Jennifer Radakovich | How Rhythmix Cultural Works Builds Community Through the Arts

What does it mean to build community through culture?

In this episode of Tradition Café, Ana sits down with Jennifer Radakovich, Executive Director of Rhythmix Cultural Works, to talk about the role of the arts in connection, belonging, and cultural exchange.

Jennifer shares how Rhythmix creates space for music, dance, performance, education, and community-centered arts experiences that bring people together across backgrounds and generations.

This conversation explores what it means to support artists, honor cultural traditions, and make the arts accessible beyond formal stages and institutions. Jennifer also reflects on her own path through dance, cultural work, and nonprofit leadership, and why curiosity, collaboration, and listening are essential to creating meaningful community spaces.

This is a conversation about art as connection, culture as living practice, and the power of gathering around shared human experience.

In this episode:

• Jennifer’s path into dance, culture, and community arts
• The mission and work of Rhythmix Cultural Works
• Why access to the arts matters
• How cultural programs create connection and belonging
• Supporting artists with respect and intention
• The difference between performance and cultural exchange
• What community-centered arts leadership looks like
• Why the arts help us understand one another

Learn more about Rhythmix Cultural Works:
www.rhythmix.org

Tradition Café explores the stories, traditions, and lived experiences that shape who we are.

Many Voices. One Table.

Transcript

Welcome To Tradition Cafe

Ana 0:02

Hey friends, welcome to Tradition Cafe, the spot where the past bumps into the present, and we get to sip our favorite drinks while digging into the stories that make people well people. I'm Anna Xavier, your host, curious, and totally here for the fun of learning about people's lives. In each episode, we'll celebrate heritage, family, and community, whether it's immigrants, the generations that came after them, or chosen families that make life messy, interesting, and unforgettable. So if you're like me, inquisitive, a little nosy, and love a good story, pull up a chair, grab your cup, and thanks for listening. Hey friends, have a seat and scoot up to the table. We're back in Tradition Cafe. Today we're sitting down with Jennifer Radikovich, Executive Director of Rhythmics Cultural Works in Alameda, California. Rhythmics is a community center organization that brings people together through music, dance, uh visual art, education, cultural programming, and public events.

What Rhythmix Cultural Works does

Ana 1:04

For anyone who is local, you live here in Alameda, hey, uh Oakland, East Bay, San Francisco Bay area, this is a chance to come out, bring your family and friends, experience live performances, and spend the day in community. And for listeners outside the San Francisco Bay Area, this conversation is also about something bigger. Why public cultural events matter, how small arts organizations support artists, and what it takes to create spaces where people can gather across cultures. Jennifer. Thank you so much for joining me. Thank you so much for having me, Anna. For somebody who doesn't know about rhythmics cultural works, um, if they're just hearing about it for the first time, how do you describe rhythmics and what kind of work do you do in the community?

SPEAKER_00 1:59

Rhythmics Cultural Works is a performing arts nonprofit. Are located in a renovated historic building. Uh the theater is on the second floor. It seats about 160 people, but all of our spaces are multi-use, multi-purpose. So we keep the space open during the week for different types of classes. You know, we have a salsa class, Puerto Rican bomba class, lots of Zumba classes, a bangra class, martial arts, um, you know, just a variety. Um, in the art gallery, the K Gallery, we feature six different exhibits a year, and we work with local artists and organizations in the community to help us curate some of the exhibits. Sometimes we curate some of our own. We really try to uplift and focus on different types of multicultural arts where people can come together and learn about each other through the arts. So our mission is to build community by inspiring engagement in the arts to learn about each other and the world. We do that through music, dance, visual art. Um, we have a lovely multicultural student assembly program. We serve three to five thousand Alameda County students every year. Um, yeah.

Ana 3:21

We bring

Teaching students through the arts

Ana 3:25

that's a lot of kids.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

That's a lot of kids. They don't all come in.

unknown 3:32

Just kidding.

Ana 3:34

200 at a time.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

200? Um, yeah. We'll have two back-to-back shows. So we'll bring in 200 students and then we have 15 minutes to turn it over and bring another 200 students in. Um, we'll do about eight different concerts a year in our theater for students, like I said, all throughout Alameda County. So from Alameda, Oakland, San Leandro, um, Hayward. Yeah, it's a really, really lovely program.

