Slam poet Carlos Andres Gomez returns to Saint Leo University to perform his hard hitting poems on diversity, identity, and love. A comedic character who engaged with the students and had a personal and charismatic delivery of his pieces, Gomez hit it off with his audience.
The evening event took place on Oct. 26th in the SCC Boardrooms, and started off with opening pieces from Freshman Ruben Miller and Sophomore Milynthia Ford representing the slam poetry club here at Saint Leo University. Following them was Gomez, who started off with a story about his grandmother. He asked for stories from the audience themselves and was an upbeat, energetic, and fun performer.
After Gomez’s small introduction to his poem, titled Hallelujah, he started off his first piece that recounted memory by memory of his grandmother. The poem left the audience waiting for more.
“Carlos was a really good poet who put his experiences into his poetry while keeping it clean,” said Freshman English major, Michael Goodeaux.
The night continued on with poem after poem recounting experiences of self-love and realizations. One of Gomez’s most relatable poems was Love Poem To My Younger Self. He emphasizes that we all cringe at our middle school years, yet that time in our lives is not one to be cringed at but looked at as a time of growth.
“The show was definitely thought provoking,” said Freshman Travis Farmer.
Throughout the night, Gomez hit topics such as stereotyping and having your identity disregarded. He recounted some of his personal experiences while engaging with the audience about theirs as well. Near the end, Gomez gave away a free book called Man Up. The book, written by Gomez, is a memoir about what it means to be a man, and the gender stereotypes surrounding it.
Closing out the show, slam poet Carlos Andres Gomez took photos with his audience and sold copies of his book Man Up,as well as left students with his website, carloslive.com. His performance was one that has been at Saint Leo before, and will likely be welcomed back again.
