns of migration, adaptation, and transformation. Through texture and repetition, Refaei’s imagery quietly traced the ways identity takes root and blossoms in new soil.

🔥 Huehca Omeyocan – Mesoamerican Dance and Music Collective

The ensemble Huehca Omeyocan closed the circle with ancestral rhythms drawn from ancient Mesoamerican traditions. Adorned in ceremonial attire and moving to the steady beat of handmade drums, they brought the spirit of ritual and remembrance into the modern space.

Their performance grounded the event — connecting the audience to land, lineage, and legacy. Through dance, sound, and collective energy, they reminded everyone present that the story of humanity is written in rhythm.

🌞 Thonatiu Mares – Mexica Dancer and Cultural Artist

Thonatiu Mares brought the energy of traditional Mexica dance and Aztec fire dance to the Lemon Sessions stage. Originally from Zihuatanejo, Guerrero, he grew up surrounded by the rhythms and movements of this ancestral art form. His performance blended movement, drumming, and symbolism rooted in connection to the earth and community. Through each step and gesture, Mares offered a window into living cultural practice — a reminder that heritage and creativity continue to move forward together.

🍽️ Jan Parker – Chef & Cultural Storyteller (Jan Parker Cookery)

Jan Parker centers Filipino cuisine as a vehicle for heritage and community, sharing “fresh & distinct” Filipinx flavors while championing local growers and cultural continuity. Her work often spotlights family roots and the broader history of Filipinos in Tacoma.

For this event, Parker contributed personal stories, and photos of her loved ones, connected to Filipino identity and migration—bridging food, memory, and belonging within the series’ theme of ancestry. She invited us to experience this with her gift of spices for every guest.

🎨 Deepti Agrawal – Visual Artist & Heritage Educator

Deepti Agrawal is an artist-designer from India and a specialist in the Madhubani painting tradition, honored with the Governor’s Art & Heritage Award in 2022. She is one of the featured visual artists responsible for creating the projections on the event’s massive 40-foot screen. Her layered, symbolic patterns brought the theme of ancestry and cultural continuity to life, helping anchor the immersive installation in vivid visual narrative.

💛 A Collective Tapestry of Ancestry and Art

Together, these artists transformed the Tacoma Armory into something sacred — a living intersection of heritage and innovation. Helping to weave together a seamless experience of both performing and visual arts, the technical team included visual designer Michael Figueroa, lighting by Derek Durham and production support from Eli Blodgett. In the Company of the Ancestors was more than a performance; it was a gathering of creative voices speaking across generations.

Through Tacoma Arts Live’s vision and the collaboration of these remarkable artists, the Lemon Sessions continue to expand what it means to experience art — not just as entertainment, but as connection, reflection, and celebration.

A Gathering of Community

Beyond its striking visuals and performances, Lemon Sessions represented the spirit of Tacoma’s creative community: collaborative, inclusive, and ever-evolving. Audiences were invited not just to watch but to experience — to stand inside the art, feel the vibrations, and reflect on the threads that tie us to those who came before.

The Armory, with its high ceilings and warm acoustics, proved to be an ideal setting for this immersive, multisensory performance. The combination of projection, dance, music, and poetry enveloped guests in an atmosphere of reverence and joy. Even down to the polka dots dancing around during intermission!

The Heart of Tacoma’s Arts Movement

Events like Lemon Sessions highlight Tacoma Arts Live’s ongoing commitment to connecting people through live performance, education, and cultural exploration. By creating platforms for diverse voices and multidisciplinary collaboration, Tacoma Arts Live continues to expand what it means to experience art in the Pacific Northwest.