BAAD!Ass Women Festival Runs This Month

The Bronx Academy of Arts & Dance forges forward with the 22nd annual BAAD!ASS WOMEN FESTIVAL, celebrating the empowerment of women through art, culture and performance. The festival kicks off on March 5 with two dynamic choreographers Linda La and Tamara Williams and continues through March 30 with six events of dance, literature, film and performance by strong and poignant women.

The festival takes place at BAAD!, 2474 Westchester Avenue in the Westchester Square section of the Bronx. All events are in-person with select events also available via livestream.

Ticket prices vary from free to $20. Participants can take advantage of the Five for $5 special (you and four "girlfriends" make a group of five and pay only $5 each with a prior reservation.) BAAD! offers discounts to BAAD! members, BCA cardholders and NALACqueros, and free admission to residents of 10474 and 10461 zip codes. Ticket offers cannot be combined. Visit www.BAADBronx.org for details.

The schedule for the shows and events is as follows:

ELEMENTS OF FIERCE! Tamara Williams AND LINDA LA

Saturday, March 5 | 8PM | $20; [also offered via livestream 0$-$20]
Two dynamic performers share an evening of robust dance and performance with dancer/singer Tamara Williams and the prolific dance artist Linda La. They will explore themes of love, mortality and femininity as divination.

mama [rose.] by storäe michele

Thursday, March 17 | 7:30pm | Free
mama [rose.], is an afro-futurist queer, circular time-traveling film following the stories of a non-binary teen, Sid, their trans archaeologist grandmother, Mama Rose, and their shared journey toward mending intergenerational wounds through VHS archives of past-present-furture times. Film screening is followed by a talkback with the filmmaker storäe michele.

DANCE/DRAMA! ANABELLA LENZU'S 15 YEARS

Friday, March 18 | 8pm | $0-$20; [also offered via livestream 0$-$20]
Celebrate the 15th anniversary of Anabella Lenzu/DanceDrama in an evening highlighting four award-winning short dance films by this Latina artist living in New York and examining her motivations as a woman, mother, and immigrant. Followed by an intimate conversation with Christine Jowers, dance critic, founder, and editor-in-chief of The Dance Enthusiast.

RETRO RENZI FILM FEST

Saturday, March 19 | 8pm | Free
Choreographer/filmmaker Marta Renzi shares 15 years of dance video work, with a special slant toward featuring Bronx performers and ties to BAAD! beginning with founder Arthur Aviles, and including Alethea Pace, Tina Vásquez, Alberto Denis, David Thomson, Noel Rodriguez, Beverly López and more. Followed by Q&A with Charles Rice-González.

BANGLADESH ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS (BAFA)

Friday, March 25 | 8pm | $20; [also offered via livestream 0$-$20]
Led by Margia Shiriti, Bronx-based BAFA serves up mesmerizing classical Indian dance forms of Kathak and Bharatanatyam as well as traditional Bangladeshi Folk dance. This full evening of work shimmers with intricate choreography, sharp and graceful movements, and compelling footwork.

SOLE SISTERS

Saturday, March 26 | 8pm | $20; [also offered via livestream 0$-$20]
The BAAD!ASS Women dance concert is no-holds-barred, daring event with eight choreographers from the Bronx and beyond including Engelman/Papineau Dance, Shizu Homma, Carolina Rivera, Cocoa Sugah and Yahwa.

RECLAIMING YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD: BOOK SIGNING AND TALK

Wednesday, March 30 | 7pm | Free
MacArthur Award Fellow and Peabody-award winning Majora Carter adds author to her hyphenate of urban revitalization strategist, real estate developer and owner of the Boogie Down Grind. A lifelong Hunts Point resident, she drops gems of wisdom and strategies from her book Reclaiming Your Neighborhood. Reading is followed by a discussion and signing, plus a screening of an archival Arthur Aviles dance film that includes Carter.

Crowned "a funky and welcoming performance space" by The New York Times, BAAD! is a performance and workshop space that presents cutting-edge works in dance and all creative disciplines that are empowering to women, people of color and the LGBTQ+ community. BAAD! is home to Arthur Aviles Typical Theatre (AATT) and the AATT Academy and was founded by Arthur Aviles and Charles Rice-Gonzalez in 1998 in Hunts Point, and moved to Westchester Square in 2013.

BAAD!/AATT receive support from The Ford Foundation, The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, The Howard Gilman Foundation, The NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, The SHS Foundation, The Mertz Gilmore Foundation, The New York State Council on the Arts, The Jerome Foundation, The MacQuarie Group, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, The John and Jody Arnhold Foundation and private donations.