Emanuel Xavier

Emanuel Xavier
File:Emanuel Xavier by Bobby Miller 2- b&w- low res.jpg Emanuel Xavier (Photograph by Bobby Miller)
Born	1971 Brooklyn, New York
Website	http://www.emanuelxavier.com

Emanuel Xavier (born May 3, 1971), is an American poet, spoken word artist, author, editor, literary events curator and activist born and raised in the Bushwick area of Brooklyn. He was proclaimed an LGBT Icon by The Equality Forum in 2010. He transitioned himself from being a street hustler and a drug dealer to become one of the most significant, daring, and unlikely voices to emerge from the neo-Nuyorican spoken word movement using political, sexual and religious themes throughout his work. Regarding his seedy past, in an interview with CNN he once stated, "I became all those things society expected me to become. I thought that was the only thing I could be." Of Puerto Rican and Ecuadorian ancestry, he conducted spoken word poetry workshops and produced benefits and events for youth organizations throughout the country. His work has been translated from English into Spanish and the Serbian language.

Early years

Like most poets, his back story is probably better known than his actual poetry. His Puerto Rican father abandoned his Ecuadorian mother when he found out she was pregnant and was never heard from again. At the age of 3, he was the victim of child sexual abuse by an older cousin. At 16, he came out to his mother and was thrown out of his house. This is when he became a hustler at the West Side Highway piers where he first met members of the House and ball community which served as his makeshift family. He often credits Anji Xtravaganza as providing him with a temporary place to stay in her Lower East Side apartment and Willi Ninja for encouraging him to pursue his passion for journal writing during this period. Eventually, he reconciled with his mother, repressed his seedy past and returned home to complete high school (Grover Cleveland High School (New York City)), where he graduated with top honors as President of the Student Association and Editor-in-Chief of the high school newspaper. He then attended St. John's University (New York City) for a few years. This would be the first glimpse of his future ability to recreate himself as an individual. However, he dropped out after receiving his Associates Degree in Communications and soon became employed by a local drug dealer and made a living by selling drugs at some of New York City's most popular gay nightclubs, including The Sound Factory and Roxy NYC. Later, after leaving the club scene, he became employed at a bookstore where he discovered his passion for writing and turned his life around to become a genuine role model. He had been quoted to say that he viewed poetry as an "outlet to unleash pain and anger."

Professional career

He self-published his debut poetry collection, Pier Queen, in the fall of 1997 through his own independent publishing house, Pier Queen Productions. Without his own computer, the book was put together at a friend's apartment in Harlem during the summer of 1997. Signature poems such as "Bushwick Bohemia", "Deliverance", "Every Latino", "Nueva York" and "Tradiciones" helped him gain notoriety in New York City's underground arts scene. He first distributed postcard versions of his earlier poems at the West Side Highway piers and clubs which he once frequented as a hustler and drug dealer.

In 1998, with the support of people like Willi Ninja and spoken word poetry icon Bob Holman, Emanuel founded the House of Xavier and created the annual Glam Slam competition. Held once a year, first at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and then at Bowery Poetry Club, the poetry slam competition featured four open categories such as Best Erotic Poem in Sexy Underwear or Lingerie and Best Love Poem in Fire Engine Red (alternately Best Bitter Break Up Poem in Blue). Winners of each category received a trophy and went on to compete for the Grand Prize title of Glam Slam Champion. The event aspired to bring together poetry slams and ball culture in a unique and vibrant contribution to the downtown arts scene. In 2008, after a decade of staging the annual House of Xavier's Glam Slam spoken word poetry competition in NYC, he passed the torch over to Basque/Spanish performance poet, Ernesto Sarezale, who introduced the event to London.

Painted Leaf Press, a small independent publishing company which filed for bankruptcy and went out of business in just a few months, published a few copies of a novel, Christ Like, in 1999. In the introduction for its 2009 reprint Emanuel reveals, "Excitedly, I handed in the manuscript with no concept whatsoever of the editing process and relied heavily on Painted Leaf Press." Despite its limited run, Christ Like was nominated in a small category for a Lambda Literary Award.

In 2000, he hosted the Lambda Literary Awards ceremony in New York City. He never received an award himself and was never invited back after a rather risqué awards presentation for a literary event.

In 2001, soon after 9/11, Emanuel Xavier was one of the leading forces behind a major poetry benefit titled, Words To Comfort, held at the New School in collaboration with Ratapallax Press. The event brought together major spoken word artists, poets, poet laureates, actors and musicians to raise money for the World Trade Center Disaster Relief Fund. It was one of the most successful events he helped organize and Emanuel Xavier would go on to produce other major spoken word events to benefit organizations such as the Latino Commission on AIDS, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and Youth Enrichment Services.

