Phase 1: A 300+ soccer ball pyramid honoring our ancestors

Phase 2: Soccer Gear Redistribution Drive For Bay Area Youth

BY DANIA CABELLO

DONATE SOCCER GEAR.

PHASE 2:

Every child deserves the joy of play!

Play In The Afterlife and The Oakland Roots are teaming up with @NBCBayArea & @Telemundo 48 to make sports more accessible for all.

Donate your new or gently used soccer gear at any home game and help support young athletes in our community.

Drop off soccer balls, cleats, shin guards, and more!

Find the donation station at GATE D at every Oakland Roots home game!

Let’s bridge the gap in play equity—one donation at a time!

DONATE

ABOUT

Phase 2 (2025)

Every ball carries the power to connect, inspire, and heal. Yet, as the 2024 Play Equity Report highlights, not all communities have equal access to the tools that make play possible. Play In The Afterlife believes that access to play is a right, not a privilege. By redistributing gently used and new soccer gear, we aim to address the disparities in play equity.

We are partnering with the Oakland Roots, NBC Bay Area, and Telemundo 48 to collect gently used and new soccer balls + equipment that will be redistributed to youth teams, schools, and community organizations. These donations are more than just a ball—they’re acts of solidarity and a commitment to bridging the inequalities that shape our world. Together, we can ensure that the joy of play belongs to every child, regardless of background. 

Phase 1 (2024)

Play In The Afterlife is a community-centered pyramid constructed from over 300 size 5 soccer balls. This piece pays homage to those who have passed away, honoring loved ones who are no longer with us. It is a personal and creative expression that acknowledges play as a vital spiritual practice.

Often dismissed as trivial, play and joy are critical human expressions, essential to our survival, much like breathing and eating. This project aims to elevate and reposition play as fundamental to our collective humanity.

FAQ

  • Only accepting size 5 soccer balls. 

  • On one face of the ball write / decorate the name of your beloved/s (not to exceed the diameter of ball, roughly 8” wide)

  • Yes, and preferred. A ball your dog chewed up, one you’ve found and don’t mind parting with. Or just one that is no longer used. 

  • Yes please, donate as many balls as you can. We need 300+. Please share or get your community involved. 

  • Yes, we can pick up, please contact me for scheduling. 

  • No.

    • Aug 31st or sooner is preferred as I still need to build the pyramid once I get the balls.

    • Sept 6th is the last day of submission. 

  • See locations below.

  • Yes please!! We need many balls and encourage communities to come to gather and donate!

BALL DONATION QUESTIONS

EXHIBIT QUESTIONS

    • Exhibition Run: October 11 - November 8, 2024

    • Opening Reception: October 11, 6-9pm

    • Dia de los Muertos Drag Show: October 25, 8-9:30p

    • Closing Reception: November 8, 6-9pm 

  • SOMArts Cultural Center Gallery 934 Brannon St. SF, CA 

DANIA CABELLO

Photo by Stephen Flynn Photography

My work is an interdisciplinary expression of sport and physical movement as a political language and a site that is seen, experienced and heard through the body. Sport has the power to name the world; to create and circulate norms, definitions, and ideas that holds within it the possibility of transcendence - the possibility of imagining a new world.

How might we shift the paradigm of sport from one that limits individuals as objects of play and centers us as the subjects in our own process of healing and emancipation?

I am a former professional soccer player, artist, and educator who weaves my expertise to curate and facilitate participatory art that explores themes of resistance + liberation with and through the body. As an interdisciplinary artist and educator I engage audiences through community workshops, lectures, curriculum development, visual art and physical movement - across space and time - questioning issues of access, visibility, race, immigration, gender, and joy. My work is guided by love and the possibility that critical self reflection within ourselves can tangibly transform the world around us.

Contact Me