Carlos Contreras, a national champion performance poet from Albuquerque, New Mexico, will present “Poet Artist Human Being” during a Northern Essex Community College White Fund lecture on Friday, Oct. 24, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. at Lawrence High School Performing Arts Center, 70-71 North Parish Road, Lawrence, MA.

Carlos Contreras

Free and open to the public, his presentation will include a slam poetry performance and a discussion on how to use poetry to find your own voice.

“I have used spoken word as a tool for growth, advancement, and survival,” says the 25-year-old. Performance poetry, he explains, is “A journey in spoken word, how it heals, helps, and informs one about who they are, where they are from, and who they come from – but most of all, why that matters, to us all.”

Contreras has twice been recognized as a national champion performance poet. He got his start in the area of competitive spoken word, or Slam Poetry when he was just 17. 

Contreras works as an educator in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  He teaches high school English, and is co-founder and lead facilitator of JustWrite, a creative exchange, which includes inmates from the New Mexico State Prison in Santa Fe and students from the University of New Mexico.

For additional information on this lecture, contact Martha Leavitt, director, campus operations & procurement– Lawrence Campus at mleavitt@necc.mass.edu. The White Fund’s purpose is to have a free series of interactive presentations for Lawrence-area adults, youth, and children. The audience is encouraged to seek wisdom, cultural enrichment, and intellectual enhancement by attending and participating.

Funded by a generous financial gift from the Honorable Daniel Appleton White, the White Fund Lecture Series has provided cultural conversation featuring well-known lecturers in fields such as history, literature, travel, the arts, and politics. The White Fund is collaborating with Northern Essex on this series.

For additional information or to be notified of upcoming events in the White Fund Enlightenment Series, call 978-738-7403 or visit www.necc.mass.edu/whitefund.

The views expressed in the White Fund Enlightenment Series Presentations are the views of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Northern Essex Community College.

With campuses in Haverhill and Lawrence, Northern Essex Community College offers over 70 associate degree and certificate programs as well as hundreds of noncredit courses designed for personal enrichment and career growth.  More than 7,400 students are enrolled in credit associate degree and certificate programs on the Haverhill and Lawrence campuses; and another 6,700 take noncredit workforce development and community education classes on campus, and at businesses and community sites across the Merrimack Valley.  Northern Essex is the only state college located in the lower Merrimack Valley Region of Massachusetts. For more information, visit the website at www.necc.mass.edu.