Cuba’s Ballet Folklórico Cutumba are part of the annual Memorial Day weekend DanceAfrica celebration at BAM
Brooklyn Academy of Music
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Through May 30, free – $50 (dance $20-$50, films $12, music and street fair free)
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
Held in conjunction with the ¡Sí Cuba! Festival, BAM’s thirty-fourth annual celebration of African dance continues through Memorial Day with a bevy of great events centered around performances by Cuba’s Ballet Folklórico Cutumba, the Brooklyn-based BAM/Restoration DanceAfrica Ensemble, the Bronx’s Bambara Drum and Dance Ensemble, and Philadelphia’s Kùlú Mèlé African Dance & Drum Ensemble in the Howard Gilman Opera House and led by the ever-welcome presence of Baba Chuck Davis; the Sunday show will be followed by an Artist Talk with Davis, Idalberto Banderas, and Dr. Marta Moreno Vega, moderated by Fernando Sáez (after which dancers will take to the streets in impromptu performances). BAMcinématek’s “FilmAfrica” series will screen such works as Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s Cannes Grand Jury Prize winner A Screaming Man (Un homme qui crie) (2010), Souleymane Cissé’s Yeelen (Brightness) (1987), and Andrew Dosunmu’s 2011 New York-set Restless City (followed by a Q&A with the director). BAMcafé Live will host a free show by Miami’s the Nag Champayons on Saturday at 9:00, followed by a DanceAfrica Late-Night Dance Party with DJ Cato. And on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, beginning at noon each day, one of the best street fairs of the year will be held on Ashland Pl., the DanceAfrica Bazaar, featuring great food and drink, booths selling statues, clothing, shea butter, arts & crafts, and other cool goods, live music, and much more.