Emanuel Xavier

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, besides accounts of physical abuse, Xavier was the victim of child sexual abuse by a relative.[4] He grew up in Bushwick in the 70s, 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 hustler[4] at the Christopher Street West Side Highway piers and became involved with the House of Xtravaganza and the 80's ball scene. It was during this time that he befriended many notable members of the trans world and ball community, many of whom would go on to fame in the documentary Paris is Burning (film). After returning home under strict new rules, he graduated Grover Cleveland High School (Queens) and then attended St. John's University (New York City) for several years, dropping out after receiving his associate's degree in communications. He moved to the West Village and became a club kid making a living by selling designer drugs at popular New York City gay nightclubs, including The Sound Factory and Roxy NYC.[5] Emanuel Xavier later worked at A Different Light (bookstore) where he discovered his passion for writing and managed to turn his life around. He has said that he viewed poetry as an "outlet to unleash pain and anger."[6]

Regarding his past, after experiencing racism and being rejected first by his father and then by his mother when he came out as gay, he famously stated, "I became all those things society expected me to become. I thought that was the only thing I could be."[7] "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."[8]

Xavier discovered a love for spoken word poetry after attending an event at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. He self-published a poetry chapbook, Pier Queen, in the fall of 1997.[9]

Emanuel Xavier (circa 2004)

With the help of his friend, Willi Ninja, in 1998 he created the House of Xavier and the Glam Slam,[10] an annual downtown arts event staged at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe (and later at the Bowery Poetry Club). The fusion of ball culture and poetry slam competitions featured four open categories such as Best Erotic Poem in Sexy Underwear or Lingerie, Best Verbal Vogue 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 annual competition was first held in New York City and then London until 2010. The House of Xavier and House of Xtravaganza would collaborate to stage other more traditional ball events.

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.[11] 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.[12]

Soon after 9/11, Xavier was one of the leading forces behind Words to Comfort, a poetry benefit held at the New School.[13] Written days after 9/11 at Ground Zero, his poem, "September Song", was originally included as part of the initial National September 11 Memorial & Museum website and later appeared in his follow-up 2002 poetry collection, Americano.

In the early 2000's, 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 on HBO (Seasons 3 & 5). He also took turns guest hosting In The Life on PBS with Laverne Cox. He appeared in the Wolfgang Busch documentary How Do I Look and co-starred in the feature film The Ski Trip which aired on LOGO.

Xavier edited the anthology Bullets & Butterflies: Queer Spoken Word Poetry in 2005 with a foreword by Bob Holman, earning him a second Lambda Literary Award nomination in the Anthologies category.[15] A few years later, in 2008, he edited the anthology Mariposas: A Modern Anthology of Queer Latino Poetry.

In 2010, El Museo del Barrio and choreographer Fredi Xtravaganza staged a dance retrospective of Emanuel Xavier's spoken word poetry set to music featuring LGBTQ contemporary dancers. That same year, he published his third poetry collection, If Jesus Were Gay and released a spoken word poetry album, Legendary. The title spoken word poem, a tribute to the ball scene, was remixed into a House track and a video featuring the author and some of the dancers from the choreographed retrospective was shared on social media. A year later, El Museo del Barrio published Me No Habla Con Acento: Contemporary Latino Poetry, an anthology edited by Emanuel Xavier based on a successful monthly series he hosted at the museum featuring contemporary Latin-American spoken word poets.

He published his poetry collection, Nefarious in 2013 and was selected as a featured speaker for TEDx Bushwick on March 21, 2015.[16] 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 a short film, Americano, by award-winning film director Fon Cortizo. Emanuel also helped organize the first ever After Sunset: Poetry Walk at The High Line with The Academy of American Poets. A year later, he published his fifth poetry collection, Radiance.

For the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Inn riots, Xavier was part of the Saks Fifth Avenue Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative in 2019 who partnered to give back to the LGBTQ community. Other celebrities 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.[17]

Soon after testing positive and surviving COVID-19, during the pandemic era of 2020, he appeared virtually as guest speaker during the first ever Brooklyn College Lavender Graduation. In a 2020 podcast for the Ali Forney Center, he announced that Selected Poems of Emanuel Xavier would be published in June 2021. When asked what he wishes that young queer people of color today might take away from this collection, Xavier said he “hopes that they feel inspired to continue preserving our histories, because it’s important to reflect the world around us for future generations. We’ve had to fight for our visibility, and it can just as easily be taken away.”[18]

As an activist, he has been invited to share his poetry at protests and rallies in support of LGBTQ rights.

