American poet
Emanuel Xavier (born May 3, 1970),[1] is an American poet, spoken word artist, author, editor, and LGBTQ activist born and raised in the Bushwick area of Brooklyn. Associated with the East Village, Manhattan arts scene in New York City, he emerged from the ball culture scene and the Nuyorican movement to become a successful poet, writer and advocate for gay youth programs and Latino gay literature.[2]
Early years
Born Emanuel Xavier Granja in Brooklyn, New York to an Ecuadorian mother, Xavier's father abandoned them after finding out she was pregnant.[3] He was raised by his mother and her live-in boyfriend, who was separated from his wife but remained married throughout the years. He was never told anything about his real father. As a child, Xavier was the victim of child sexual abuse by a relative.[4] He grew up in Bushwick in the 1970s, at a time when it was mostly an immigrant community made up of Puerto Ricans, blacks and some Italians. He was bused during a time to a mostly white elementary school in Queens where he experienced racism. At age 16, he came out to his mother and her live-in boyfriend and was kicked out for being gay. He survived the streets as an underage male prostitute[4] at the Christopher Street West Side Highway piers and became involved with the House of Xtravaganza and the 1980s ball scene. It was during this time that he befriended many notable members of the trans world and ball community, many of whom were featured in the documentary Paris Is Burning. After returning home under strict new rules, he graduated Grover Cleveland High School (Queens) and then attended St. John's University for several years, dropping out after receiving his associate's degree in communications. He moved to the West Village and became a drug dealer at New York City gay nightclubs.[5] Xavier later worked at A Different Light (bookstore). He has said that he viewed poetry as an "outlet to unleash pain and anger."[6]
Professional career
In the mid-90s, he helped introduce spoken word poetry to the LGBTQ+ community by staging successful monthly events, "Realness & Rhythms", in the basement of A Different Light (bookstore) in NYC.
He self-published the poetry chapbook, Pier Queen in 1997.[7] "In the same era (as Tongues Untied by Marlon Riggs), we got Emanuel Xavier’s exceptional Pier Queen, a book of poetry by a queer Latinx author that overlaps thematically and in tone."[8]
With the help of Willi Ninja in 1998, he created the House of Xavier and the Glam Slam,[9] an annual downtown arts event staged at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe (and later at the Bowery Poetry Club). The House of Xavier and House of Xtravaganza collaborated to stage other more traditional ball events.[citation needed]
Painted Leaf Press, a now defunct independent publishing company, published Xavier's semi-autobiographical novel Christ Like in 1999. Despite a limited press run, the novel was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award in the Small Press category.[10] It was later reprinted in 2009 by Rebel Satori Press as a revised ten-year-anniversary edition.
In 2000, Xavier hosted the Lambda Literary Awards ceremony in New York.[11]
In 2001, after 9/11, Xavier helped create Words to Comfort, a poetry benefit held at the New School.[12] His poem "September Song" was included as part of the initial National September 11 Memorial & Museum website and later appeared in his 2002 poetry collection Americano. [13]
In the early 2000s, he was quoted as saying “The gay agenda is not necessarily part of the hip-hop movement. The only Simmons that may ever feature me is Richard, not Russell.” [14]
This led to his invitation to feature twice on Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry. He also hosted In The Life with Laverne Cox.[citation needed] He appeared in the Wolfgang Busch documentary How Do I Look and co-starred in the feature film The Ski Trip.[15]
Xavier edited the anthology Bullets & Butterflies: Queer Spoken Word Poetry in 2005, earning him a second Lambda Literary Award nomination in the Anthologies category.[16] A few years later, in 2008, he edited the anthology Mariposas: A Modern Anthology of Queer Latino Poetry.
El Museo del Barrio staged a choreographed dance presentation based on his spoken word album Legendary in 2010.
If Jesus Were Gay was the third full length poetry collection by Emanuel Xavier first published in 2010. The publication of this book was controversial because of a traditional Jesus on the cover and graphic gay sex inside.[17]
He published his poetry collection Nefarious in 2013.
Xavier was selected as a featured speaker for TEDx Bushwick on March 21, 2015.[18]
He also filmed for a documentary from Spain which included poets from around the world (Iceland, Jordan, Palestine). An excerpt of the documentary was released as the short film Americano. He also helped organize the first After Sunset: Poetry Walk at The High Line with The Academy of American Poets. A year later, he published Radiance.
For the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Inn riots, Xavier was part of the Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative in 2019. Other participants included Amanda Lepore, Dionne Warwick, Kate Bornstein, Lea DeLaria, Michael Musto, Michael Urie and Nico Tortorella.
He works for Penguin Random House and founded The Penguin Random House LGBTQ Network in 2011, where he originally served as chair of the group.[19]
Selected Poems of Emanuel Xavier, a curated career-spanning collection of his poetry was published in 2021.[20]
In 2022, it was announced that he joined the Board of The Publishing Triangle.[21]
In 2023, he hosted The 35th Annual Publishing Triangle Awards and announced a new book, Love(ly) Child, for Fall 2023. That same year, one of his poems, "Old Pro" was published in Poetry (magazine) for the first time. In 2024, another of his poems, "Radiance", was selected as a poem-of-the-week by The Best American Poetry blog site.
He will be hosting the 36th Annual Publishing Triangle Awards at The New School on Wednesday, April 17, 2024.
Activism
PEN America invited him to read his poem "Americano" at the Writer's Resist rally on the steps of The New York Public Library in protest of the Trump administration in 2017. The same year, a week long exhibit was staged to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his poetry collection Pier Queen. [22]
In 2018, he was invited to share his poetry at The United Nations as part of The International Symposium on Cultural Diplomacy. He shared a new poem about gun control,[23] and after criticism, he was uninvited back as a speaker.
Assault and aftermath
In October 2005, Xavier was attacked by a group of about 20 young men in the Bushwick area of Brooklyn. Despite various rumors about the attack—some suggested it stemmed from his granting the Latin Kings gang permission to publish one of his poems, "Waiting for God", which dealt with police brutality.[24]
After the attack, Xavier was diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma, a type of brain tumor, and had surgery; the tumor was benign, but resulted in a period of partial facial paralysis. He recovered from the paralysis; however, he became deaf in his right ear[3] In 2015, he announced on his personal website that the acoustic neuroma had returned. By year's end, he underwent successful radiosurgery.
Awards and honors
In 2010, The Equality Forum named him an LGBTQ History Month Icon.[25]
The American Library Association selected Xavier's poetry collections If Jesus Were Gay and Nefarious for its Over The Rainbow Books lists for 2011[26] and 2015[27] respectively.
Three of his books have been finalists for International Latino Book Awards— Radiance, Selected Poems of Emanuel Xavier, and the anthology Me No Habla With Acento: Contemporary Latino Poetry. Two of his books have been finalists for Lambda Literary Awards— the novel Christ Like and the anthology Bullets & Butterflies: queer spoken word poetry.
He is the recipient of a Gay City Impact Award and the Marsha A. Gomez Cultural Heritage Award.[28]
He has served as a judge for the Lambda Literary Awards and as poetry judge for The 2023 Saints & Sinners LGBTQ+ Literary Festival.[29] He was also inducted into the Saints & Sinners LGBTQ+ Literary Festival Hall of Fame in 2023.
