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

The singer, dancer and budding neuroscientist said her legendary grandfather "would be very disappointed in where we are as a country."

Sarafina 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.”

“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.

But 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.