Emanuel Xavier has edited an extraordinary anthology collecting work from America's hottest queer spoken word performers and slam-poets.

Queers have always been in the forefront of US poetry: Whitman, Stein, Hughes, Ginsberg. But it's at this curious hinge of twenty-first century NOW that poetry itself has found its way into the ear of public consciousness, so that we are finally hearing Whitman's varied carols tambourining. Many of the poets in this anthology are not generally known outside the Slam, Performance, and Hip Hop Poetry worlds, but here they are at last, spinning on dialectics political, gentrified, aesthetic.

Bullets & Butterflies features vibrant, sexy, and shocking new poetry focused on sexuality, gender, class, race, religion, and politics by Cheryl Boyce-Taylor, Regie Cabico, Staceyann Chin, Celena Glenn, Daphne Gottlieb, Maurice Jamal, Shane Luitjens, Marty McConnell, Travis Montez, Alix Olson, Shailja Patel, horehound stillpoint, and Emanuel Xavier.

Read selections from Bullets & Butterflies
by horehound stillpoint at Velvet Mafia.

Author Photo by Leo Toro

In 1996, Emanuel Xavier took the New York City spoken word scene by storm, quickly becoming one of the most significant voices to emerge from the neo-Nuyorican poetry movement. He has published two poetry collections, Pier Queen and Americano, and the semi-autobiographical novel Christ-Like, which was a Lambda Literary Award Finalist. He is recipient of the Marsha A. Gomez Cultural Heritage Award for his contributions to gay and Latino culture and received a City Council Citation from Councilman James E. Davis for his contributions to the gay and lesbian community of New York City.