BAAD! is a 70-seat performance and workshop space founded in 1998 by award-winning dancer/choreographer Arthur Aviles and writer/activist Charles Rice-Gonzalez. Every year BAAD! welcomes 4,000 attendees from New York City, specifically the Bronx, to five annual festivals:

• October/November: The BlakTinX Performance Series, celebrating the convergence of work by African-American and Latino artists.

• February: Get Tough! Get BAAD!, an LGBTQ film series featuring narrative films with positive endings;

• March: BAAD! Ass Women, showcasing empowering art by women;

• May: The Boogie Down Dance Festival, a presentation of Bronx choreographers and dance forms; and

• June: OUT LIKE THAT, the Bronx's only LGBTQ performing arts festival

BAAD! is also home to Arthur Aviles Typical Theatre, a modern contemporary dance company. In 2002, the company formed the Bronx Dance Coalition to support the infrastructure of professional Bronx dance companies and develop strategies to sustain and market Bronx-based dance entities. The Coalition produces the Bronx Dance Magazine, a resource publication celebrating and documenting Bronx dance.

BAAD! brings a queer and dissident perspective to the socio-political dialogue and culture of our neighborhood, borough, and city through first-rate art. Through partnerships with other community-based organizations, grassroots organizing projects which parallel performances, and programming which gives voice to artists from underrepresented demographics, BAAD! aids in dismantling paradigms of injustice such as sexism, racism and homophobia in the Bronx and beyond.

Do you have an event or performance you'd like to propose?

CLICK HERE to access the BAAD! Festival Application!