Michael Birenbaum Quintero

Michael Birenbaum Quintero studies Black cultural politics in Latin America. His work in Colombia examines the place of music in both the Afro-Colombian social movement and the cultural policy of the state under neoliberal multiculturalism; historical constructions of Blackness through music; sounded cosmology; vernacular Black music circulation and technology; violence and trauma; the affective politics of loudness and the genealogy of the Afro-Colombian intellectual tradition

More recently he has turned to examining ritual soundscapes in Havana, New York City, and Ọ̀yọ̀ (Nigeria). He is looking at the place of Afro-Cuban religious drumming in New York City in forging politically salient Afrocentric self-identifications and intra-Diasporic interactions between New York Puerto Ricans, African-Americans, Afro-Cubans, and Africans. He has also published on music streaming algorithms and the affect of late capitalism.

Beyond the academy, Prof. Birenbaum Quintero has directed a grassroots Afro-Colombian community music archive with the grassroots research collective ASINCh in Quibdó (Chocó); designed cultural policy initiatives with the Colombian Ministry of Culture; taught Afro-Colombian youth leaders through the Manos Visibles foundation; performed traditional music and organized tours with Colombian musicians such as Grupo Naidy, Diego Obregón, Los Balanta, and maestro Gualajo; co-composed a PSA jingle for the Colombian census, appeared on the Afropop Worldwide podcast and NPR, and collaborated with the Afro-Colombian activist organization Proceso de Comunidades Negras and with Latinx, Black, Colombian, and working-class organizers in Massachusetts.

For more on Michael Birenbaum Quintero, visit bu.academia.edu/MichaelBirenbaumQuintero.