BAM Celebrates the Cuban Spirit

Cuban culture dazzles in art, music, dance and more from April 20 at BAM, when the organization hosts a series of shows in conjunction with the citywide “Si Cuba” festival.
 
First up at BAM, “Hola Havana,” a group art exhibition, runs from April 20 through May 20 in the Peter Jay Sharp building. The show spotlights contemporary work by a diverse range of artists including the spring BAMbill cover artist, Alexandre Arrechea.
 
BAM Café will host a lively line-up of musicians with roots in hybrid hip-hop, Latin jazz and traditional songs on various Fridays and Saturdays from April through June, starting with groove-oriented band Quimbombo at 9 p.m. April 22. See the full schedule of events here.
 
“These are artists that rarely perform in New York,” said Sarah Garvey, publicist at BAM. “With the relaxed restrictions between the US and Cuba within the current administration, the time [to host Cuban artists] was ideal.”
 
While the art exhibition and most music events are free, tickets are required for author Cristina Garcia’s reading at 6:30 p.m. May 12 ($50, part of the “Eat, Drink and Be Literary” series), new Cuban films May 20 to 22 at BAM Rose Cinemas ($12 or $7 for members), and two significant dance performances toward the end of the festival.
 
Ballet Folklorico Cutumba displays vibrant Afro-Cuban and Haitian styles in a sultry program from May 27 to 30 at the Howard Gilman Opera House (tickets start at $20), and “La Magia de la Danza: Ballet National de Cuba” will deliver an “enthralling program,” Garvey said, from June 8 to 11, also at the opera house (tickets start at $25). The program will include scenes from classic ballets like “Giselle,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Swan Lake” and “The Nutcracker.”
 
Garvey anticipates the latter will be one of the festival’s highlights. The ballet also closes the Spring Season at BAM.
 
The “melting pot of influences from Africa, Europe and the Americas” invests Cuban culture with its distinctive energy and spirit, Garvey said.
 
The “Si Cuba” continues through June 16; see here for details of citywide programming.