“Telegraphing” by Victorio Reyes Asili

Victorio Reyes Asili is an activist and author who teaches writing at the University at Albany. As a poet, former hip-hop artist, scholar, and social activist, Victorio Reyes Asili focuses his research towards expanding established conceptions of literary poetics to broaden the representation of marginalized voices and the work of artists that utilize poetry as a platform for questioning stations of power. He is the winner of the Phyllis Hurd Liston Prize presented by The Academy of American Poets. His creative work has been published in a wide range of literary journals, including The Acentos Review, Pilgrimage Magazine, Word Riot, and Obsidian. His poetry on hip-hop and other matters has been anthologized in It Was Written: Poetry Inspired by Hip Hop, Black Lives Have Always Mattered, and Chorus—A Literary Mixtape. He also is a former executive director of the Albany Social Justice Center.