Exile: The Final Love Poem stands as a profound and emotional culmination of Mayer's journey in exploring the true essence of poetry. Presenting itself in album form, look book form, and culminating in a unique one-day, two-show concert on December 14, 2024, at SOMAD.NYC, it invites us to embrace the beauty of artistic expression as Mayers lifts the mirror to the world.
Swallow From Both Ends; An Experience Not Written From A Distance is an amplified soldier of sexual reclamation. It is a choreopoem that dives deep into the healing process of six non-gender-specific Black bodies overcoming sexual trauma, body dysmorphia, and wounds of emotional manipulation; while measuring the thin line between pleasure and pain. All characters are Black, genderless, and liberated within their sexuality. It uses the many Black vernaculars to vessel each character to a safe place of healing.
Swallow From Both Ends; An Experience Not Written From A Distance is Mayers first masterful theater piece, originally written in 2019-2020. In 2021 it earned Mayers a Many Voices Fellowship at the Playwrights Center, furthering its development through workshops and dramaturgical analysis.
In the late fall of 2021, SoMad.NYC produced and recorded a cinematic excerpt from the play for a visual archive entitled "Love Lessons With Lester," starring Lester Mayers. Followed by a live documented experience entitled "A New Dream Of Love; Live With Lester" in the Fall of 2022.
It is genuinely a requiem of masterful healing.
This is Mayers final self-publication.
Vulnerability is at the center of the established pattern when exploring the question, "Would you still love me if you knew...?" So many people to thank! So many stories locked in this Choreopoem, forever releasing shame so everyone who encounters it will take the opportunity for their souls to fly free. - Mayers.
SWALLOW.
In the Spring of 2022, Swallow From Both Ends; An Experience Not Written From A Distance was listed as a semi-finalist at the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center.
Watch Mayers
One night only poetic gospel recorded EXPERIENCE
Storyteller Lester Mayers crafts a one-night-only soul-shaking poetry gospel concert. With his original poetry, Mayers intends to blur the lines of spiritual reconciliation and the validity of vanity within the uncertainty of living. In addition, Mayers will also pay tribute to Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni, Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, and Aretha Franklin. Audiences will feel the urge to move with the artist as he sings and tells his stories aided by live instrumental music and the vocals of Nubia Monks. Mayers hopes that every person who experiences this concert will escape the judgment of themselves and others while rebirthing their confidence to pick up on their dreams and purpose.
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A profile of Lester Mayers by New Paltz Alumni Magazine.
“His works possess a unique rhythm that is tantamount to the human experience.”
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Photographer: SoMad.NYC
Love Lessons With Lester is the second complete visual poetic offering from Mayers in over two years. Mayers partners with SoMad to create a paean to the lovemaking prowess of oneself. An extraordinary arrangement of emotions. A poetic truth. Soothing; candles blow still when Mayers poet through the Love Lessons that have created them thus far.
"It is incredibly powerful when artists come together with the intention of absolutely nothing but love. Get ready; Love Lessons With Lester will opens its arms to you. It is my honor always to be this vulnerable with you.” - Mayers.
Love Lessons With Lester Has Been Brought to You By An Artist That Struggles On The Daily To Themselves But Found Enough Courage To Love You Too.
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Photographer: Max E.K. Cover Artist: Kordell Pritchard. Editor: Mariel Stein.
In this critical moment, Lester Mayers, a Gay-Black-Feminine man, encourages his unique and underrepresented community to raise their voices and pens and prove that they are more than stereotypes/tokens / jokes - identities forced upon them by the white-hetero American gaze. Written to a specific audience, without compromise, Mayers sets out to analyze his own existence as it relates to history, the present, and the future. With pathos as his greatest tool, Mayers writes back at the homophobic show of loneliness & isolation throttled within the Black community. This piece was written outside the lens of European penetration, and though it was created as an offering to a specific group of people, all readers are invited to open their hearts and enter the unconquerable fortress of Gay-Black-Feminine men.
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Between Certain Death and a Possible Future is on the List of the Most Anticipated on, The New York Times, Oprah Daily, in The Millions, and in The Rumpus.
