Spoken Word poet Carlos Andreas Gomez entertained the WCU community with some of his most famous poems on March 17. He enlightened the crowd of about 30 people with his deep poems and opinions about 21st century society.
Carlos Andreas Gomez performing. Photo taken by Danny Ranz.
Gomez’s performance was organized by Last Minute Productions (LMP) and took place in the UC Illusions room. Gomez began the evening by promoting his book Man Up: Reimagining Modern Manhood talking a little bit about himself and why he enjoys performing his poetry.
“The part I love most about what I do is making people critically think about themselves, what they want in life, and about society,” said Gomez. “I always love conversing with the audience afterwards and sharing ideas because that’s how you make people think critically.”
Gomez performed a wide array of poems each with a different perspective. One poem he performed was “What Does Hispanic look like?” This was a broad poem that talked about how society views Hispanics and minorities and how society should view them. Another poem he performed was “Princess” which stems from a traumatic experience Gomez and his wife encountered with their daughter.
“Princess is, perhaps, one of my favorite poems I perform because I do it for my daughter,” Gomez said. “We had to have an emergency C section and the poem just reminds me of how lucky my wife and I are.”
Gomez also performed a poem called “Gifted”. “Gifted” talked about how to think about one’s self and one’s abilities and how nobody should be limited to what they want to do. Gomez said that no matter what one’s race, ethnicity, religious background, etc. is, it is important to not let anyone, even the government or society, stop one from achieving his/her dreams.
“Gifted was my favorite poem at the show,” said Darrell Freeland, a freshman at WCU. “It really spoke to me and motivated me to go after my dreams and that nothing can stop me.”
