Colombia

1. In his collaborative work with the dance company, Sankofa DanzAfro, Carlos Correa supported the organisation of three workshops with children and young people in the city of Medellín as part of a Dance Network sponsored by the city’s Town Hall. The objective of the workshops was to support creative processes of developing Afro-urban and traditional dance as means for the expression of identity. The workshops were documented in a video Laboratorios de creación en casa (Home-based Creation Laboratories).

2. Carlos Correa carried out audience studies among low-income and racialised sectors in Cartagena, interviewing consumers of the dance performances of Sankofa Danzafro and of champeta popular music. This contributed to the creation of a strategic plan led by a local champeta music promoter in order to strengthen the current process of patrimonialisation of champeta music and culture in Cartagena. These studies contributed to the collaboration that underpinned the creation of a dance artwork, Detras del Sur: Danzas para Manuel, in which the Sankofa Danzafro dance company reflected on the heritage of Manuel Zapata Olivella, an Afro-Colombian intellectual and writer who has been recently honoured by the Colombian Ministry of Culture. Correa made a documentary about the development of this work, Detrás del Sur: Danzas Para Manuel. Anti-Racist Artistic Practices, which has had over 2000 views.

3. From September to December 2022, Correa worked in collaboration with Sankofa Danzafro in the project “Dance To Be Heard”, funded by the Ministry of Culture in Colombia. Informed by CARLA’s approach, the project developed an anti-racist approach in Afro contemporary dance. Through workshops organised by Sankofa with help from Carlos, the project reached more than 60 children and young people in the city of Medellin, most of them Afro-Colombian, who reflected on experiences of racism in their daily life and strategies for facing racial injustice. The results of the project were: a) a series of 7 videos with testimonies from children and young people about the feelings they experience with dancing and their thoughts about racism and anti-racism; b) a performance called Ancestors of the Future launched at the Metropolitan Theatre in Medellín with more than 700 spectators; c) an academic article called “Ancestors of the Future”, published in Latin American Research Review; d) six posters designed by young Black participants in the workshops featuring quotes related to anti-racism.

4. Correa had a long-term collaboration with the Wi Da Monikongo, the Colombian Afro-descendant Audiovisual Council. This involved sponsoring and supporting a series of video and photographic workshops for children and young people, organized by CARABANTU (Afro-Colombian Corporation for Social Development and Culture). The workshops also resulted in seven short video projects, developed by young (mostly Afro-Colombian) people that were screened as part of the VI Festival Internacional de Cine Comunitario Kinte Kunta in September 2022. Correa’s findings about Afro-Colombian participation in the film world were used to inform his support for Wi Da Monikongo in delivering workshops and training to a group of young Afro-Colombian people who were applying to study at the Universidad de Antioquia. The main activity consisted of working with students doing a pre-university course organised by CARABANTU in the city of Medellín and training them on how to write an academic text as well as advising on career planning.

5. In conjunction with Liliana Angulo Cortés, the project’s advisor in Colombia, Correa has collaborated with Wi Da Monikongo in the organisation of an online film festival of Afro-Colombian productions. Using project funds, English-language subtitles have been added to these films for the purposes of the festival and to allow the films to circulate more widely in international film festivals. These films are available at https://indyon.tv/wi-da-monikongo/.

6. In conjunction with Mara Viveros, the project’s academic lead in Colombia, Correa organised a major event with the title “Entrecaminos Antirracistas y Feministas”, which was held on 3 November 2022 under the aegis of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia’s Escuela de Estudios de Género. The programme consisted of roundtables, the launch of the CARLA exhibition, a film screening and a musical performance. Participants included CARLA artists in Colombia: Sankofa Danzafro, Liliana Angulo, Wilson Borja, Margarita Ariza and champeta band Las Emperadoras.

7. CARLA artist Margarita Ariza Aguilar presented her performance work Salve, Salva, Salvia at The International Summer School “Stories of Resistance: remembering and archiving political and environmental conflicts”, September 4-15 2023 in Bogotá. The Summer School was organised by the University of Kassel, in cooperation with the School of Human Sciences of the Universidad del Rosario, and the Institut Kassel.

8. Correa curated the exhibition Cuerpo, amores y saberes; arte y representación afrocolombianas (Body, Love and Knowledge; Afro-Colombian Art and Representation) bringing together the work of four artists, three of whom worked with CARLA: Jeison Riascos, Wilson Borja Marroquín and Margarita Ariza Aguilar. The exhibition had the support of the Afro-Latin American Research Institute (Harvard University) and the Consulate of Colombia in Boston and it ran from 15 Sept to 1 Nov 2024 in Boston City Hall Galleries.

9. In his role as lead researcher and curator for the Afro-Colombian Museum project, Correa gave a keynote speech for the Black Heritage Voices conference organised by the Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage (Leicester, 11 Nov 2025).