Xitlaly Martinez
SCORES Poet-Athlete Alum and San Jose Progam Coordinator
We talked to SCORES program coordinator Xitlaly Martinez from the student apartment she shares with three other San Jose City College students. A SCORES poet-athlete alumna and National Poetry Slam winner, Xitlaly was invited back to help run the organization’s new San Jose-based program by her former SCORES coach and mentor, Manny Anaya as part of an effort to reconnect with SCORES alumni.
You first joined SCORES way back in elementary school, at E.R. Taylor in San Francisco. Can you fly us back in time to those early grade school years?
I’m the fourth of five children, and we all went to E.R. Taylor. We were like a little legacy, one of those families where all the kids who came through graduated. We had one teacher who had all of us; her name was Miss Mary Ann and she was a third-grade teacher. My Mom absolutely adored her because of how strict she was. She did not let anything slide – nothing.
I remember first knowing about SCORES when I was seven, but I had to wait a whole year until third grade to start. What caught my eye first was the soccer part, because I wanted to be on the school soccer team. There were flyers for the SCORES program posted in the school hallways. The flyers talked about poetry too, and I like poetry. I told my friends about it, and we all made the commitment to apply the next year.
On the day of that first SCORES meeting, everyone who had gotten their permission slips in was assigned to a classroom. There was this guy in the room who looked super tough. He was wearing Adidas everything! He turned out to be our coach, Coach Manny. He told us we’d be getting some great soccer training. I was super happy, but I was also sweating.
As time passed, we all got to know each other on the team. As a third-grader, I would never have been in a position to hang out with fourth and fifth graders, let alone play with them, but through SCORES we did. We had such a tight bond, and when the older kids graduated at the end of fifth grade, we missed them so much. And when we graduated, we had to say goodbye to the third and fourth graders we would leave behind.
One of the core tenets of SCORES is community. Creating strong bonds and connections. Was that something you experienced as a young poet-athlete?
Our community was strengthened by soccer, but even more through poetry. On the field, no one talked about the imagery passing through their heads or romanticized in their minds. That happened during the poetry sessions, especially when kids talked about their families. Some of the students were very new to the country, and their poems were in Spanish. And that was very different in elementary school – hearing poems and hearing them in Spanish. We were exposed to different people’s personalities and communities and worlds – all explained through poetry. And that made us stronger and more connected on the field. Then mix that in with Coach Manny’s values, and you have a powerful experience. Manny always said, “When one of us falls down, we all fall down.”
You went on to win the SCORES National Poetry slam, performing as a fifth-grader in 2011 at the Apollo Theater in New York. What details stand out from that experience.
When I was chosen for the trip to New York, I remember that we were all huddled in a semi-circle at Crocker Amazon on the turf field. I was on the edge. And I was so sad my Mom wasn’t there – she was sitting in the car with an eye infection. But my brother was there. I remember hearing my name. Someone brought me a certificate while I was still sitting down. I couldn’t speak. I wanted to cry the whole time. And later, when I told my Mom, she cried and I cried. She said, “You’re going to New York!”
Coach Junior picked me up from my house at 5 am for the flight. When we got to New York, we met so many different kids – it was crazy! We warmed up to each other immediately. I couldn’t believe we all started talking to each other so fast, but we did. I especially remember a girl named Dallas, from Dallas, Texas. She had the most beautiful poem and way of expressing herself on stage. I was completely impressed.
On stage at the Apollo Theater, I remember the SCORES empathy. I couldn’t even see the people in the crowd. It was so dark, and the lights, they are no joke. They shine on you and only you. So you’re covered in this little aura of white light that’s so bright you can’t see past it. Everything else is pitch black. So I just felt like I was talking to myself. Looking back, I guess I should have spoken a little louder, probably, but I remember it not being too bad at all.
What is poetry to you?
I grew up reading books. I was always in love with books. I read all my books, and they're still in my bookcase. I'm in love with all the authors and their way of writing. Poetry is something I feel comfortable with, something I can do. You mix a little beat, some clever words. You have to be kind of bare. And the amount of what you reveal about yourself depends on the audience and what you want to really convey, right? And so poetry is wonderful because it’s just a group of words, but it allows you to convey a message and allows people to see you bare. But other people in the audience might hear you differently – they might think your words are funny - and pick up on that little joke that you said. The point is, it's a way of being artistic, of being an artist. And art in general is beautiful.
Tell us a bit about what you’re doing in San Jose, both as a student and with SCORES.
I'm finishing up two years at San Jose City College, getting all the credits I can toward a business degree, and saving as much as I can. I think I'll stay with business. I actually started out in biomedical engineering at San Jose State but realized it just wasn’t for me. It was a tough year. But now that I’m here at City College, I’m able to both go to school and see what it’s like having a part-time job. I’m networking again, going after leadership positions in clubs at school, and I’m nearly financially independent.
At SCORES, I’m like a fly on the wall, listening and learning as much as I can. Even though I was a student in the program, there’s still so much to learn. I’ve been in trainings on how to teach poetry and coach soccer. I’m learning about Game Days, and I’ll be able to go to school sites on Thursdays. San Jose is a new and growing site for SCORES with ten schools and eight community centers. The idea is to have me be the person in communication with the coaches, and the director, Hamza Al Haidari. One of the things I’ve noticed in meetings is the real focus on the students, the poet-athletes. How are they doing emotionally? Are they enjoying the poetry, growing with the coaching?