Mateo Bracken’s project for the 2025 Jack Straw Writers Program is a manuscript of Auburn, Washington’s settler colonial history in verse. In his conversation with curator Kathleen Alcalá, they discuss where he turned for information on the history of Auburn, the multiple meanings of the name “Slaughter,” and why he’s called to write about Auburn’s history. “The reason why Auburn exists is because of this genocide, really. So, as the Auburn Poet Laureate, I want to do everything in my power to really make people from Auburn, and just the Puget Sound in general, investigate the history.”

Music by Greg Kramer, produced in part through the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.

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