AFRICAN BOOTY SCRATCHA (LOVIN DA ASHY…) is Mayers second poetry offering is another mile stone in literary expression, another fossilized exploration in the identity of Blackness. This time around he deals directly with the conditions and experiences of dark skinned babies, children, teens and adults. He rhythmically lays out the beauty and love dark skinned people are normally denied and the provisions they are always offered too. He uses the Black vernacular to write through feelings and welcomes the reader to challenge their ideas in language and the styling of beauty. As always, it is clear that Mayers' masterpiece is not written from a distance: indeed, it is up close and oh so personal.
Cover Created By: COCOA RAE, LAVONNE BARFIELD, KORDELL PRITCHARD
A Featured Excerpt From AFRICAN BOOTY SCRATCHA (LOVIN DA ASHY…) In Colorado’s Boulder Weekly
Tour Flyer Created & Designed By: Max Evanega
100 Poems for 100 Voices Live in the Moment, relive an evening with Lester as he brings his first and highly rated poetry book “100 Poems For 100 Voices” to life. Mayers was accompanied by Brandon Bera, Pierce Allen, Afro Jones, Gabe Marquez, and Eryka Ree, Mariel Stein, and Stefanie Workman a team of outstanding, high-quality musicians who are great at showcasing the pure elements of a live show. This live recording is an abiding, deep commitment to lyrical honesty and musical integrity. Simply put, if Mayers feels it, he writes and offers it. While vivid imagery, metaphor, and analogy are his stock in trade, there’s no pretense, no hiding. This concert is upfront, Mayers is in-your-face, real, using distinctive poetry and live instrumentation to breathe life into the atmosphere, digging inside to bring forth the accompanying emotion. Folks who know the rough and tumble of life, love right, love wrong, passion misspent, passion fulfilled, lonely nights and empty days, and everything in between will be transported while experiencing this show.
Image Captured By: Max Evenage
Image Captured By: Kordell Pritchard
Image Capture By: Lester Mayers
100 Poems for 100 Voices is not only a burgeoning poet’s first manuscript; it’s a profound offering of untold stories from the Gay Black experience that transcend across place, time, and identity. Mayers’ poetry has a rhythm synonymous with his heartbeat, with his breath. His poetry is textured. His messages are raw. They are honest. When you read them, you will feel them in your bones. Touching upon topics such as slavery, Africa the Homeland, American culture, LGBTQ* freedom, love, relationships, and deep trauma, Mayers' takes an honest look at all of life's facets, from the beautiful to the painful. It is clear that Mayers' masterpiece is not written from a distance: indeed, it is up close and oh so personal.
Cover By: Kordell Pritchard
Edited By: Charlene Martoni
Image By: Kordell Pritchard
Image By: Kordell Pritchard
Lester’s contributions to anthologies cover a wide range of topics.
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Cover Created By: NYU Press.
UNLOVED, a featured piece of prose in Male Femininities Edited by Dana Berkowitz, Elroi J. Windsor and C. Winter Han Published by: NYU Press
Innovative essays that explore how men perform femininity and what femininity looks like without women.
What counts as “male femininity”? Is it simply men behaving in effeminate ways, or is it the absence of masculinity? Male Femininities presents a nuanced, critical collection of essays that highlight the extent to which male femininities are neither an imitation of femaleness nor an emptying of masculinity. These innovative essays focus on both gay and straight men, and transmasculine and genderqueer people in their construction and performance of femininity, thereby revealing the possibilities that open up when we critically examine femininity without women. Male Femininities asks, What does femininity look like for men?
The contributors—highly regarded scholars and rising stars—cover a range of topics, including drag queens, cosmetic enhancements, trans fertility, and gender-non-conforming childhoods. Male Femininities illuminates what happens when we decouple femininity from female bodies and how even the smallest cracks and fissures in the normative order can disrupt, challenge, and in some cases reaffirm our existing sex-gender regime. This volume pluralizes the concept of male femininities and leads readers through an exploration of how gender, sex, and sexuality are manifested in the United States today.
Cover Created By: Arsenal Pulp Press
RED SHADOWS, a featured piece of prose in BETWEEN CERTAIN DEATH AND A POSSIBLE FUTUREQueer Writing on Growing Up with the AIDS Crisis
An enthralling and incisive anthology of personal essays on the persistent impact of the AIDS crisis on queer lives.