PEN America invited him to read his signature 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. That same year, a week long exhibit was staged in NYC to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his poetry collection, Pier Queen. [19]

In 2018, he was invited back to share his poetry at The United Nations as part of The International Symposium on Cultural Diplomacy in the USA, after first having appeared in 2014. Instead of adhering to his set of selected poems, he used his platform to share a new poem about gun control in America.[20] After criticism from gun rights activists, he was uninvited back as a speaker.

In October 2005, Xavier was brutally attacked by a group of about twenty 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[21] while others simply brushed it off as another gay bashing[22]—as a survivor, Emanuel Xavier would later write the poem "Sometimes We're Invisible", a tribute to fellow Latinx queer and trans victims of violence.

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 Fall 2015, he announced on his personal website that the acoustic neuroma had returned. By year's end, he underwent successful radiosurgery.

In 2010, The Equality Forum named him an LGBTQ History Month Icon.[23]

The American Library Association selected Xavier's poetry collections If Jesus Were Gay and Nefarious for their Over The Rainbow Books lists for 2011[24] and 2015[25] respectively.

In 2017, he received a Gay City News Impact Award.

"Selected Poems of Emanuel Xavier" received a starred review and was selected as one of the Best Indie Books of 2021 by Kirkus Reviews.

Poetry

• Selected Poems of Emanuel Xavier, Rebel Satori Press, 2021 (Finalist- International Latino Book Award- Best Poetry Book Award One Author- English)
• If Jesus Were Gay, Rebel Satori Press, 2020 (tenth anniversary reissue of the original 2010 edition)
• Radiance, Rebel Satori Press, 2016
• Pier Queen, Rebel Satori Press, 2012 (official publication of a self-published chapbook from 1997)
• Nefarious, Rebel Satori Press, 2013 (Finalist- International Latino Book Award- Best Poetry Book – One Author – Bilingual)
• Americano- Growing Up Gay and Latino in the USA, Rebel Satori Press, 2012 (republished from the original 2002 out-of-print edition)

Fiction

• Christ Like, Rebel Satori Press, 2009 (Lambda Literary Award finalist)

Edited collections

• Mariposas: A Modern Anthology of Queer Latino Poetry, Floricanto Press, 2008, edited by Emanuel Xavier
• Bullets & Butterflies: queer spoken word poetry, suspect thoughts press, 2005, edited by Emanuel Xavier (Lambda Literary Award finalist)
• Me No Habla With Acento, El Museo del Barrio & Rebel Satori Press, 2011, edited by Emanuel Xavier (Finalist- International Latino Book Award- Best Poetry Book – English)

Anthologies featuring work

• Queer & Catholic, edited by Trebor Healey & Amie M. Evans, Haworth Press, 2008 (features the poems "Just Like Jesus" and "Bastard" from If Jesus Were Gay & other poems)[26]
• 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)[26]
• Born This Way: Real Stories of Growing Up Gay, edited by Paul Vitagliano, Quirk Books, 2012 (features an essay)
• For Colored Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Still Not Enough, edited by Keith Boykin, Magnus Books, 2012 (features the essay "Mariconcito")
• Studs, edited by Richard Labonte, Cleis Press, 2014 (selected finalists and wrote introduction)
• Untangling the Knot: Queer Voices on Marriage, Relationships & Identity, edited by Carter Sickels, Ooligan Press, 2015 (essay)
• If You Can Hear This: Poems in Protest of an American Inauguration, edited by Bryan Borland, Sibling Rivalry Press, 2017 (features a reprint of the poem "Americano")
• Nepantla: An Anthology Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color, edited by Christopher Soto, Nightboat Press, 2018 (features a reprint of the poem "Step Father")

Misc.

• A Tale of Two Cities: Disco Era Bushwick, Bizarre Publishing, 2014, Meryl Meisler (features the poems "El Hair Espray" and "Legendary")
• Purgatory & Paradise: Sassy '70s- Suburbia & The City, Bizarre Publishing, 2015, Meryl Meisler (features the poem "Paradise")
• Paradise Lost: Bushwick Era Disco, Bizarre Publishing, 2021, Meryl Meisler (features the poems "Bushwick Bohemia" and "Legendary")

• https://www.emanuelxavier.org/