Nico Raquel (they/elle)

Nico Raquel [they/elle] is a multi-media storyteller, musician and writer, gratefully living on ancestral and unceded Muwekma Ohlone land in so-called Oakland, California. El Salvador and so-called Massachusetts are places where Nico has familial history. They are a bilingual audio producer, oral history facilitator, and storytelling consultant committed to justice-based and community-building storytelling with an emphasis on recording with, by, and for queer, trans, gender-expansive and Latine communities.

Nico loves audio for many reasons — it invites audience participation in world-building and imagining. It is a space for playfulness, integrity, for learning through laughter. Without the visual accompaniment, audio generates space for a listener to dislodge and uncloak their unconscious beliefs to have transformational, safe, and revolutionary connective experiences with strangers - strangers with whom they may rarely intentionally cross paths outside of their headphones. Nico guides listeners and storytellers alike toward an openness to experience perspective shifts, including imperceptible ones. A story that softens the muscles of a listener’s face, an audience member hears an anecdote that reverberates a memory from their past and conjures emotion into the present, a listener chuckles while a storyteller shares a comical tale, a listener or storyteller is inspired to deepen their connection to their community and their loved ones through sharing stories — all of this, is storytelling magic.

While traveling the U.S. with StoryCorps and recording over 350 oral histories, Nico developed a before and aftercare ethos that informs their interview process for participants to feel safe not only in sharing stories together but in creating intimate moments of connection while doing so. 

Nico has produced podcasts such as Date My Abuelita, First!, Essential Voices, and The Golden Queers. They’ve collaborated on storytelling/audio projects for StoryCorps, NPR, The Library of Congress, and The Outwords Archive. Nico volunteers with This Way Out, the longest-running international LGBTQIA2S+ radio program, as well as with Gems Oral Histories based in Oakland. Nico is the Senior Managing Producer for WV Sound, proudly producing Latine/Latinx stories and podcasts for iHeartMedia’s My Cultura Podcast Network.

When the tape stops rolling, Nico shares pupusas slathered in curtido with loved ones, listens to death-metal cassettes on their glitchy boombox, takes beach trips in their ‘70s truck, and records stories in community with T4T: Oral Histories.

If interested in collaborating or chatting, inquire about Nico’s availability!