Clayton Rosa ’09 (left) nearly closes his eyes as he reads from lyrical poetry that sounds soothing in its rhythm. Rosa, who has written more than 300 poems about growing up in the city of Boston, has seen far more than most. But his soft voice and the frayed maroon bible he tucks poems inside reflect a quiet determination to share his message of multiculturalism with others.

“I want to be able to leave an impression on people who meet me,” Rosa says. “I want them to know I’m going to do something with myself that’s greater than me.”

Rosa is bringing the spoken-word poetry group El Grito De Poetas (Scream of the Poets) to campus at 8 p.m. April 13 in Ensor Lounge in Decker Center. The event, part of Diversity Week and sponsored by the Office of Multiculturalism, is free and open to the public. For more information, call 410-857-2294.

In his poems, Rosa tells the story of his life growing up in Boston, where he constantly heard blaring police cars and ambulances. His father, a barber, taught him about the value of hard work, and from his mother he learned sacrifice. But it was his older brother who taught him one of the greatest lessons about life by coming close to death.

“I heard three shots. It sounded like firecrackers. My brother fell into the house when I opened the door. My mother’s tears flooded the room and her tears flowed together with his blood and in the reflection I saw myself.”

Rosa didn’t know what to do but write. His poetry filled the pages in a composition notebook, and it was weeks before his brother, shot in the chest and back, began to recover. The attack was one of the reasons Rosa became determined to try something new. McDaniel was the only college he applied to.

“After I got here one night, I sat on a bench by the football field and looked up at the sky and I have never seen so many stars in my life. It took me out of myself and the city I grew up in. I had to call somebody and say ‘I didn’t know there were that many stars in the universe.’”

Rosa hopes to start a spoken-word poetry group on campus and widen the scope of awareness about the art form.

“Poets love admiration from other poets,” he says. “But they really want to touch those that are most unaware of the craft.”

The New York-based group El Grito De Poetas uses spoken-word poetry to advocate for Latinos. The poets will share their personal stories of diversity and talk about what it means to grow up as a minority.

“I need to have my people’s voices heard just like everyone else’s,” says Lilah Mejia, the group’s founder. “ We’re all Latino but we’re all very different, and we each tell poems dedicated to our different cultures.”

El Grito De Poetas formed last March, and this will be their first performance in Maryland.