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Emanuel Xavier (born May 3, 1970),[1] is an American poet, spoken word artist, author, editor, screenwriter, 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 to become one of the first openly gay poets from the Nuyorican movement as a successful writer and advocate for gay youth programs and Latino gay literature.[2]
Born Emanuel Xavier Granja in Brooklyn, New York to an Ecuadorian mother, Xavier’s father left shortly after learning of the pregnancy.[3] He was raised in Bushwick during the 1970s, then a predominantly immigrant neighborhood made up of Puerto Rican, Black, and Italian residents. Xavier has spoken openly about being sexually abused as a child by a family member.[4]
During school integration efforts, he was bussed to a largely white elementary school in Queens, where he encountered racism. At sixteen, after coming out as gay to his mother and her live-in boyfriend, he was forced out of the house. He survived as an underage sex worker along the Christopher Street West Side Highway piers[4] and entered the 1980s ball scene, becoming associated with the House of Xtravaganza and building relationships with figures later seen in the documentary Paris Is Burning.
Xavier eventually returned home under strict conditions and completed his diploma at Grover Cleveland High School (Queens). He attended St. John’s University, earning an associate’s degree in communications before leaving school and moving to the West Village, where he became involved in New York City’s gay nightlife and worked as a drug dealer.[5] He later found steadier work at A Different Light (bookstore), where he first came into close contact with queer literature and community-based arts circles. Xavier has described poetry as the outlet through which he began to process trauma, identity, and anger.[6]
Professional career
In the mid-1990s, Xavier helped introduce spoken word poetry to LGBTQ+ audiences by organizing the monthly series Realness & Rhythms in the basement of A Different Light (bookstore) in NYC. He self-published his first chapbook, Pier Queen, in 1997.[7] The collection has been noted for its thematic ties to works such as Tongues Untied by Marlon Riggs.[8]
With encouragement from legendary ballroom figure Willi Ninja, Xavier founded the House of Xavier in 1998 and launched the annual Glam Slam competition.[9] Originally hosted at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and later the Bowery Poetry Club, Glam Slam blended ballroom performance with spoken word, and at times collaborated with the House of Xtravaganza.[citation needed]
His autofiction novel Christ Like was published by Painted Leaf Press in 1999 and shortlisted for a Lambda Literary Award in the Small Press category.[10] The book was reissued by Rebel Satori Press in 2009 as a tenth-anniversary edition.
Following the events of 9/11, Xavier helped organize Words to Comfort, a poetry benefit held at the New School.[11] His poem "September Song" was archived on the initial National September 11 Memorial & Museum website and later appeared in his 2002 collection Americano.[12]
He edited the anthologies Bullets & Butterflies: Queer Spoken Word Poetry (2005) and Mariposas: A Modern Anthology of Queer Latino Poetry (2008), receiving another Lambda Literary Award nomination for the former.[15] In 2010, El Museo del Barrio staged a choreographed dance work inspired by his spoken word album Legendary.
His third full-length collection, If Jesus Were Gay (2010), was noted for its provocative religious imagery.[16] He published Nefarious in 2013, delivered a TEDx Bushwick talk in 2015,[17] and released Radiance in 2016.
Xavier participated in the Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative for the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in 2019, appeared in the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival in 2024, and has performed “Americano” live with Bobby Sanabria. He also helped establish the Penguin Random House LGBTQ Network in 2011.[18]
In November 2025, actor Christopher Rivas performed Xavier’s poem “Americano” as part of the program Voices of a People’s History: The People Speak and Sing! during the 2025 Diversity & Inclusion Film Festival at Lincoln Center.
His next poetry collection, Still, We Are Sacred, is scheduled for publication in 2026.[21] He is also represented by Liza Dawson Associates for an upcoming memoir and is developing a screenplay based on Christ Like.
Activism
Drawing from his own experience as a formerly homeless queer youth, Xavier has organized and participated in benefit events for organizations such as Sylvia Rivera's Place and the Ali Forney Center. He has also been involved with several LGBTQ+ and HIV/AIDS activist groups, including the ACT UP Latino Caucus, the Latino Commission on AIDS, Men of All Colors Together/New York (MACT/NY), and Marriage Equality New York (MENY).
