American poet, doctor, and author
Rafael Campo (born 1964 New Jersey) is an American poet, doctor, and author.
Life
Rafael Campo is the poetry editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association.[1] He graduated from Amherst College and Harvard Medical School. He formally practiced medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts and was Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. His writing focuses on themes that promote equality and justice for gay people, people of color,[2] and working-class people.
He served as a resident poet at Brandeis University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He frequently reads at colleges, including Brown University, Stanford University,[3] and Colby-Sawyer College.
He formerly taught in the Lesley University low-residency MFA writing program in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[4]
Work
His work has served as the inspiration for composers and other artists. His poem "Silence=Death" was set by composer Joseph Hallman[5] and premiered as part of the AIDS Quilt Songbook Project.[6] His work was included in the "Best American Poetry and Pushcart Prize" anthologies and has been published on numerous occasions in periodicals such as The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times Magazine, and The Washington Post "Book World".[1]
Philosophy
Rafael Campo believes that medicine should be about treating patients’ diseases and problems while focusing on their humanity.[1] He claims that it would be wrong for a physician to only focus on “the heartless, purely fact-based narrative we record in their charts”.[1] Instead, Campo hopes to inspire physicians through his work to reflect on the experiences of patients and address their needs appropriately, using poetry.[1] Campo argues that poetry can often be crucial to the healing and recovery process.[1]
