Ángelo Néstore (Lecce, Italy, 1986) does not limit the poem to the literary exercise: it understands that it is a means of social and personal transformation, of introspection and inquiry into the alien, in the society of our time (migrations, feminism). Translator, essayist, researcher at the University of Malaga, Néstore inaugurates an editorial project together with three other editors: Martín de Arriba, María Eloy-García and Rocío de la Maya. With the name of Letraversal, the catalog opens with two titles as a declaration of intent: the books of poems by Alberto Conejero and Elizabeth Duval. In the Pre-texts publishing house, Ángelo Néstore, at the same time, publishes Hágase mi will , a book with which he won the Emilio Prados International Poetry Prize, convened by the Generation Cultural Center of Malaga 27.

Did you notice any cultural contrast when arriving in Spain? I arrived from Italy to Spain twelve years ago, with 21, after six of political militancy against a system that did not represent me and, at the same time, with the curiosity of those who leave a south in search on the other, in a new way of living together that finally took me to Malaga. I was really tired of turning on the television and listening to another green joke from Berlusconi or seeing the women's body humiliated on any show, after the presenter's drooling gaze and his consequent macho comment. What did you find in Spain? I found a Spain much more active, attentive, critical and with the necessary strength to dialogue and question (se). This is probably one of the main reasons that later led me to think and write directly in Spanish. Language forges our identity and is more powerful than many people believe. That's why I always insist that you have to take care of it so much, shine it out, let it make sparks.What differences exist between the cultural trends (from queer theory to poetry) of your native Italy and Spain? I have a hard time answering this question with a look that is not almost voyeur, since my interest in poetry and queer matured in Spain. I would dare to say that, as I have outlined, during the last decades, the counterculture or cultural questioning of the hegemonic system has circulated mainly in alternative and underground contexts, although lately we are witnessing a new and beautiful awakening of the Italian streets: I think, for example, of the Sardines Movement. As for poetry, I notice a tendency closer to tradition in Bel Paes and, in contrast to an experimentation not only in the contents but also in the form in Spain of a new generation of poets capable of questioning the same concept of "poetry" from the language itself. What is missing from our cultural debate? I think a less elitist, more inclusive cultural debate is needed, capable of addressing phenomena from a transversal and less bourgeois perspective, but, about all, aware of the responsibilities we exercise and our symbolic position of power. The fact that I received some bullying from some agents of Spanish poetry just when I was starting to write and publish has helped me pay more attention now so as not to make the same mistake again. Is integration in our country complicated? All integration is complex because it implies a dynamic of continuous negotiation between oppressive and oppressed parties, both present in each one of us. As a person labeled "homosexual" since childhood I have felt oppressed, but the condition of "western", "male" and "white" has placed me in a position of oppression. Perhaps, the key is to manage in a correct way these balances of power and think of the vulnerabilities of others as social responsibilities to weave a healthier network of care. Do you feel immigrant? I have always been curious to observe how nobody has categorized me as "immigrant" because I come from a first world country. That's what I mean when I talk about the responsibility of language. If I think about it, it has also happened with my national identity of "Italian", which until the end of my adolescence understood as something monolithic, something that would have accompanied me the rest of my life and that has been undone, demonstrating that every border is politics. Is Spain a country where homophobia still predominates? Yes. Above all, it is a transphobic country and, sadly, it is something that also affects certain feminist sectors. It is necessary, on the one hand, an integral law for the depathologization of the trans and, on the other, a specific plan that goes through all the educational phases and in a compulsory way: from primary to university studies. I am quite clear that the trans is the key to propitiate a more equitable and respectful present and future and, therefore, it still generates so much resistance. What is the spirit of your editorial: Letraversal? Letraversal is an editorial project that I have set up with Martín de Arriba, María Eloy-García and Rocío de la Maya and who intends to transgress, tranship and transform. The idea is that our catalog never tiptoes, the idea is that one is forced to stop. We think of the poem and the edition as a network of care and also as a shout that warns about the thorns of the world; We are the flower, but also the knife. The rose, said Cummings, "how perfect it is in murderous hands." Not surprisingly, the symbol of the publishing house is a rose and a knife. They train with two very different authors including Alberto Conejero and Elizabeth Duval. This recent century cannot remain anchored in the past, but neither ignore it. We will have room for the classic, but we also aspire to discover the new contemporary classics. In this sense, both Conejero and Duval seem clear examples to us, despite having different bets on content and form. In this house , Alberto's book is a journey that takes us home as a collective project (that of the ancestors), but also personal, while Exception , by Elizabeth, is a kind of long poem that talks about the streets that burn and that is written just after the sentence of the procés and the revolts in Barcelona. The next title, scheduled in April, will be Buy Gold , from the photographer and poet Violeta Niebla, who "stains" poetry with issues related to money, since, as the author says, it is the result of receiving a religious and ludopath education at the same time. And you publish 'My will be done'. For the title it seems to follow in the path of his previous books, where poetry is also a political tool. For me writing is a technology that intervenes on the body of the same and transforms it. When we write we are producing subjectivities, we are occupying places of power, especially if it is done from a place like a canonical publishing house and from a literary prize. Do my will is, in a way, an adjustment of accounts with myself after publishing impure Acts , since in it I try to reflect on my self as an oppressor, my political responsibilities and my privileges, in addition to offering more intimate poems from a trans perspective and as an immigrant. And what are you looking for? What I am looking for is to foster a debate to think of new ways of relating to otherness, something that seems vital to me in this historical and political moment in Spain. What is the language of poetry? I do not ask the poem for help, I do not conceive of it as a form of complacency, refuge or search for happiness. For me the language of poetry is that of resistance.

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