Sunday, February 3, 2013

Out Spotlight

 Today's Out Spotlight is a poet, author and editor. He is also one of the most significant openly gay Latino spoken word artists of his generation. Today's Out Spotlight is Emanuel Xavier

Emanuel Xavier was born May 3, 1971 in Brooklyn, New York, the child of an Ecuadorian mother and a Puerto Rican father who abandoned the family before his son was born. When Xavier was three, he was sexually abused by a family member. At 16, when he came out to his mother, she threw him out of the house.

A homeless gay teen on the streets of New York, he soon turned to sex and drugs for money. He became a hustler at the West Side Highway piers and sold drugs in gay clubs. After landing a job at a gay bookstore, A Different Light, Xavier began to write poetry and perform as a spoken word artist.

"Pier Queen" (1997), his self-published poetry collection, established him in the New York underground arts scene. "Christ Like" (1999), his novel, was the first coming of age story by a gay Nuyorican (Puerto Rican living in New York) and earned him a Lambda Literary Award nomination.

Fellow author Jaime Manrique said, "Once in a generation, a new voice emerges that makes us see the world in a dazzling new light. Emanuel Xavier is that kind of writer."

"Americano" (2002), another poetry collection and Xavier’s first official published work, advanced his prominence within the literary community of color. Xavier edited "Bullets & Butterflies: Queer Spoken Word Poetry" (2005), for which he received a second Lambda Literary Award nomination.

In 2005, Xavier was the victim of a random attack by a group of young men. As a result of the beating, he lost all hearing in his right ear, but continued to write and perform.

He reflected on the assault in his poem "Passage":
Had they known I was gay they would have killed me
None of my poems about peace and unity
would have kept me whole

Also an activist, he focuses his work on homeless gay youth. He has organized benefits for many organizations, including The New York Pier AIDS Education Coalition, Live Out Loud, and Sylvia’s Place, a shelter for homeless GLBTQ youth.

Xavier has appeared on HBO’s "Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry" and "In the Life" on PBS. In 2010, his CD "Legendary—The Spoken Word Poetry of Emanuel Xavier" was released to critical acclaim.

 "Being Latino and gay gives me much to write about. Anything that oppresses us as artists is always great fodder for art."

31 comments:

  1. Don't know if anyone has noticed, but Sophia Bush and Austin have suddenly started tweeting each other again. With her show in the crapper and Austin about to be promoted for a Showtime premiere in June on Ray Donovan, I wouldn't be surprise if we have another on-off reconciliation. She needs the publicity and he needs the cover.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AUSTIN NICHOLS ‏@AUS10NICHOLS
    Holy Beyonce!! Look out J. I'm comin after your lady.


    So Austin's twitter account is riddled with tweets that portray him as someone who goes after underaged girls and now other men's wives. Funny how he being gay is considered a larger offense than either of those two possibilities.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Typo. I meant:

    ^^Funny how being gay is considered...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Couldn't have expressed that any better, 23:17. You nailed it exactly.

    Look at this DM sent last night to a "fan" from Austin Nichols.


    @everj0sh
    2/2/13, 11:47

    MY DAY = MADE. #he #is #awesome #austin #nichols #i #love #him #birthdaygirl Alone on a Saturday Night

    Content of the DM?

    2/02/13 18:38 Happy Birthday Laur you wild sexy minx!



    He does his family proud, doesn't he? That's not him doing those, of course. But it may as well be because the DM is sent in his name. That's his twitter account.

    So an actor who is serious about keeping his career going, has a brand new part time role in a Showtime series with Liev Schrieber and Jon Voight, is going to be dim enough to tweet at, follow and DM underaged girls and power mogul's wife.

    The lights weren't only out in New Orleans tonight, they're out in the House of Nichols.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This is funny interesting. Here we have Austin's DM sent late last night, 2/2/13:

    Happy Birthday Laur you wild sexy minx


    Now look at this tweet that was done just two nights ago, 2/1/13:


    Caoimhe Hughes ‏@_caoimhe

    Jake gyllenhaal is such a wee minx
    6:29 PM - 1 Feb 13 · Details


    I just think that is funny that the word 'minx' is used in both instances, not a word that you hear or read hardly at all anymore.
    ; )

    ReplyDelete
  6. ^^^ All thanks to the wondrous M&M for remembering that I had sent that tweet out in an email. I had forgotten it already. The lady has the mind of a steel trap.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Deleted Page on Smarp:

    Jake Gyllenhaal in Whole Foods Market, Plano, TX, USA - Smarp
    smarp.com/.../Best-Celebrity-Store-

    Jake-Gyllenhaal-in-Whole-Foods-...
    Best Celebrity Store: Jake Gyllenhaal in Whole Foods Market, Plano, TX, USA. MY SISTER JUST SAW JAKE GYLLENHAAL IN FRONT OF WHOLE FOODS!

