BAM Announces Spring 2021 In-Person and Virtual Programming

BAM today announced a new season-an ambitious mix of outdoor in-person programming and new virtual events-that is all about bringing live arts back to Brooklyn, and bringing Brooklyn's creative spirit to the world. The season spans theater, dance, music, talks, visual arts, community events, and its annual gala.

"We've put together a season that transforms some of Brooklyn's most beloved and distinctive sites into stunning stages," said BAM Artistic Director, David Binder. "This group of world-class artists - encompassing dance, theater, music, and the visual arts - have met the moment and are presenting work in surprising and thrilling ways."

"This is an exciting time for BAM as we continue to elevate the virtual art form, " said Co-Interim President, Coco Killingsworth who also heads BAM's virtual programming. "Every virtual event this season features brand-new content, programs, and technology from locally and globally renowned artists. As our digital space evolves, we look forward to growing our audiences by making iconic BAM programs and the unique culture of Brooklyn accessible to everyone."

Reimagining performance within the context of current times, adventurous live, in-person engagements will take place at some of Brooklyn's most striking locations from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, to Prospect Park, to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, to Brooklyn Borough Hall, to the sidewalks of Ft. Greene.

Outdoor presentations include Aleshea Harris's play, What to Send Up When It Goes Down (originally produced by the Movement Theatre Company), in a co-presentation with Playwrights Horizons; Influences (contemporary dance on ice skates); the interactive public art piece Arrivals + Departures by YARA + DAVINA; Pop-Up Magazine: The Sidewalk Issue; and 1:1 CONCERTS curated by Silkroad and featuring members of the Silkroad Ensemble with guests.

Annual favorites such as DanceAfrica and Word.Sound.Power. return this year as virtual productions allowing audiences from around the world the opportunity to connect with artists and new content designed and directed for screen. In BAM's first live virtual performance, Word. Sound. Power. 2021 will produce an innovative hip-hop and spoken word concert featuring electrifying performances and new music and work by some of the best emcees and spoken word artists in Brooklyn and beyond. And DanceAfrica 2021 will celebrate Haiti's spirited movement traditions and feature newly commissioned digital works by dance companies from Haiti and across the U.S.

The season also includes virtual presentations of Unbound with Hanif Abdurraqib (also BAM Guest Curator at Large) and Wesley Morris, and the popular Eat, Drink & Be Literary series, presented in partnership with the National Book Foundation. Marking its 17th year, Eat, Drink & Be Literary will welcome three acclaimed writers-Tayari Jones, Sigrid Nunez, and Luis Alberto Urrea-who will read from their work and share creative processes, inspirations, and anecdotes with the audience who can raise a glass in the comfort of their homes. Each evening features a discussion moderated by Deborah Treisman, and a Q&A. A range of books by each author are available for purchase from Greenlight Bookstores.

OUTDOOR, IN-PERSON ENGAGEMENTS

Arrivals + Departures (visual art)

US Premiere/BAM Debut YARA + DAVINA

Board graphics and website design by Tom Merrell
Digital fabrication by Rob Prouse
3D design and construction by Other Fabrications (UK)
Production management by Steve Wald

Front of Brooklyn Borough Hall (209 Joralemon Street)
March 14 -April 11
24 hours a day, 7 days a week
Free and open to the public

Arrivals + Departures is a large-scale public art installation that pays tribute to people- both those entering the world and leaving it. The work takes the recognizable form of a train station arrivals and departures board that displays names submitted by the public to celebrate a birth (arrivals), honor someone living, or commemorate a death (departures).

Created by British social practice artist duo Yara El-Sherbini and Davina Drummond, the US premiere of Arrivals + Departures offers a timely platform to engage with the effects of Covid-19 and the continuing racial and social injustice within our communities. Through this act of naming, the interactive installation offers the opportunity to explore issues around birth, life, death, loss, and collective grief; to question and change who is honored through public statues and memorials. The outdoor installation transforms the everyday space of Brooklyn Borough Hall into a site of recognition and remembrance. The boards are accessible both in-person and virtually. The public is invited to submit names online, beginning at 12pm on March 14, 2021, at www.arrivalsanddepartures.net.

