Xavier Inducted into Hall of Fame April 19, 2023 – Posted in: Authors
Emanuel Xavier and RSP publisher Sven Davisson
NEW ORLEANS, March 26 — At the recent Saints+Sinners Literary Festival, Rebel Author Emanuel Xavier was among the 2023 inductees into the Saints+Sinners Hall of Fame. Xavier joined fellow inductees Samiya Bashir, David Groff, and Lance Ringal at the Sunday closing ceremony. Rebel publisher Sven Davisson presented Xavier with his honor.
Davisson’s Induction:
Emanuel and I first met in 2006 at my first Saints and Sinners. On opposite sidewalks outside the Bourbon Orleans Hotel.
Of course, I had actually first met Emanuel Xavier a few years earlier the way many do—through his words. I reviewed Americano for Ashé Journal I guess it must have been 20 years or so ago, since we just published the 20th anniversary edition. On the streets of the French Quarter we forged a friendship and unbeknownst to us at that time a publishing collaboration that has lasted almost as long.
A couple of years later, I was sitting in an airport returning from a business trip, and I got a call from Greg Wharton. He’d made the decision to close Suspect Thoughts Press and would I be willing to take over the outstanding publishing commitments they had that were close to realization. Among those was an updated and annotated edition of Christ Like.
Since then we’ve had quite a few adventures—from the launch of the anthology Me No Hablo with Accento at EL Museo Del Bario on fifth avenue to dancing at Splash to Britney’s Til The World Ends… to late nights at the Boiler Room and later nights at the Cock Bar… I Digress… And to working on eight books together—nine if we count the Spanish translation of Selected Poems…
In 1997, Brooklyn born Xavier, a self-described former homeless teen hustler, entered the literary scene as the first openly gay Nuyorican poet to emerge from the spoken word slam scene.
His books include the novel, Christ Like, and the poetry collections Pier Queen, If Jesus Were Gay, Nefarious, Radiance, a Selected Poems… and this fall, I can announce here, a new collection entitled
Xavier has been named an LGBTQ Icon by The Equality Forum, has been presented a New York City Council Citation Award, received International Latino Book Awards and Lambda Literary Award nominations and American Library Association Over the Rainbow Books selections. He is recipient of a Gay City Impact Award and The Marsha A. Gomez Cultural Heritage Award. And now it’s my pleasure to play my part in inducting him into the Saints and Sinners Hall of Fame.
Check out Emanuel Xaiver’s books.