Blog | Carlos Andrés Gómez

For your GRAMMY® consideration for Best Spoken Word Poetry Album: “VOLTA”

For your GRAMMY® consideration:

VOLTA
Best Spoken Word Poetry Album

Produced by Joe West & Brent Shuttleworth
Lyrics by Carlos Andrés Gómez
Recorded by Joe West, Brent Shuttleworth, & Garrett Frank
Mixed by Joe West
Recorded & Mixed @ The West Barn Studios (Nashville, TN)
Additional Recording @ House Of Excelano (Washington, D.C.)
Mastered by Ted Jensen @ Sterling Sound (Nashville, TN)
Photo by Shawn Hudgins

“Magic”

“The Possible”

#GRAMMY
#GRAMMYs
#RoadToTheGRAMMYs
#Vote4GRAMMYs
#ForYourConsideration
#ForYourGRAMMYconsideration
#FYC
#BestSpokenWordPoetryAlbum
#BestSpokenWordPoetry
#SpokenWordPoetryAlbum
#SpokenWordPoetry
#PoetryCommunity
#VoltaAlbum
#GRAMMYnomination
#POETSstandUp

Twenty-three years later: life coming full circle.

Twenty-three years later—on stage & imagining my 17 year-old self in the audience at Moses Brown School mesmerized by a visiting poet—life coming full circle.

[Photo by my wonderful host & brilliant educator Wilson Taylor]

Thinking of a life-changing moment at 17 & how everything comes full circle.

More than two decades ago, a poet named Martín Espada radically shifted the trajectory of my life when he visited my high school and read from his poetry collection, Imagine the Angels of Bread.

His words broke through the armor and scars of an angry, lost 17 year-old kid and laid bare the transcendent possibilities of a poem.

Perhaps most profound about what Martín Espada’s poetry taught my rabble-rousing younger self was how, as Ocean Vuong stated so beautifully last night (about the power of writing): “to disobey meaningfully, to be disobedient in order to preserve the self.”

Two weeks from today, I will be this year’s Visiting Poet at that high school I attended, Moses Brown School—like Martín Espada was all those years ago—and, hopefully, breaking through to another 17 year-old kid with his head down in the crowd who thinks he’s just a basketball player and not the artist who hides himself in pages and pages of poems he promises he’ll never show to anyone.

[PS: If you’re near Providence, RI & want to attend the event on Friday, April 29th, it’s free & open to the public: https://www.mosesbrown.org/spring-2022-visiting-poet/]

On tour in the Middle East (World Expo & Emirates Lit Fest)

It’s hard to synthesize the feelings of this whirlwind past week in the Middle East—I hugged my father for the first time in nearly two and a half years, and he got to see me headline a show at Expo 2020 Dubai with my brilliant & dear friend, Dr. Afra Atiq, & my best friend since I was 13, Brent Shuttleworth, and then do an encore in the desert and under the stars for Emirates Airline Festival of Literature.

I got to hang and rock the stage with my dear amiga, Elizabeth Acevedo, as well as my sister, Nikita Gill, and the wonderful Danabelle Gutierrez.

This was my 3rd time performing in the UAE, and each time a little bit more of my heart is captured by the people of Dubai who continue to astound me with their generosity, kindness, and worldliness.

I’m so grateful to Ahlam Bolooki, Isobel Abulhoul, Jenny Malton, Annabelle Corton, & everyone on the festival team who has so effusively championed and supported my work.

Brent, Afra, and I created an original multilingual, multi-genre piece inspired by and in celebration of the festival’s theme. It meant so much that the entire festival team believed in us and supported our vision from the beginning.

Hoping to travel to many more festivals in the spirit of this collaboration across language, culture, and genre.

All of that being said, it just feels so good to be out in the world again after so long. Truly, here comes the sun…

#EmiratesLitFest

#Expo2020Dubai

#HereComesTheSun

“Are you listening?” (Mental health doc on HBO Max)

If you watch one thing today, let it be #AreYouListening The Healing of Us, a candid conversation about mental wellness, stigmas surrounding mental health, & the power of therapy. Such a joy to be in conversation with Sasha Merci and @josierosario for Pa’lante! HBO Max.

After a mentally and emotionally tough past week, this is particularly resonant for me.

What does mental health mean to you? What does it look like to really heal?

#AreYouListening is content a series created by @word.agency and directed by @zoiladarton inspired by the iconic show Habla on @HBOMax.

You can watch my teaser HERE

Catch the full conversation here: bit.ly/3pIf4nP

#HBOPartner #PalanteHBOMax