    ReplyDelete
  8. The reason why the Plano TX sighting from Feb 1 is eye popping is if you look at Smarp entries, the most recent sighting is duplicated at the top of the page which is where the Whole Foods Plano TX sighting was on Friday night. Now the deleted page is gone and at the top is one of the Atlanta "sightings".

    The big question is why was that Plano TX entry taken down when a Florida sighting from 3 days ago remains posted? The deletion stands out.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Totally bummed by the niners loss. They were off their game for most of it recovering when the lights went out- but too late.

    Interesting twitter sightings. Fits the pattern that whenever Jake is in 10 places at once, there is subterfuge at play.

    ReplyDelete
  10. The tweet about Beyonce was a joke /complement.

    The DMs are stupid but harmless
    Also, is it possible they're made up? I don't know enough about how things are posted tow know if that can happen. Exciting game last night, the kind that was going to make me feel bad for which ever team lost

    ReplyDelete

  11. The DMs are stupid but harmless

    Unbelievable!!!!! You actually think tweeting to underage girls about sex and meeting up with them is harmless? Usually, that's put in the pedophile/highly inappropriate category. Doesn't matter if the tweets are being pushed out by Management/Public Relations. They still send out a highly abusive/objectifying message to the younger female fans who follow Austin. And, when is a 32 (almost 33) year old male hitting on high cchool girls ever right? Or, does it only bother you when the issue involves gay teens? I almost can't believe a grown woman would trivialize this kind of predatory activity. All because he's probably gay and can't get heterosexual cred any other way. I'm sorry but I have to agree with Prairie Girl all the way on this one. I refuse to have a double standard just because it's a celebrity.

    ReplyDelete
  12. ^high school girls

    ReplyDelete
  13. The tweet about Beyonce was a joke /complement.

    The Beyonce tweet reminded me that Jake has been hanging out with Jay-Z and Beyonce this past year. Austin probably felt comfortable tweeting that tongue and cheek comment because of that. Without realizing it, Austin just provided another tie-in with Jake.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Congrats Audubon NJ Joe Flacco MVP and Super Bowl Champion.


    :-)Niners. 5 out of 6 ain't too bad.

    ReplyDelete
  15. The Beyonce tweet reminded me that Jake has been hanging out with Jay-Z and Beyonce this past year. Austin probably felt comfortable tweeting that tongue and cheek comment because of that. Without realizing it, Austin just provided another tie-in with Jake.

    Austin didn't tweet AT Jay-Z. Difference. A million guys yesterday also tweeted about B's hotness during the HT show. Austin's just one of many. Now correct me if I'm wrong but I can't remember a sighting of Jake, Jay-Z AND Beyonce. Jake/Jay-Z yes. Not the 3 of them.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I don't think it matters if Austin directly tweeted at JayZ or not. It is odd that Austin sends out a tweet which has a "familiar" sound to it. And coincidental that JayZ is someone that Jake's been hanging with lately? I don't think so. Just yet another toothpick in the box. Of course, any familiarity still doesn't take away from the eyebrow raising stupidity of the tweet.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I can't express enough the feel that one gets for certain twitter account people or the patterns that you see when you follow Twitter like I do. Daily basis.

    And to call some of the stuff that Austin's account is Dm'ing harmless is not an educated statement when you have seen some of the DM's that I have seen. I don't bring them all here, they're ridiculous. They're inappropriate. And they're stupid when you consider they're supposed to be coming from a mature 32 year old SAG accredited actor.

    But you want to see a couple that appeared today? Let's take a look. A very interesting and ultimately very sad yet timely twitter demonstration occurred today. And I'm going to post it in its entirety so that we can all see just what exactly is going on.

    Here's one already:

    This tweet and DM screenshot was posted today at 13:11 CT.