Every queer person lives with the trauma of AIDS, and this plays out intergenerationally. Usually we hear about two generations - the first, coming of age in the era of gay liberation, and then watching entire circles of friends die of a mysterious illness as the government did nothing to intervene. And now we hear about younger people growing up with effective treatment and prevention available, unable to comprehend the magnitude of the loss. But there is another generation between these two, one that came of age in the midst of the epidemic with the belief that desire intrinsically led to death, and internalized this trauma as part of becoming queer.
Between Certain Death and a Possible Future: Queer Writing on Growing up with the AIDS Crisis offers crucial stories from this missing generation in AIDS literature and cultural politics. This wide-ranging collection includes 36 personal essays on the ongoing and persistent impact of the HIV/AIDS crisis in queer lives. Here you will find an expansive range of perspectives on a specific generational story - essays that explore and explode conventional wisdom, while also providing a necessary bridge between experiences. These essays respond, with eloquence and incisiveness, to the question: How do we reckon with the trauma that continues to this day, and imagine a way out?
Cover Created By: Arsenal Pulp Press
CYNICISM, a featured piece of prose in Hustling Verse: An Anthology of Sex Workers’ Poetry.
“In this trailblazing anthology, more than fifty self-identified sex workers from all walks of the industry (survival and trade, past and present) explore their lived experience through the expressive nuance and beauty of poetry. In a variety of forms ranging from lyrics to list poems to found poetry to hybrid works, these authors express themselves with the complexity, agency, and honesty that sex workers are rarely afforded. Contributors from Canada, the US, Europe, and Asia include Gregory Scofield, Tracy Quan, Summer Wright, and Akira the Hustler. As an antidote to the invasive and often biased media depictions of sex workers, Hustling Verse is a fiercely groundbreaking exploration of intimacy, transactional sex, identity, healing, and resilience.”
Notable reviews.
A profile of Lester Mayers by New Paltz Alumni Magazine.
“His works possess a unique rhythm that is tantamount to the human experience.”
A Review of “Love Lessons With Lester; Live.” from The Muhlenberg Weekly By: Keanna Pena.
“Throughout the show, I felt mesmerized, inspired, and very emotional. Lester was truly, truly special.”
A Review of “African Booty Scratcha: Lovin da ashy-blaq fat child wit yellow teef, peasy head & a broken smile” from The New Paltz Oracle By: Madalyn Alfonso.
“Award-winning and well-established poet Lester Mayers is back in the scene with another cultural artifact sure to send shockwaves through the poetry community with his new book.”
A Review of 100 Poems for 100 Voices (Live In The Moment) From The New Paltz Oracle By: Madalyn Alfonso.
“Lester Mayers is swiftly becoming an iconic poet and strong voice for our generation, and he proved that with his poetry concert “100 Poems for 100 Voices (Live in the Moment).”
A Review of 100 Poems For 100 Voices From The New Paltz Oracle By: Madalyn Alfonso.
“The book helps with moving forward through forward movement.”
A Review of Hustling Verse from STRAIGHT By: David Chau.
“C y n i c i s m” , by Lester Mayers, is a smouldering depiction of a provident high-school student juggling violent johns and homework.”
Free publications of Lester’s poems, op-ed & poetic prose.
Dear John, All I Really Needed Was Your Lovin’. By Lester Mayers Edited by Mariel Stein
In Honor of #WorldAidsDay Take a moment. Drop your shoulders. Unclench your jaw. Inhale. Exhale. Drop your shoulders some more. Now let me ask you ---
Love does not define itself by how many roadblocks appeared in its path; Love defines itself by the courage it uses to forge new roads. Love isn’t the pain of the past, love is healing, and healing does not mean the hurt never happened. It means the hurt can no longer haunt you. This short story is based on actual events, people, and places. I’ve been working on this short story for over two years. I first interviewed “Ajamu” in 2019. He willingly gave his heart, tears, and memories. His story reminded me at the heart of all love stories; there is a form of tragedy that you must not be trapped by. This isn’t a story just about the institutional affects/effects of H.I.V & AIDS. This is a love story that mourns two people that lost something as life ran its course. This is a story about a willingness to unload a lifetime of hurt and pain. This is a story about a love I someday wish to experience; unforgettable.
