Artist Spotlight: Carlos Andres Gomez

I fell in love with this man during spring break a few years back. I was flipping through channels on my friends TV when I realized that he had HBO (yay!!) and the Def Potry Jam was on (greater joy!!). When Carlos walked up to the stage and started speaking, I was totally spellbound. His words hit me so hard that I had to rewind it a few times.

This man is a genltle genius who weaves words together with deliberate beauty. If you don't know, please get hip to it!

By Sarah Higginbotham on February 1st, 2007
Brass Magazine

Carlos Andrés Gómez has a way with words. He's been called a prophet, praised for his powerful message on and off stage. The 25-year-old award-winning poet and actor has made it to the National Poetry Slam Championships twice, performed on HBO's Def Poetry Jam and grabbed a leading role in Spike Lee's blockbuster, Inside Man. If you haven't heard this "spoken-word" artist on Telemundo or the MTV-U-sponsored Fight Apathy Tour, you might have heard of him: His performances generated over $40,000 to fight HIV/AIDS. Straight from the mouth of this former social worker and teacher comes a message about speaking up, making a living as a modern-day poet and helping others.

Carlos Andre Gomez Live from the Nuyorican


1. Prophet: One gifted with more than ordinary spiritual and moral insight; especially: an inspired poet.

He stands luminescent under the spotlight, eyes glowing. His hands whip left and right. The audience holds their breath as words flip off the stage, potent in their honesty and raw emotion.

On stage or off, Carlos tells it like it is. In the world of poetry slams, where energetic poetry performances are scored Olympic-style by audience members, Carlos learned to drop verse as entertaining as any Top Forty rapper.

"Some like it spelled out," he almost whispers in a performance of his poem breath stroke. "But my love doesn't speak literacy, and these metaphors don't sing literally, and these stanzas aren't about imagery or simile. Quite simply this is about a feeling..."

On the slam stages he found a platform to talk about issues he cared about, making us re-think our views on HIV/AIDS, violence, racism and poverty. "Often times the greatest writing is putting down on paper what you know you shouldn't write," Carlos says. "The greatest writers, the greatest painters, the greatest artists, are the ones that are putting down the last thing in the world that you should put down."

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