Ana 4:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

Yeah. And then we also like to venture outside of our building at times. And um we partner with the city of Alameda. We've been partnering with them for the past five years on a program called Rhythmics in the Parks. So we were really inspired actually by our student assembly program, which is called PAL, Performance Art and Learning, because it's not just concerts that are presented, but the artists will talk about where they're from. They'll talk about their countries. They just, you know, uh teach the students what the instruments are, they'll teach some language. All the students get a study guide. And anytime we bring adults to watch the performances, they're

Cultural learning beyond the theater

SPEAKER_00 4:48

just blown away because they're like, oh my God, I learned so much. And there's so much to be learned through the lens of music and dance. Um, and it doesn't stop at culture, geography, language. You know, all of the ensembles are talking about teamwork and social emotional learning. They can, we can use the assemblies to bridge really difficult topics like slavery and colonialism, um, and have a more just uh be able to talk about those difficult topics in a in a better light than somehow than the textbooks. Yeah. Yeah. We wanted more people to be able to access that type of programming where you're not just watching and not always knowing what you're looking at, um, but have a little bit more depth in what you do, so in what you're seeing. So our programs in the parks are family friendly, and we try to bring in ensembles who will talk about their background and cultures and do interactive

Rhythmix's roots in Alameda, CA

SPEAKER_00 5:53

um elements with with the audience as well. Get them up dancing, learn some rhythms, do some call and response. It's a really good, it's a really good time. And then we've also our our founder, Janet, um, has also produced a series of site-specific performances throughout Alameda called Island City Waterways. And those performances involved

Why public arts events matter

SPEAKER_00 6:17

40 to 50 artists um in different locations, and the artists would travel the audience through an area and the performance through music, dance, theater, storytelling would talk about the history of the land in that area. And rhythmics has been here for a long time in Alameda, yeah.

Ana 6:37

Um this is our 19th year. Next year will be our 20th anniversary. It feels like the backbone of the cultural um landscape in Alameda. When Rhythmics creates a festival, what are um you hoping it does beyond that afternoon and performances?

SPEAKER_00 6:57

So there are there are a lot of reasons that we chose to start um presenting the festivals. Um one is because I personally love outdoor festivals. Um but there it offers more opportunities to support artists. Um, we can bring more artists to a space, give them more paid opportunities

Jennifer's path into dance and culture

SPEAKER_00 7:23

to work. Um, you know, we have such amazing artists in the Bay Area. A lot of the artists have been working and performing and teaching for 20 plus years. They have so much to offer uh and such deep experience and knowledge. Um, it's just be a shame to not take advantage of that while while everyone is is still performing and doing their work. You know, people are doing this deep work, so we need to honor that by having spaces and places for them to present their work uh and connect with people. So as the executive director, uh I'd love to understand your own path. I think I was really fortunate to have a lot of experiences when I was young. Uh I grew up in the Midwest. Um my family is Serbian, and I grew up in the Serbian Air Serbian American community, learning Serbian tradition, Serbian folk dance. Um I've always enjoyed dance and have taken different types of dance classes. Uh and early on in my youth, I discovered Hawaiian dance and Tahitian dance, um, which

From dance ethnology to cultural arts

SPEAKER_00 8:42

I just really loved and really connected to for some reason. Um, but part of what I loved about it was not just the music and the movement, but that within the tradition you were learning so much about the culture through through the songs and the dance. You were learning about the people, place, history, and it just told so much. So I don't know, sparked my interest for learning more.

Ana 9:10

Through your own artistic growth, your dance, exploring cultures. How did you get into the community leadership of it, working with places like rhythmics?

SPEAKER_00 9:23

So I you studied a lot of different forms of dance. I did my graduate work at University of Hawaii Monoa in dance ethnology. I've always loved kind of like the research side and the learning side, the education side of things. I wanted to find a way to stay connected to the arts and to connect people with the arts and to educate people through the arts. So I've just done that in different ways in different places that I lived. I worked for an organization called Cross-Cultural Dance Resources in South Arizona, and that was founded by Joanne Kaile Nohomoku, who I believe is the founder of Dance Anthropology. Then I moved to Santa Cruz, and there's so much arts in Santa Cruz, and I was fortunate to be able to work with Tandy Beal and Company for a number of years before moving up

Why artist-run spaces matter

SPEAKER_00 10:19

here. Um, so I got a lot of experience working with arts in schools and productions and community arts and just connecting people. It's all about connection, really.

