By Maggie Cassidy
Carlos Andr’eacute;s G’oacute;mez showed there’s more to HIV and AIDS education than just pamphlets.
The award-winning poet and actor, who appeared in Spike Lee’s “Inside Man” alongside Denzel Washington and on HBO’s “Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry,” performed poetry and ran an interactive workshop at the Curry Student Center West Addition Thursday night to bring attention to the subject.
The event was sponsored by the Cape Verdean Student Organization (CVSA), the Caribbean Student Organization (CSO), the Females’ Center of Excellence and Leadership (Xcel), the Latin American Student Organization (LASO) and the Northeastern University African Student Organization (NASO).
G’oacute;mez, who has toured hundreds of colleges across several continents, returned to Northeastern after performing a part spoken word event “Beatless” in 2005.
LASO president Luz Mederos said the five groups worked together to bring G’oacute;mez back to campus for his “wonderful spoken word,” and to show that everybody is at risk for HIV/AIDS.
“I think there’s a misconception of [HIV/AIDS] being only in the gay community or in the black community, when in fact it affects everyone,” Mederos said. “AIDS has no face.”
G’oacute;mez said his biggest goal for his performances is to “kill apathy” and “give people concrete ways to involve themselves in their communities and really shape them in a way that’s better for their society,” he said.
“Us working together and developing a global community where we can uplift each other together is not going to be about us all liking each other or us all thinking the same thing or feeling the same thing or wanting the same things,” he said. “It’s going to be about us engaging in frank, raw dialogue. Whatever ignites that, to me, is constructive.”
G’oacute;mez opened the night with an hour of poetry that ranged in topic from politics to race to sex. While many of his pieces did not directly discuss HIV/AIDS, several dealt with frustration – felt by minorities being categorized or by educators being censored – and tied in with the theme that the virus can affect everybody.
“I really enjoyed it. It was creative,” said Josh Torres, a middler English major, who said he appreciated G’oacute;mez’s comedic and relatable attitude. “I especially liked how he delved outside the realm of HIV and definitely used broader issues to connect it and make it into a bigger issue.”
One poem drew from an experience G’oacute;mez had where a high school principal wanted to cut his performance short because he used vulgarity. G’oacute;mez became angry with the principal because teenagers at the high school were already having sex and were at high risk for HIV/AIDS, but nobody would tell them the facts they needed to know in a relatable way, he said.
“I feel like I’m living in a spelling bee. Everyone around me is using big words, and nobody knows what they’re saying.
