By Mike Bravo
FROM: Venice Beachhead

Matt, thanks for your time I know you’re a busy dude. I’ve never done one before but congratulations on being my first interview. I’ve known you for about 5 years now maybe. I feel I know you pretty well. How would you summarize yourself and your artistry for those that don’t know you?

For those that don’t know me I’m a poet, I write political poetry a political poet. I write a lot about the important and contentious issues that are facing us in this time and age. On top of that I’m a Chicano poet and very proud of being part of that lineage as well. I write a lot about the struggle of the Chicano peopl and the struggles of all working class people in general. I also write about topics surrounding the fact that we’re living on a planet that’s being destroyed by the very wealthy.

How did you get started in poetry?

Since I was very young I wanted to be a poet, a writer, a director and things like that. But before that I wanted to me president and my dad told me I could never be president because I was Mexican. Looking back I don’t think he was trying to be mean about it, I think he was just trying to be realistic with me. I think at that point something shifted, I began to feel a certain way about politics.

I carried that desire to be a poet and writer into my teenage years and I remember when I was 20, a friend of mine took me to an open mic. I saw a person do a political poem and thought to myself, hey I know I can do that. I know I can do it even better because I was more politically knowledgeable than these cats. So I started frequenting these open mics, and as we know with most political poets, their shit’s too long, they talk too much, and they’re not very artistic right.

So I was doing pretty good with that and then one day I did this poem that was really long about serious political topics like coltan miners in the congo, children dying, Chinese sweatshops,  thinking it was important and that people would care right, but of course, no. That wasn’t true (laughs.) I got kinda booed, not really booed but they restless and upset. So that pissed me off and I wrote a poem that was basically cussing out the audience. I was basically saying “ fuck you, wake up, people are dying, what the fuck is wrong with you, fuck you..” right… and they LOVED IT, looovvveed iit..and that’s when my poetry career really began.

Two weeks after that I wrote a poem titled “I Remember the Alamo, but I remember Differently.” And that became my first signature piece, that was the first piece where everyone was like,  damn that’s good shit. From that things just really took off.

Who are the poets, artists, or personages that have most inspired and influenced you and your work?

Well, those who have inspired my work most are those who write political speeches.  When people have asked who my number one influence. And some people think I’m being funny but I think Hugo Chavez.  I watch how he escalates, how he leaves in room for humor.

If I had to say who I most sound like, maybe, Amari Baraka, I guess. But it’s not because I’ve studied him or anything but because I think he did the same thing, I think he also studied political speeches. He comes out of a jazz tradition which influences some of the styles he does that I don’t do. Whereas my style is probably more influenced by old Chicano or Latin American speeches, the flow, they way they escalate. Read Rest of Interview Here