HE Episode 2: Black Masculinity, Fatherhood, and Creative Success Featuring Clint Smith and Carlos Andres Gomez
Date and Time
Dec 11, 2019 6:30 pm
Location
14th & V
2021 14th St NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20009
Dec 11, 2019 6:30 pm
14th & V
Join us for this incredible showcase and author reading, followed by a circle discussion moderated by our Director of Poetry Events Pages Matam, with Carlos Andres Gomez, author of the new award winning collection "Hijito" and writer, educator Clint Smith, author of Counting Descent. Think LeBron James’ The Shop, meets Jada Pinkett's Red Table Talk, as they discuss being Black Fathers & Artists in America and the legacy we create within our communities and beyond in the most intentional, impactful, honest and visceral way.
FEATURED SPEAKERS
Carlos Andres Gomez author of "Hijito"
Carlos Andrés Gómez is a Colombian American poet, speaker, actor, and author of Hijito (ee-HEE-toe), winner of the Broken River Prize and a #1 SPD bestseller, and the memoir Man Up: Reimagining Modern Manhood, released by Penguin Random House. A star of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, TV One’s Verses and Flow, and Spike Lee’s #1 box office movie Inside Man with Denzel Washington, you may recognize him from his viral poems, “Where are you really from?” and “What Latino Looks Like,” which have garnered millions of views online. Winner of the Atlanta Review International Poetry Prize, Fischer National Poetry Prize, Lucille Clifton Poetry Prize, and the Sandy Crimmins National Prize for Poetry, Carlos partnered with John Legend on Senior Orientation, a program to counteract bullying and champion inclusive masculinity among high school students. He’s a proud Latinx and father.
WITH Special Appearance by Clint Smith
Clint Smith is a writer, teacher, and doctoral candidate at Harvard University. He is currently an Emerson Fellow at New America and has previously received fellowships from the Art For Justice Fund, Cave Canem, and the National Science Foundation. He is a National Poetry Slam Champion whose writing has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Poetry Magazine, and The Paris Review. His first full-length collection of poetry, Counting Descent, was published in 2016. It won the 2017 Literary Award for Best Poetry Book from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. His debut narrative nonfiction book, How the Word Is Passed, is forthcoming from Little, Brown.
& Moderated by Pages Matam
Pages Matam is an international artist & educator from Cameroon, Central Africa, currently residing in Washington D.C. He is the Director of Poetry Events for Busboys and Poets, a Callaloo Fellow, and Write Bloody published author of The Heart of a Comet (2014), which won Best New Book 2014 from Beltway Poetry Quaterly and was a Teaching for Change bestseller. He was the recipient of a 2018 & 2019 DC Commission Arts & Humanities Fellowship grant. His next collection is "Draikus: a collection of feels", forthcoming via Burrowsink publishing 2019, highlighting toxic masculinity in interpersonal relationships. He is a proud gummy bear elitist, bowtie enthusiast, professional hugger and anime fanatic. www.pagesmatam.com
