What: Autumn brings the 26th edition of the Next Wave Festival at BAM, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, America’s oldest continuously operated performing arts center.
Where: Fort Greene, Brooklyn
When: September 30th—December 20th
Why: For 13 weeks, the restored Beaux Arts structure will showcase 15 works representing nearly a dozen cultures. Executive Producer, Joseph Melillo, offers a body of performances culled from his travels throughout the globe. “The diverse selection of works inherently brings dialogue,” said John Wyszniewski, BAM Publicity Manager. “It is a convergence of contemporary artists and conversations happening all over the world.”
One of the festival’s brightest performances, Sunken Red (Oct 7, 9—11 at 7:30pm) is a soliloquy about a Dutch man who recalls his life and his loss of innocence while interned at a Japanese prison camp as a young boy. If you are one to seek out new cultural experiences, you’ll be intrigued by the imagination of debut Icelandic actor/director Gísli Örn Gardarsson’s Woyzeck. It’s a theatrical performance characterized by all the narrative elements of a great tragedy, scored by cult rocker Nick Cave and The Dirty Three’s violinist Warren Ellis. There are ethereal movements staged by Stephen Page’s Awakenings, Édouard Lock’s Amjad and premier choreographer Pina Bausch’s Bamboo Blues that compel a second, third and fourth visit.
With so many great modern performances housed in one place, it’s no wonder that the inception of the festival “put Brooklyn culture on the map,” said Wyszniewski. This fall, make the short trip to this epicenter of contemporary works for a taste of art that you—and that pounding in your chest—won’t soon forget.
How to get there: Take the $7 BAMbus from Park Avenue between 41st and 42nd Streets. It departs one hour before every BAM performance in the Howard Gilman Opera House and the Harvey Theater, unless otherwise noted.
Or take the 2, 3, 4, 5, N, R, M, D lines: follow station signs for BAM/LIRR. After exiting the turnstile walk straight and then bear right onto the LIRR train platform. Take the platform stairs up one flight into the Atlantic Terminal lobby. Turn left (past the Starbucks) and exit onto the street. Turn right and walk down Flatbush Avenue a half block and bear slightly right onto Ashland Place (do not turn onto Hanson Place). Walk one block down Ashland Place (note, due to construction you may need to cross to the other side of the street).
Visit BAM’s site for a full schedule of events during the program. (30 Lafayette Ave., Brooklyn, NY, 718.636.4100, bam.org)
Photos: Courtesy of BAM
Sarah Knapp is a Brooklyn based entrepreneur whose love for the outdoors and community building led her to the October 2013 creation of OutdoorFest. She has a BA in History, is a Wilderness First Responder and a NY state hiking, camp and boating guide. Her proudest achievement to date is reading the Aeneid in Latin. 
Allison was one of our first top writers and Chief Editor but is no longer working with offMetro. Allison is a native New Yorker, who has lived in Rome, Tuscany, Melbourne, Toronto and Los Angeles. She frequently contributed travel pieces to Family Travel Forum, using her own children as guinea pigs as they travel the globe. She never missed a chance to sample local delicacies, as her love for travel goes hand-in-hand with her love for food and wine. 
Josh Laskin is a freelance travel writer and photographer based in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. When he is not at work or on the road, you can find him in the mountains snowboarding, climbing, hiking, fly fishing, mountain biking, and eating bagel bites.
Annie is a travel writer, environmentalist, and surfer based in Venice, CA. She heads up our West Coast team, keeps our grammatical errors in check, and makes sure our California writers always have a plan for their next adventure. Follow Annie’s travels @annelisemcb.
Carly Pifer is a freelance writer who has been known to follow whims inspired by romantic movie scenes or colorful street style shots to India, Japan, Tunisia and Argentina. After stints living in Seoul, Boston, Paris and Los Angeles, writing and searching for something intangible, she landed somewhat steadily in Brooklyn and has begun to find inspiration in her more immediate surroundings. 
Kate E. O’Hara is a New York based freelance writer and photographer who loves all things food—especially the people who make it and market it. Her writing aims to capture the essence of the food experience; the stories that go well beyond a plate of ingredients. In addition to her love of food, Kate is also known to have a hankering for red wine and craft beer. You can also find Kate on Instagram