Arrivals + Departures will include a free online conversation with the artists and special guests:

The Power of Naming
In conjunction with Arrivals + Departures
A virtual conversation with artist duo YARA + DAVINA and special guests
Tuesday, March 23
Free
Artists Yara El-Sherbini and Davina Drummond are joined by special guests
to reflect on their public art installation Arrivals + Departures and explore the
power of naming as a personal and political act in terms of public sculpture
and memorials

YARA + DAVINA are a British artist duo who make ambitious and playful public artworks that respond to site, context, and audience. Unfailingly inventive, their artworks are rooted within the everyday, using formats from popular culture, such as mini-golf to jokes, to explore issues that touch on the human condition. They've created artworks for multiple world-leading art venues and public organizations across the world such as Tate Modern and Tate Britain, Venice Biennale, National Portrait Gallery, Studio Museum Harlem, The Victoria & Albert, London, ZKM (Germany), HIAP (Finland), Kaunus Art Biennial (Lithuania), Modern Art Oxford, National Maritime Museum, and the ICA. In 2021, they are working on several large-scale public artworks, including Kick Off, a project with the National Trust, UK that explores women's football and the power of communal crafting, and Local Tea, a long term social practice artwork for the Museum of the Home, London.

Influences (dance)

NY Premiere/BAM Debut
Le Patin Libre
Choreography by Alexandre Hamel, Pascale Jodoin, Samory Ba, Taylor Dilley,
Jasmin Boivin

Music by Jasmin Boivin
Dramaturgy by Ruth Little
Lighting design by Lucy Carter
Costume design by Jenn Pocobene

LeFrak Center at Lakeside, Prospect Park (171 East Dr., Brooklyn)

Apr 6-10 at 8pm; Apr 10-11 at 2pm
Tickets: single, $45, pair, $90
On sale to BAM Members and Patrons on March 23
General Public tickets to follow. Please sign up at BAM.org for updates.
Ages: 5+

This unique work of choreographed movement on ice explores human interconnectivity and the relationship between a group and its individuals. Observations on leadership, bullying, individualism, and rivalry are revealed throughout this thrilling rhythmic work, which heightens the relationship between performers and spectators by seating the audience directly on the ice. This arrangement offers an intense and intimate look at the intersection of virtuosity, velocity, and artistry.

Le Patin Libre (French for "Free Skate") is a contemporary ice skating company that uses ice, skates, and glide as mediums of storytelling. Founded in 2005, Le Patin Libre is a premier international touring company under the artistic vision of Alexandre Hamel, activating skating rinks globally as a place where diverse audiences can gather and discover a new art form. Committed to designing inclusive events, the company uses ice skating as an entry point to the arts as well as a way to create unforgettable experiences for audiences of all ages. What began as spontaneous demonstrations on frozen ponds, Le Patin Libre was created by former high-level figure skaters with the intention of transforming their athleticism into a means of free expression and an elevated theatrical artform. In addition to extensive touring throughout North America and France, the company has previously performed at Sadlers Wells, Dance Umbrella Festival London, and Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

1:1 CONCERTS at the Brooklyn Navy Yard

US Premiere/BAM Debut

Curated by Silkroad (music)
Conceived for BAM by Stephanie Winker, Franziska Ritter and Christian
Siegmund
Featuring Members of the Silkroad Ensemble & Guests

The Brooklyn Navy Yard
May 8-9 and 15-16, 2021

Step into a world-class concert for one. Nestled in secluded corners of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, acclaimed New York musicians-including artists from the Silkroad Ensemble-play a one-to-one performance, creating an intimate and utterly unique concert experience. Each audience member follows a unique path to a socially distant, private stage and discovers which musician will share their spirit in a ten-minute set. The safety restrictions of the pandemic open up new performance possibilities, inviting you to an intimate musical experience unlike any other, and encouraging you to give back the profound gifts of an appreciative audience: admiration, connection, and joy. In a world where we are more separated than we have ever been, this series invites audience and musician to re-connect, one person at a time.