Image Created By: Patrick Stelien
Finding Beauty in Black, Gay, And Feminine Men. An Oped written exclusively for I’m From Driftwood LGBTQ Archives.
Image Created By: Roman Nogin
An Ode to the Sounds of Blackness, selected poem from “100 Poems for 100 Voices” featured in Colorado’s, Boulder Weekly.
Image Created By: Koko Komégné
LIVEA HUMBLE, selected poem from “African Boot Scratcha lovin da ashy-blaq fat chall wif yella teef, peasey head & a broken smile” featured in Colorado’s, Boulder Weekly.
Image Created By: LESTER MAYERS
FAGGOT , selected poem from “100 Poems for 100 Voices” featured in Queeries Blog.
Image Created By: Carlos David
KISS, selected poem from “100 Poems for 100 Voices” featured in Queeries Blog.
“I get my resilience from my internal pulse that throbs knowing there’s something more for me. There’s more out there beyond what I can see in the momen”
Writing Through Trauma:
This workshop has been warmly founded on a quote by the legendary American Icon Toni Morrison: “We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.” The foundation of this workshop is also in the context of the Negro Spiritual, posing the question: How I Got Over? It encourages writers to take an embodied look within themselves and find the stories that lie within their imagination, heart, and even scars. This writing workshop pushes the individual to find the courage to go beyond what they think they know and find what needs to be found with the language they already have. All languages, vernaculars, and grammatical systems are welcomed. It is open-ended like poetry, like life; all stories never take the same path.
In & Out Of Lovin' Me:
Self-love is a feeling of self-acceptance and an acknowledgment of one's current form. The present form includes: physical, mental, spiritual, and energetical acknowledgment and celebration. Self-love also entails one being in and out of loving themselves. It's a persistent feeling with breaks and bumps in-between. Self-Care is an act of care for oneself, even if you aren't necessarily in love with yourself. This writing workshop's goal is to center oneself as the focus of their memory and future self.
I Found God In Myself & I Loved Her Fiercely:
Hating yourself is not going to help you. It’s time to be kind to you. You can start by writing a letter to yourself & putting your name in all caps—no self-loathing. No Self-flagellation. Use loving language only. This workshop is a combination of letter writing, crafting poetry, dancing, and music. The ultimate goal is to prepare a chore-poem that will aid in the battle of positioning oneself in the center of their own universe.
This magnificent human being absolutely broke us all down and built us back up with his phenomenal poetry, kindness, and love. I read an had the privilege to see these poems performed live. The entire house was on their feet yearning for more at the end. People left changed. “I needed this.” Is what I heard as I left. We all did. It rained that night. Rain often represents change and we are all better for having experienced this labor of love that is #100poemsfor100voices Congratulations @mayerslester_ and your magnificent band! YOU did that! If you are into soul-stirring poetry that takes you time-traveling and makes you question our world, our way of loving, our inclusiveness, and all that is being human then this is the book for you. - Elizabeth Reyes-Diuguid.
Lester Mayers is a true artist and pedagogue. He puts teaching and performance in relationship in ways that produces an embodied experience for students that is truly transformational.- Dr. Robyn Sheridan.
James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, Nikki Giovani, Sonia Sanchez, Pearl Cleage, the list goes on... and now, Lester Eugene Mayers. Lester is "the poet's poet" with a side of hot, buttered grits and a Biggie Smalls verse. If you're looking for someone to authentically voice their experience of being Black and Queer and male in contemporary America, you MUST get your copy of 100 Poems for 100 Voices. I was taken through so many emotions reading it. Full of insight and hard truths, in this wonderfully curated masterpiece, Mayers holds up a mirror to our collective and many times, apathetic society while celebrating the Black and Feminine. His perspective and approach is unapologetic and I, for one, am inspired. This book will nurture for many years to come and eventually become a classic. Get yourself and someone you love a copy today! - Jammie Patton
Image Captured By: Lester Mayers.
Image Captured By: Lester Mayers.
