Get to Know a Local Poet: Matt Gano

If the local poetry scene were high school (Sometimes it may feel that way…), Matt Gano would be the cool kid, not the one with the Zack Morris-coifed hair and the well-buffed car that we all hated, but the charming one who roamed clique to clique—from the nerds playing Magic the Gathering at lunch to the jocks hooping it up after school—without a blemish to his cred.

That’s probably why Matt is such a gifted teacher. As the arts-in-education facilitator and writing circle leader for Seattle’s nationally renowned Youth Speaks program and a teaching artist in SAL’s Writers in the Schools program, he works with teens to develop their writing chops with an emphasis on performance. Matt recently took his teaching international too—leading workshops on creative writing and performance at the Haja Center in Seoul, Korea and on spoken word poetry and lyricism as part of a three-month artist residency at the Hong Kong School of Creativity.

Matt is just as gifted on the stage as he is in the classroom. He was a member of Seattle’s National Poetry Slam team in 2004, 2005 and 2008, and in 2008, he finished in the top position, earning the title, “Seattle Poetry Slam Grand Champion.” Matt’s published works include the chapbooks “Music Maker,” “Welcome Home” and “I Eight the Infinite” as well as “Art Barker,” a self-titled poetry LP, and a live recording entitled “A Giant’s Pulse.” (You can see my favorite Gano piece on YouTube here.)

Brian McGuigan: Since returning from Korea, what have you been working on?

Matt Gano: I am currently working on a short tour of the East Coast in May. I will be performing in Providence, then Cambridge, MA at the Cantab Lounge, then on to Brooklyn and then the world famous Nuyorican Poets Cafe in Manhattan. Trying to make it happen. I just finished a full length manuscript of poetry and have a couple submissions out there. On the real business, I’m working on finding a job for the summer, the ‘ol wallet’s lookin’ like a skinned rodent, and I’m having to give up my little day job to go on tour. Anybody looking to sponsor a touring poet? (I’ll do you proud.) Or need a teacher/writer/editor/tutor? (I got office skills too! This is not a joke.)

BM: When you’re not writing and performing poetry, you’re also an MC. How has hip hop influenced your poetry? And how has poetry influenced your rapping?

MG: Hip Hop has been a large influence on my way of living and my poetry. I have always been in love with the sound and musicality of language. “Flow” is the essence of hip hop and something I try to incorporate in my approach, whether that is with rhyme or with images and linking ideas. The way we speak and translate emotion has varying rhythm. There is also a rhythm to the way we tell stories and translate experience. There is something amazing about capturing that in the written form.

BM: If you could collaborate on a group poem with any rapper, who would you choose? Why?

MG: Any rapper? Man, that’s a tough one. The first person who comes to mind is Aceyalone [of the L.A. collective, Freestyle Fellowship]. He’s monumental in the development of “free-styling” on the West Coast and continues to the push the envelope in terms of sound and flow. Legend.

BM: Soon you’ll be portraying Richard Brautigan at Dead Poets Society. How has Brautigan influenced your work?

MG: Brautigan’s wild imagery and surreal musings have inspired my approach to constructing creative images and being looser with language. I really like the way he takes the reader way out into the bizarre and fantastic, but always reels you back with something grounded and stark.

BM: What's the best thing about Seattle’s poetry community? And the worst?

MG: Best thing about Seattle’s poetry community is that it is supportive and encouraging for current writers and also those wanting develop their careers as writers. There is potential for my response to go on for pages with a detailed and lengthy explanation of the depth and support I have felt here. How the youth writing community is blowing the doors off constantly, etc. How the “scene” is inclusive and encourages new work, pushes out some of the best spoken word poets in the country, etc. But what’s in the details? Ha. This is one of the best writing communities in the country, hands down. It’s an honor and a privilege to be considered among the poets out here “doin’ it.”

I don’t know if there is actually something “wrong” or just a product of this form, but the pressure of the Youth Speaks Slams, for those who choose to participate, can sometimes be unhealthy for our teens. It is a catch-22 to some degree. There is space for youth voices to be heard, and the writing that comes out is excelling. If we honor “Slam,” then there has to be a mode of determining an outcome. As the competition and writing gets better the pressure increases. We teach how to best your work, how to best your performance. However, I’m not exactly sure if the emotional stress that goes along with “slamming” and competing at a young age is doing them a service or negatively affecting the hurricane of emotions they already experience. In talking with several of my students and past Youth Speaks members, they have reflected about the pressure of “winning” and the toll it takes mentally during the competition.  

Read more about Matt Gano on his Web site, and see him in action as Richard Brautigan at Dead Poets Society on Thursday, April 15, 7:30 p.m. at Hugo House.

Comment