Penn State DuBois to welcome Carlos Gomez on Sept. 23

DuBOIS, Pa. - The Penn State DuBois Office of Student Engagement will welcome students and members of the public to Hiller Auditorium on Monday, Sept. 23 when Colombian American poet Carlos Andrés Gómez, star of HBO's Def Poetry Jam and the Spike Lee movie Inside Man with Denzel Washington, will perform his original work.

Gómez is the author of Hijito, for which he was awarded the Foreword INDIES Gold Medal and the International Book Award 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 winner and 19th U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey as the winner of the Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry.

Hailing from New York City, Gómez has performed at more than 1,000 colleges, universities, independent schools, and companies in 47 U.S. states and headlined shows in 28 countries across six continents. He has been featured on NPR, PBS, TEDx, Upworthy, Central Park SummerStage, and partnered with John Legend for Senior Orientation, a program to counteract bullying and champion inclusive masculinity among high school students.

A former social worker and public-school teacher, Carlos first made a name for himself by winning at the Apollo Theater's celebrated 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. Gómez is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.

The show will begin at 7 p.m. There is free admission, and this event is open to the public.

The program is presented by the Penn State DuBois Office of Student Engagement as part of the Diversity, Arts, and Lecture Series. For more information, contact Brittany Stanton, assistant director of student engagement, at [email protected]or 814-375-4764.