Diamond Bar spoken word poet goes on first tour

​

September 16th, 2014, By Grace Wong

​

DIAMOND BAR >> David Romero is engaged in cultural warfare.

​

As a 29-year-old spoken word artist from Diamond Bar, Romero talks about issues like Latino identity, class, and gender in his work. This fall, he’s embarking on his first national tour across four college campuses to challenge students to think more deeply about social issues.

​

“People think that in order to embrace Chicano, or a politically conscious Mexican-American, you have to speak Spanish and you have to know all of the bands and certain cultural markers to be a true Latino,” Romero said. “I was raised in the suburbs, and I only speak English. I grew up listening to KROQ on the radio. But when you ask me about immigration and issues like the Mexican-American War or NAFTA or things of that nature, those cultural markers are irrelevant.”

 

Romero has been performing as a spoken word artist for more than 10 years and has had his poems published in various collections.

With his tour, he hopes to conduct workshops where students can explore their cultural identity and also what it is like to be a victim of a hate crime. He also gives students ideas on how to organize around different issues and provides leadership training.

“I really think that colleges are the best because they have the most amount of people that are there who want to engage with issues or are excited about learning about discussing these types of things,” Romero said.

 

For more information, visit www.davidaromero.com.

​

View the original article HERE.

​

​

​