Here it is—the culmination of a promise two best friends made to each other at 13.
A tribute to the resilience that carried us through these past 18 months of grief & loss.
A fusion of poetry, music, & film like you’ve never seen:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
International Book Award-winning poet releases “Beating Traffic”
September 22, 2021
(Atlanta, GA) – Colombian American poet Carlos Andrés Gómez, star of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam and Spike Lee’s #1 box office movie Inside Man with Denzel Washington, released the short film “Beating Traffic” today through Button Poetry (the largest spoken word media content platform in the world).
“Beating Traffic,” a short film directed by Joe West, is the first video release from Gómez’s debut studio album, Opus, which he recorded with his best friend/musician/producer, Brent Shuttleworth, and GRAMMY Award-winning record producer, Joe West.
Inspired by a promise made between childhood best friends at thirteen (Gómez and Shuttleworth), Opus introduces a groundbreaking collaboration of poetry, music, and film. Having recently submitted the album for GRAMMY consideration in the Best Spoken Word Album category, Gómez seeks to become the first contemporary spoken word poet and first Latino to win for spoken word album.
Carlos Andrés Gómez is the author of Hijito, for which he was awarded the Foreword INDIES Gold Medal and the International Book Award for Poetry 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-winning former 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 nearly 800 colleges and universities in 47 U.S. states and headlined shows in 26 countries across five continents. He has been featured on NPR, 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-winner Savion Glover on Broadway. Gómez is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.
For press access, interviews, and other inquiries:
booking@carloslive.com
For more information on Carlos Andrés Gómez: www.CarlosLive.com
