My story

Twenty schools by age thirteen. A life of stories since.

A life of teaching, filmmaking, and moving between cultures. Tap a number on the map to jump to that stop.

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Eleven stops, from New York to Honolulu.

  1. 1New York CityMaryanne Raphael and Lennox Raphael smiling in a hand-tinted 1960s portrait. She has long brown hair; he wears a suit and bow tie.
    Maryanne and Lennox, 1960s

    New York City

    Born to two writers

    I was born in New York to the American writer and activist Maryanne Raphael and the Trinidadian poet, playwright, and artist Lennox Raphael.

    maryanneraphael.com · lennoxraphael.com

  2. 2Nomadic childhoodRaphael as a young child with long dreadlocks and a plaid shirt, holding onto a tree trunk and looking at the camera. A sepia photo.
    Me with dreads, 1970s

    Both coasts · the Caribbean · Hawaiʻi

    Nomadic childhood

    I was raised by a single mother, and our life was precarious. She lived with schizophrenia, and she wrote about her life in her book Along Came a Spider: A Personal Look at Madness (2002). We moved frequently, across both coasts of the continental U.S., the Caribbean, and Hawaiʻi. By age 13, I attended 20 different schools.

  3. 3Los AngelesA large black-and-white mural on a brick wall beside railroad tracks. A woman in an embroidered blouse, with a bandana over her face, holds up a phone to take a selfie under the words South Central Dreams.
    "South Central Dreams" mural | Joey Zanotti, Creative Commons

    Los Angeles

    My first classrooms

    After finishing college at Ohio Dominican in four years, completely self-supported, I taught in inner-city Los Angeles, including the Ten Schools Program, with children identified as among the most at risk in Los Angeles and the nation. Then I served as one of LAUSD's first internet teacher trainers, helping, among other things, teach teachers to make web pages, one line of HTML at a time.

  4. 4New York CityThe Gothic stone entrance of Teachers College, with a blue banner over the doors that reads Teachers College, Columbia University: Where true change begins.
    Teachers College, Columbia University

    New York City

    Learning to teach online

    Earning my Master's in Instructional Technology and Media at Teachers College, Columbia University, I became an early leader in online learning.

  5. 5New GuineaBlack-and-white photo of a wide highland valley with grass, scattered shrubs, and forested hills under a cloudy sky.
    The highlands between the Baliem and Wamena rivers, 1955. Nationaal Archief, the Netherlands

    New Guinea, Indonesia

    A school in the rainforest

    I taught overseas in Indonesia, in the highland rainforest of New Guinea, where I directed the technology program. (At the time, the last Stone Age tribes on earth were said to be in the area. A tribesman might occasionally knock on our door, selling a live cuscus, a marsupial from the region.)

  6. 6New DelhiA musician plays the sitar in a curtained room.
    Still from my film The Sacred and the Digital

    New Delhi, India

    Technology by day, sitar by night

    I served as teacher technology coordinator at the American Embassy School in New Delhi, India. In my free time, I studied classical Indian sitar with Guru Gaurav Mazumdar, a senior shishya (student) of Pandit Ravi Shankar.

  7. 7Eugene, OregonA man in a hat and suit sits on a park bench beside a young woman in a white blouse who looks down.
    Still from Within Our Gates (1920), dir. Oscar Micheaux. Library of Congress

    Eugene, Oregon

    A doctorate in film

    I earned a doctorate in English, with a structured emphasis in film studies. As a teaching fellow, I taught film, visual culture, and writing, and I coordinated a community internship program. I also served as a volunteer coordinator at the Oregon Country Fair.

  8. 8AtyrauPhoto from space of the Ural River delta, where the river splits into fingers of land that reach into the Caspian Sea.
    The Ural River delta near Atyrau, seen from the International Space Station, 2004. NASA

    Atyrau, Kazakhstan

    Technology director

    Returning to the private sector, I served as technology director at an American international school in Atyrau, while lecturing remotely at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

  9. 9AthensRaphael, wearing Google Glass, speaks to a class in front of a wall of bright paper squares.
    Teaching in Athens

    Athens, Greece

    Teaching computer science

    At American Community Schools Athens, I taught computer science and served as technology coordinator, while doing action research in gamification strategies.

  10. 10Guatemala CityPoster for Hidden Treasure of the Sweet Absolute: a figure walks into a red and black spiral.
    Poster, Hidden Treasure of the Sweet Absolute (2026)

    Guatemala City

    Transnational Collaboration

    I served as a visiting professor at the Akira Kurosawa School of Film and at the School of Film and Visual Arts at Universidad Francisco Marroquín. It was a dream come true to make Hidden Treasure of the Sweet Absolute (2026), a U.S.–Guatemalan feature, collaborating with the film school's founding team, Stephanie Falla and Javier Parellada Centeno. The film builds creative open audio description and captions into its story. During these years, I also lectured remotely for the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

  11. 11Home againPanorama of Waikīkī Beach and Diamond Head, Honolulu, under a blue sky.
    Waikīkī and Diamond Head. Photo © Svetlana Day

    Honolulu, Hawaiʻi

    Home again

    Moving back to Hawaiʻi, where I had not lived since childhood, I joined the faculty of the Center on Disability Studies in the College of Education at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

    Here I trained State of Hawaiʻi teachers in culturally responsive teaching strategies, including use of oral history and filmmaking, so students may build connections to their communities and grow as writers. I help organize the Pacific Rim International Conference, the yearly premier global gathering on disability, where I have helped organize partnerships with the Superfest Disability Film Festival.

    I edit the Review of Disability Studies: An International Journal, the Scopus-indexed, diamond open-access, peer-reviewed journal.

  12. +Other pursuitsElsewhere, a digital mixed-media work in streaks of blue, green, red, and violet.
    Elsewhere, digital mixed media

    Other pursuits

    Art in many forms

    In my free time, I paint, and I sometimes perform improv and stand-up comedy. I am also a featured comic with Comedy U.

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