Roque Raquel Salas Rivera is a Puerto Rican poet, translator, and editor. His honors include being named Poet Laureate of Philadelphia, the New Voices Award from the Festival de la Palabra, the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Poetry, the inaugural Ambroggio Prize, the Laureate Fellowship, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. His presentation will discuss his x/ex/exis: poemas para la nación/poems for the nation. Written in the early days of the rise of world-wide fascism and the poet’s gender transition, x/ex/exis accepts the invitation to push poetic and gender imaginaries beyond the bounds set by nation. His poems explore themes of imposed binaries, touching on issues like teen dysphoria, political incarceration, and church-state entanglement. Salas Rivera uses the 'x' to symbolize Puerto Rican trans identity in a world hostile to trans existence. Rather than justify his existence, he embraces ambiguity, crafting a powerful and apocalyptic work that confronts an uncertain future with defiance.