Unexpected Media

In Memoriam: Andy Palacio

Andy Palacio a musician and artist, who worked with me at the community media organisation Cultural Partnerships in the 1980s, died last month aged 47.

A member of the Garifuna people in Belize, Andy was a talented musician and passionate about preserving and promoting Garifuna language and culture.

Andy, whose musical career had taken off and stalled a couple of times, seemed finally to be on the brink of becoming very well known. He recorded and toured extensively; he was awarded BBC3’s World Music Award following the release his last album Watina. Reviewing it in the Guardian last year, Charlie Gillett wrote: “whatever people mean by music being universal, surely this is the perfect demonstration of their argument”.