About Me

My name is Rumi Smith, and I was raised as a Black and Chinese young man in Oakland, California — a city that knows what it means to fight for justice, to hold your ground, and to build legacy for the next generations. I'm the child of two social justice organizers. I grew up watching my parents navigate different worlds, hold space for hard conversations, and build power in communities that weren't supposed to have any. I learned early that change doesn't just come from good intentions — it comes from people who are willing to show up, stay in the room, and do the work even when it's hard and uncomfortable. Being Black and Asian in Oakland taught me to move between worlds. I learned that translation isn't just about language, it's about helping people see each other's humanity through difference. My name connects me to the 13th-century poet Rumi, who wrote mainly about love; radical and self love that transforms people and the world. Rumi also understood that being cut from your source isn't the end of the story; it's where the music begins. That's the work I do now: helping organizations and communities turn the wound into the music. That work takes two forms. Sometimes it looks like a camera: documentary interviews, sports coverage, the kind of visual storytelling you'll find in my Video Work. Other times it looks like a room full of people, a workshop, a strategy session — the facilitation work I do that lives on my Facilitation Work page. Different formats, same throughline: helping people tell the truth of their own experience.