By Sandra Sanchez
FROM: Sims Library of Poetry

Sandra: Thank you for agreeing to this interview. If you could tell me a little bit about yourself, where did you grow up, what do you currently do, and how do you spend your time?

Brenda: Let’s see. My name is Brenda Vaca. I grew up in South Whittier, Southeast LA County Unincorporated. I always like to say that ‘unincorporated’ part of Whittier. Down the street, down Florence. Far from the library when there’s traffic, but if there’s not I get home pretty quick. I was born in Huntington Park at Mission hospital, which no longer exists, but I like to say that because my family basically moved down Imperial Highway and Florence and there we are in Whittier.

Right now I’m working with the Community Literature Initiative. I’m in the admissions department, so I’m assisting Kauhmel and Ebony to recruit students, to interview students for our publishing class and our Children’s book class. I’m also gonna be doing work with Charisse Sims with the Children’s book class. I’m gonna serve as her TA. I also just recently founded a publishing house (both whoo) called Riot of Roses Publishing House. Excited to release my first book on December 3rd. I am a gig worker, so for the cold hard cash over the pandemic because my job was also affected, I was doing DoorDash. I still do that every now and then, so I am slanging and delivering food for people.

A lot of my time is taking care of my family. I live with my two elder parents who are both in their 80s and that requires a lot of time, so working with CLI from home has helped a lot, because I can keep an eye on things, make sure the house doesn’t burn down, and make sure everyone takes care of business.

S: That actually takes me to a tangent question. What brought you to the Sims Library of Poetry?

B: The way I got to Sims was by way of CLI. I had been working on my poetry manuscript for a while, but I was pretty undisciplined and I was trying to gather my poems and trying to create some kind of book but I didn’t have a sense of direction. I didn’t have a sense of focus. Just had a bunch of really messy poems. I came across a post on Instagram for CLI, and I applied. My first call was from Kuahmel, who is now my colleague, and he hooked me up with an interview which was a positive experience. I got admitted to the program with CLI, and that’s how I got connected to the Sims Library.

With the Sims in particular my first real interaction was serving as a volunteer to do some fundraising for the 44 campaign. I put in some volunteer hours. That was the first time I came here, and it looked so different from what it looks like now. Every time I come here it looks different and it feels different and there are new faces. It’s good to see how it’s grown! That’s how I got to Sims. Since then I’ve been to book releases, and the opening in July that happened, and now staff meetings. Read Rest of Interview Here