Kirjahaku

For the first time ever, a selected poetry collection from Emanuel Xavier, renowned LGBTQ poet and one of the Latinx community's treasures.When he first emerged as a Nuyorican Poets Caf slam poet in the 1990s, Emanuel Xavier quickly took his place as one of the first openly queer, celebrated, controversial and significant poets of the era. Now, decades later, as a former homeless teen and a hate crime survivor, Xavier still stands as one of America's most inspiring and powerful voices."Gay Nuyorican life is limned and exalted in these scintillating poems. Xavier, a fixture at Nuyorican Poets Cafe slams in Manhattan and a star of HBO's Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry, gathers 28 poems that infuse searing social and political commentary into achingly personal reflections. Many paint a panorama of New York that is bustling and vibrant: 'Ricans and Dominicans drive around / with black-faced virgins and saints on their dashboards / blasting rap and freestyle / down the streets.' The poet's collection conveys his struggle as a gay man in an often homophobic culture in tones that range from the bruised confessional in 'Deliverance' ('Wiping / myself / staring at the blood / shit / scum / from the last trick / that once again / left me bruised / deep inside') to the prophetic voice of 'If Jesus Were Gay.' ('If the crown of thorns were placed on his head / to mock him as the / 'Queen of the Jews' / If he was whipped because fags are considered / sadomasochistic sodomites, / If he was crucified for the brotherhood of man / would you still repent') There's a lot of pain from separation and repudiation in Xavier's verse-from his biological father's abandonment of the family, his mother's rejection of his gay sexuality, and America's disdain for Latino immigrants. The volume is thus full of poetic portraits of outsiders and castoffs that can take strange and hallucinatory forms, as in 'Bushwick Bohemia, ' where a slacker is 'lying shirtless on the couch blunted out of his mind / staring at the roach on the ceiling / one single roach in a vast desert / or maybe an alien exploring a new world'-a grungy, Kafkaesque yet somehow hopeful and even liberating tableau of arrival and persistence. And the poet's life generates bleak, bracing wisdom in 'Beside Myself' 'You are not going to be remembered. / The best thing you ever did was keep a cat / alive for over sixteen years. / All you have is that rent-stabilized apartment / with the cracked paint and broken windows.' Xavier's many fans (and newbies as well) will be entranced by his evocative language, subtle rhythms, and fearless gaze." -Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Por primera vez, una colecci n de poes a seleccionada de Emanuel Xavier, reconocido poeta LGBTQ y uno de los tesoros de la comunidad latina.Cuando emergi por primera vez como un poeta del Nuyorican Poets Caf en la d cada de los 90s, Emanuel Xavier r pidamente ocup su lugar como uno de los primeros poetas abiertamente queer, celebrados, controvertidos y significativos de la poca. Ahora, d cadas m s tarde, como ex adolescente sin hogar y sobreviviente de un crimen de odio, Xavier sigue siendo una de las voces m s inspiradoras y poderosas de Estados Unidos."Una voz provocadora del espacio liminal latinx, Xavier se turna para seducir y alertar al lector con una sensualidad intr pida y una sabia falta de arrepentimiento. Una colecci n muy necesaria y astuta que vive en la intersecci n del deseo crudo y una profunda compasi n por las personas marginadas". - Ed Morales, autor, periodista, cineasta y poeta"Durante d cadas, Emanuel Xavier ha sido nuestro poeta de las calles, de los balls, del muelle, a trav s de nuestros amores, vidas perdidas y en el crecimiento y ruina de nuestra ciudad. Finalmente, una nueva generaci n tiene la oportunidad de respirar a trav s de sus poemas recopilados, un monumento a nuestro pasado, nuestra colectividad y nuestros corazones". - Sarah Schulman, autora y activistaPoeta y activista, Emanuel Xavier naci en Brooklyn, Nueva York, y se involucr en la escena del ball como un adolescente gay sin hogar. Xavier ha recibido el reconocimiento como artista de la palabra hablada de colegios y universidades nacionales. Ha sido nombrado cono LGBTQ por The Equality Forum y ha recibido un Premio de Menci n del Ayuntamiento de la Ciudad de Nueva York. Xavier ha recibido un International Latino Book Award, nominaciones al premio Lambda Literary y selecciones de libros Over the Rainbow de la American Library Association por sus colecciones que incluyen: Pier Queen, Americano, If Jesus Were Gay, Nefarious y Radiance. Ha recibido un premio Gay City Impact y el premio Marsha A. Gomez Cultural Heritage Award.

