Love Letter to Oakland
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Rafael Casal is a poet, writer, producer, actor, and rapper from the Bay. Casal toured and taught spoken-word performance nationwide with YouthSpeaks at age 16 and is a two-time Brave New Voices Poetry Slam Festival champion. At 18, he appeared on 3 seasons of HBO’s Def Poetry and garnered millions of views as a Youtube creator sharing music, poetry, shorts, and political commentary. Casal earned his degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he founded the First Wave Hip Hop & Urban Arts Scholarship Program, serving as the program’s Creative Director and Curator of its Line Breaks Theater Festival. In 2008, Casal released his first solo album, As Good as Your Word. In 2010, he released The Bad Boy Mixtape with Daveed Diggs under Getback Productions, which he co-founded with Diggs and Chinaka Hodge. His music has been featured on MTV and Showtime and at SXSW and Sundance. In 2018, Casal made his feature debut in the critically acclaimed comedy-drama, Blindspotting, which he wrote, produced, and starred in with Diggs. The film uses verse to tell the story of Oakland through two friends, exploring the intersections of gentrification, income inequality, and systemic racism. The soundtrack features Bay Area artists, including rap performances by Casal and Diggs. Casal reprised his role in the 2-season series adaptation for Starz while serving as co-writer, director, and executive producer. The 2nd season won a SXSW TV Spotlight Audience Award and an Emmy for Outstanding Choreography for Scripted Programming. Casal’s acting credits include Bad Education, The Good Lord Bird, Wildcat, and Loki. He is co-founder and artistic director of the BARS Workshop, a monthly theater-in-verse program at New York City's Public Theater. He is currently working to uplift Oakland’s cultural economy and generate jobs through media sector growth as a co-founder of the East Bay Film Collective. Through EBFC, Casal worked with Oakland city council members to pass the Oakland Film Initiative in July 2024 which will provide incentives to filmmakers to produce films locally.
www.instagram.com/rafaelcasal | East Bay Film Collective