"An Evening on Esmond Street", a mixed media depiction of the church across the street from where I use to live on Esmond Street in Dorchester, Boston. (2023)
Collage Art by Rafael Arturo
A brief Biography and Artist Statement can be found in the "About" section, along with a portfolio of performances and speaking engagements. Arturo released his 2nd listening poetry album titled "Down To My Last Drop", February 26th, 2026. His second novel "Negro Flower" is currently in development stages, a "Negro Flower" community poetry tape is in recording and producing stages as well.
On this website you can explore the many poems and visualizations by Rafael Arturo as well accessing links to his Book and Poetry recordings. In 2024, Arturo dedicated his time to focus on Photography, establishing his brand "Skin & Bone" via Instagram gaining over a thousand followers, monthly clients, 3 photography exhibitions and a billboard in New York City, Time Square. In 2025, there was a shift towards writing, finding a balance between the two, stepping away from being a service photographer and prioritizing the art of image-making while molding his poetry through lived experiences of love, grief and integrity. Exhibiting a series of photographs through a conceptualization of "Women In Suits" at the late-great studio space Soulcialta in East Boston, MA, landing another billboard for the advertisement of the exhibition that went on for 3 months as part of the artist highlight at Soulcialta. With this exhibition ending around August, 2025, Rafael Arturo resumed his poetry journey in the midst of heartbreak and need for community, spending time at the Lizard Lounge during open mic poetry nights, experimenting with new slam poetry, new poems with new styles and eventually finding remedy through the poetic practice of "how to heal through loss".
In 2026, Rafael Arturo aims to stamp his branding of performance beat poetry through a series of curated listening and visual experiences... to be continued
The book is an introspective, philosophical conversation -- a journey of self-questioning and self discovery. The description opens with: "Where do we begin? Wh0 are we? Who are you?" - key existential questions.
It invites the reader to enter into a dialogue with the author's inner life: "Enter the conversation with me and myself".
There's a clear theme of silence, solitude, and internal reckoning - the idea that in silence one asks and answers the deepest questions.
The author presentation indicates a desire to unravel motives and reason, to expose truth through multiple artistic channels (word, image, emotion).
So structurally and thematically, it seems like a poetic-philosophical work rather than a narrative novel, more meditative than plot-driven.
After a 3 year hiatus of spoken word vocal production and the release of his 1st album titled "A New Afro Latino Beat Poet", Rafael Arturo is set to release his second album "Down To My Last Drop", February 26th, 2026. Curated as an emotional rollercoaster of vulnerability, acceptance, grief and yearning, each track careful crafted with soundscapes to carry metaphors, drums to honor the ancestors and adlibs to emphasize key parts of the poem being performed. This is a solo album with no features, entirely produced by Rafael, the project digs deep into a space where there's little to no hope for true love. Having experienced many situationship's that created false promises, creating this hopeless romanticism perspective, right person, wrong timing, using wine, poetry, jazz to cope. Eventually solitude and space become the primary remedies for processing the pessimistic overload of wonders if true love exist in a world so complacent with grey areas. The making of this album was birthed in those moments. Singles off the album can be heard on Apple Music, track #5 "Of Course..." and Track #7 "The Grey Area".
Official Album Cover Photo (Left), Outtake photograph from the still life photoshoot for the album cover collection (Right)
With the release of his first novel "I.S.A.A.C" in 2019, Rafael Arturo formerly known as "Qadir Abdul" during his faith journey of Islam (2019-2022), Arturo fluctuated between Photography & Poetry capturing the streets of Dorchester, Roxbury, Downtown and South End. Documenting his everyday life transforming pictures into spoken word while listening to the late greats such as Gil Scott Heron, Amiri Baraka, Allen Ginsberg, D'Angelo and Miles Davis. Immersing himself into the stylistic taste of jazz and beat poetry, learning how to produce on Garage Band, collaborating with Saedi (producer), independently structuring an album for the first time with intro and outro, featuring fellow writers to share their stories on love and influence of ancestors. The album encapsulates Dorchester, Afro Latino, Ancestral Influence and Jazz. available on Apple Music and Spotify.
