Meet Matt Sedillo of dA Center For the Arts in Pomona

Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt Sedillo.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the practice, why don’t you give our readers a few quick bullet points about you and your story.
2008 Started doing poetry
2009 Made first slam team
2010 First collection of poetry published For What I Might Do Tomorrow
2011 Appeared in Los Angeles Times
2012 Participated in the San Francisco International Poetry festival
2013 A review of my poetry appears in the essay “Rage the Other Inevitable Muse” that appeared in a collection of essays “From Your Land to Poland: On the Commitment of Writers” published by Peter Liang International Publishers
2014 Led a major workshop at the National Conference of Race and Ethnicity
2015 Interviewed and archived by the CUNY Murphy Institute of Labor Studies
2016 Appeared on C-SPAN
2017 Interviewed and archived by the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program housed at the University of Florida
2018 Invited to speak on a series of panels at the University of Cambridge
2019 Invited to speak on a panel at Casa De Las Americas in Havana Cuba
2020 Second collection of poetry published Mowing Leaves of Grass

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I am a bit of a workaholic so this is kind of a hard question to answer. Everyday brings obstacles and challenges.

Please tell us about dA Center For the Arts.
Well, I am personally known as a poet and author who speaks at colleges. I work at the dA Center for the Arts where I am the literary director where I oversee the writing programs along with Gina Duran. I am really excited about my new book Mowing Leaves of Grass, published by FlowerSong Press. I am excited about both my book and the press.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
A general collage of my mother taking me to the library.

Image Credit:
The photo at Casa De Las Americas, Includes Viva Padilla, Iris De Anda, Luis Rodriguez, Dr. Jose Prado

Suggest a story: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.