Yosimar Reyes

Yosimar Reyes ( Born on September 22, 1988) is a gay Mexican-born poet/ activist, who grew up in San Jose, California. His poetry style has been described as "a brave and vulnerable voice that shines light on the issues affecting Queer Immigrant Youth and the many disenfranchised communities in the U.S and throughout the world." Yosimar uses spoken word as a tool to empower queer, working class, and immigrant people by telling their story and his goal is to inspire more people to gain a voice and speak of their struggles. He has been a guest lecture all over the United States talking about his background and the struggles he overcame as a self-referred “two spirit person.”

Early life and education
Yosimar Reyes was born on September 22, 1988 in Guerrero, Mexico. Reyes migrated from Mexico with his Family at the age of 3. Reyes grew up in East San Jose in what he describes “a very stereotypical neighborhood, apartments everywhere.” He “came out” to his family and his community at the age of 16. Coincidentally that same year he began to share his work in the form of spoken word. However, Reyes has always had a high interest in literacy. According to Reyes, poetry has always been in his life. In middle school, he would write about his classmates who teased him about being a quiet child. He states “Students thought I was very quiet. They did not bully me but just teased me and so I would write their names in my notebook. There was poetry in that, I would write poems about them and what caused them to tease me.” According to Reyes, the person who pushed him into sharing his work was Raquel Toqueta, one of his high school teachers. Reyes states that although he does not remember Guerrero, his work is still very influenced by the place of his birth due to the story telling from his grandparents. According to Reyes’ personal facebook account, he attended Latino College Preparatory Academy where he was awarded his high school diploma in 2006. In addition to earning his high school diploma, Reyes attended Evergreen Valley College and the National Hispanic University

Career
In middle school, after the first time he was called “joto” a derogative word used to refer to gay men. The teasing of his classmates in school made him realize the power words can have on people. He submerged himself in literature and started writing poems. Reyes tells in the interview by Eva Vargas, that his first poem was not submitted until he was in high school, when a teacher asked him to submit a poem for a competition. In this competition he was asked to read out loud but due to his shyness he did not go, he only sent it. Days later he was notified he won the first place in the competition. Raquel Topete, Reyes’ high school teacher, motivated him to continue the development of his talent. At the age of 17, he earned the title for the 2005, as well as the 2006 South Bay Teen Grand SLAM Champion. This title gave him the opportunity to be recognized in the Bay Area and continue reaching more people through his poetry. In addition to the title, Yosimar has been featured in the Documentary” 2nd Verse: the Rebirth of Poetry” in 2007. In this documentary, he talks about his experience growing up in East San Jose and being raised by his grandparents. Yosimar also was published in the book Mariposas: A Modern Anthology of Queer Latino Poetry in 2008 by the Floricanto Press. In 2009, he presented his book “For Colored Boys Who Speak Softly” which is the title to the poem that helped him gain national attention. In one of his social websites it mentions: [The Colored Boys Who Speak Softly Poem] allowed other projects to flourish such as working alongside Carlos Santana in his project ‘Architects of a New Dawn’, also being a Keynote speaking at a various conferences as well as working with different artist collectives like La Maricolectiva, Butchlalis De Panonchtitlan and Mangos With Chilli. Yosimar’s work centers around the representation of Queer Undocumented Youth. He has also curated various shows in the bay area like For Colored Boys Book Release Party, Homegirrlz: Demos and Remixes and Migrating Sexualities: Unspoken Stories of Land, Body and Sex Currently Yosimar is touring his book ‘For Colored Boys Who Speak Softly’ and is working on his second one. You can catch him speaking at different universities across the nation.

Methods
Reyes uses spoken word poetry for much of his work. He first began competing in slam’s at the age of 16. Since then, Reyes has used spoken word as a key tool for his activist work. He uses Facebook as his primary source for his work, and Youtube as the secondary source for his work. In addition he uses his personal tumblr to interact with his fan base. In the past Reyes has also used Myspace.

Titles and accomplishments

Yosimar holds the title for the 2005 and 2006 South Bay teen Grand Slam Champion. In addition, Reyes was featured in the 2007 documentary titled 2nd Verse the rebirth of poetry, a film produced by Youth Speaks.

Projects
Spoken Word Poetry

Reyes’ first self-published chapbook is called “For Colored Boys Who Speak Softly”. In addition to his own chapbook, Reyes is also featured in Mariposas: A Modern Anthology of Queer Latino Poetry: A poetry collection featuring the work of 17 poets from across the United States and Buenos Aires. Reyes’ has countless poems that can be accessed through youtube however his most popular poems are the following: For Colored Boys Who Speak Softly: Along with being the title for his chapbook, “Reyes pays tribute to all those queer communities of color who committed suicide by writing this poem.” “Featured in the poem is Gwen Araujo, a transgender teen from Newark who, in 2002, was murdered when her attackers discovered she was a biological male.” In an article by the San Francisco Gate, Reyes states, "I was shocked to hear that something like that could happen in the Bay Area." The Legalities of Being: “is a video produced by Dreamers Adrift, a creative project about undocumented youth, by undocumented youth, and for undocumented youth trying to document the undocumented.” Reyes recites a poem about the effects of migration on his family, as Julio Salgado illustrates. My Revolutionary: is a poem written in honor of a close friend of Reyes. The poem addresses multiple topics such as sexuality, ancestry, love, work and immigration. Mi Viejito: “As part of a multimedia series called "Arriving and Becoming: The Silicon Valley Story as Told by Immigrant Elders", San Jose Spoken Word Artist, Reyes writes about his grandfather in this piece.

Other poems:
 * Girls Night Out
 * Proud to be Joto
 * Acts of Resistance:
 * 009 Love in Times of War:
 * Mi Amigo
 * Ceremony
 * Una Ofrenda