The poetry collection Americano, his first official publication, was released by Suspect Thoughts Press in 2002 and helped establish Emanuel Xavier as a central figure in the people of color literary arts movement with signature poems such as "Children of Magdalene", "Born This Way", "Nearly God" and the title poem.

Emanuel Xavier
A flyer used to promote a college event featuring Emanuel Xavier at Amherst College

In 2005, Suspect Thoughts Press published Bullets & Butterflies: queer spoken word poetry, a collection Emanuel Xavier edited. The anthology featured the work of thirteen openly queer spoken word artists and new work by the editor himself including: "Legendary", "Outside" and "A Simple Poem." The collection earned him his second Lambda Literary Award nomination.

He has been featured on television on Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry on HBO (Seasons 3 & 5), In The Life on PBS and hosted several editions of Out At The Center on Manhattan Neighborhood Network. He also appears in the Wolfgang Busch documentary How Do I Look.

In 2007, he appeared on Mark Kostabi's game show, Name That Painting, as a celebrity guest alongside editor Bonnie Fuller and percussionist Jerry Marotta. This stint landed him on Page Six ("Bonnie wordplay whips poet").

In 2008, he appeared in The Cult of Sincerity, the first feature film to premiere on YouTube which later aired on PBS. Also in 2008, an invitation-only online literary journal sponsored by UNESCO included him as a contributor to an international project. He was also invited to select finalists for Best Gay Erotica 2008 (Cleis Press).

In the fall of 2008, Floricanto Press published Mariposas: A Modern Anthology of Queer Latino Poetry, a collection which he edited featuring the work of 17 fellow queer Latino poets. This would be the first book ever to gather the work of openly queer poets from the Latino community.

In 2009, Emanuel Xavier appeared in front of thousands of New Yorkers at the nation-wide Fight The H8 Protest reading his poem, "Children of Magdalene", and has been an avid supporter of same-sex marriage and civil rights. That same year, his poem, "Urban Affection", was commissioned by a private collector of Walt Whitman memorabilia for the 190th birthday anniversary of Walt Whitman and Rebel Satori Press published a revised tenth anniversary edition of his semi-autobiographical novel, Christ Like. He was interviewed by John Blake for CNN for an article titled, "Gay Latino Americans are 'coming of age'" as part of the "Latino in America" documentary. He capped off the year with the release of a spoken word/music compilation CD, Legendary- The Spoken Word Poetry of Emanuel Xavier, produced by El David. Additional musicians featured on the CD include percussionists Cartagena, Luis Perez, Dr. Drum, Carlos Cartagena, and El David. An original house music remix, "Legendary (The E-Mix)", was released as a single for music download on iTunes as a bonus track.

He has been invited to recite his poetry throughout the country at venues such as: Rikers Island Prison, Lincoln Center, Columbia University, DePaul University, St. Mark's Poetry Project, Irving Plaza, The Henry Miller Theater, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Brown University, University of Chicago, Syracuse University, Drew University, School of Visual Arts, Wellesley College, Shaggy Flores's "Voices For the Voiceless" at Amherst College, Miami Dade College, University of Louisville, Princeton University, Bao Phi's Equilibrium series at The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, University of Florida, Bates College, Canisius College, the San Francisco Public Library, the Center on Halsted in Chicago, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Grand Central Public Library, and The Allen Ginsberg Estate. He has also appeared as part of the annual Saints and Sinners Literary Festival in New Orleans. He remains a favorite amongst queer youth organizations and the college and university circuit.

He has performed abroad in the South American cities of Buenos Aires, Argentina and Guayaquil, Ecuador. He has also performed in Europe at Ghent University in Belgium as part of a queer literary kinship symposium, at The Book Club in the Shoreditch area of London for the Glam Slam UK (based on an annual event he created in New York) and at Shakespeare and Company (bookshop) in Paris, France.

He collaborated with Nuyorican Poets Cafe founder Miguel Algarín and poet Caridad de la Luz on staged readings of "The Mongo Affair" at Central Park Summerstage, Joe's Pub and Aaron Davis Hall. He has also performed for the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture (NALAC), the Association of Hispanic Arts (AHA), and curated several evenings of Latino/a spoken word poetry at El Museo del Barrio in New York City.

He also contributed spoken word/musical collaborations to the CD, Word War I, produced by El David to benefit political prisoners in Puerto Rico.

His work has appeared in Urban Latino, Latin Girl, Genre (magazine), The New York Post, A&U, Long Shot, Drumvoices Review, James White Review, The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, Assaracus and many other publications.

His work as an activist has been particularly profound as a former homeless gay youth. Aside from his work for causes like the Latino Commission on AIDS, the World Trade Center Disaster Relief Fund, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, The October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, No on Prop 8, and Behind the Book, his main focus is working with queer youth organizations. He has organized benefit events for organizations such as Youth Enrichment Services, The New Neutral Zone, Fierce, Sylvia's Place, The New York Peer AIDS Education Coalition, The Hetrick Martin Institute, Live Out Loud, and many others.