1:1 CONCERTS GbR is an interdisciplinary team-flutist, Stephanie Winker, scenographer, Franziska Ritter and cultural mediator Christian Siegmund-that have worked together on various cultural projects for the past several years. Motivated by creative energy and a passionate playfulness, the team aims to break new ground in the design of musical experiences with ingenious site-specific works. Their projects explore the manifold relationships between music, space and people in new and different ways.

Yo-Yo Ma conceived Silkroad in 1998, recognizing the historical Silk Road as a model for radical cultural collaboration - for the exchange of ideas, tradition, and innovation across borders. In an innovative experiment, he brought together musicians from the lands of the Silk Road to co-create a musical language founded in difference, thus creating the foundation of Silkroad: both a touring ensemble comprised of world-class musicians from all over the globe and a social impact organization working to make a positive impact across borders through the arts. Today, under the leadership of Artistic Director Rhiannon Giddens, Silkroad leads social impact initiatives and educational programming alongside the creation of new music by the Grammy Award-winning Silkroad Ensemble.

BAM and Playwrights Horizons present the Movement Theatre Company
production of

What to Send Up When It Goes Down (theater) BAM Debut

Written by Aleshea Harris
Directed by Whitney White

Brooklyn Botanic Garden
June 2021

BAM and Playwrights Horizons present the Movement Theatre Company production of What to Send Up When It Goes Down. Aleshea Harris's acclaimed, groundbreaking work is a play, a ritual, and a homegoing celebration that bears witness to the physical and spiritual deaths of Black people as a result of racist violence. Setting out to disrupt the pervasiveness of anti-Blackness and acknowledge the inherent value of Black people throughout history, this theatrical work blurs the boundaries between actors and audiences, offering a space for catharsis, discussion, reflection, and healing. Specifically reimagined for the expanse of Brooklyn Botanic Garden, this co-production will also have an indoor staging at Playwrights Horizons in the fall.

Pop-Up Magazine: The Sidewalk Issue

The sidewalks of Fort Greene
June 4-20
Free

This spring, the multimedia storytelling company Pop-Up Magazine takes to the streets. Walk, listen, read, and immerse yourself in a series of story installations that unfold across Fort Greene. In true Pop-Up Magazine style, this boundary-pushing work mixes journalism, storytelling, and art to create a unique theatrical experience. Specifically designed to meet all social distancing, health, and safety requirements, these Brooklyn installations are just one part of a larger live magazine that's popping up across the country

VIRTUAL ENGAGEMENTS

Word. Sound. Power. 2021 (music)

Sa-Roc, Okai, Nejma Nefertiti, Peggy Robles-Alvarado, Jade Charon, Baba Israel,
DJ Reborn, and more

BAM's first live virtual show will produce an innovative hip-hop and spoken word concert featuring electrifying performances by some of the best emcees and spoken word artists in Brooklyn and beyond. Through performances from Atlanta emcee Sa-Roc, Brooklynborn Haitian vocalist and percussionist Okai, Brooklyn hip-hop artist Nejma Nefertiti, award-winning Bronx poet Peggy Robles-Alvarado, and Brooklyn-based dancer and Chuck Davis Emerging Choreographer Fellow Jade Charon, audiences will discover how the political becomes poetic, and vice versa. Word. Sound. Power is hosted by hip-hop emcee, poet, and spoken word artist Baba Israel with music by DJ Reborn. The artists will create new work and perform around the theme of rejuvenation and celebration across the African Diaspora using the transformative power of hip-hop and poetry. Word. Sound. Power's first live virtual production will be created in collaboration with innovative designers who create live performances through virtual platforms.

DanceAfrica 2021 (dance)

Vwa Zanset Yo: Y'ap Pale, N'ap Danse! "Ancient Voices: They Speak... We
Dance!"
Haiti
Artistic Director Abdel R. Salaam

BAM.org
May 2021

After 43 years of honoring Africa's rich culture and its Diaspora, DanceAfrica is still going strong. The nation's largest festival of African and African-diasporic dance returns with new content reimagined for the digital space. DanceAfrica 2021 will draw from the strength of the ancestors to celebrate the spirited movement traditions, vibrant culture, and indestructible spirit of Haiti with the theme Vwa Zanset Yo: Y'ap Pale, N'ap Danse!, in Haitian Kreyòl or "Ancient Voices: They Speak... We Dance!". This year's festival brings together dance companies from Haiti and around the United States for an unforgettable celebration of dance and culture; featuring newly commissioned digital dance works, a visual art presentation, dance workshops, the annual FilmAfrica series co-presented by the New York African Film Festival, and community offerings, including the digital DanceAfrica Bazaar. More details will be announced in the weeks to come as programmers look to add live elements to the festival as it becomes safe to do so.

