Cristina Henríquez
Critically acclaimed author of The Book of Unknown Americans and The Great Divide
Carlos Andrés Gómez
Poet, speaker, educator and advocate for healthy masculinity
Carlos Andrés Gómez speaks at TEDx
Carlos Andrés Gómez is a Colombian American poet and the International Book Award-winning author of the coming-of-age memoir Man Up: Reimagining Modern Manhood. He draws from his eclectic expertise—as an award-winning solo performer, trained facilitator, lauded public speaker, and long-time educator—to create electrifying and inspiring programs. Gómez is frequently brought to schools, law firms, and companies to craft a keynote or performance that engages Care, Connection, and Community or Healthy Masculinity.
-
About Carlos Andrés Gómez
A former public school teacher and social worker turned International Book Award-winning poet and bestselling author, Carlos Andrés Gómez uses storytelling and spoken word poetry to build empathy, understanding, and connection.
From colleges and independent schools to corporate seminars and international conferences, Carlos Andrés Gómez has spent more than two decades creating custom-tailored keynotes, immersive experiences and interactive trainings that galvanize participants toward building an environment characterized by care, connection, respect, and a deep sense of community. Carlos gives attendees actionable tools and strategies to implement in their lives.
Carlos Andrés Gómez has performed and delivered keynotes at more than 1,500 colleges, universities, independent schools, and companies in 47 U.S. states and 28 countries across six continents, collaborated with John Legend on a project to counteract bullying, and drew a standing ovation at the Obama White House.
Gómez is the author of Fractures, selected by Pulitzer Prize winner and 19th U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey as the winner of the Felix Pollak Prize, Hijito, winner of the Broken River Prize and a #1 SPD bestseller, and the memoir Man Up: Reimagining Modern Manhood. A star of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, TV One’s Verses and Flow, and the Spike Lee movie Inside Man with Denzel Washington, you may recognize Gómez from his viral poems, “Where are you really from?,” “What Latino Looks Like,” and others, which have garnered more than 12 million views online.
Gómez’s skills-based sessions are informed by best practices in social and emotional learning (SEL) and utilize interactive exchange, facilitated dialogue, and storytelling. Those critical tools, along with improv, spoken word poetry, and humor, are used to create a program unlike any other.
A magna cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and alum of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, Carlos was named 2021 Georgia Author of the Year by the Georgia Writers Association, Artist of the Year at the 2009 Promoting Outstanding Writers Awards, and a 2024 NACE Speaker of the Year nominee. He is a proud Colombian American and father of two.
Contact us for more information about bringing Carlos Andrés Gómez to your next event.
-
Speaking Topics
Reimagining Modern Manhood
Through storytelling, audience engagement, and poetry, Carlos Andrés Gómez shares his journey of growing up as a sensitive boy forced to navigate restrictive and harmful gender stereotypes. A riveting combination of personal narrative and sociological excavation, Gómez guides the audience through his life story, from that tender-hearted and out-of-place little boy constantly moving and changing schools to where he is now: a father of two and husband, determined to reimagine how we all think about masculinity and gender—beyond preconceived social roles, beyond the binary.
Takeaways:
- Participants will comprehend concepts related to gender, care, and community.
- Participants will build competency and awareness about societal and cultural messages, best practices, and how to build healthier, more fair, and productive spaces.
- Participants will examine the effect of friends, family, culture, technology, and media on behavior and ways of thinking, as it relates to gender.
Tools for Self-Care: Mental Wellness & Emotional Resilience
In a time of unprecedented stress, anxiety, and isolation, the need for strategies to promote mental wellness and build emotional resilience are more urgent than ever. With building pressure to find ever innovative and responsive ways to address our intensifying mental health crisis, this session will be focused on ways to keep attendees motivated and supported, both individually and communally. This skills-based session will identify ways to navigate challenges to our mental and emotional well-being. From routine building to evidence-based psychological strategies and more, participants will leave with practical tools and a resource list for how best to support their mental and emotional wellness.
Takeaways:
- Attendees will build competency and awareness about concepts related to mental and emotional health and evidence-based strategies for mental wellness and emotional resilience.
- Attendees will examine the effect of various strains on their mental and emotional wellbeing, as well as strategies for alleviating those stresses.
- Attendees will identify concrete strategies to promote mental wellness and emotional resilience.
Care & Community: At the Intersection of Wellness & Belonging
This interactive session will explore the interconnected nature of culturally-affirming spaces and holistic mental and emotional wellness. Gómez will explore and identify actionable tools for promoting mental and emotional well-being through culturally-responsive and evidence-based strategies that enable classrooms and campuses to be more care-centered and community-oriented environments for all. Participants will leave this skills-based session with tools and strategies to immediately implement in their lives.
Takeaways:
- Attendees will build competency and awareness about mental and emotional health, social identity, and community.
- Attendees will examine the effect of various strains on their mental and emotional wellbeing, as well as strategies for alleviating those stresses.
- Attendees will identify concrete strategies to promote mental wellness and emotional resilience, as well as ways to be more culturally-responsive, accessible, and community-oriented.
Reimagining Gender: Beyond Socialized Roles, Beyond the Binary
This interactive session will examine the ways in which we have been taught to think about gender. More specifically: What values and assumptions have we been socialized to believe about gender? And how do those ideas impact how we think about ourselves, navigate the world, and interact with each other? How do our other identities (i.e. race, sexuality, socioeconomic status, nationality, religion, dis/ability, etc.) impact how we understand and experience gender? Participants will collectively explore these and other concepts.
Takeaways:
- Participants will comprehend concepts related to gender, care, and community.
- Participants will build competency and awareness about societal and cultural messages, best practices, and how to build healthier, more fair, and productive spaces.
