At Next Wave, Paris Comes to BAM (and Vice Versa)

In 1983, former BAM President Harvey Lichtenstein hired Joseph Melilo to initiate a brand new project at the Fort Greene arts institution. “New York City did not have a contemporary performing arts festival, and there were several in the world,” Melilo told me over the phone recently. “And New York City we believe is one of the great cultural capitals of the world; it should have a contemporary performing arts festival,” Melilo explained of Lichtenstein’s reasoning