BDA hosts community events including hands on workshops, exhibitions, educational exhibits, dance presentations, film screenings, panel discussions and more. Our event series, From Benin to the Bay, is a series of multi-day, multidisciplinary, hybrid (virtual and in person) events happening online and at community based venues throughout the Bay Area. These events are comprised of a film screening, dance performance-demonstrations, workshops and panel discussions. We also host the Empowered Creative Seniors (ECS) program for Black artists over the age of 60. ECS program is a cohort based program that provides participants with the training, information and direct instruction on the tools they need to thrive in the modern creative landscape as well as tech tools to support their efforts. ECS programming and resources directly address technology gaps to increase participant’s ability to promote themselves and their work and to support their self-definition of their artistic legacy.

BDA’s offerings serve to explore the continuum of art forms and spiritual practices linking the Afro Diasporic communities and traditions in places like the Bay Area, the American South, Brazil, The Caribbean, Haiti and the various points on the continent of Africa.