#def poetry jam

[therafanatics]

RAFAEL CASAL - DEF POETRY JAM / OLD INSTAGRAM PHOTO (2023)

When I was 18, I flew to New York City for the first time to tape for Season 4 of Def Poetry on HBO. It was for me, the culmination of four years of performing poetry around the country as a teenager, it was my chance to show the adult poetry scene how the youth were bringin it, and was the first major validation of me as an artist outside of the Bay. I got backstage and there was Mos Def, Dave Chapelle, Alicia Keys, a young Kanye West, Common, jill Scott, Felicia rashad, and poets Id never met but seen on tv - @lemon.andersen , @maydadelvalle, @saulwilliams, Mums, @therealshihan and more. It was the first time I saw myself in the larger context of American artistry. And after a week of taping, and trying to wrap my mind around what was happening to this 18 year old me, they handed me this def poetry jacket. Went back and did two more seasons. I kept it all these years, hoping one day to frame it. I remember then thinking “if this is as far as your artistic career gets, you did it Rafa.” And I’m proud to put this on my wall now, still living and breathing as the artist I fought and continue to fight to be. Love to all my artist kinfolk out there. 20 years later. The artist hustle is the hardest hustle, a beautiful struggle, and a lifelong muscle.

Shoutout to @bamuthi360@beausia for giving me friendship and guidance in that wild moment in my life. To Kamilah Forbes and Stan Lathan for putting me on.

Pic by: rafaelcasal

[toioldsoul]

"Can't turn a ho into a housewife, hoes don't act right

There's hoes on a mission, and there's hoes on a crackpipe

Hey ho how ya doin', where ya been?

Prolly doin' ho stuff 'cause there you ho again.."

- Ludacris

[supremenobleman]

'Discovered Prod. by PurpsBeats ••••••••••••••••••••Downloadable' by Myki Lou is on SoundCloud

I need a stu NOW

[doctorwormcore]

why is the gang missed the boat so fucking iconic

[h233media]

Defjam fight for NewYork anime

Defjam fight for New York anime

[light-skin-dragon]

So deep, and what he said was so strong. I'm light but I am black. Just a shade of a color but people judge me and tell me how I should act. It's a shame, I am so mixed in this world where being mulatto I get picked act on both sides. I'm to black or I'm not black enough. Growing up being mix was hard and still is hard for me to identify myself with a origin. But in this society I'm black and trust me I felt it with the barrows of the gun from the police when I was 14. Because there was a shooting and I was running because I was late for my extra credit charity thing to plant trees. Then seen a young light skin black male and I got stop with 4 cops pointing their guns at me and I honestly didn't know what I've done. That was an introduction of being one drop black blood in me. It brings a tear to my face because I haven't talked about that in years.

[obsidianpen]

I have been “branching out” while waiting for updates and I hate to be a hater but nothing hits like your writing (other than maybe the actual physical library book I have been reading). It really makes me realize how good you are - I feel like a lot of great writing is writing where you don’t think about the writing at all. That said, do you have any faves on AO3? Stories that made you love fan fic or that you couldn’t stop reading? Or books for that matter??

I stay gassing you up on anon but it’s well deserved. Teach me your ways.

🥹🥺🫶 well thank you for saying all that! I especially appreciate the ‘writing where you don’t think about the writing at all’ part. I think I’ve finally come to realize that this is a big part of my ‘style’. As much as I love some flowery poetry woven into fiction, it’s not my jam most of the time. As impressive as it is to read line by line, I’ve found it can be distracting. When I was a kid, my mom (very very avid reader) always said there was a huge difference between a good writer and a good story teller. I’ve often been blown away by beautiful writing without being pulled into the story.

So yeah, I strive to be a storyteller first and a decent writer second. If the words aren’t necessary for setting a scene or mood or moving things along, they gotta go. And I’ll be the first to admit I’m not a skilled writer. At least not naturally—like all things, I’ve gotten much better with practice. But the stories! Those have always had a life of their own.

anyway, I’ve recc’d Peremo before and I will again! And I’ve got some stuff bookmarked on ao3 that is def worth checking out. As for books, I haven’t had the ability to finish a real, bonafide book in a while but I’ve started one called ‘Ghost Eaters’ that I intend to finish this month when I finally get to go on vacay. It’s good so far but I’m only 10% in so no promises. One of these days I’ll make a rec list of the things that I find inspiring!!