An American Library Association Over the Rainbow Books selection, Emanuel Xavier's If Jesus Were Gay pulls no punches and is brutally frank about his views on sexuality, politics, and religion. Yet as deeply personal as these poems are, they are universal enough to move any reader. Both sacred and profane, it is a compelling and confessional collection from a daring and ambitious voice in contemporary poetry.

""Violence was an artform." Thus writes poet Emanuel Xavier about growing up while fiercely witnessing and surviving the terrorism that lurks in the family, the streets, and sexual encounters. In Love(ly) Child - his most powerful work yet - anger cuts through memory and propriety as he methodically dismantles cultural platitudes: love, care, safety, and innocence. Specters of family brokenness, colonialism, desolate cityscapes, outlaw love, and AIDS haunt these poems. Here DEI stands for "disenfranchise, exclude, and ignore," and death hovers over these poems like the stillness of a quiet city night that is always vanquished by the hope of dawn. In Love(ly) Child, Xavier reminds us that as dire as our pasts may be, "Compassion is our only inheritance/ bold to love what we cannot hold." -Michael Bronski"In 'Autonomous' the poet writes, "Maybe I lived too fast & my soul / is as old as my presence is young." This book is indeed the work of an old soul, of the writer as Witness, as the "dream for all our angels who never had this/moment." The poems wrestle with issues of race, sex, trauma, and survival while growing up an abused queer brown kid in New York. But there are also joys here, found in close friendships, chosen family, and memory. Stunning, raw, and beautiful, Love(ly) Child continues Emanuel Xavier's remarkable career as poetic truth teller." -Reginald Harris "Xavier's fierce verses blaze across the page like a Willi Ninja duckwalk These words Dip, Pop, Loft and Spin in the Nuyorican poetry tradition, letting the reader know that this griot speaks truth, always representing for la gente Pa'lante " -Shaggy Flores, Author of Obatala's Bugalu: A Nuyorican Book of Sights and SoundsBorn in Brooklyn, Emanuel Xavier lives in New York City. One of the first openly queer spoken word poets to emerge from the Nuyorican Poets Caf slam scene, he helped open the doors for LGBTQ+ poets of color to take centerstage and speak their truths.

"I have been a devotee of Emanuel Xavier's poetry since his legendary debut, Pier Queen, and his 7th and newest collection, Still, We Are Sacred, only strengthened my admiration for his artistry. These poems, ruminant at times with memories and dreams, mournful or sparkling with joy at others, blaze with a poetic force, sharpness and realness that have always been among the hallmarks of Emanuel's poetry. They also possess a truthfulness and intimacy that draw you into the heart of the poet's experiences, never sacrificing humor or an unforgettable turn of phrase, showing how a true literary artist lives, survives, and thrives as a brown, queer man in the 21st century." -John Keene In Still, We Are Sacred, Emanuel Xavier gathers poems of queer survival, memory, and belonging. Moving through faith and doubt, family and chosen kin, love, grief, and joy, these poems honor lives shaped by resistance and care. At once elegy and affirmation, the collection insists on tenderness as a radical act and on the holiness of those who remain. Emanuel Xavier is a queer Latinx poet whose work emerged from New York City's ballroom culture and the Nuyorican arts movement. An unexpected literary voice shaped outside traditional institutions, he writes toward survival, faith, sexuality, and chosen family. He is the author of several poetry collections, including Pier Queen, Americano, If Jesus Were Gay, and Love(ly) Child. He lives in New York City.