Digital: Word! día bùi

Live from Vietnam*, día bùi’s long-awaited return leads to sacred ground to manifest ritual, word, and performance in honor of día’s bà ngoại (grandmother) and her bones in excavation. Bùi will weave spoken word, choreography, improvisation, and even laughter into a half-hour co-experience.

Speaking of the Erotic is a día’s grandest work-in-progress to date. A slice of this work will be featured and tailored for Word! curated by Eva Yaa Asantewaa.

About día bùi

Unbounded and reimagined, día bùi is a Queer Vietnamese artist, sociologist, and spiritualist. Bùi’s lifelong commitment to liberatory practices – in movement, pleasure, and story-telling – are rooted in día’s experiences born as a child of war and refuge. Over the past 18 years, día has had a wild and off-beat artistic journey – from spoken word poetry at the U.S. Supreme Court to comedic story-telling at the historic Lincoln Theater to ritual dance performance at BAAD! (Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance). Bùi is also a self-taught designer from graphics to experiential collections on a spectrum from social justice campaigns to art for liberation. Design is a method in which dia’s sources the divine and aesthetics are the message. Bùi has organized across the country on advocacy tours and has travelled to Cuba, Mexico, and Vietnam to investigate arts, culture and revolution.

Word!, curated by Eva Yaa Asantewaa, presents live performance of storytelling, monologues, spoken word, stand-up, or creative talks. Each performance – free and open to the public – runs 30-45 minutes, traditionally scheduled within the hour before a dance concert presented in Gibney’s Theater. Due to COVID-19, Word! for the fall season will happen on Zoom.

All Fall 2021 Season events will be held online via Zoom. Gibney’s Box Office can be reached via email. For ticketing inquiries or requests, please email Marketing & Audience Services Manager, Kimiko Tanabe, at boxoffice@gibneydance.org.

Gibney encourages people with disabilities to attend online offerings, and we welcome the opportunity to make this event more accessible. This event features live ASL interpreters and live captioning. If you have any questions or additional access needs, please email us at constanza@gibneydance.org or call us at 212-677-8560 (voice only) at least 24 hours in advance of the event you plan to attend.

Image Description: a headshot of día, a queer Vietnamese with jungle light, yellow power pigmented skin with mid-length black hair tied up in a pony-tail dangling in front of face and a white/tan headscarf tied like a head-band. día is wearing glasses with oddly round black rims and gold trimmings. día is wearing a gold septum and crystal nose rings with a black tank top and a simple black necklace with an ancient symbol of virility (lingling-o) from the Philippines that’s out of frame.

Photo by día bùi.