Regarding his career, he has been quoted to say “I think at the beginning it was about me, about sharing my story. But as it evolved, it became more about the larger picture, hoping to inspire others not to follow that path, that it wasn’t the only way to go if you were gay, a person of color, and thrown out because you were gay. That it wasn’t the only option.”

Controversy

Emanuel Xavier dealt with censorship and was threatened with arrest before a major presentation at a Miami Dade high school. He apologized to the audience and proceeded to share an edited selection of his poetry while local police officers watched over his performance.

Despite all of his work as an activist and with youth organizations, in October 2005, Emanuel Xavier was brutally attacked by a group of about twenty young men in the Bushwick area of Brooklyn. Rumors swirled about the attack, some suggesting it was his affiliation to The Latin Kings (he granted them permission to publish one of his poems against police brutality, "Waiting For God", in their newsletter), while others suggested it was simply another gay bashing. Rather than join the hate crimes wagon, in an exclusive interview with fellow activist, Andrés Duque, for Gay City News, and later in an editorial for The New York Post, Emanuel called this crime out as a random act of violence and eventually captured his experience in the poem "Writer's Block".

A silver lining to the 2005 attack was that significant hearing loss led to an MRI which resulted in the discovery of an acoustic neuroma for which he was diagnosed and underwent surgery in 2006. The tumor was successfully removed but he remained permanently deaf in his right ear with minor facial nerve complications to his right eye.

In 2009, he headlined a hugely successful event at El Museo del Barrio controversially titled, Spic Up! Speak Out! Due to some public outcry, the event organizers changed the name to Speak Up! and issued a formal apology. Regarding his personal use of the word spic as an artist, in an article for The New York Times, he stated, "For me, it's about empowerment. Look at everything we have done and accomplished. And it is a play on the word. We are speaking out our truths and identities in very perfect English. . . . spic is a word that we can re-appropriate, that was used to oppress us and box us in a negative way." He uses the word within this context in his poem, "Americano."

In 2010, a positive book review for "If Jesus Were Gay & other poems" posted on a popular Latino website during the Christian observation of lent ignited a firestorm of controversy. The response prompted coverage by FOX News Latino, a division of Fox News.

Currently

He curated El Museo del Barrio's Speak Up! monthly spoken word poetry program (through Spring 2011). Emanuel Xavier also edited an anthology inspired by the successful series which was published Spring 2011.

In addition, El Museo del Barrio staged their very first NYC Gay Pride event on June 20, 2010, The Legendary Project, a choreographed dance presentation by Ferdinand De Jesus featuring selections from the spoken word/music album, Legendary- The Spoken Word Poetry of Emanuel Xavier.

The music video for "Legendary (The E-Mix)" was filmed in Williamsburg, Brooklyn by independent film director, Arie Ohayon. Remixes were released April 2010 by Hades Music featuring mixes by Michael Hades, Lorant Duzgun, Tim Letteer, and El David.

An exclusive dance track collaboration with producer Lorant Duzgun, "Sound X", was featured on Lorant Duzgun's The History of Love EP released on Royal Advisor Records and was released as a remixed single in the summer of 2011.

He signed a lucrative publishing deal with Rebel Satori Press to print the poetry collection, "Pier Queen", fifteen years after it was self-published, a ten year anniversary edition of his first poetry collection, "Americano", and a new poetry collection for 2012.

Personal life

He lives in the Bushwick area of Brooklyn and works for Random House. His stepbrother is Dee Jay Blaze.

Awards and honors

Emanuel Xavier received the Marsha A. Gomez Cultural Heritage Award, a New York City Council Citation and is a 2008 World Pride Award recipient.

In 2009, he was one of the honorary Padrinos featured at the annual Three Kings Day Parade in the Spanish Harlem district in New York City. Later that year, he was named one of the "25 Most Influential GLBT Latinos" by the Mi Apogeo (My Latino Voice) website.

In 2010, The Equality Forum announced him as a GLBT History Month Icon.

His poetry collection, "If Jesus Were Gay & other poems" was selected by the American Library Association as one of their Over The Rainbow books for 2011.