Ana 10:31

They were founded by artists. That to me seems like it would be very important for an artist working with this culture with the communities that you have served to have that understanding from other artists who have started these programs. Uh, would you agree with that? Or have you ever even like been involved in a cultural center or uh an arts center that was not founded by an artist? No. Exactly. I think that I yeah, I mean, I think that they would be started by people who knew that the voice is important.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

I think it's really important for um you know, performing art

The hidden labor behind performance

SPEAKER_00 11:12

centers, cultural centers to be artist run because it's important to understand things from the artistic side, from the art side. There's still such a pervasive thought in this country that all the arts should be for free, and artists should work for free. Yeah. And so if you're not an artist or a working artist, you don't get to experience that side of how difficult it is to be supported to do your work. You know, the arts are the first things to get cut in the state budget and in school budgets. Yeah. Honestly, it is probably one of the more important things and it needs a lot of support. You know, it's artists put so much time into what they do. It's not a nine to five job. You know, if you see a performance on stage, it's not just those minutes or that hour that they're on stage. It's the years and years of learning and practicing and rehearsing. It's the the costume

Supporting artists and arts organizations

SPEAKER_00 12:23

crafting, it's uh, you know, all the rehearsal time. There's just so much. Like a one-hour gig can sometimes take an artist an entire eight-hour day, you know, when you have to get ready and drive and do sound check, and then it's um it's just so much more involved than a lot of people realize if they're not artists.

Ana 12:47

Yeah. You see a dance production and you see the the dance artists, but you're also seeing the lighting. You're seeing the music.

SPEAKER_00 13:00

You're hearing the music, but you're watching the choreographer. Artists need to be supported and cultural organizations need to be supported too, so that we can help support the artists. Uh, California is a great place for art support, but you know, the funding landscape changes all the time. Uh, it's not always reliable. There's always fluctuations in grant opportunities. So to support a nonprofit organization, you have to look for support everywhere. You know, federal grants, state grants, community, local level grants, um, sponsorships from the business community, individual contributions. Everything helps and everything makes a difference. And the

How to support Rhythmix

SPEAKER_00 13:47

support has to come from a lot of different areas. And it's constant because things do fluctuate all the time. Yeah. So it's a it's a difficult field to be in because um it's kind of unpredictable.

Ana 14:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

You know, you plan your programs and you apply for the grants and you cross your fingers

Keeping community programs sustainable

SPEAKER_00 14:08

and hope for the best and you keep moving forward regardless. Yeah, once you're committed to doing something, you do it.

Ana 14:15

Yeah, it's out of passion and love and commitment to the arts. Yeah. So where can people go to make a contribution? You said that you take individual contributions. Where can they go? Can they go to the website?

SPEAKER_00 14:27

They can go straight to our website at rhythmics.org, R-H-Y-T-H-M-I-X.org. Um, everyone is welcome to donate through our website. Sign up for our email newsletter, and you'll get a few end-of-year fundraising emails that way. Any other ones coming up? Uh like most nonprofits, we always have a large end-of-year campaign, an end-of-year fundraiser. But we've been trying to find more fun ways to do our fundraising. So we've been having a few happy hours where people can come and socialize, you know, get a little bite to eat, um, do some dancing, listen to some music. So we'll probably have another happy hour in the fall. We're in the middle of our spring fundraising right now. It helps the programs be more sustainable so that they are free for people who can't necessarily afford it. From June through September, we'll have monthly performances in different parks. Uh, the first one, Unity Fest in June, is our big festival. Uh, and then July, August, September will be smaller family concerts. So July will be at Franklin Park with Andre Thierry, um, who plays Zydeco and accordion soul music.