    @freythomason_
    2/4/13, 13:11

    OH MY GOD @AUS10NICHOLS xxxxxxxx I know you are but what am I

    What does her DM say?

    No, you are! But why aren't I one of your main men? I want to be your only man!!!

    ReplyDelete
  18. I say "not an educated statement" with the most respectful intent. It's about not being fully aware of the number of suspicious, inappropriate DM's his account has made over about a year. It's about not being aware of what has happened with a few other fan accounts who follow him. It's about not being aware that yes, authentic looking DM's can be falsely presented. And maybe not being aware that yes, management can have access to an actor's twitter or Facebook account. There are some people here who can verify this after having watched events with the One Direction boys.

    Okay, that being said, let's look at the case of of Samantha Hicks aka @Sammi_Hicks. She looks very young in her twitter avatar picture, she's posted 1242 tweets, has 92 followers and is following 281 accounts. She started out today a big Austin Nichols fan. Unfortunately, he has now lost her due to what his twitter is doing. I'm going to post her tweets beginning very early this morning as today was her birthday. And look what happens.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Samantha Hicks ‏@Sammi_Hicks
    I have got the biggest celebrity crush on @AUS10NICHOLS #onetreehill #hottie 😘
    1:25 AM - 4 Feb 13 • Details

    Samantha Hicks ‏@Sammi_Hicks
    #mancrushmonday and a early happy birthday to me! Austin Nichols 😘 http://instagr.am/p/VTQVD2OdAo/
    1:39 AM - 4 Feb 13

    Samantha Hicks ‏@Sammi_Hicks
    Goal for Thursday, get @AUS10NICHOLS to tweet me again for my birthday!
    1:49 AM - 4 Feb 13


    Samantha Hicks ‏@Sammi_Hicks
    My birthday is already the best ever! Thank you so much @AUS10NICHOLS ❤ #iloveyou DM screenshot
    2:51 PM - 4 Feb 13

    (12/30/11, 11:49 PM: Hey Sammi Hicks. You made my year by saying that.
    2/4/13, 10:16 AM:
    I have a crush on you. Happy Birthday cutie.) <--- DM screenshot

    Samantha Hicks ‏@Sammi_Hicks
    Two years ago @AUS10NICHOLS made my year by messaging me. He has definitely done it again.
    2:53 PM - 4 Feb 13

    ReplyDelete
  20. Samantha Hicks ‏@Sammi_Hicks
    Meeting or even talking to @AUS10NICHOLS would be a dream come true. Since that's impossible I will settle for the amazing message I got!
    3:02 PM - 4 Feb 13

    Samantha Hicks ‏@Sammi_Hicks
    Definitely have a girly, elementary school, celebrity crush on @AUS10NICHOLS #mustremembertobe19
    3:06 PM - 4 Feb 13 • Details


    Samantha Hicks ‏@Sammi_Hicks
    Alright I'm done with the twitter rampage over @AUS10NICHOLS
    3:13 PM - 4 Feb 13 • Details

    Samantha Hicks ‏@Sammi_Hicks
    @AUS10NICHOLS thanks for the messages, but my respect for you isn't there anymore. #whosaysstufflikethat
    5:31 PM - 4 Feb 13 • Details

    Samantha Green ‏@samanthalgreen
    @Sammi_Hicks I kinda wondered that. But @SophiaBush still tweets him
    Collapse
    5:57 PM - 4 Feb 13


    I'm not sure but it reads like maybe his account DM'd her again and it was something that was creepy or a turnoff.

    Austin needs to call off the dogs before more alarms start going off and he gets labeled something very unfortunate. What happened up there with @Sammi_Hicks is not a light matter at all.

    ReplyDelete
  21. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  22. @Sami_Hicks' last tweet after this debaucle was this to her friend, @samanthalgreen:

    Samantha Hicks ‏@Sammi_Hicks

    @samanthalgreen if its him I have zero respect for him. The last message he sent me was inappropriate.
    5:59 PM - 4 Feb 13



    Then there's the case of Kika_n. Kika is an OTH fan and she has been tweeting at him for the last several years at least. She can be kind of a whiner but even she finally popped off at Austin when she realized that there was something very unattractive about what his account was doing. She's a pretty respectful fan and doesn't really hit on him like some of the other girls.

