Poet, speaker, actor and author Carlos Andrés Gómez spoke to Upper School students during a virtual assembly on Monday, Oct. 19. During the assembly, part of the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion’s programming around Hispanic Heritage Month, Gómez shared his story with students and performed several of his award-winning poems.  

Gómez’s most recent book of poetry, Fractures, was selected by Natasha Trethewey as the winner of the 2020 Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry. Hijito, another collection of poetry, won the 2018 Broken River Prize, as well as the 2019 Foreword INDIES Gold Medal in Poetry, 2020 IndieReader Discovery Award and 2020 International Book Award for Poetry. Gómez is also a star of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, TV One’s Verses and Flow and Spike Lee’s Inside Man with Denzel Washington. He frequently speaks at colleges and universities around the country and the world. 

“The tools that you’re developing right now are going to serve you the rest of your lives,” Gómez told students.