Award-winning poet and speaker to visit CWU on October 27-28

World-renowned poet, speaker, actor, and educator Carlos Andrés Gómez will be on the Central Washington University campus next week for two days of widely anticipated events.

Starting with three Lion Rock Visiting Writers Series appearances on Tuesday, October 27, and concluding with a keynote address and book signing at the annual Pachanga event on Wednesday, October 28, Gómez is sure to captivate the imaginations of the CWU community with his visionary and electrifying performances; recent venues include Lincoln Center in New York City and Shibuya in Tokyo.

The award-winning Colombian American entertainer and community strategist is best known for his spoken-word performances, but he has also earned acclaim for his moving, humanity-centered poetry collections, which have earned him both the Foreword INDIES Gold Medal and the International Book Award for poetry.

Gómez, who also visited CWU about 10 years ago, has been published in Poetry magazine, The Nation, New England Review, The Yale Review, among many others, and co-founded The Excelano Project, a spoken word poetry group at the University of Pennsylvania in 2001.

One of Gomez’s other more notable ventures was a collaboration with singer John Legend on the program Senior Orientation, which promoted inclusive masculinity and sought to combat bullying in U.S. high schools.

Gómez’s visit to CWU will begin with two in-person events on Tuesday as part of the Lion Rock Visiting Writers Series — a craft talk, Q&A, and book signing at noon in the Brooks Library fourth floor attic space; and a reading, Q&A, and book signing at 5:30 p.m. in the North Academic Commons atrium. He will also deliver a Zoom-only combined craft talk and reading from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.

For the craft talk, Gómez will focus on “The Radical Power of Autobiographical Narrative” and invite attendees “to celebrate how art and the humanities can incline each of us deeper and more profoundly toward close attention and attending to the messy, complex dimensions of human experience.”

The evening reading will be centered around his recently released bilingual chapbook Patrilineation and debut collection of poems, Fractures, winner of the Felix Pollak Prize. All three events are free and open to the public. Five books will be given away to students at each event, thanks to the generosity of the Friends of the James E. Brooks Library Board.

During the Zoom-only event, Gómez will present a dedicated program for online students and other interested community members. Those interested are asked to pre-register for the event.

Gómez will remain in Ellensburg for one more day, headlining the annual Pachanga event, presented by the Latino and Latin American Studies program. The two-hour cultural celebration in the SURC Ballroom will feature student performances and a short program featuring Gomez, along with Assistant Professor John Ribó and Vice President of Student Engagement and Success Verónica Gómez-Vilchis.

Carlos Andrés Gómez is a New York City native and University of Pennsylvania graduate who also studied in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. The father of two is a practiced spoken word poet who memorizes his poems and delivers them with the verve of a Shakespearean actor.

When he is creating poetry, he writes not with the predisposition of hope but “to unflinchingly face whatever I’m interrogating, and be as precise and nuanced as I must, even if that means leading the reader towards an endpoint they might not expect or want.” Attendees will undoubtedly connect with Gómez’s spirited and warm performance style while also learning new ways to unleash their own creativity.

“I’m often most inspired by that which is overlooked, unsaid, or unseen, whether it be something beautiful, horrific, or anything in-between,” he said. “I’m called to write about what seems impossible to distill in language — meaning, I’ll almost certainly fail, but I try anyway.”

Learn more about Gómez and his work at @CarlosAGLive or CarlosLive.com.