VIRTUAL LITERARY TALKS

Sigrid Nunez
Part of Eat, Drink & Be Literary 2021
Presented in partnership with the National Book Foundation
Moderated by Deborah Treisman

BAM.org/edbl
March 16 at 7:30pm
$10

Sigrid Nunez has published eight novels, including A Feather on the Breath of God, The Last of Her Kind, Salvation City and The Friend, which was a New York Times bestseller and winner of the 2018 National Book Award. Nunez's other honors and awards include four Pushcart Prizes, a Whiting Award, a Berlin Prize Fellowship, and the Rome Prize in Literature. Her work has appeared in several anthologies, including The Best American Short Stories 2019 and four anthologies of Asian-American literature. Nunez is also the author of Sempre Susan: A Memoir of Susan Sontag. Her eighth novel, What Are You Going Through, was published by Riverhead Books in fall 2020. Nunez lives in New York City.

Hanif Abdurraqib in conversation with Wesley Morris

Launch of A Little Devil in America
Part of Unbound
Co-presented by BAM and Greenlight Bookstore

Poet, essayist, cultural critic and BAM Guest Curator at Large Hanif Abdurraqib joins Wesley Morris in a conversation about Black performance to celebrate his new book, A Little Devil in America (March 30, 2021, Random House). Whether it's Merry Clayton singing in "Gimme Shelter," a schoolyard fistfight, or a dance marathon, Abdurraqib delves into the poignancy of performances big and small. His work has layers of resonance in Black and white cultures, the politics of American empire, and Abdurraqib's own personal history of love, grief, and performance. He'll be joined in conversation by Wesley Morris, critic-at-large at The New York Times and a staff writer at The New York Times Magazine.

This event is part of Unbound, a series celebrating new book releases co-presented by BAM and Greenlight Bookstore.

Tayari Jones

Part of Eat, Drink & Be Literary 2021
Presented in partnership with the National Book Foundation
Moderated by Deborah Treisman

BAM.org/edbl
April 20 at 7:30pm
$10

Tayari Jones is the author of An American Marriage, which was a New York Times bestseller, an Oprah's Book Club pick, and was selected by Barack Obama for his summer reading list. She is a native of Atlanta, which serves as the setting for An American Marriage as well as her other novels Leaving Atlanta, The Untelling, Silver Sparrow, and the forthcoming Old Fourth Ward. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times; The Washington Post; O, The Oprah Magazine; Time; Tin House; and The Believer, among other publications. Jones is currently a Charles Howard Candler Professor at Emory University and an A.D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University.

Luis Alberto Urrea

Part of Eat, Drink & Be Literary 2021
Presented in partnership with the National Book Foundation
Moderated by Deborah Treisman

BAM.org/edbl
May 4 at 7:30pm
$10

A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his landmark work of nonfiction, The Devil's Highway, Luis Alberto Urrea is also the bestselling author of the novels The House of Broken Angels, The Hummingbird's Daughter, Into the Beautiful North, and Queen of America, as well as the story collection The Water Museum-a PEN/Faulkner Award finalist. He has won the Lannan Literary Award, an Edgar Award, a 2017 American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, and was a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow, among many other honors. Born in Tijuana to a Mexican father and American mother, he lives outside of Chicago and teaches at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

BAM Gala 2021

Join them as they celebrate what is most meaningful to BAM: their stalwart supporters and the unstoppable creativity of their artists. The evening includes a virtual celebration and the opening of the annual BAM Art Auction powered by Artsy, which can be easily accessed from home. They're also looking forward to potential in-person festivities, in accordance with the most up-to-date health and safety protocols. More details to be announced soon.

To post a comment, you must register and login.