Instructor Interview: Matt G.
Meet Matt(he/him)
This interview was conducted August 2, 2026
Korinn Annette Jefferies: Tell me how you got started doing theater.
Matt G.: Well, I did the formal Shakespeare plays and whatnot when I was in high school. I was Iago in Othello, and I was Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, and that's mainly because I got the most credit for memorizing, uh, the most flines. But maybe even earlier before then, during, uh, Christmas programs for my church growing up when I was like 4 or 5 years old. So I've always liked to perform and bring characters to life.
KAJ: It sounds like your favorite role in the theater would probably be performing.
MG: Yeah, that would be it. Uh, an actor. But if I was to do any, uh, script writing, I'd probably be into that as well. Given that my main form of creative expression has been, through spoken word poetry, which combines the writing, uh, with the performance a lot of times.
KAJ: Absolutely. So, how would you define black drama?
MG: Black drama, in my opinion, is just, uh, our natural way of being. We are always expressive people, even in doing the mundane. I think we're spirited in that way. Um, just putting it on a stage and formalizing it into a production is a way for outsiders looking in to uh, conceptualize what we might know in nonverbal cues or just general, uh, conversations we might have with someone around a water cooler, on the porch, or outside, um, after a church program, listening to a sermon to get the news, or whatnot, or anything we might be speculating. Um, I feel like that is Black drama in its essence.
First play I remember, reading and watching, was A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry.
KAJ: What on your resume are you most proud of?
“It’s for everyone. It's art, theater, music— all those forms of creative expression are universal in my opinion. ”
MG: Hmm. Fortunately, I have gotten to do a lot of things, uh, some things I don't even have listed. Uh, I got to open up for Common one time in undergrad, and, um, I've had poetry, performed in the same space, it has, uh, UNC basketball players who later got to, uh, the NBA, and getting props from them. Being in the same space as people who did Death Poetry Jam. All of those things have been cool.
Uh, I think the biggest thing that I admire on my resume is the fact that, amidst the lack of publications, I've had a study performance, resume going from 2011 till now. And that's 15 years, [and I’m] getting excited to uh, get to the 20 mark and really still feel young in my career.
So, um, just the fact that the resume is growing, and the list is diverse, is what I'm most proud of, versus any one given achievement. Outside of working with celebrities, I've even did, uh... cultural education with students in the youth development center, juvenile justice, and I like the fact that I can work with very privileged, uh, individuals or even be in the room with a celebrity, but also make sure that this type of expression is accessible to our, quote unquote, forgotten and disenfranchised, uh, parts of society. And it's for everyone. It's art, theater, music— all those forms of creative expression are universal in my opinion. So, I'm proud of it all.
KAJ: What current projects do you have going on? What are you working on right now?
MG: Oh, boy, I have so many projects I'm working on right now. But, uh, the biggest thing that I'm working through is trying to get my first full length of collection of poems together to either make into a chap book or a full length manuscript collection. And so far, I have a title. I have some loose poems. But the title for the overall collection is ‘Prey for the Downtrodden,’ but ‘prey’ is spelled P-R-E-Y. Um, and just a little taste of it is an idea of southern Gothic horror meets sci-fi action meets the history of Black Americans from,slavery to present. And we'll see how all those things blend together.
KJ: It sounds like Lovecraft Country. Like, just from the sci-fi and the horror, like, I can kind of see all those elements and something like that as well.
“And I feel if we could be the authors of what that horror looks like or the confines in which it is shaped in, we can also create resolutions to where we are not the victims of horror but the overcomers of it and the authors of new genres for ourselves.”
MG: Yeah, it might have some, uh, similarities and kinship with that type of, um, work, because in my opinion, Black history, as it has been told, and even [within] our black present, there's a lot of terrible and horrible things that we might have borne witness to and are navigating through. And I feel if we could be the authors of what that horror looks like or the confines in which it is shaped in, we can also create resolutions to where we are not the victims of horror but the overcomers of it and the authors of new genres for ourselves. But we gotta confront that first. So, that's where I'm at with it.
KAJ: Alright, is there anything that you want your students to know before they come to class with you?
MG: Alright, for my students who may be [reading] this interview. Uh, creative writing lab with Mr. Matt or Matt G is not a horror story at all. And, there are no scary elements to it, even if you have never written, uh, poetry, if you've never thought about writing a script for a play, if you don't even know how to spell the best compared to your peers. None of that is going to be a hindrance for you. None of that's gonna be a roadblock or get in your way. You have all the tools you need if you have an open mind to being successful and a creative writer. So don't have any expectations or preconceived notions of what this class is supposed to be, or how you will be an excellent student, if you have a wide, expensive, and possible imagination, you will excel, and we will have fun, or we will talk about all the emotions. and all the experiences of life that come to mind. So I'm excited to have you.
Matt G. is teaching Creative Writing Lab for Fall 2026 at the Durham Arts Council.
Registration closes October 26, 2026.