“Keep hope alive.” ~ Rev. Jesse Jackson

Requiem for a Nonprofit

Serving our community through the arts from 2017 to 2026.

July 10, 2017 - June 30, 2026

A Former Haven for Artists

Signed in as:

filler@godaddy.com

Account

THE EVIDENCE

The Anatomy of the Closure T.U.P.A.C.

A Documented Account of Cybercrime, Identity Theft, Forgery and the End of a Tacoma Arts Institution

The following pages will list the timeline of events that began July 8th, 2025.

Copies of relevant correspondence (with sensitive information redacted).
ISP communications records.
Altered Domain registration records.
Administrative access changes.
Email lockout records and access by unauthorized actors.
Banking and grant access issues.
Unauthorized seizure of student and donor data bases.
Screenshots and system logs.
FBI, Police reports and correspondence.

Document: Grant Award Letter Addressed to an Unauthorized Contact

Date: July 21, 2025

The following grant award letter from the Washington State Department of Commerce notified Tacoma Urban Performing Arts Center that it had been awarded a capital grant of $1,622,000 did not reach me until October 2025.

The letter was addressed to Anthony Polimeni, a member of T.U.P.A.C.'s Board of Directors at that time.

According to T.U.P.A.C.'s records:

Mr. Polimeni was not authorized to replace Executive Director Klair Ethridge as the organization's designated contact for this grant.
He was not authorized to submit changes identifying himself as the organization's primary representative for grant administration.
He was not authorized to use or designate PO Box 5602 as the mailing address for official grant correspondence on behalf of T.U.P.A.C.
The organization's official grant application and prior communications identified different authorized contacts.

The appearance of the following letter addressed to Mr. Polimeni at PO Box 5602 is one of several documented events included in this archive. T.U.P.A.C. has preserved related records as part of its chronology of events surrounding the organization's loss of administrative control over critical accounts and grant administration.

STATE OF WASHINGTON

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

1011 Plum Street SE • PO Box 42525 • Olympia, Washington 98504-2525 • (360) 725-4000

July 21, 2025

Anthony Polimeni

Tacoma Urban Performing Arts Center

PO Box 5602

Tacoma, WA 98415

Dear Anthony:

Congratulations! Governor Ferguson recently signed the 2025-27 State Capital Budget, which includes an appropriation of $1,622,000 for the Tacoma Urban Performing Arts Center Project. The Department of Commerce, which will administer the project, will retain three percent (up to a maximum of $50,000) to cover our administrative costs. Accordingly, your net grant award will be $1,573,340.

Prior to receiving funds, your organization will need to fulfill the following requirements: • provide documentation of your organization’s financial ability to complete the project. All funds from sources other than the state must be expended, raised, or secured by documented pledges or loans;

• for nonprofit grantees, any property relevant to the project must be owned or secured by a long term lease that remains in effect for a minimum of ten years following the final payment date, the date the facility becomes usable by the public, whichever is later. A lien on owned property is also required when receiving grants over $250,000;

• prevailing wages must be paid for all construction labor costs incurred as of May 20, 2025; • review by the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation and any affected Tribes (Governor’s Executive Order 21-02);

• comply with the state’s green buildings standards (RCW 39.35D); and

• five percent of your contracted amount will be held back until project completion.

Please fill out the Contract Readiness Survey and submit at your earliest convenience. Also enclosed is a comprehensive set of contracting guidelines to assist you with the process. If you have any questions or need additional information, please contact your Project Manager, Michele Manu, at Michele.Manu@commerce.wa.gov.

Sincerely,

Addeline Craig, Managing Director

Community Capital Facilities

THE LETTER WE NEVER WANTED TO WRITE

A Letter of Gratitude and Farewell to the State of Washington emailed to the following recipients on April 2nd, 2026

Dear Governor Ferguson, Speaker Jinkins, Senator Trudeau, Senator Nobles, Senator Murray, Senator Cantwell, Representative Fey, and the Washington State Department of Commerce,

On behalf of the Tacoma Urban Performing Arts Center (TUPAC), I would like to extend our deepest gratitude for awarding our organization the grant to acquire a permanent home for the arts in the Hilltop community. Your support represented not only an investment in our organization, but a commitment to providing a state-of-the-art dance studio and performance space that would serve as a much-needed gathering place for a community that has long been without one.

We were honored by your trust and inspired by the opportunity to create a lasting cultural anchor for Hilltop.

However, just prior to receiving the award, Tacoma Housing Authority withdrew our Memorandum of Understanding for the space we had been actively developing since 2022 in collaboration with architectural and engineering teams. This unexpected loss of site control significantly disrupted our plans.

