Harry Belafonte's Granddaughter Performs Through The Post-Election Pain

LOADINGERROR LOADINGSarafina Belafonte performed this week at New York’s Sony Hall with her grandfather, the late singer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte, very much on her mind.After debuting an original song called “Wandering Eye,” Belafonte told HuffPost that his lessons loom large when she is onstage.She said he preached entertainment basics: “Perform big with a big smile.” But he also gave her a deeper tip: “Always have the cause with us.”Advertisement “Make sure that social justice and the message is in everything we do while creating art,” she said.Belafonte did a lot Wednesday.

She sang, danced and modeled in a night of fashion and musical numbers coordinated by her mother, Malena Belafonte.Sarafina Belafonte, granddaughter of Harry Belafonte, performs at Sony Hall on Dec.18.Video by Karine Cohen-Dicker for HuffPost.— (@rondicker.bsky.social) 2024-12-21T14:59:48.647ZBut the 21-year-old is even more of a multiple threat than you might think.

She is studying neuroscience at Columbia University.A “botched” brain surgery prompted her maternal grandmother to have months of hallucinations, she explained.

She yearned to know what was happening to her grandma and why.Advertisement Sarafina Belafonte sings "Wandering Eye."Karine Cohen-Dicker for HuffPost“I went into a deep dive into neuroscience and I caught the bug,” she said.Belafonte said she plans on getting her Ph.D.and doing research, but declared that performing “is really what fuels me.”“The dream is to do it all,” she said.Belafonte conceded that she has been nursing post-election sadness and that her grandfather, who died in 2023 at age 96, would probably share her sentiments.Advertisement “I think he would be very disappointed in where we are as a country,” she said.

“I don’t think he would be surprised.”Sarafina Belafonte, pictured in 2017 to the right of parents Malena and David Belafonte, admired her grandfather, Harry Belafonte, ...