Poet Carlos Andrés Gómez to Perform at Riceland Hall
Carlos Andrés Gómez
JONESBORO — Colombian American poet Carlos Andrés Gómez, star of HBO’s “Def Poetry Jam” and Spike Lee’s award-winning movie, “Inside Man,” with Denzel Washington, will perform his original work at Arkansas State University.
His presentation starts at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 25, in Fowler Center's Riceland Hall, 201 Olympic Dr.
Presented by the Department of Theatre and the Office of Diversity and Community Engagement, the event will be followed by a reception and book signing with Gómez. Admission is free.
Gómez is the author of “Hijito,” for which he was awarded the Foreword Indies Gold Medal and the International Book Award for Poetry in 2020, and the coming-of-age memoir “Man Up: Reimagining Modern Manhood,” released by Penguin Random House in 2012.
His most recent book, “Fractures,” was selected by Pulitzer Prize-winning former U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey as the winner of the Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry.
A native of New York City, Gómez has performed at nearly 800 colleges and universities in 47 states and headlined shows in 26 countries across five continents. He has been featured on NPR, TEDx, Upworthy, and Central Park SummerStage, and he partnered with John Legend for Senior Orientation, a program to counteract bullying and champion inclusive masculinity among high school students.
The former social worker and public-school teacher first made a name for himself by winning at the Apollo Theater’s Amateur Night and later as a member of the renowned Nuyorican Poets Café’s slam team. In 2008, he collaborated with Tony Award-winning tap-dance legend Savion Glover on Broadway.
He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the MFA program for writers at Warren Wilson College.
