Rafael Palacios / Sankofa Danzafro

Dancing as a way of being heard. For Rafael Palacios, a legend in his country, dance is a way of speaking out. In Medellín, Colombia—the Latin American country with the second largest Afro-descendant population (after Brazil)—Palacios seeks to deconstruct the stereotypes associated with the Black experience. Through his company Sankofa Danzafro, founded more than 25 years ago, he has allowed many Afro-Colombians to reclaim their dignity through movement. The show pays tribute to the literary masterpiece Changó el Gran Putas by the great writer Manuel Zapata Olivella (1920–2004), which traces the saga of the Black African diaspora in the New World. At the confluence of past and present; a total sensory experience.