Who We Are
A California nonprofit public benefit corporation founded in Los Angeles in 2026, NACAPA preserves, celebrates, and transmits African cultural heritage through the performing arts. African-centered and outward-facing, the organization also develops exchanges between African artists and orchestral, jazz, mariachi, theatre, dance, and other cultural traditions.
Support NACAPA’s Mission
Your donation funds artists, programs, and community — fully tax-deductible.
501(c)(3) Nonprofit · EIN: 41-5043697 · Founded 2026
Why NACAPA Exists
Across North America, many African and African-descended communities have limited access to sustained, professionally presented African performing arts. NACAPA exists to close that gap through live performance, education, artist support, and public cultural programming.
Mainstream cultural institutions have historically underrepresented African performing arts, or presented them through outside perspectives rather than the voices of African artists themselves. NACAPA exists to change that through direct programming, sustained community presence, and institutional commitment.
We work through five core programs: live performance, artist residencies, cultural education, immersive experiences, and cross-cultural exchange. Together they create the conditions for genuine reconnection for people of African descent, and for the broader North American communities enriched by authentic encounter with African cultural life.
“NACAPA advances African performing arts in North America through live performance, artist residencies, cultural education, immersive public programming, and cross-cultural exchange. We preserve and present African cultural heritage by supporting artists, educating communities, and creating a permanent institutional platform where African music, dance, theater, and oral performance traditions can be experienced with depth, dignity, and excellence.”
Our Core Values
Founding Executive Director/CEO
Dr. Anderson Isiagu is the Founding Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of NACAPA. A Nigerian-born musicologist, composer, conductor, educator, actor, and cultural producer, he founded NACAPA to address a clear institutional gap: the absence of a permanent North American home dedicated specifically to African performing arts.
His work spans African music research, composition, conducting, performance, arts education, worship leadership, media production, and cultural advocacy. This multidisciplinary background shapes NACAPA’s commitment to artistic excellence, cultural specificity, artist support, public education, and broad cross-cultural exchange.
Under his leadership, NACAPA is being built as a durable nonprofit platform for African music, dance, theater, oral performance, cultural education, artist residencies, and immersive public programming — rooted in Los Angeles and serving communities across North America.
Learn more at andersonisiagu.com.
Board of Directors
NACAPA is governed by a founding board of six directors, individuals of integrity, community standing, and deep commitment to the mission.
For general inquiries, contact info@nacapa.org.
What We Mean by “African Performing Arts”
Africa is not one culture. It is fifty-four nations, more than two thousand languages, and a vast diversity of performance traditions — from West African oral-musical traditions to ngoma drum and dance practices of East Africa, from the theatrical masquerade traditions of the Niger Delta to the choral heritage of Southern Africa, from the classical court music of Ethiopia and Morocco to the contemporary performance cultures emerging from Lagos, Nairobi, Johannesburg, and Accra.
When NACAPA says “African performing arts,” we mean this full breadth — music, dance, theater, oral tradition, and interdisciplinary performance in all its regional, linguistic, and cultural specificity. We do not flatten Africa into a single aesthetic or tradition. We present each form in its own context, by artists with direct relationship to it.
This is the institutional commitment that distinguishes NACAPA from organizations that engage Africa generally. We engage it specifically — tradition by tradition, artist by artist, community by community.
Why Los Angeles
Los Angeles is the ideal home for NACAPA. It is home to one of the largest and most diverse African and African-diaspora communities in North America — spanning West African, East African, Central African, North African, and diaspora communities from every corner of the continent.
It is a global center for the performing arts, entertainment, and cultural production. It has a robust network of foundations, government arts funders, and corporate sponsors committed to cultural equity. And it is a city that has historically been at the forefront of multicultural cultural institutions.
Los Angeles is where NACAPA begins. North America is where NACAPA grows.
Our Commitment to Transparency
Contributions to NACAPA are tax-deductible to the fullest extent permitted by law under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. NACAPA complies with applicable IRS annual filing requirements and California charitable registration and renewal requirements. Public filings are available as required by law.
The mission of NACAPA · Los Angeles, California · Founded 2026
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Your gift supports African artists, cultural programs, education, and the infrastructure required to sustain NACAPA’s work.
501(c)(3) · EIN: 41-5043697 · Tax-deductible · Founded 2026