    But look at what she told him one day recently. Even she had had enough after she received this DM from Austin's twitter account:

    Texas Overswagger

    ^^ What does it say?

    I am in Texas. And you and your friend are both knockouts. Wow gorgeous


    And what did Kika_n say after that?

    Mademoiselle M ‏@_Miss_Kika
    @AUS10NICHOLS

    I thought u care.I need some interaction,not send dm just to say some superficial things.Btw u ignore also @Fella_Bentoumi 2/2

    Now granted, Kika_n has high expectations for interaction, but this is an example of what these nimrod DM's are causing.

    I tell you what, that's just a sampling. You could put up several pages of similar asinine DM's his account has sent to the OTH girls, a lot of them underaged. Some of them undoubtedly set-up, fake accounts to help enable Austin to look like a horndog straight man.

    I think some of us here have seen and read enough about Austin to find these DM's totally out of character.

    What actor needs to do this kind of come-on tweeting to strange young girls in order to get a date or gain followers? For whose purpose is his account doing this? What is the show for? People need to be wondering why.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Until recently I shared Destiny's sentiment, that the DMs were harmless. It's self promotion. His fans are in their late teens - that's what happens when you star on a teen drama, you are pandering to teen fans, etc.

    But the content of some of them are not just flirtatious - they're simply inappropriate given the messenger and the receiver. Not illegal, not pedophilia (these girls aren't 14 or anything) but... just gross.

    I disagree that Austin has management that is tweeting this stuff - there are many ways to make Austin straight if you are PR - these borderline creepy tweets are the last route a seasoned PR person would take. If Austin and his management want him to look straight, a much safer and better MO is to just have him attend some red carpets for brand launches with a pretty C-list actress friend by his side. That's all it takes, even for Henry Cavill the Superman.

    At the end of the day, it's Austin's twitter account - he owns and endorses whatever goes out, so it's not even relevant who is doing the actual DM'ing. Those DMs are his. But I mainly just don't think Austin has much in the way of PR staff. You can't compare him to One Direction - those guys are solid gold making a lot of people a lot of money so they are are highly handled, image-wise. Austin is not bringing big money in to anyone, and there's very little chance at his age that he ever will. They guy is solid C- list.

    So what the heck is going on?

    Gotta say, I would love to see what he sent to @Sammi_Hicks

    ReplyDelete
  24. Loved reading your thoughts, 20:42. Thanks for contributing.

    At the end of the day, it's Austin's twitter account - he owns and endorses whatever goes out

    I would agree with that part. It is his name on the account and he has done most, if not all of the tweets. The DM's are another story.

    But I mainly just don't think Austin has much in the way of PR staff.

    He may not but Jake does. And since I believe they are legally married, that means they're in this together and Jake has alot at stake as well. For that matter, so does Austin. He has a recurring role on Ray Donovan, not to mention a past role on One Tree Hill. I have no doubt that Jake would have access to a staff provision.

    ReplyDelete
  25. A lot of people have members of the team or company who do tweets.

    I used worked with someone at a start up who spent 5-10 minutes every morning setting up the tweets for the day and when exactly they wanted them to go out. Then they would tweet off of whatever traffic or comments they chose to over the course of the day.

    It think alot of the dm's that come from Austin are to keep him connected to the fan base he gain through OTH. And I think they are not all from him directly.

    He does tweet fans and has fun, but other I think are someone else trying to help out and do some and I think that's where you see the difference. The big difference.

    Austin is a great friendly guy who likes to have fun, and I think that was his truest intention for his twitter. Others might have seen it for other opportunities.

    ReplyDelete
  26. My theory about Austin and his tweet about Beyonce:

    He had to because she did his theme song Bootylicious. LOL!

    ReplyDelete
  27. Austin isn't making chump change. He's still doing better than most of us. For all the ragging I have been doing on him as well as Jake, I'll do an immediate U-turn when it comes to classifying him as something less than a quality person.

    I'm not going to classify him as any certain level like it was a social class. Austin is long known to be a studier of film. He's extremely well read and he graduated from college. He is spoken of very fondly by fellow actors. He's obviously close to his family and he loves Mexican food and food from roach coaches (lol). He cares about the environment and he is well-rounded athletically - golf, horseback riding, water skiing, snow skiing, bike riding. He learned tennis to act in Wimbledon and had to learn basketball for Glory Road. I think all of that speaks very well for natural athleticism.

