BAAD! Celebrates Latinx Experimentalists with New York Premiere of Groundbreaking Documentary ¡FENOMENAL! ROMPEFORMA 1989-1996
Two-night event features panel discussion with directors and participating Latinx and queer artists.
By: A.A. Cristi May. 18, 2023
The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD!) is thrilled to host the New York premiere of ¡Fenomenal! Rompeforma 1989-1996-a documentary film celebrating the experimental Latinx festival Rompeforma: Maratón De Baile-on May 30 and May 31 at 8pm at BAAD!, located at 2474 Westchester Avenue in the Westchester Square section of the Bronx. Admission to the event is free and open to the public with a suggested $10 donation to BAAD!
The two-night premiere event, co-sponsored by CENTRO (Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College), will include the film screening, followed by a panel discussion featuring the film's Co-directors and Producers Merián Soto and Viveca Vázquez, as well as participating artists, including Arthur Avilés, Gabri Christa, Coco Fusco, Patricia Hoffbauer, Elizabeth "Macha" Marrero, Peter Richards, George Emilio Sánchez, and Carmelita Tropicana, and Kathy Westwater, among others.
¡Fenomenal! Rompeforma 1989-1996 showcases excerpts from dozens of dance, literary, visual and performance art offerings and includes critical commentary from eyewitnesses, dedicated spectators, the public, and over sixty participating Latinx artists from the cultural sphere of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and the diasporic Latinx community from across the Western Hemisphere.
This premiere event celebrates and preserves the legacy of this groundbreaking festival while inspiring new generations of Latinx artists and cultural activists. BAAD! is excited to bring together such an impressive group of artists and thinkers for a night of celebration, preservation, and accessibility of the repertoire of an esteemed generation of Latinx experimentalists.
Founded in 1973 by a coalition of students, faculty, and activists, CENTRO, The Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College, is the largest university-based research institute, library, and archive dedicated to the Puerto Rican experience in the United States.
The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD!) is a nationally-recognized arts organization co-founded in 1998 by award-winning dancer/choreographer Arthur Aviles and writer/activist Charles Rice-Gonzalez. Through its arts programming, BAAD! presents cutting-edge works in dance and all creative disciplines that bring a queer perspective to the socio-political/cultural dialogue of The Bronx and New York City to empower women, people of color and the LGBTQ+ community.
BAAD!/AATT receive support from The Ford Foundation, The Howard Gilman Foundation, The Mellon Foundation, The NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, The New York State Council on the Arts, The Mosaic Fund,The SHS Foundation, The Mertz Gilmore Foundation, The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, The Jerome Foundation, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, The John and Jody Arnhold Foundation and private donations. Events in this program are also supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
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