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Emanuel Xavier is an American poet, spoken word artist, author, editor, literary events curator, and actor born and raised in the Bushwick area of Brooklyn. He is one of the most significant voices to emerge from the neo-Nuyorican poetry movement using political, sexual and religious themes throughout his work. His background is Puerto Rican and Ecuadorian.
He self-published his debut poetry collection, Pier Queen, in the fall of '97. 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.
In '98, 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 categories such as Best Erotic Poem in Sexy Underwear or Lingerie. 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 '08, 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 a London audience in the UK.
The poetry collection Americano, his first official publication, was released by Suspect Thoughts Press in '02 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", "Nearly God" and the title poem.
In '05, 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."
He has been featured on television on Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry on HBO, 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 and co-starred in the independent feature films, The Ski Trip (LOGO), and The Cult of Sincerity (PBS).
In '08, an invitation-only online literary journal sponsored by UNESCO included him as a contributor to an international project and 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 U.S. Latino community.
In '09, Rebel Satori Press published a revised tenth anniversary edition of his semi-autobiographical novel, Christ Like. The novel description is as follows: Mikey is a spirited but self-destructive survivor of sexual abuse, a Latino native New Yorker caught somewhere between Catholic guilt and club kid decadence looking to fit in as part of a family. Instead, Mikey delves into a demimonde of petty thieves, prostitutes, and pushers. Haunted by a father that Mikey has never met, a difficult childhood, recurring nightmares, the reality of death, and Christ, the story unfolds through the '80's and '90's following him on his journey through a fascinating world filled with Santeros, transsexuals and voguing queens.
In '10, the spoken word/music collaboration album, Legendary- The Spoken Word Poetry of Emanuel Xavier, was released along with the new poetry collection, If Jesus Were Gay & other poems. Emanuel Xavier currently curates a successful monthly Latino/a spoken word poetry series, Speak Up! Speak Out!, at El Museo del Barrio in New York City and is editing an anthology of contemporary Latino/a poetry for them.
Emanuel Xavier has received the Marsha A. Gomez Cultural Heritage Award, a New York City Council Citation and is a 2008 World Pride Award recipient. He performs regularly throughout the United States as a spoken word artist and has also featured internationally in cities such as Buenos Aires (Argentina), Guayaquil (Ecuador), and Ghent (Belgium).
The Equality Forum procalimed him an Icon for GLBT History Month in 2010.
