Agua y Luz: Music of Tumaco and the Afro Colombian Pacific

Currulao is the traditional music of Colombia’s majority-Black, southern Pacific coastal region. In this episode, professor Michael Birenbaum Quintero describes how this performative practice has been used to grapple with modernization, dramatize Black politics, demonstrate national heritage and generate economic development. Currulao connects the past to an emerging future as the identification and role of race in Colombia has changed across multiple generations of musicians. Produced by Nathaniel Braddock.