Matty Martinez-Mandell serves as coordinator for the Peace and Conflict Studies Center at Austin Community College. We discuss the role that the center plays in promoting peaceful resolutions to conflicts of all kinds, the ways in which Matty’s distinctive academic background informs their work, and a few upcoming center events that merit your consideration.

Through poetry and prose, language becomes a vehicle for connecting readers directly with the thoughts, beliefs and lived experiences of authors.

My guest today is Prudence Arceneaux, who guides students as Chair of the Creative Writing Department at Austin Community College. In addition to teaching Creative Writing courses, Prudence directs ACC’s literary magazine, The Rio Review, as well as the annual Balcones Literary Prize. She is also an accomplished poet in her own right, having published several volumes including Proprioception, recently released through the Texas Review Press.

Our discussion addresses her academic journey, the risks and rewards of participating in a community of writers, and the role of creativity both within and outside of her discipline.

• (00:00:00) - Community Conversations
• (00:02:07) - Prudence Arsenault on Her Role as an Instructor
• (00:04:40) - When You Get To Know Your Students
• (00:06:40) - Exploring Your Specific Academic Pathway
• (00:08:36) - The Role of Creativity in Teaching
• (00:12:47) - The Division Between Art and Creativity
• (00:19:03) - Writing and the Creative Process
• (00:24:46) - How to Get Out of Math Class
• (00:30:42) - How to Get Out of the Trap of 'Writing'
• (00:32:15) - Why Poetry Is So Scary
• (00:36:27) - The Voices of Non-Traditional Poets
• (00:41:22) - A Poem for a Friend
• (00:42:03) - What should I expect to be in for if I attend a reading
• (00:46:56) - The Future of Censorship
• (00:48:52) - A message about the Rio Review

Matt Kliewer is a Humanities instructor at Austin Community College and a scholar in the field of Native American and global Indigenous literature, film and media. Matt and I will lead a discussion following a screening of the Jim Jarmusch film Dead Man at the Austin Film Society’s cinema on November 13 at 7pm. Here, we take the opportunity to discuss his field and work, and to see what it looks like in real time by discussing a different film–2013’s Rhymes for Young Ghouls, written and directed by Jeff Barnaby. The film discussion comprises the second half of this interview, and delves into many of its plot points–spoilers lie ahead.

• (00:00:00) - Austin Community Conversations
• (00:01:07) - Dead Man: Matt Cleaver
• (00:02:30) - A Conversation With Jim Jarmusch on Deadman
• (00:04:36) - Faculty in the Humanities Q&A
• (00:07:34) - How to Talk to Students About Humanities
• (00:09:59) - Talking about literature with high school students in 2025
• (00:11:56) - On the Future of Young Adult Literature
• (00:14:20) - What would a humanities survey course look like?
• (00:17:14) - What It Means to Pursue Native American Studies
• (00:23:15) - The Film Review
• (00:24:17) - Rhymes for Young Ghouls Review
• (00:26:39) - Speaking Out: Indigenous Film
• (00:28:18) - Indigenous Film's VOTIVITY
• (00:35:17) - Film Review: The Good Witch
• (00:37:24) - Film Review: The Visual Sovereignty
• (00:39:15) - Ayla in Smoke Signals
• (00:42:42) - The Film's Sound
• (00:46:03) - The Wolf In The Wilderness
• (00:51:40) - The film's depiction of substance abuse
• (00:52:53) - The Discovery of a Residential School Grave
• (00:58:29) - It Ending Explained
• (01:03:29) - The film's final scene
• (01:05:53) - Jeff Barnaby: His Legacy
• (01:10:14) - What's a Newbie to Indigenous Film?