Shortly after Governor Ferguson signed the 2026 budget, our organization experienced internal dissension within our Board of Directors and several staff members, followed by a devastating cyber incident in which our files, emails, and computer systems were compromised. During this time, our SAW, SAM, and other government accounts were accessed by individuals who fraudulently used my Social Security number and email accounts to remove my name and replace it with another individual, while also impersonating me in official communications.

These events prevented us from delivering summer 2025 programming for the children of Hilltop and caused a profound loss of trust within the community we have served for the past seven years.

Over the past year, we have worked diligently to restore our systems, rebuild our digital presence, and resume programming. Despite these efforts, we have found it extremely difficult to regain the level of stability and high-quality arts education that has defined our work.

It is with a heavy heart that we must request to be released from this generous grant award. After careful consideration, we have concluded that the cumulative challenges we have faced make it unsustainable for us to continue serving the Hilltop community beyond December 31, 2026.

This decision comes with deep sadness. We will greatly miss being an active part of the Hilltop community. We remain proud of the programming we have provided since 2017 and hope that we were able to spark creativity, joy, and a lasting interest in the performing arts for the children and families we served.

We are sincerely grateful for the opportunities, trust, and support you have extended to our organization. It has been an honor to work in partnership with leaders who believe in the power of the arts to transform communities.

With appreciation,

Klair Ethridge

Executive Director

T.U.P.A.C.

PO Box 1174

Tacoma WA 98401

(studio) 253-327-1873 (mobile) 323-828-5955

MORE TO COME...

Fairwell

Dear TUPAC Students, Families, Staff, and Supporters,

It is with very heavy hearts that we share that TUPAC will officially cease our regularly scheduled classes, and formal instruction on June 30, 2026.

For the remainder of the year, our focus will shift toward responsibly rehoming and gifting the bounty of arts related materials we have acquired over the years to local arts-based nonprofit organizations, particularly those serving marginalized communities. This includes costumes, stage sets, dance shoes, ballet barres, flooring, dancewear, lighting & audio equipment, art works and instructional materials that helped build our programs and serve our students and Tacoma throughout the years. We hope these resources will continue fostering creativity, artistic expression, community, mentorship, and artistic opportunities beyond TUPAC.

While we hope to donate as much as possible within the arts community, some assets will need to be sold in order to help satisfy debts incurred during this extraordinarily difficult period.

As many of you know, the cybercrime we experienced in July 2025 created devastating operational and financial challenges for our organization. In the aftermath, an accompanying campaign of misinformation orchestrated by bad actors caused tremendous harm to our reputation and made it increasingly difficult to attract and retain students despite our continued commitment to providing artistic excellence and exceptional instruction.

Over the past year, nearly all of our time, energy, and resources have gone toward recovering records, rebuilding systems, addressing compromised infrastructure, and attempting to repair damage caused by stolen and corrupted data, and working with authorities to (hopefully very soon) bring the cyber criminals to justice. The reality is that the work required to survive the aftermath ultimately pulled us away from the creative and educational mission that has always been at the heart of TUPAC.

I also want to share personally why I have been largely absent over the past several weeks.

Earlier this year, the heartbreaking death of one of our beautiful young students brought on a sadness I could never have imagined. Then a few weeks ago, I fractured a rib. Shortly afterward, my brother, my closest confidant, passed away unexpectedly, requiring me to travel to New York to handle his final arrangements. Upon returning home, I learned that the CT scan performed during my ER visit revealed several serious health concerns that now require immediate ongoing medical attention. The weight of these losses finally caught up with me in ways I was no longer able to push through. For the first time in my life, there were many days when I simply did not have the will to get out of bed.

Combined with the immense strain of the past year, we have reached the painful conclusion that it is time to close this chapter.

This decision was not made lightly.

Since opening our doors on July 10, 2017, we have been profoundly proud of what we built together. What began as a dream became a community rooted in discipline, creativity, inclusion, cultural expression, and love for the arts. Watching our students grow, not only as artists, but as human beings, has been one of the greatest honors of our lives.

We are deeply grateful to every student who walked through our doors, every family who trusted us, every staff member who poured their heart into this work with sharing their artistry and just as importantly their integrity and every supporter who believed in the importance of accessible arts education. Your kindness, encouragement, and belief carried us through so many beautiful years, and we will forever cherish the community we created together.

While this ending is painful, we remain proud of what TUPAC represented and the lives it touched over the past nine years. We hope the spirit of creativity, resilience, discipline, and community that defined TUPAC continues to live on in each of you.

Additional information regarding transition resources, referrals, remaining programming opportunities, and community partnerships will be shared in the coming weeks.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for allowing us to be part of your journey.

Peace,

Klair Ethridge
Executive Director

TUPAC

OUR FORMER STAFF

Kabby Mitchell III

Co-Founder

Bio to come soon

Klair Ethridge

Co-Founder & Executive Director

13 seconds in - hot pink legwarmers, hot pink & blue leo - Klair is upstage

Bio to come soon.

