Man Up: Reimagining Modern Manhood

Man Up: Reimagining Modern Manhood

by Carlos Andres Gomez
Man Up: Reimagining Modern Manhood

Man Up: Reimagining Modern Manhood

by Carlos Andres Gomez

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Overview

Inspired by the award-winning poet and actor’s acclaimed one-man play, a powerful coming-of-age memoir that reimagines masculinity for the twenty-first-century male.

Award-winning poet, actor, and writer Carlos Andrés Gómez is a supremely gifted storyteller with a captivating voice whose power resonates equally on the live stage and on the page. In one of his most moving spoken-word poems, Gómez recounts a confrontation he once had after accidentally bumping into another man at a club. Just as they were about to fight, Gómez experienced an unexplainable surge of emotion that made his eyes well up with tears. Everyone at the scene jumped back, as if crying, or showing vulnerability, was the most insane thing that Gómez could possibly have done.

Like many men in our society, Gómez grew up believing that he had to be ready to fight at all times, treat women as objects, and close off his emotional self. It wasn’t until he discovered acting that he began to see the true cost of squelching one’s emotions—and how aggression dominates everything that young males are taught.

Statistics on graduation rates, employment, and teen and young-adult suicide make it clear that the young males in our society are at a crisis point, but Gómez seeks to reverse these ominous trends by sharing the lessons that he has learned. Like Hill Harper’s Letters to a Young Brother, Man Up will be an agent for positive change, galvanizing men—but also mothers, girlfriends, wives, and sisters—to rethink and reimagine the way all men interact with women, deal with violence, handle fear, and express emotion.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781592408078
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date: 11/05/2013
Pages: 352
Product dimensions: 5.30(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Carlos Andrés Gómez is an award-winning poet, actor, and writer. He had appeared in HBO’s Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry and costarred in Spike Lee’s Inside Man. He lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Author's Note xi

Introduction 1

Part I Little Carlitos

Chapter 1 "Where Are You From?" Poem: "All We Have" 19

Chapter 2 Fear: Beneath the Façade Poem: "Black Boy" 43

Chapter 3 Guys' Club: No Faggots, Bitches, or Pussies Allowed Poem: "3 AM" (cowritten with Adam Falkner) 71

Part II On the Precipice

Chapter 4 Sex: Hooking Up, Making Love, and Messing Up Excerpt from solo play Man Up Monologue: "I Wanna Have More Sex vs. the Health Care Worker" 97

Chapter 5 Heroes and Villains Excerpt from solo play Man Up Monologue: "Julio" 139

Chapter 6 Going to War Poem: "Honest/Clean" 169

Chapter 7 Weakness: The Death of Superman Poem: "Saying Goodnight" 195

Part III Man Enough

Chapter 8 Finding My Voice in a Poem Poem: "What's Genocide?" 225

Chapter 9 A Knight in Tarnished Armor Poem: "Wait" (cowritten with Jeanann Verlee) 241

Chapter 10 Love Poem: "Hallelujah" 263

Chapter 11 Forgiveness: When There's Nothing Left Excerpt from solo play Man Up Monologue: "Rottweiler" 279

Epilogue Excerpt from solo play Man Up Monologue: "I Have Been, I Am, I Want to Be" 311

Acknowledgments 315

Do Something 321

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Praise for MAN UP: 

“Carlos Andrés Gómez delivers a powerful message with Man Up. This book will help you look inside and ask yourself not only what it truly means to be a man today, but also how you can become more connected to the collective consciousness. An important read that will create a much needed dialogue."
—Russell Simmons, author of the bestselling Do You! and Super Rich
 
“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 the bestseller Letters to a Young Brother
 
“In recent decades, America has publicly wondered what it means to be a man in this day and age. As we've languished in our search for role models, the possibilities have been an endless series of contradictions. With Man Up we finally have the model—the man—we've been looking for.”
—Zach Wahls, author of the bestseller My Two Moms
 
“I think [Gómez’s writing] is wonderful…a strong, beautiful, smart voice.”
—Nikki Giovanni
 
 

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