The Ethical Rainmaker

Why honesty is my favorite form of poetry w Matthew Cuban Hernandez

Episode Summary

Honesty. We crave it and we don’t get enough of it! In this episode, award winning poet, hip hop artist and teacher Matthew Cuban Hernandez of Street Poets Inc. (LA) talks with Michelle about honesty in our interpersonal relationships and in our organizations, rites of passage, structural racism and ageism in working with young people and…giving work away!

Episode Notes

Matthew Cuban Hernandez, is an award winning poet, emcee, performance artist and storyteller…. a rapper, actor and performance coach, as well as the author of:

• the book 3032, an anthology of poems
• …and two hip-hop albums - Ivanna and Ivanna 2. 

You can purchase the book or albums here.

As a performer, Cuban has opened for artists like Wu-Tang, and he’s been featured on BuzzFeed, NPR and tv spots. 

A teaching artist for nearly ten years, Matthew has spent the last six years working in youth detention centers across Los Angeles County, and is currently serving as: 

• the Director of Camp Programming for Street Poets, Inc. In addition, 
• he is a current Lead Teacher and Co-Founder of Spoken Literature Art Movement

Oh and he’s a fundraiser too - launching his book through a kickstarter campaign!

• You can find him on:
  • Facebook: @MatthewCuban
  • Insta: @matthewcubanofficial
  • Twitter: @matthewcuban

A lot of our content in this episode was story form and on many different topics but here are notes on…

• Honesty
  • “My favorite form of poetry is honesty” - Matthew Cuban Hernandez Matthew says that he believes honesty is a form of poetry in part because we so rarely hear it or experience it, even with ourselves” When you hear true honestly, it's like oh my god its beautiful.”
     
• At minute 8:08 Matthew talks about when it is an isn’t helpful to be honest, healthy dialogue…
   
• He also talks about how we are afraid to be openly wrong, that we [societally] don't allow room for that growth or building to happen b/c we want to be correct and we are scared of expressing an honest feeling and have others make us feel “less than.”
   
• He also talks about the honesty of correcting narratives ex: @ 11:19, when 90% of the people in youth detention are Black and brown kids, the kids might think “oh, well white kids must not do crime.” But Matthew points out the necessity of honesty here too “that’s not the actuality of what you are dealing with. There is a whole pipeline set up to have you right here right now…” “its not just you vs the judge/officers/another block/the GED system/trying to get a job/the college system. Understanding that these things are symbiotic is a big step in the right direction.