ZUMIX alumna Magdiela Matta is this year’s Alumni Luminary Award honoree at our annual Gala, The Muze.
Maggie, a graduate of Boston University, is a Community Producer with the Equity and Justice team at GBH News. She covers the places where people are finding community and how they’re building it. Her work appears online, on social platforms and on GBH radio.
Prior to her time at GBH, Magdiela worked at the PRX Podcast Garage, helping folks get their podcasts off the ground and planning workshops. She has also been an Arts & Culture Fellow at WBUR and an Associate Producer at the Loop Lab in Cambridge.
We caught up with Maggie to learn more about her experience at ZUMIX, her love for storytelling, and how her ZUMIX experience continues to inform her work today.
Tell us about how you came to ZUMIX as a young person.
I started going to ZUMIX because my best friend was going there for piano lessons, and her mom told my mom about it. I started off with piano lessons, and then I basically decided to join every single program! I lived down the street, and I was there until 8 pm every day.
What made you fall in love with ZUMIX programs?
I really like the pursuit of knowledge. I was so excited to be learning things, even if they weren’t “my” thing. I did Sprouts programs; I played drums; I played bass; I sang in a band. I did fix-it classes, where I learned how to fix cables and stuff. I had my own radio show, called Sugar and Spice, when I was 12 years old. I really feel that I used ZUMIX to its fullest capacity!
ZUMIX was a very special place; you could hang out and talk to the mentors or staff, or spend time with your friends. It was a safe place to be and make friends, instead of being home alone and unsupervised. I loved that my friends and I could explore creative work together.
I lived in East Boston until maybe 8th grade, and then I moved to Everett. I moved back at one point, living on my own in Eastie, and I volunteered as a ZUMIX Radio mentor for a while. I feel like ZUMIX has cultivated a relationship with alumni and we’re able to be very involved. It felt more like a family than just an organization. I still have friends from ZUMIX, and those lasting relationships are really important to me.
How did you become interested in journalism and media production?
Initially, I studied communications and political science in college, and when I transferred to BU, I changed my major to journalism. I’ve always been really moved by the whole Humans of New York ethos: the idea that every person has a story.
One day, I was doing vox pops for one of my classes, asking questions of random people on the street, when I happened to meet an actual reporter from WBUR. I was late to class! But I got their contact info, followed up, and got an internship.
I dove into the world of audio journalism, which was new to me! I got to work on a podcast called Endless Thread, a collaboration between Reddit and WBUR, which involved deep dives into a lot of topics. After that internship, I went to the Loop Lab at MIT, and eventually I became an arts and culture fellow at WBUR. I moved over to the PRX Podcast Garage after that, and planned workshops for people to learn how to podcast, and how to grow their podcasts. When I got laid off, it was perfect timing, because I was already in interviews for my current position.
Tell us about the work you do at GBH.
I work as a community producer, which means I work on various things: videos, social media, writing, radio pieces. I also run listening sessions, which are about creating connections with communities, and tapping into places where we haven’t been before, or where trust has been broken. It’s about building new sources, building relationships – just listening to people.
A big part of that work is listening without needing a story right away. I think that’s very innovative – lots of newsrooms say they don’t have the time for that. It’s nice to listen to people for the sake of listening, and help people understand what we do. There’s a lot of distrust with the media, so it’s nice to be able to rebuild that trust.
A lot of my pieces have focused on community projects, like the Barbershop Clinic, which is a therapy clinic run through a barbershop in Nubian Square to provide a safe, therapeutic space for Black and brown men. I found out about the clinic through a listening session I did at Madhouse Cafe in Dorchester.
Another example is a story I did last year on the Public Kitchen, an initiative in Dorchester by design studio DS4SI. Someone from California contacted me after they found the story, and wanted to learn more. I really enjoy solutions-based journalism: covering the good work that’s being done. People are really looking for good things, inspiring projects, and ideally something that can be replicated in their communities.
How does your experience at ZUMIX inform the work you do today?
Wanting to know things, wanting to seek knowledge, is a journalistic principle. So much of my job today is asking questions and getting to know people. I was able to be around so many different kinds of people at ZUMIX at a young age, and my mind was very open. That experience prepared me for the world: seeking knowledge consistently, getting to know different kinds of people, and wanting to understand.
Another thing that informs my work is knowing the amount of stories that live behind an organization. I spent so much time at ZUMIX, and I also spent time at Artists for Humanity as a young person. I gained a sense of believing in young people, and empowering them–being a youth advocate, and an advocate for youth. Now, as an adult, I see how much power there is behind giving youth power and agency. They’re already fundamentally who they are, at their core–they’re just going to hone in on it later on.
Learning a little bit of everything has also been a through line in my life! I played piano and drums and sang and danced and did all these things at ZUMIX. And now, in my career, I do audio production, writing, podcasts, video, audio walking tours–all these different media. I feel like I’ll know a little bit of everything wherever I go.