[mannytoodope]

Yasmin Bey ( born Dante Terrell Smith; December 11, 1973), best known by his stage name Mos Def, is a rapper, poet, actor, and activist. He first formed a short-lived rap group of siblings called Urban Thermo Dynamic(UTD). After the group fizzled, he began appearing on various albums of other artists. He eventually started working with rapper Talib Kweli, forming Blackstar. He released his first solo album, Black on Both Sides, in 1999 and has succeeded as a solo artist. He is on several lists of greatest M.C.’s Mos Def cadence, which is pretty unique; he can go from abstract to literal. His background in poetry and freestyle skills give him an upper hand over other rappers. Mos Def has appeared in several films and television outside the hip-hop world and is probably one of the better rappers/actors. From 2002 to 2007, he hosted HBO’s Def Poetry Jam. He is also very socially conscious, and the lyrics reflect that. Mos Def is a rapper/ actor who has succeeded in both fields. If you have the time or resources,  check out his thoughts on Drake. He is one of the best M.C.s in the game.

[lboogie1906]

Staceyann Chin (born December 25, 1972) is a spoken-word poet, performing artist, and LGBT rights political activist. Her work has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Pittsburgh Daily, and has been featured on 60 Minutes. She was also featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, where she shared her struggles growing up as a gay person in Jamaica. Her first full-length poetry collection was published in 2019.

She was born in Jamaica. She is of Chinese-Jamaican and Afro-Jamaican descent. She announced in 2011 that she was pregnant with her first child, giving birth to her daughter in 2012. She has been candid about her pregnancy using in-vitro fertilization and wrote about her experiences as a pregnant, single lesbian in a guest blog for the Huffington Post.

Openly lesbian, she has been an “out poet and political activist” since 1998. In addition to performing in and co-writing the Tony-nominated Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on Broadway, she appeared in Off-Broadwayone-woman shows and at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. She held poetry workshops worldwide. She credits her accomplishments to her hard-working grandmother and the pain of her mother’s absence.

Her poetry can be found in her first chapbook, Wildcat Woman, the one she now carries on her back, Stories Surrounding My Coming, and numerous anthologies, including Skyscrapers, Taxis and Tampons, Poetry Slam, Role Call, Cultural Studies: Critical Methodologies. Her voice can be heard on CD compilations out of Bar 13- Union Square and Pow Wow productions. She published her autobiographical novel, The Other Side of Paradise: A Memoir.

She has been a host on Logo’s After Ellen Internet show, “She Said What?” and a co-host of Centric’s My Two Cents. She performed in The People Speak, a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States.

She taught a seminar at the arts-oriented Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn.

In 2024 she was the subject of Laurie Townshend’s documentary film A Mother Apart. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[intoxicatingimmediacy]

Where Have You Seen Loki Season 2's X-5 Actor Before?

This post contains spoilers for the season premiere of "Loki."

"Loki" is back this week, and along with the return of Norse trickster god Loki (Tom Hiddleston), agent Mobius (Owen Wilson), and the rest of the Time Variance Authority, the show's premiere also sees the introduction of a few new key characters. Among them? Ke Huy Quan's helpful, tech-savvy Ouroboros (or O.B.) and X-5, a mysterious new TVA agent played by Rafael Casal. And it's the latter who is particularly intriguing.

So far, we haven't seen X-5 do much besides question whether jet skis are part of the sacred timeline, but the character already seems to be an agitating force within the organization. He's also quite possibly poised to become a recognizable Marvel villain. After all, a featurette for the second season had a couple bits of footage from behind the scenes that showed him in a TVA jumpsuit, as if he was being held prisoner. So that should be interesting to watch play out. But there's more.

As /Film's Sandy Schaefer pointed out back in July, the trailer for "Loki" includes a poster for a movie called "Zaniac!" which fans have tied to Casal's character via leaks and speculation. Zaniac is a noteworthy character in Marvel Comics, though he bears little resemblance to X-5. The character was an evil entity that possessed the man who would become Jack the Ripper, and later took over slasher actor Brad Wolfe.

Ahead of the show's premiere, Casal has been credited by several outlets as Brad Wolfe, not X-5, so it seems likely that he could play out some form of the Zaniac plot this season. Regardless of Casal's true role in the show, though, he's an excellent multi-hyphenate artist whose past works deserve attention.

If X-5 looks familiar, it's likely you recognize Casal from "Blindspotting," a fantastic 2018 musical comedy-drama that he co-wrote with longtime creative partner Daveed Diggs (yes, of "Hamilton" fame). "Blindspotting" was a labor of love for Casal and Diggs, who also produced the film about two best friends living in Oakland, California whose lives are disrupted by the broken policing system. As serious as that sounds, "Blindspotting" is also laugh-out-loud funny, and Casal is a totally charming standout as hot-headed Miles.

