Bullerengue: In Sorrow and Power, Bullerengue’s Voices of Resistance

Practising Communitarian Joy and Resilience

Darlina Sáenz

Bullerengue: In Sorrow and Power, Bullerengue’s Voices of Resistance

Darlina Sáenz

Music and Dance Workshop, Practice

In April 2026 HKW welcomes the presence of renowned cantadora Darlina Sáenz. Through  a workshop format (for which no prior experience is required), followed by a rueda, the circular open format in which Bullerengue unfolds, she shares her knowledge of this interconnected music, dance, and community-building practice. Widely recognized as one of the tradition’s key contemporary voices, Darlina Sáenz is a singer and cultural bearer of Bullerengue, actively involved in its preservation and transmission through community initiatives and cultural projects.

Through embodied practice, her workshop at HKW offers an immersive experience of Bullerengue. Drawing on oral tradition, the session centres learning through listening, repetition, and shared participation, allowing direct engagement with the practice’s dynamics in music, dance, and collectivity.

Daughter of the revered Bullerengue singer and composer Eloisa Garcés, Sáenz represents the continuity of an ancestral musical lineage that has persisted for centuries. Raised in Necoclí, Antioquia, she learned Bullerengue through time spent with elder women in her community, her mother being her primary guide. Following her mother’s passing, she assumed the role of lead singer in the group Palmeras de Urabá, taking on the responsibility of carrying forward her mother’s repertoire and voice. Today, she and her sister Arlenis Garcés are the main voices of the group Cantares de Eloa, continuing to honour and sustain their mother’s legacy.

The workshop is co-facilitated by drummer and pedagogue Valeria Pacific, co-director of Bullerengue Circle, a community interest organization that has been key to the growth of a European Bullerengue community and international awareness of this ancestral tradition. 

The series takes place in the frame of the ongoing programme Politics of Rhythm, which stimulates dance and music practices—such as Bullerengue—to cultivate and preserve communitarian knowledge. 

In, around, and associated with HKW there is no space for, nor tolerance towards, hate speech or hate actions of any kind. HKW welcomes anyone interested in taking part in the emancipatory practice of Bullerengue, particularly those undertaking anti-racist, intersectional, feminist, queer activism. Join in with clapping, singing, dancing, or playing (bring your own drum or maracas if you wish). It’s open to all! 

With: 
Valeria Pacific, Darlina Sáenz

The workshop is part of the Bullerengue series.

Location:
Haunani-Kay Trask Hall

Languages:
In Spanish and English. German-language assistance possible.

Next Bullerengue Workshop Date: 
Sunday 4 October, 15:00 – 19:00

Meeting point: Haunani-Kay Trask Hall

Next date:

• Date Sunday, 26/April/2026 15:00 bis 19:00
• Venue Haus der Kulturen der Welt
• Address John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10, 10557 Berlin-Tiergarten