“If you find, even one moment of happiness in this short thing we call life, you grab that moment, you hold that moment tight, and you ride that mother till the wheels fall off,” said Carlos Robson.
This was the central theme of Carlos Robson’s performance on Wednesday night: through poetry, Robson touched on a diverse array or topics including food and childhood experiences, love, hate, government, politics, race, family, special needs children, art, God and history.
In between his pieces Robson allowed the audience to ask questions. The first question was simple.: an audience member asked him what his favorite food was and his response was anything but simple.
He replied by a telling us about his childhood. He said, “I grew up in Southern Florida, which most people think is filled with Latinos-but there are also a lot of Italians there.” He continued the story by talking about how there were a ton of mom and pop Italian restaurants in the area and explained how much he loved to order take-out Italian food from them. When his family moved to North Carolina, there were no Italian restaurants in the area. So, when he travels he is always looking for a good Italian place to indulge. He finished the story by telling us how shocked he was to see an Italian restaurant while driving into Laramie earlier on in the day. Needless to say, his favorite food is Italian.
Even though a detailed story about something as simple as food may seem meaningless and even boring, Robson told his stories in a way that seemed to captivate the audience from the beginning and hold them through till the end. Somehow he was able to make smooth transitions from poetry about love, art, and children into questions such as “What is the number one problem with our generation,” “What do you think of core curriculum,” and “What is the first piece of literature you fell in love with?”
The overall theme of Robson’s performance was that people should search for what makes them happy and when they find it, they should, “Ride that mother till the wheels fall off.”
This is a direct quote from a piece he performed about his grandfather. He talked about how is grandfather was a dancer, and described some memories he had of his grandfather teaching him and his brother to dance. Unfortunately this is one of only two good memories he has of his grandfather.
He told us a sad story of how his grandfather was abusive and an alcoholic. Due to his grandfather’s drinking habits he acquired diabetes and they eventually had to cut both of his feet off. As the years continued, and his grandfather grew more and more sick, most people stopped calling and visiting. However, Robson’s mother would take Robson and his brother to visit their grandfather twice a year. While it was depressing to see an angry dancer with no feet, Robson said he distinctly remembers one of his last conversations he had with his grandfather.
His grandfather said, “…It doesn’t matter how broken, or batter or abused we have all become, because we are all worthy of beauty…we are all worthy of something perfect, and it doesn’t matter how far we have fallen, or whether or not we are broken hearted. We all deserve to chase our own happiness until God calls us home…see the only things we regret in life are the chances we are not willing to take. So when it comes to your own happiness, you let there be no room for second place…so you run after what you want until one day they take your legs. Then you use every impulse of your energy till you no longer have the strength to lift your head…and if you find, even one moment of happiness in this short thing we call life, you grab that moment, you hold that moment tight, and you ride that mother till the wheels fall off.”
Carlos Robson is an award-winning spoken word poet, playwright, and teaching artist.
He grew up in Tampa Florida but later moved to North Carolina. As a competitive “slam” poet he has competed in local, regional, national and international competitions. He was the National Poetry Slam champion in both 2007 and 2008, where, he competed as a member of the North Carolina based team, Slam Charlotte. Robson has performed in over 50 colleges and Universities all over the nation. He has been on Broadway and is co-founder of the Charlotte based artiest collective, The Concrete Generation.