The performer reprised the role for Starz's "Blindspotting" TV show, which ran for two seasons and was recently canceled. A criminally underseen hidden gem of a series, "Blindspotting" takes place after the film and puts the focus on Miles' girlfriend, Ashley Rose (Jasmine Cephas Jones), as she parents the pair's young mixed-race son in a racist world, all while Miles is behind bars. Despite his character's incarceration, Casal still appears in the show frequently and his hilarious, soulful character is a fan favorite. If you're looking for a thoughtful, entertaining, dynamic watch – or just want to see what Casal's made of – you can't do much better than either iteration of "Blindspotting."

The performer has also made a name for himself in other projects, including several collaborations with Diggs. A poet and rapper in addition to his acting creds, Casal appeared on three seasons of "Def Poetry Jam" on HBO, released a mixtape with Diggs in 2010, and contributed to the soundtracks for "Blindspotting," including in the catchy (and foulmouthed, fair warning) song "Easy Come, Easy Go." He reunited with Diggs in the acclaimed 2020 miniseries "The Good Lord Bird," a wild historical fiction series led by a fiery Ethan Hawke. Casal and Diggs even started a public theater project called Bars Medley, which remixed classic literature into musical performances.

Other on-screen works of Casal's include a supporting role in the 2019 Hugh Jackman flick "Bad Education" (he played the love interest of Jackman's closeted character) and a multi-episode turn in the "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" revival. Casal played a ringmaster named Mr. Tophat in the reboot of the classic, kid-friendly horror series. Next up, Casal is appearing in "Wildcat," a biography of Southern Gothic author Flannery O'Connor that's directed and co-written by Hawke. The X-5 actor plays a character in one of O'Connor's short stories in the movie, which premiered at Telluride but hasn't been released to the public yet.

Whether X-5 is a frustrated TVA employee, a secret evil entity, a movie actor, or something else entirely, it's exciting to see an artist as talented and versatile as Casal take the stage in a major Marvel series. You can catch his next moves on Disney+, where new episodes of "Loki" stream Thursdays at 9pm ET.

[kismetkayla]

Def Poetry Jam will forever have my heart. ♥️ I fell in love with poetry because of those amazing poets.

[therafanatics]

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY ON RAFAEL CASAL

Rafael Santiago Casal is an American writer, rapper, actor, producer, director and showrunner originally from the San Francisco Bay Area. He is also an online creator of poetry, music, web shorts and political commentary.

Raised between Berkeley and Oakland in California, Casal was able to build a respectable career, starting his apprenticeship as a slam poet at HBO's Def Poetry Jam and moving on to various fields of entertainment.

In the past he was a two-time champion of the Brave New Voice Poetry Slam Festival.

Among his most famous poems we remember:

Barbie & Ken 101

A.D.D.

Monster

Rafael is also known for being the collaborative partner and longtime friend with Daveed Diggs, also from the Bay Area and best known for his role as the Marquis de Lafayette in the musical "Hamilton." Their first album THE BAY BOY Mixtape will be the beginning of a long series of musical featurings.

Furthermore, both are co-founders of the BARS Workshop: a theater program to hone the skills of emerging writers and actors through verse. The latest season dates back to 2020.

Casal and Diggs even collaborated as actors and screenwriters in the 2018 film "Blindspotting" and from which the TV series of the same name was subsequently based, divided into two seasons. (2021/2023)

Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal in their respective roles of Collin Hoskins and Miles Turner in Blindspotting. (2018)

On a cinematic level, Casal is also known for playing a former student in the 2019 film "Bad Education" with Hugh Jackman as his old high school teacher and love interest. In the same year he debuted in the reboot of "Are You Afraid Of The Dark?" in the guise of Mr. Tophat as the main villain of the series. In 2020 he plays a minor role in "The Good Lord Bird."

On October 6, 2023, he arrives for the first time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a minor antagonist in the second season of Loki.

Rafael Casal as Brad Wolfe/Hunter X-05 in the "Loki Season 2." (2023)

On May 3, 2024 he return to the cinema in the role of O.E. Parker in "Wildcat", a film based on the life and stories of American writer Flannery O'Connor.

Being also active in the world of music, Rafael Casal has released several solo mixtapes online: As Good As Your Word (2008), Monster (2009) and Mean Ones. (2012)

He also participated in the musical projects "The Getback" and "BLCK MSHRM" for a certain period of time.

While among the most recent singles we list:

Bad Egg (2017)

Oxygen (2019)

Quicksand (2021)

Jumpstart (2024)

Rafael has demonstrated that he can also manage as a Youtuber, publishing the following Web Series:

The Away Team

Hobbes & Me

The Rafatics (As a political commentator)

Warnings: This biography is nothing less than a brief summary, for more information see elsewhere.

You can follow Rafael Casal on:

Instagram

Twitter/X

YouTube

TikTok

Spotify

Soundcloud

[therealmsparkerrrr]

Poetry def jam and yoga type of morning

[lavisualiste]

Def poetry jam was something else !! spending the night watching them is def a vibe