BAM! It's the kind of sound that gets your attention, that makes you snap to and turn your head to see what's up. In this case, what's up is a congregation of dancers, actors, musicians, and poets from San Francisco; Phoenix; Jackson, Miss.; Dallas; San Antonio; and, naturally, Austin, gathering here to show you firsthand the current surge of creativity among the nation's African-American artists. BAM! – short for Black Arts Movement – is a new performing arts festival from ProArts Collective, an organization that is undergoing a surge of creativity itself these days. Under the leadership of the bright and resolute Lisa Byrd, ProArts has expanded one of its signature events, the African American Festival of Dance, to encompass dance, theatre, hip-hop, spoken word, and a range of music from jazz to soul, spread over two weeks. One of the strengths of the earlier festival was its ability to draw national companies of real power, and from all appearances, BAM! is continuing that tradition and building on it. Its debut year features hip-hop poets and brothers in arts Carlton and Maurice Turner, aka M.U.G.A.B.E.E.; an acclaimed production of Suzan-Lori Parks' Pulitzer Prize-winning Topdog/UnderdogÊfrom Phoenix's iTheatre Collaborative; and the inspired dance troupe Robert Moses' Kin. And performing side by side with them are some of our own leading lights, such as the unstoppable wordsmith/whirlwind Zell Miller III. From Monday Sept. 25, through Sunday, Oct. 8, you ought to be able to find something that sets your pulse racing. Below is a snapshot of the schedule. For more information, visit www.proarts.info. Unless otherwise noted, festival events take place at Boyd Vance Theater in the George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center, 1165 Angelina.
Meet the Artists reception
Monday, Sept. 25, 6pm, Boyd Vance Theater
Black & Latino Playwright Conference Readings of two new plays.
Monday, Sept. 25, and Tuesday, Sept. 26, 8pm, Boyd Vance Theater
Black & Blue: 400 Years of Struggle and Transcendence
San Antonio literary center Gemini Ink presents this readers theatre program by playwright Sterling Houston, pairing traditional jazz and blues with readings of historical documents from the American slavery era.
Wednesday, Sept. 27, 8pm, Boyd Vance Theater
Topdog/Underdog
Phoenix's iTheatre Collaborative presents Suzan-Lori Parks' Pulitzer Prize-winning drama exploring the damaged dynamic between two brothers, Lincoln and Booth, in a New York flat.
Thursday, Sept. 28, 8pm, at the Off Center, 2211 Hidalgo
Robert Moses' Kin
Renowned San Francisco dance company presents The President's Daughter, a new work by choreographer Moses, loosely adapted from an 1853 novel by escaped slave William Wells Brown but exploring the conflict between the public and private lives of figures such as Thomas Jefferson and Strom Thurmond.
Friday, Sept. 29, 8pm, Boyd Vance Theater
SoulFest Music Festival
Saturday, Sept. 30, 4-10pm, at Kenny Dorham's Backyard, 1106 E. 11th
Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine
ProArts presents Austin's first look at Lynn Nottage's broadly satiric fable of a successful black woman's fall and efforts to claw her way out of misfortune.
Tuesday, Oct. 3, and Thursday, Oct. 5, 8pm; Sunday, Oct. 8, 3pm, Boyd Vance Theater
ACC Dance Department, Dallas Black Dance, and UpRise!
Program of dance from up-and-coming choreographers at Austin Community College, Big D's long-established contemporary modern dance troupe, and the innovative local collaborative company UpRise!, combining spoken word, dance, stage combat, capoeira, and music.
Wednesday, Oct. 4, 8pm, Boyd Vance Theater
M.U.G.A.B.E.E. & Zell Miller III
Zell Miller III presents The Mix-Tape, Theater Style, a collage of his work drawn from The Evidence of Silence Broken; my child, my child, my alien child; and B-Boy Bluez.
M.U.G.A.B.E.E. presents Batteries in the Killing Machine, an original play with music written and performed by Missisippi musician/poet/performers Maurice Turner & Carlton Turner.
Friday, Oct. 6, and Saturday, Oct. 7, 8pm, at the Off Center, 2211 Hidalgo