Liliana Menendez

Liliana Menéndez was born in Matanzas, Cuba, and trained at the Vocational School of Art Alfonso Pérez Isaac and the National School of Ballet Fernando Alonso under the legendary Prima Ballerina Alicia Alonso. Her teaching carries forward Alonso’s artistry, discipline, and elegance, inspiring students to connect deeply with classical tradition while discovering their own expressive voices.

She graduated in 2013 as a dancer and ballet teacher and joined the National Ballet of Cuba. Her repertoire includes Giselle, Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker, and Coppélia, as well as contemporary works by Alicia Alonso, Michel Fokine, Gustavo Herrera, and Ely Regina Hernández.

Most recently with Acosta Danza, performing worldwide, Liliana brings technical mastery and cultural knowledge to her teaching, guiding students to grow as confident, expressive, and culturally aware artists.

Marisela Fleites

Flamenco is more than dance — it is rhythm, history, voice, and spirit woven together. Maristela Fleites has devoted more than 55 years to studying and performing Flamenco and has shared her artistry in the Puget Sound community for over two decades.

Her classes explore the dialogue between cante (song), toque (guitar), and baile (dance), guiding students through intricate coordination of footwork, arms, hands, and full-body expression while learning choreography that honors tradition and individual creativity.

As founder and director of Sabor Flamenco, TUPAC’s resident Flamenco company, Maristela inspires students to grow technically, artistically, and culturally, cultivating both skill and a deep love for this vibrant art form.

Maristela Guillén Calogera

Maristela Guillen Calogen brings a vibrant career as a performer, choreographer, and educator to her work at TUPAC. Her training began in central New Mexico, studying ballet, tap, and jazz under Elva Mico and Cecilia Jaramillo, and continued through Los Angeles, Miami, Denmark, Las Cruces, and Albuquerque, where she deepened her study of modern, contemporary, and Flamenco dance.

She has trained with distinguished artists and cultural leaders, including Bill Evans, Jennifer Predock-Linnell, Eva Encinias-Sandoval, Marisol Encinias, Joaquin Encinias, and Marisela Fleites.

As a dedicated teaching artist, Maristela inspires students of all ages and backgrounds to grow in technique, artistry, and creative voice. Through her mentorship and teaching, she cultivates confidence, cultural awareness, and a love for the transformative power of dance.

Takechi Ruiz

Takechi Ruiz is a dancer and choreographer from Santiago de Cuba, trained at the Professional Academy of Arts, where he specialized in performance and teaching. Now based in Seattle, he shares his artistry through classes, workshops, and performances at Cuban festivals across the United States.

Takechi’s work is deeply rooted in the rhythms, movement, and musicality of Cuban culture. Through projects like Repartiendo Cubanía, he invites students to connect with the stories, traditions, and heritage behind the dance, making each step both a technical challenge and a cultural experience.

As a teacher and mentor, Takechi inspires students to move with confidence, creativity, and intention, helping them grow not only as dancers but as artists who understand and honor the cultural roots of their craft.

Fatumbi Williams-Lee

Fatumbí is a multidisciplinary healing artist whose work blends sound, ritual, ecology, and ancestral memory. Drawing from Yoruba cosmology, Black diasporic traditions, and cross-cultural esoteric lineages, they explore how art can be a transformative tool for coherence, liberation, and spiritual attunement.

As a shamanic Reiki master, massage therapist, birthworker, and cultural practitioner, Fatumbí guides immersive experiences rooted in mantra, cowrie-shell divination, and somatic healing.

Through sound journeys, teachings, and community-rooted ritual arts, Fatumbí centers the sovereignty of third-gendered and queer Black lineages while honoring water, earth, and the subtle forces that support collective well-being. In the classroom and in ritual, they inspire students to connect deeply with their bodies, their creativity, and the ancestral wisdom that informs their practice.

Evelyn Thompson

Evelyn is a lifelong dancer and devoted caregiver whose passion for movement has brought joy and creativity into every part of her life. She has been dancing for over 30 years, with the past decade focused on belly dance, inspired by her first ballet instructor and a love for expressive movement.

Her favorite moves, shimmies, and sparkly accessories reflect the energy, confidence, and playfulness she brings to every class. Through belly dance, Evelyn guides students to connect with their bodies, express their creativity, and celebrate the beauty and transformative power of movement.

Her teaching fosters confidence, joy, and self-expression, helping students of all ages discover the artistry, rhythm, and cultural richness of this dynamic dance form.

Mon	By Appointment
Tue	By Appointment
Wed	By Appointment
Thu	By Appointment
Fri	By Appointment
Sat	By Appointment
Sun	By Appointment

Requiem for a Nonprofit