Raheim Fender on Life, Lessons & Legacy

Raheim Fender shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.

Raheim, really appreciate you sharing your stories and insights with us. The world would have so much more understanding and empathy if we all were a bit more open about our stories and how they have helped shaped our journey and worldview. Let’s jump in with a fun one: What is something outside of work that is bringing you joy lately?
Well…some persons might not know but I am a serious action figure, comic and graphic novel collector. I am literally addicted to them. I currently have over two thousand figures and around five thousand comics and graphic novels majority of my collections are as old and even older than my baby brother and he’s thirty eight. I have recently started to collect Super 7 Ultimates Thunder Cats and Silver Hawks (Don’t judge me) lol. I have been asked why as an adult you collect toys and the truth is mainly for nostalgia. When I was younger I was a serious cartoon and anime head and so I can’t help myself even now. Just to wake up in the morning and see these beautiful collector items just takes the stress of life away. I think everyone should get on board with collecting, it works wonders for me. As a matter of fact I’m forty three (43) and I don’t have a wrinkle or a strand of grey hair and I believe it’s because I’m collecting things that were made for children. When friends and family members come to my house it’s like they’re at a museum they walk around checking out my collection of toys and comics and what’s weird is they instantly become children again remembering all the cartoons they use to watch as kids and then I look at them and smile saying to myself this is also what it does for me on a daily basis.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
The man destined to shift the needle of the world of the performing arts, the literary industry and education. A lover of God. A Cultural icon. A living brand. Raheim Fender… I love speaking about myself in the third person lol. I have been in the Performing Arts for over twenty years and in Education for over sixteen years. I am a multi award winning Educator, Director, Actor, Speaker playwright, recording artist and poet. An international Bestselling Author with over twenty thousand books sold world wide. All Seven of my books became top three charting Bestsellers while five of them became number one bestsellers in the category of poetry, short stories and motivational. From my top charting bestselling book “Demons of the Psyche” I created the international ground breaking Podcast of the same name. The Podcast became a number one charting Podcast on Apple and is still doing well on the charts. Nationally recognized, Michael Cooke Prize Shortlist. A multi national award winning Drama teacher where this year an experimental drama piece that I wrote, directed, choreographed and produced won several national awards at the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) Drama Festivals. It won, Most Outstanding Drama Production Overall, Best Script Overall, Best Technical Management, Best Rural Director, Best Senior Director, Best Rural Actor which was won by Shaquille Clarke, Best Amateur Actor won by Jaeden Edwards Best Ensemble acting Won by the cast members Gavaine Daley, Shaquille Clarke and Jaeden Edwards respectively. the production also won Best Senior Play, Best design and Best Experimental Piece. Which gave me the opportunity to win my fifth award as Most Outstanding Drama teacher for 2025. Thus far I have won the award in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2024 and now in 2025. I also recently won Most outstanding Speech Teacher for 2025 for a an Experimental Dub Poem I wrote and it received a Gold medal as well as Most Outstanding Speech Performance award for 2025. The piece was performed by the talented Trinique Green and Patrice Buchanan. So right now I’m on a high! I’m also a Team Building Facilitator where I do work shops with companies that want their staff to remember why they were hired and become rejuvenated. I recently did several workshops for the Ministry of Health and if you want to see it they are on my You Tube channel. Oh yeah I’m also a Social media influencer so far my You Tube channel has over ten thousand subscribers and my TikTok has over twenty two followers. Did I mention I’m also a recording Artist with five official music videos that have amassed really great streams on several streaming platforms. You probably should ask the next question because we might be here for the next year with all the jobs I have. Lol. But with all my success I have to give thanks to God and all my past students and current students for always standing beside me, supporting me with all my endeavors I am truly grateful.

Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
I have to say this is a very sensitive topic that sometimes makes me cry. The reason for that is sadly, I was a shy little boy that felt he never truly fit in. I thought I was ugly, felt like an outcast I was that skinny little nerd the black kid with BIG eyes and BIG lips that could never find friendship. You see I was born in the eighties and I went to a Prep School with Predominantly white, Asian and Light skinned, curly haired black people. I was constantly teased and that is an understatement I was bullied I couldn’t learn because I was afraid to go to class. My classmates teased me constantly and because I was different after awhile I felt that this was my lot in life. So to answer your question…Who i was before the world told me who i had to be was a weakling, a nobody a deviant not worth much. But I have to give thanks to God. because I started attending church and faith lifted my spirit and one day I woke and recognized that no matter who I think I am the world says I have to be great or else I’m going to get left behind so I stood up ignored the noise buckled my shoes and told the demons in my head “You’re no longer welcome here. The world told me you don’t have to mope and be sorry for yourself, you’re either a warrior or you’re a weakling that is either going to get trampled or worse. So ever since, I respect the world for telling me I had to be magnificent. See how I flipped that question? That is the beauty of Raheim Fender when everyone else is going in one direction I choose to go in the other because for me that is what makes life beautiful.

When did you stop hiding your pain and start using it as power?
I stopped hiding my pain and started using it as power in the year 2005. I had “dropped out” of college in the summer of 2004 because I never had the prerequisite subjects needed to stay and I had to go back home and sadly tell my family I wouldn’t be finishing college in 2005. I was ridiculed by my college mates as well as friends, who kept asking me why I wasn’t coming back to college and I lied and told them i needed a break, when I knew I had no choice I had to sit out the year and possibly sit out forever. I had to sit out that year…Sorry I still get emotional when I think about the Journey I have been on. I had to sit out until I got all the subjects needed to go back and finish. For months I was ashamed I never wanted to come out of my house. I would barely eat food. Until my friend Edgar Fraenk now deceased, (I will always love you my friend). He decided to visit me at my home and he told me ” I don’t care why you’re not finishing college this year. But… You will be finishing college! And while you have a year to get yourself together…GET YOURSELF TOGETHER! Finish writing that book you’ve been writing, write some songs, create a production company and more importantly get your subjects needed to finish you college diploma.” Surprisingly a strength came over me that never came over me before. I knew that my pain… needed to told! I knew that one day someone would be reading about me and that I would be a motivator for that person. So I did exactly what he said! I wrote the book then published it in 2020 that sold over one hundred copies in its first week. Something I could never have imagined and though it never became a number one best seller it reached number three on the best sellers list twenty one years after he told me to continue writing it. I also got not one subject but three subjects which now made me have six subjects allowing me to finish my Diploma. And ultimately my Bachelor’s Degree. Pain and failure must always be seen as something positive especially if you were able to rise from it. It is the fire beneath your feet propelling you to your destination but only if you understand how to effectively use that pain and transform it in to pleasure.

Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. What’s a cultural value you protect at all costs?
The cultural values I protect at all costs are the arts. I live and breathe the arts. I believe that the arts are a gateway to or future, past and an understanding of our present. Therefore i will always do my best to pass on to the next generation all the knowledge i have of the arts. These days children prefer to live in the now not knowing how we as a people got here. Which is why it is imperative that we the older generation pass on the culture to them and what better way to do this than with the arts. I wouldn’t have been who I am today were it not for the arts and because I know its potency I will forever protect it with my life.

Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
I hope when I’m gone the world will always talk about my amazing creations. I hope they will go through my illustrious catalogue and understand the story or rather the stories I was telling throughout the years. Throughout every stage of my life I’ve told a different story through different mediums some through music, others through poetry, books, plays, and even my teachings. Sometimes my work was “raw”, sometimes “naked” most times unorthodox but never diluted and unapologetic to the core! I want the world to say he never fed us with entertainment he edutained us with art. I want them to read my books, listen to my music and speak about how diverse i was as an artist giving the world food for thought. I want the stories to be ones that are only spoken of when the world speaks of legends I want to be another legendary figure in the world of art.

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