""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 Sounds
Born in Brooklyn, Emanuel Xavier lives in New York City. One of the first openly queer spoken word poets to emerge from the Nuyorican Poets Café slam scene, he helped open the doors for LGBTQ+ poets of color to take centerstage and speak their truths.
- Publisher : Queer Mojo
- Release Date: October 17, 2023
- Language : English
- Paperback : 98 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1608642747
- ISBN-13 : 978-1608642748
- Item Weight : 3.84 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.25 x 7.5 inches
About the Author:
Poet and activist, Emanuel Xavier was born in Brooklyn, New York, and became involved in the ball scene as a homeless gay teen. Over a span of twenty-five years, Xavier has received recognition as a spoken word artist from national colleges and universities. He has been named an LGBTQ Icon by The Equality Forum and has been presented a New York City Council Citation Award. Xavier has received an International Latino Book Award, Lambda Literary Award nominations and American Library Association Over the Rainbow Books selections for his collections which include: Pier Queen, Americano, If Jesus Were Gay, Nefarious, Radiance and Selected Poems of Emanuel Xavier. He is also editor of Me No Habla With Acento: Contemporary Latino Poetry, Bullets & Butterflies: queer spoken word poetry and Mariposas: A Modern Anthology of Queer Latino Poetry. He is the recipient of a Gay City Impact Award and The Marsha A. Gomez Cultural Heritage Award. The author and editor of several books, Xavier continues to read his work across the country.
