Author: Carlos Andrés Gómez

I first saw Nikki Giovanni in the fall of my sophomore year of college.

I’d never seen anyone so uncompromising and electrifying. She took hold of a room of about 500 people that day in a way I’ve never seen paralleled. As generous and love-centered with each word, as she was irreverent and sharp-edged. Nothing and no one was spared.

It was a transformative lesson for me that I’m still learning from on what radical love looks like embodied and in public. She held a mirror to my complicities, my hesitations, my self-doubts and called me forward. Called all of us toward something more courageous.

That evening I first saw her, she read a poem of hers about Emmett Till, in particular reckoning with those who asked Mamie Till-Mobley why she wouldn’t feel ashamed to leave the casket of her dear son open. And Emmett’s mom responding, “This not my shame. This is yours.”

Encountering that idea at a time in my life where I was so overcome with a confluence of shames—inherited, cultural, intergenerational, etc—was revelatory.

I went home and wrote a poem after Nikki’s piece, which I hand-wrote out, recorded a recitation of (on cassette tape!), and mailed (with a Thank you card) addressed to Professor Giovanni at Virginia Tech.

A month later, she mailed me back a glowing hand-written letter about my poem and how much it meant to her to receive my package.

I think now, even more than I recognized then, how utterly absurd it was for her to respond at all. My goodness. That she remained so deliberate about pouring into and lifting up so many of us? Whether colleagues, other writers, or a random sophomore in college who barely had a sense about anything?

There aren’t words for her impact or legacy, or the void left her absence. An absolute giant of history. And far beyond the immeasurable legacy of her creative work, I hope to emulate the kind of mentor and citizen she was.

What an honor to share the stage with her at two events over the years. This photo was taken at the first of them, that we did together in Philly in 2009.

#NikkiGiovanni

I’ve been a featured poet and headliner at festivals all over the world (more than a dozen countries), Split This Rock in DC, the Brooklyn Book Festival, and I’d never seen anything like the lineup for this year’s 20th celebration of the Dodge Poetry Festival.

Attending the 2006 festival in Stanhope, NJ as a baby poet was a life-altering revelation for me as a writer, reader, and human being.

Which is all to say: what a mind-blowing experience to be a featured author (nearly 20 years later!) at this iconic festival (the largest literary gathering in North America!).

Heartfelt thank you to everyone who traveled (some from several states away) to see me at the festival. It meant so much to me.

#DodgePoetryFestival
#CarlosOnTour
#20thDodgePoetryFestival

A couple of years back, Joe West, Brent Shuttleworth, and I hatched this idea to make a visually-stunning experimental short film of our track “Abuelita” (from my album, “Opus,” which was produced by Joe and Brent).

I was completely awed by the vision of Joe West, who directed, edited, filmed (with Shawn Hudgins), and conceived of the idea.

We’ve been quietly submitting the short film to festivals across the globe and, honestly, mind-blown by the ways it’s been celebrated:

33 awards (from 13 countries across 4 continents)
40 Official Selections for film festivals (17 countries across 6 continents)

I’m not going to list all the accolades here, but it’s been wild.

After a long wait, we are FINALLY ready to share our award-winning short film, Abuelita:

To watch it, CLICK HERE