Poetry 2016 comes to BAM April 8, 9
On April 8 and 9, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) will present “Poetry 2016: Past is Present,” a resonant performance that takes the audience through the pantheon of spoken word and hip-hop. Performing at 7:30 p.m. at BAM Fisher (321 Ashland Place), the artists will link the present day to foundations and voices from yesteryear in a seamless display of power, energy and truth.
The dynamic Baba Israel will return as the host and director. This year’s line-up includes the poets Liza Jessie Petersen, Climbing PoeTree, Flaco Navaja and Jennifer Cendaña Armas, with music by DJ Reborn and a musical performance by Yako440. In addition, four students from BAM Education’s poetry residency, Brooklyn Reads, have been selected through an online voting process to perform in this annual main-stage show. These students have been chosen out of 500 high school participants to present their work alongside the professional artists in Poetry 2016.
Baba Israel began his career as an arts educator in Australia and has gone on to be a leading educator and consultant working with organizations such as Urban Word, BAM and the University of Madison. He worked as a cultural ambassador with the State Department and served as artistic director and CEO of Contact Theatre in Manchester from 2009 to 2012. Israel is the co-founder and artistic director of Playback NYC Theatre Company, which brings theater to under-represented communities; he has served as a lead teaching artist for the Brooklyn Reads education program at BAM.
Brooklyn Boro
View MoreNew York City’s most populous borough, Brooklyn, is home to nearly 2.6 million residents. If Brooklyn were an independent city it would be the fourth largest city in the United States. While Brooklyn has become the epitome of ‘cool and hip’ in recent years, for those that were born here, raised families here and improved communities over the years, Brooklyn has never been ‘uncool’.