In 2017, PEN America invited Xavier to read his poem "Americano" during the Writer's Resist rally held on the steps of The New York Public Library in protest of the Trump administration. That same year, a week-long exhibition marked the 20th anniversary of his poetry collection Pier Queen.[22]
In 2018, Xavier was invited to present his poetry at the United Nations as part of the International Symposium on Cultural Diplomacy, where he shared a new poem addressing gun violence.[23] Following public criticism of the work, he was not invited back as a speaker.
Assault and aftermath
In October 2005, Xavier was the victim of a violent anti-gay assault by a group of approximately twenty young men in the Bushwick area of Brooklyn. Following the attack, he was diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma, a benign brain tumor, and underwent surgery that resulted in temporary partial facial paralysis. He later recovered mobility, but the procedure left him deaf in his right ear.[3] In 2015, he announced on his personal website that the acoustic neuroma had recurred, and he underwent successful radiosurgery later that year.
Awards and honors
In 2010, the Equality Forum named Xavier an LGBTQ History Month Icon.[24]
The American Library Association selected his poetry collections If Jesus Were Gay and Nefarious for its Over the Rainbow Books lists in 2011[25] and 2015,[26] respectively.
Four of Xavier’s books have received International Latino Book Awards—Radiance, Selected Poems of Emanuel Xavier, Love(ly) Child, and the anthology Me No Habla With Acento: Contemporary Latino Poetry. Three of his books have been finalists for Lambda Literary Awards: the novel Christ Like, the anthology Bullets & Butterflies: queer spoken word poetry, and the poetry collection Love(ly) Child.[27]
He is the recipient of a Gay City Impact Award and the Marsha A. Gomez Cultural Heritage Award.[28]
Love(ly) Child, Rebel Satori Press, 2023 (Shortlist- Lambda Literary Award- Gay Poetry and The Juan Felipe Herrera Best Poetry Book Award - One Author – English- International Latino Book Awards- Silver Medal)
Americano, Rebel Satori Press, 2022 (twentieth anniversary reissue of the original 2002 edition)
Selected Poems of Emanuel Xavier, Rebel Satori Press, 2021 (The Juan Felipe Herrera Best Poetry Book Award - One Author – English- International Latino Book Awards- Bronze Medal)
If Jesus Were Gay, Rebel Satori Press, 2020 (tenth anniversary reissue of the original 2010 edition)
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 (Shortlist- Lambda Literary Award- Anthology)
Me No Habla With Acento, El Museo del Barrio & Rebel Satori Press, 2011, edited by Emanuel Xavier (International Latino Book Awards- Best Poetry Book – English- Second Place)
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)[30]
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)[30]
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")
Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology, edited by Rigoberto Gonzalez, Library of America, 2024 (features a reprint of the poem "Madre America")
Just YA: Short Poems, Essays, & Fiction for Grades 7-12, edited by Sarah J. Donovan, Oklahoma State University Libraries, 2024 (features reprints for high school students)
Poets for Harris: A Poetry Anthology, edited by James Morehead, Viewless Wings Press, 2024 (features the poem "For Kamala, in the Shadow of Peace")
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")
Discography
Legendary The Spoken Word Poetry of Emanuel Xavier, ELKAT Productions, 2010
↑ Morales-Díaz, Enrique. "Identity of the 'Diasporican' Homosexual in the Literary Periphery." In José L. Torres-Padilla and Carmen Haydée Rivera, eds. Writing Off the Hyphen: New Perspectives on the Literature of the Puerto Rican Diaspora. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2008. 295-312. ISBN978-0-295-98824-5
↑ "Emanuel Xavier at The World of Poetry". The World of Poetry/Washington Square Films. Archived from the original on February 28, 2012. Retrieved February 14, 2012.
↑ "Artist Registry". National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center. Archived from the original on February 1, 2012. Retrieved February 14, 2012.
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