Def Poet Mark Gonzales brings his Poetry to the ASC Theatre

By Jesse Medina

Def Poet Mark Gonzales performed his show titled “Between Indigeneous and Indigo” at the Adams State Theatre Monday, Oct. 12.

Upon arriving to the theatre leaflets were distributed asking where audience members were from.  Various poster boards were set up with these leaflets attached.  The poster boards also had various countries’ names on them. They represented the different places that Mr. Gonzales had visited with people or performed his show.

The auditorium was packed with an assortment of people from all walks of life.  Adams State College students and Alamosa High School students were in attendance.  There was also a fair number of other people from the Alamosa community there as well.  Earlier in the day Mr. Gonzales held writing workshops at Alamosa High School and at Adams State College giving students the chance to do some writing and poetry.

The show began at 7:17 p.m. It began with poetry being read by students who were in attendance at the workshops held earlier.  Following the student readings Mark Gonzales came on stage and greeted the audience in a very upbeat manner.  He had obvious charisma and “street cred”.  He began by asking where people were from in the audience. After having conversations with several audience members he immediately launched into one of his poetry pieces mid sentence.

His poetry has strong, definite hip-hop influence.  It flowed similar to rap, which enhanced excellent word choice, projecting strong imagery and meaning.  Mr. Gonzales said it best, “I’m here to share about life and what I’ve learned.”  It is a life and voice that speaks of the hardships of poverty, the burden of racial injustice, and the yearning to break from it all. Family was emphasized in his reading as well.  His poetry also addressed the need for respect towards cultural identity. His words, though spoken quickly, were strong and full of emotion.

Throughout the evening Mr. Gonzales would break from the poetry to converse with the audience.  The audience responded by asking questions to the poet.  The questions ranged from what his educational background was to what got him interested in poetry.  He answered the education question in an honest way, “I got two educations, one from the classroom and one from family.” The evening continued on in such a manner.  The whole evening found Mr. Gonzales creating a bond of shared tragedies and triumphs with the audience.  The show concluded at 9:00 p.m.

Mark Gonzales was born in Fairbanks, Alaska and is 30 years old.  He currently lives in Los Angeles, California.  He is currently working on receiving his Masters in Education at the University of California at Los Angeles and teaches high school in Watts, California.  He has traveled all over the globe to perform his poetry and has been commissioned to perform for members of the United Nations and the U.S. Congress.  Mr. Gonzales is also a Def Poet on HBO.