The year was 2012, and our founder/artistic director was hosting a reading for his debut poetry book. The sense of community and love present on that day was enough to spark the idea of creating a platform that holds space for Bushwick locals both native and immigrant, to come together and learn, play, and grow through arts and education. 4 festivals, hundreds of workshops, and 2 school programs later that idea has become ¡Oye! Group.

¡Oye! Group is a Bushwick-based creative incubator for artists, students, and community members of all ages, both local and immigrant to New York City. Our work is grounded in the act of listening that gave us our company name: we curate art that sparks a dialogue over the political and social issues that our community tells us are critical to them. We present an eclectic mix of theater, dance, poetry, music, video installations, and film through festivals and productions. We work with emerging artists to create, play, and grow in an environment that challenges and supports them, and we engage youth and adults alike through high-quality arts education that provides them with the tools to generate forward-thinking art that compliments the work on our stages.

¡Oye!: “Listen up!” 

¡Oye! Group was founded in 2012 by Modesto ‘Flako’ Jimenez, a Dominican-born, Bushwick-raised theater maker, producer, and educator, and Kevin Torres, an experienced videographer, photographer, and media content creator. For over a decade, ¡Oye! Group has remained unwavering in our commitment to amplifying new voices – be they artists, students, or community members – and cultivating spaces for them to grow and share their work with others. Whether onstage or off, our work has always been founded in a central goal: to support Black and Latine communities in our Bushwick, Brooklyn neighborhood and beyond by using art to engage, educate, and inspire

The company began by offering a combination of poetry readings and festivals to support emerging artists working across disciplines, while also providing free classes and workshops focused on poetry and Shakespeare to youth, teens, and adults. In the 10+ years since, ¡Oye! Group has grown our work substantially. We continue to offer (and continue to expand) our educational activities that transform the lives of participants of all ages, and our annual festivals provide a space for our community to share art, food, and resources. At the same time, we have established a reputation as a company that develops and presents unique theatrical experiences that bring the stories and issues of importance to our Bushwick community to wider audiences: since we started producing original work in 2015, ¡Oye! Group shows have been featured on some of the most prominent Off-Broadway stages in NYC, including New York Theatre Workshop, The Bushwick Starr, Abrons Art Center, JACK, and The Tank.

¡Oye! Group now operates multiple programs for year-round impact: alongside our ongoing development of new stage productions, we offer 3-4 free all-ages workshops in poetry, architecture, engineering, and literacy each month; three free theater programs for youth each year including Fresh Start, a program for incarcerated youth; and three annual festivals.

NYC has always been a gathering and trading place for many Indigenous peoples, where Nations intersected from all four directions since time immemorial. It was a place to gather and sometimes to seek refuge during times of conflict and struggle. Oye Group pays respect to all of their ancestor’s past, present, and to their future generations. We acknowledge that our theater, and our work, is situated in Brooklyn and on the island of Manhattan traditional lands of the Munsee Lenape, the Canarsie, Unkechaug, Matinecock, Shinnecock, Reckgawanc, and the Haudenosaunee (HoDe-No-Sho-Nee) Confederacy. We respect that many Indigenous people continue to live and work in Brooklyn and on the island and acknowledge their ongoing contributions to this area. We support all legislation, initiatives and activism that pushes for reparations, restitutions, land back, UBI, climate justice, economic justice, and punishing hate-crimes; and we strive to be an example in our own industry: heralding those voices that have been quashed for so long.  

We recognize that this land has been built and developed on the uncompensated labor of those who were enslaved; labor that continues to lack reciprocation, reparations, and beneficial returns.  We acknowledge that we continue to reap from the contributions of these stolen people and remain indebted to their sacrifice and suffering.

We recognize that Oye Group is a Latino-founded organization and a company largely comprising of transplants from other parts of this country. We acknowledge that our footprint as gentrifiers in Bushwick, Brooklyn has contributed to shifts and disparities in class, economy, and culture and expect to be held accountable to the rich and assorted history and heritage of our neighbors who have inhabited, defined and invested in Bushwick long before our arrival.