Extra Ancestral

Founded by Kahlil Cummings in 2017, Extra Ancestral is a cultural movement dedicated to educating and entertaining audiences through the fusion of different cultural manifestations of the African Diaspora. In their performances, audiences are likely to experience genres such as Afrobeat, Reggae, Jazz, Salsa, and many traditional African musical forms of the Diaspora. Narrated through powerful ancestral dancing, Extra Ancestral provides an in-depth education of temporal and geographic borders from Africa to the Americas and back, providing lessons from the past to hone tools for the future. Music and dance are the ensemble’s healing tools, and led by some of LA’s most dynamic artists, their revolutionary performances of black survival invoke while poignantly resisting 500 years of forced transatlantic passages between West Africa and the Americas.

Extra Ancestral unifies music, dance, visual arts, and community engagement as forms of empowerment to reduce the trans generational trauma that exists in
communities of color. Historically, music and dance have been considered the oldest form of medicine and Extra Ancestral seeks to combine the tradition of
healing through their performances to elevate and empower communities of color. Their vision manifests into performance productions, dance classes, workshops and music education with artists from across the African Diaspora.

Eduardo Palo Cuero (Eduardo Martinez) is a Percussionist and Gaitero from Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. He is an ambassador of his Afro-Indigenous musical roots and has played throughout the world with some of the most recognized representatives of the music from the Caribbean Coast of Colombia such as Ballet National De Colombia, Toto La Momposina and Petrona Martinez among others. In 2009, he released his first Jazz/Funk Fusion album entitled ACABACION. Collaborations with master musicians include Justo Almario, Oskar Cartaya, Chelito de Castro, Diego Valdez and Francisco Zumaque. Eduardo is constantly seeking to create new sounds and exploring fusions of Afro-Colombian rhythms with other musical influences.