Rafael Casal on Building Something Real
Who's with Me? with W. Kamau BellPlay episode
Show notes
The podcast opens with Kamau giving Rafael his flowers. Rafael, who has lived in LA for seven years, insists he still identifies Berkeley and Oakland as home, describing his time in LA as an extended work trip.
The conversation moves into Rafael's background in the Bay Area youth poetry scene, where he competed in the National Poetry Slam and earned a reputation. Around season three of Def Poetry Jam, producers sought out younger voices and brought Rafael on at age 18. He describes being a nervous, skinny kid staring at the ground on stage, having never memorized a poem before. He was one of the first people to convert his clip from VHS and upload it to YouTube, where it reached a million views, a rare feat at the time. He then toured colleges for a decade off that single clip.
During this period, Rafael and his childhood friends opened a recording studio in a North Oakland warehouse, where he first began collaborating with Daveed Diggs. He later took a role as creative director of a poetry scholarship program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he also worked toward a degree, finishing four credits shy of completion.
The interview touches on Rafael's identity as a white Latino, the complexity of Hispanic racial identity, and the importance of honest self-placement within conversations about race and representation in Hollywood.
The conversation closes with Rafael discussing his commitment to the Bay Area community, including efforts around the Oakland film incentive, the Baylist initiative connecting Bay Area media makers, and a call for investment in local film infrastructure. He reflects on the importance of mentorship and passing permission to younger artists, citing an encounter with Jim Carrey as a defining moment of validation.
Donate to #Makeitbay at https://makeitbay.org and to Youth Speaks at https://youthspeaks.org
Who's With Me is produced by Rabbit Grin Productions. Music by Chris Dowd. Distributed by Pushkin Industries.
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