Pop culture podcast De Colores Radio celebrated its one-year anniversary with a live recording held at the historic Texas Theatre last Saturday April 21 in south Dallas.

Article by Jaime Dominguez

Upon walking in, there is a table to register to vote. Near the entrance, a sculpture by from Giovanni Valderas greets you: it’s part of his Casitas Tristés installation, a series focusing on gentrification and lack of housing for the poor in Dallas. This is what makes De Colores Radio stand out among many podcasts: they’re willing to use their platform to affect change. They occupy a small space that is part popular culture, part social activism, and engagement; and it’s very refreshing.

For the event, De Colores Radio invited Shea Serrano as a guest. Serrano, a New York Times best-selling author and popular Twitter personality, did not disappoint. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, hosts Rafael Tamayo and Eva Arreguin were no slouches either. They began the night by describing how the podcast came to be, how it fits in with the rest of the De Colores Collective, and how honored they were to do the live recording.

They then moved onto their first segment of the night, The Meme Mood, in which they describe their feelings through a popular meme. After some playful ribbing, they moved onto their next segment, The Juice, where they go over a few current events and discuss them. Eva and Rafael are very adept at identifying stories that resonate with their audience. They are building a great community and the live event is very indicative of that.

Halfway through The Juice, they bring out Shea Serrano, the man of the evening. He brought out his kids, which was unexpected, but as the night went on, it made a lot of sense. After a lot of J. Cole jokes (which continued throughout the night), the interview started. There’s a lot that could be said about Shea and the way that he carries himself and the way he answers questions. He answers questions very plain and blunt, but not in a crass way. He’s not interested in sugar-coating anything or making it seem like he had the secret to success. The main theme of the night was basically “put in your work and you’ll be successful.” It was a reassuring sentiment.

As the interview goes on, he defers to his kids, asking them to chime in subjects and answer questions for him. The best story he told was about the game he taught his kids: you have to make 10 baskets before you miss 10 baskets. If you miss, wherever you get the rebound is where you take your next shot. It was a lesson on how things can get out-of-hand fast, but if you keep calm, you can get yourself out of a complicated situation. Throughout the night he keeps coming back to that sentiment.

The Q&A segment had some great gems on writing, sports, and family life. Near the end of the Q&A, there was an awkward and tense moment, where a man asked a MAGA-related question. There was confusion as to what he was asking. He was jokingly saying Shea was a MAGA person, but he did not speak clearly and confused everyone in the room. Shea, as cool as could be, let’s him know plainly and clearly, “fuck Donald Trump,” right then, the DJ plays a snippet from YG & Nipsey Hussle’s FDT (Fuck Donald Trump) and the building goes wild. Shea knows how to finesse a bad situation into a glorious moment, and it was a great ending to the show (even though he took more questions after that). “An Evening with Shea Serrano” was an eye-opening good time.

Featured image credit: Jaime Dominguez