- Participants will examine the effect of friends, family, culture, technology, and media on behavior and ways of thinking, as it relates to gender.
-
Video
-
Praise for Carlos Andrés Gómez
Spent one of the most powerful Zoom hours of my life with [Carlos] & Calhoun School students today.
— Andrew Hume, Calhoun SchoolCarlos is killing it—he’s such a powerful speaker.
— John Legend…a truth-telling visionary.
— Sarah Higginbotham, Brass MagazinePowerful, truthful, and sublime.
— Dr. Cornel West(5/5 stars) — Gómez lays himself bare…a quarter of the audience shed tears yet the show was uplifting.
— Bernie Greenwood, Hairline Magazine (United Kingdom)Powerful and tear-jerking…a mind-blowing, perspective-changing experience.
— Shannon Busta, Cord WeeklyCarlos was by far the most engaging and inspiring poet I have ever seen.
— Drew Donica, Lawrence UniversityCarlos is without a doubt one of the best performers we have had on the Berry campus. It is so nice working with someone who is so helpful, so grateful, and an all-around joy to work with. And you can quote me on that.
— Taylor Burfeindt, Krannert Center Activities Board, Berry CollegeThe event was incredible. Every student who came was extremely impressed with Carlos…I had seniors coming up to me telling me that Carlos was the best speaker they had seen in four years.
— Elizabeth Stanfield, Co-Chair, SEAT, University of TennesseeCarlos Andrés Gómez—a man so stunningly open, a poet so thrillingly fierce—that my students, normally so intellectual and analytical, couldn’t resist the chance to share their most emotionally intimate stories of learning the world and claiming their voices in it. And they haven’t stopped since.
— Cindylisa Muñiz, Trinity SchoolThat was the best convocation we have ever had—I left with a full heart!
— Makenzie Tucker, Diversity Awareness Chair, Tennessee Wesleyan UniversityIt was a powerful, empathetic, inspiring and enlivening performance – and the students were genuinely moved by it. They’re not an uncritical audience, and I only heard them talking about how awesome he was!
— Christopher Moses-Jenkins, Dean of Students, The Berkeley Carroll SchoolAs a person who has been organizing annual writing festivals at my school since the early 90’s, I was awed by the way Carlos Andrés Gómez connected with our students last year. One of my students echoed many of her peers when she wrote, ‘Never before had I really felt poetry the way I did when Carlos recited ‘What is Genocide.’ I didn’t know that poetry could speak and feel with such a power.’ Another enthused, ‘Hearing Carlos Andrés Gómez live literally sent a shiver down my spine at one point…his energy on YouTube doesn’t hold a candle to how powerful he is in person.’ A third commented, ‘His presentation was incredible, but the reason I liked him so much was that he made serious political and social issues the direct subjects of his poems.’ Students also loved Carlos’ workshop on writing because he was inspiring, interesting, and helpful. We generally don’t ask writers to return for several years, but this year we’ve made an exception because so many of our students have asked for Carlos again. To say he made an impact on our community is an understatement.
— Dr. Susan Dineen, Upper School English Department (The Pingry School)Carlos Andrés Gómez has performed for our Centennial College students in Toronto, Canada four times. Within minutes, Carlos has a whole room of students and staff and faculty rapt with attention. His performances are powerful in their delivery and in their honesty. Students engage. They speak up. They join in. A performance by Carlos is a journey in which he leads by example in facing courageously who we are. His spoken word pieces hold our darkest secrets and fears up for us all to see, and they celebrate and call on the best of who we are to do something about it.
— Robert Pidgeon, Director of Student Relations, Centennial CollegeCarlos is nothing short of a sensation on our campus! Since his first performance 5 years ago he has come back every year by popular demand from students and faculty. His performances are mesmerizing and have captivated the hearts and minds of everyone who has come to his shows. Carlos creates a revolutionary space for learning in both his workshops and shows through a compelling performance of poetry, drama, political insight and humour that inspires students to think, act and be agents of change in the world.
— Dr. Jasmin Zine, Professor of Sociology, Wilfrid Laurier UniversityAs much as Carlos is an excellent poet and performer, he is an even better person. The honesty and kindness of his character shines through in his weighty words, and makes his performances that much more dynamic. He puts his whole person, both the good and the bad, into his lyrics – and it’s this honesty that sets him apart, and allows his audiences to connect so well with him.
— Brian Rainville, Director of Ministry and Service, North Central CollegeCarlos Andrés Gómez is explosive! His poems are fresh and original but more importantly they have heart and purpose. He performs with passion and takes you on an emotional journey that leaves you thinking and wanting more.
— Ubaldo Ocasio, Student, Bradley University“pellbinding, vulnerable, and powerful…His show makes you feel like he is on stage performing for millions and having a one-on-one conversation with you and your heart all at the same time.
— Jeffrey Perera, Founder/Chairperson, Ryerson White Ribbon Campaign (Ryerson University) -
Books by Carlos Andrés Gómez
-
Media About Carlos Andrés Gómez
Request Fees
and Availability
- 212 572-2013
- Carlos Andrés Gómez travels from New York, New York
Featured Title
Man Up
“Carlos Andrés Gómez does not claim to have all the answers, but that's what's great about this book. He addresses the preconceived notions of manhood and masculinity that most people go their entire lives never questioning. Man Up is the result of a thoughtfully examined life; a book that will make us all more enlightened.” – Hill Harper, author of Letters to a Young Brother
Similar Speakers
Shaka Senghor
Author of Letters to the Sons of Society and Writing My Wrongs and leading voice on criminal justice reform
Robbie Rogers
Retired LA Galaxy Star and LGBTQ Advocate