Jose Guerrero knows the power of words. As a member of Denver's award-winning Minor Disturbance youth slam-poetry team, the DU freshman traveled to California for the 2010 Brave New Voices youth poetry festival, where the team took fourth place and was featured in an HBO special on the festival's final round. He's a regular at the Mercury Café's weekly poetry slam and also works with Denver-based hip-hop band the Flobots, helping to conduct poetry workshops at the group's community center.
Born in El Paso, Texas, and raised in northwest Denver, Guerrero also is a single dad taking care of his 2-year-old son. It's the subject of his poem "Father Love." He also rhymes—passionately—about history and politics from the perspective of a "brown kid" who grew up ashamed of his culture.
"I feel like there are responsibilities you must carry when you're a poet, and that when you're on stage you're responsible for what you're telling your audience," he says. "I feel an obligation to my audience to tell them the truth and to tell them about things they may not be exposed to through society."
Guerrero presented at a TEDxDU Salon in February. He's preparing for Minor Disturbance's return to Brave New Voices in July; he's also working on putting together a slam team at DU.
Sooooo We should do this when I go ta Denver next
NaeMarie2k12 2 weeks ago
fav.
daftpunkc4L 2 months ago in playlist Favorite videos
This inspires me
MrCarlosDLR 3 months ago
Dope indie
2012AMC 8 months ago