Bibliography

• Best Gay Erotica 1997, edited by Richard Labonte with an introduction by Douglas Sadownick, Cleis Press, 1997 (features his first short story publication titled "Motherf***ers" which introduces the character of Mikey X.)
• Pier Queen, Pier Queen Productions, 1997 (first full length poetry collection)
• Ma-Ka: Diasporic Juks- Contemporary Writing by Queers of African Descent, edited by Makeda Silvera, Sister Vision Press, 1997 (features a reprint of the poem "Bushwick Bohemia" from the poetry collection, Pier Queen)
• Men On Men 7: Best New Gay Fiction, edited by David Bergman, Plume Books, 1998 (includes a short story titled "Christ Like" which also features a main character named Mikey X. and inspires the author to write a full length novel)
• Besame Mucho: New Gay Latino Fiction, edited by Jaime Manrique & Jesse Dorris, Painted Leaf Press, 1999 (features an out of place reprint of the entire unedited first chapter from the novel, Christ Like)
• Virgins, Guerillas & Locas, edited by Jaime Cortez, Cleis Press, 1999 (features a short story titled "Crazy Horse Memoirs")
• Blood & Tears: Poems for Matthew Shepard, edited by Scott Gibson, 1999 (features a reprint of the poem "Oya/St. Therese" from the poetry collection, Pier Queen)
• Best of Best Gay Erotica, edited by Richard Labonte, Cleis Press, 2000 (features a reprint of the short story "Motherf***ers")
• Of The Flesh, edited by Greg Wharton, suspect thoughts press, 2001 (features the poem "Nearly God" from the poetry collection, Americano)
• Americano, suspect thoughts press, 2002 (second full length poetry collection)
• The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name, edited by Greg Wharton, Boheme Press, 2003 (features an essay titled "Confessions")
• From Porn To Poetry 2, edited by Susannah Indigo & Brian Peters, Samba Mountain, 2003 (also features a reprint of the poem "Nearly God")
• Bad Boys, edited by Paul J. Willis & M. Christian, Alyson Books, 2003 (features an essay titled "Bookshop Booty")
• Coloring Book, edited by boice-Terrel Allen, Rattlecat Press, 2004 (features the poem "Legendary" from the collection, Bullets & Butterflies: queer spoken word poetry)
• Bullets & Butterflies: queer spoken word poetry, suspect thoughts press, 2005 (edited by Emanuel Xavier and featuring several new poems)
• In Our Own Words: A Generation Defining Itself Volume 7, edited by Marlow Peerse Weaver, MW Enterprises, 2007 (features reprints of the poem "Another Country" from the poetry collection, Pier Queen, and "In The Eighties" from Bullets & Butterflies: queer spoken word poetry)
• Best Gay Erotica 2008, edited by Richard Labonte with an introduction by Emanuel Xavier, Cleis Press, 2007 (finalists selected by Emanuel Xavier)
• Queer & Catholic, edited by Trebor Healey & Amie M. Evans, Haworth Press, 2008 (features the poems "Just Like Jesus" and "Bastard" from the forthcoming poetry collection, If Jesus Were Gay & other poems)
• Mariposas: A Modern Anthology of Queer Latino Poetry, Floricanto Press, 2008 (edited by Emanuel Xavier and featuring several new poems)
• Christ Like: tenth anniversary revised edition, Rebel Satori Press, 2009
• If Jesus Were Gay & other poems, Rebel Satori Press, 2010 (third full length poetry collection)
• Me No Habla With Acento, El Museo del Barrio & Rebel Satori Press, 2011 (edited by Emanuel Xavier and featuring several new poems)
• Ambientes: New Queer Latino Writing, edited by Lázaro Lima and Felice Picano, University of Wisconsin Press, 2011 (features "Dear Rodney" from If Jesus Were Gay & other poems)
• collective BRIGHTNESS: LGBTIQ Poets on Faith, Religion & Spirituality, edited by Kevin Simmonds, Sibling Rivalry Press, 2011 (features the poem "The Omega Has Been Postponed" from If Jesus Were Gay & other poems)
  • • Books exclusively by the author or edited by the author are highlighted in bold

Audio Recordings

• "Legendary (The E-Mix)" (single, 2009)
• "Legendary- The Spoken Word Poetry of Emanuel Xavier" (spoken word poetry/music album, 2009), http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/EmanuelXavier2
• "Legendary (The RE-Mixes)" (remix EP, 2010, Hades Music)
• "Sound X" (remix, 2011, Royal Advisor Records)
• "Waiting For God" (spoken word poetry/music, 2011, Voices Against Police Brutality)

Television appearances

• The Cult of Sincerity feature film (PBS, 2008)
• Canterbury's Law episode: Baggage (Fox, 2008)
• The Return of Jezebel James (Fox, 2008)
• Law & Order episode: Illegal (NBC, 2008)
• Fort Pit (2007)
• Law & Order episode: In Vino Veritas (NBC, 2006)
• The Ski Trip feature film (LOGO, 2005)
• Russell Simmons presents Def Poetry two episodes (HBO, 2003 & 2005)
• In The Life episode: Family Law (PBS, 2003)

See also

• List of Puerto Rican writers
• List of Famous Puerto Ricans
• Puerto Rican literature

External links

• Official Website
• Emanuel Xavier at the Internet Movie Database