Rafael Espinal to head Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment

Rafael Espinal. Photo by Emil Cohen

CITYWIDE — MAYOR ZOHRAN MAMDANI on Monday announced the appointment of Rafael Espinal as commissioner of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment.

According to a release, Espinal will advance the administration’s agenda to “ensure New York City remains a place where artists and creatives can afford to live and work.” The agency oversees the city’s Film Office, NYC Media, Press Credential Office and Programs and Initiatives divisions. He will report to Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su.

Born in Bedford-Stuyvesant and raised in Cypress Hills, Espinal is currently the executive director of the Freelancers Union. In 2011, he was elected to the State Assembly, and then represented parts of Bushwick, Brownsville, Cypress Hills and East New York in the City Council from 2014 to 2020.

Espinal told the Brooklyn Eagle in an exit interview from the City Council that he was “never really interested in the politics” behind it all. “It’s the work that really attracted me to politics, not the politics within the politics,” he said.

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