    Austin has a quirky sense of humor and Jake picked him out of all the guys he probably could have had.

    I think Austin is a tremendous catch and it doesn't matter to me whether he's "A list" or a role player. Every part is important. It takes a collection of individuals to make a team; no one person is any better or any more important than the other. And Austin is the head of the Gyllenichols household, of that I really don't have a doubt. He's Jake's rock.

    For all of these reasons, I just don't believe at all this is Austin doing the slimy DM's.

    lol, that was kind of a messy, thrown together statement, but it came from the heart.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Of course Austin is not in 1D's stratosphere of fame, but it is not uncommon for PR teams to take over celebrity accounts (e.g. Twitter, FB, Tumblr, Bebo, etc.), and impersonate the celebrity/performer, whether they are at the top of the fame game or, under the radar, C listers. Nowadays, many employers require that job applicants hand over their Twitter or Facebook passwords so HR can snoop into job seeker's private thoughts and actions, to see whether that individual is someone they would want associated with their brand/organizational culture. Whereas that's a more Big Brother, reactive approach, there is also the proactive, real time manipulations that are routinely inserted into an entertainer's contracts.

    Given this context, it is not just about being able to have a feel for identifying when fakery is occurring, but asking the question why is it happening now? Whether it's Austin or Harry Styles or Louis Tomlinson, it's all about the gay and using Twitter to project a straight image and intimidate those who dare to question the status quo, especially when people are getting to close to the truth. In other words, the timing of activity also helps to spotlight when something might be going on that could potentially rock the proverbial boat. Why, for instance, has this DMing of young girls with suggestive and creepy remarks started up again with Austin’s account? Upon closer inspection, there are cycles of activity that keep coming around again and again, and they are, not surprisingly, related to events on the ground. Austin is no longer in LA, he is Texas, and Jake is not too far away in Georgia. Soon after, JG will be in New Orleans filming Mississippi Grind. The geographic proximity of these two guys alone is making PR break out in a cold sweat.

    Jake being seen in Plano, Texas on Friday is just one “mistake” that has already been made and had to quickly be covered up. The whole thing is ridiculous, but that’s how the game works. I’m also sure that the recent article about Jake interacting with a baby at Sundance all night long didn’t help matters either.


    ReplyDelete
  29. Whether it's Austin or Harry Styles or Louis Tomlinson, it's all about the gay and using Twitter to project a straight image and intimidate those who dare to question the status quo, especially when people are getting to close to the truth

    Don't disagree, but no PR pro would condone those specific DMs, much less send them themselves. Those DMs put Austin in a negative light, regardless of his sexual preferences. They're bad for his image, period. We haven't seen them all either. The one we haven't seen from today sounds like it could be the type of message that could land Austin in some legal hot water if that girl wanted to pursue it.

    As for the rest of your message, while I am well aware that PR puts pressure on celebrities to project a certain image, celebs have plenty of power in the end (they actually hire their publicists and managers, not the other way around) and people at Austin's level absolutely have full control over their twitter accounts. As does Ashton Kutcher and Lindsay Lohan and Chris Brown and Rihanna and many many other celebs with much bigger brands who have proven, through their own stupidity, that they themselves are behind the wheel on twitter.

    Austin and Jake were knowingly (proactively even) photographed together 3-4 times in the past year. I just don't think them filming a few states away from one another is going to move PR to literally trash Austin's reputation by sending inappropriate DMs to teenagers so that he appears to like the girls. Nope, don't think so.

    Something is worryingly off with Austin. Last year I was worried that Jake was depressed, but now it is Austin I am concerned about.

    ReplyDelete
  30. This is interesting. Hugh Jackman wasn't back in Atlanta today. He was at the annual Oscars Nominees Luncheon held at the Beverly Hills Hilton in LA. this afternoon. Another long weekend for Jake?

    ReplyDelete
  31. Guess I had a change of heart.

    Samantha Hicks ‏@Sammi_Hicks

    The last two days all my tweets have been to @AUS10NICHOLS seriously have got the biggest crush on him. #followme #please
    1h

    Samantha Hicks ‏@Sammi_Hicks
    Got to admit my heart melts every time @AUS10NICHOLS smiles on One Tree Hill. #celebritycrush

    ReplyDelete