Ana 15:45

There is no way to sit still when you're listening to Zydeco.

unknown 15:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

There's no way to sit

Celebrating Bay Area artists

SPEAKER_00 15:51

still at most rhythmics events. So just, you know, get ready. In August, we'll be at Gene Sweeney Open Space Park with the String and Shadow Puppet Theater. It's a company from Washington who this will be their third time uh

Finding local artists wherever you live

SPEAKER_00 16:04

coming down here uh with a presentation. They have a new production called The Night at the Grand Opera. Then in September, we'll be at Lincoln Park with Native Boogie and Beats. They will be introducing people to Powell Dance and Music. We've talked to them about doing some interactive elements so that people can, so the audience can be involved, and then there will be a part where you know obviously we can just watch and enjoy as well. I wish we could have a performance every weekend. We still wouldn't make it through all the amazing artists that we have, but we'll keep doing as much as we can and presenting as many artists as we can.

Ana 16:45

So for listeners outside of Alameda who may not be able to attend, what do you hope they take away from hearing about the meaning behind multicultural festivals and involvement in the community?

SPEAKER_00 16:58

They should see what their cities have to offer and their local regions because artists live everywhere. There's probably something going on. You might need to do a little digging to find it. Um, if you have a local art center, that's a

Making cultural spaces welcoming

SPEAKER_00 17:14

great place to start because that's where everything can come together. But I guarantee that, you know, people are working out of their homes, they're they're having rehearsals in their garages, at local school gymnasiums, like they're around and you might not think to look because sometimes it's difficult, you know, if you feel like, oh, I'm not allowed in this other cultural space. But you know, I think if you're interested and you want to be supportive, uh like artists are out there and they're working, so find them and figure out how to help support.

Ana 17:55

I think that that's a really important thing to highlight. If you feel like you're not welcome in a space or a

Volunteering and community support

Ana 18:01

culture uh celebration, that's what places like Rhythmics are trying to make it more accessible, more welcoming, um, more education so that it is not scary. Yeah. Some people can be nervous about attending, you know, like, am I going to be welcome if I don't know much about it?

SPEAKER_00 18:22

Even I get a little shy sometimes going to a new dance class or trying to start learning a new dance form. Um you know, so having something in a uh having a festival in a public park, a public space, uh it kind of equalizes things a little bit. It's a little bit easier entry point, and people can meet the artists and experience the dance a little bit, see if they like it, learn about other shows that the artists are gonna have or the classes that they teach. And then hopefully they'll be interested to go and join those as well. A really great way to support is through volunteering. We have a volunteer button on our website so you can sign up right through our website.

Supporting independent cultural storytelling

SPEAKER_00 19:05

Um we have lots of other volunteer opportunities as well. I want to thank our Arts Angel this year. Radium presents the Hewlett Foundation and the California Arts Council, the City of Alameda's Public Art Commission has grants available every year, and we were fortunate to receive one of the cultural arts grants for Unity Fest, the Recreation and Park Department, the San Francisco Bay Ferry, K A L W is also helping, Port of Oakland, Poppy Bank, Alameda Post, and Trash Scouts.

Closing thoughts

SPEAKER_00 19:39

Also, let's not forget about the sponsor Tradition Cafe. Fabulous media sponsor. Also a labor of love that needs support because you put in a lot of your personal time. Is there a way that people can support you? Do you have a Patreon account?

Ana 20:00

I don't, but maybe I will by the time this airs. I don't even know how it works. All of your free time. Yeah, in all my free time. Jennifer, thank you so much for joining me in the cafe and really appreciate it. I'm glad that Alameda is getting to know you as well as Rhythmics.

SPEAKER_00 20:20

Thank you so much for having me on, and thank you for all the work that you do. And I'm just so glad that you're here and you're part of our community. Thank you. I love being a part of it.

Ana 20:30

All right. Thanks everybody. Bye-bye. Thanks for listening to Tradition Cafe. Tradition Cafe is produced and hosted by Anna Xavier Camagno with editing by Lena Torrey. Special thanks to our sponsors, Digifly and Artpush, for helping make these conversations possible. For today's guest links, the video version, audio platforms, socials, and support options, visit TraditionCafe.com or check the show notes. If this version moved you, made you think, or reminded you of someone, please share it with them. Tradition Cafe, many voices, one table.