Also available as audio-only on iTunes, Spotify & wherever else you get podcasts.
On this episode, Matthew Nye tackles toxic masculinity during ‘Threads and Lines’. The Clique gives Raych Jackson a near perfect score for her 1 minute poem during the ‘2 Piece Combo’ and Matt writes a fire poem on the spot for his ‘5 For your eye’ prompted poem.
[EPISODE INDEX]
- 1:16 – “Untitled” by Matthew Nye
- 5:02 – “Threads & Lines”
- 16:00 – 2 Piece Combo | “My Mom Doesn’t Like My Haircut” – Raych Jackson
- 23:37 – 2 Piece Combo | @aheadfulofwords
- 31:27 – 5 For Your Eye
I met Matthew Nye through a mishap. I was producing a late night radio show about poetry that had a 1am time slot and little to no budget. Once in a while I would need a poet at the zero hour. Last minute booking for a late night show was incredibly difficult; I often had to drive to the station to fill in when I couldn’t find a poet kind enough to drive through LA at midnight to help support poetry for free, but Matt eagerly stepped up when needed. He was friends with Matthew Cuban, another member of the Pen clique, and it would be a fitting way to be introduced to Matt Nye as he has always come through for me, and more importantly, the art I’m working to create — especially when it was in a pinch.Â
Matt and I would later link up at a poetry open mic in Hollywood. Through a night filled with smoke and back and forth exchanges about art and music we instantly bonded. He would go on to help me with all kinds of crazy ideas I have had, from an episode of my comedy podcast Chubby Fat where we may or may not have partaken in special fungus products to helping with Pen Clique to other poetry events whenever asked. I can always lean on Matt, and even more valuable to me, I love the excuse to see him. Matt, like many of the past guests on Pen Clique, loves art because it gave him a means to survive. A lot of us are finding the arts by chance; we are from places and circumstances that makes exposure to the arts a hurdle. When we do find this gift, it gives us a gratitude and reverence for art, something that I see so clearly in Matt and his love and respect for poetry and art. All of which is made more apparent to me by his willingness to jump into whatever silly art things I’m trying to subject him to.
Pen Clique has been different for me than these past endeavors as there is a clear mission for us; We are out to do something very specific and unlike past projects of mine where I’m excited to share the journey with my homies, Pen Clique is an opportunity for me to share my homies with the world. Matt has spent his recent years acting and making music, working with amazing people throughout the industry but I was excited to offer him a reason to jump back into the art form where he found his voice earlier in life. He came to his episode shoot with rap bars, something I was open to but wasn’t sure Pen Clique would be the best platform for. Upon realizing what our mission and vision was, he quickly decided against the pieces he had originally brought with him and took the afternoon pre-production time to write two new and much more personal pieces. We went to a place of vulnerability that was universal and differently but deeply understood by each of us. It was yet another time Matt pulled magic out of thin air to come through for me with little time to do so. He went deep into his struggles as a man, dealing with the reality of life and death. We genuinely talked about poetry, and for the entire day we lost ourselves in the discussion of poetry and what we loved about it.Â
We spent the day eating pizza and laughing, then writing and working to produce something special, and then revealing in the glow of fun and excitement we had created together. That is how things usually go down when I’m with Matt. We are usually working on something or discussing what we’re working on in between a lot of laughter and love. I would meet Matt by accident, I would often work with him under last minute pressure and stress, and through it all, the experience is always filled with joy. Matt is family, and when you get to show the world how dope your family is, it feels even better. I am excited to share my dope friend with the world, as he shows the world how dope poetry can be.
Write-up & Audio Podcast by Daniel Hees
Video Podcast & Social by Kuya David
Photos by Aubrey Rowe
Write-up Edited by Seraphina Lotkhamnga
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Off Page: September 2020
For this month’s showcase, we got the Lao & Mien songstress SIRENA, non-binary poet star Pastiche Queen, clique fam actor/rapper/poet Matt Nye, our first international poet Kitty Kaji, and Dope Spot hiphop homie Jüne!
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Mini Ep: Reflecting on Quarantine-Era Pen Clique
After daily posts and weekly livestreams all throughout 2020, we ghosted in April 2021 without warning. We finally address what happened to Pen Clique, where we’ve been, what we’ve been up to and our plans for Pen Clique.
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Off Page: July 2020
This time around we got Kae Cee representing Columbus with poetry love, Localcolor bringing the neo-soul vibes, the Pomona family and shwavy one himself Jonnie Bars who always is in fact bars, the songbird poet and Pen Clique family Brian Oliva with the music magic tricks, the slam god and hip hop hero Matthew Cuban bringing heat off his newest album Ivanna 2, and model, actress, author, and poet Arielle Estoria with all the love and healing you can fit into a single poem to close.
