This month, we decided to re-share an article written about our recent children’s book, Cosmo, From the Stars. We thank Nika Bartoo-Smith at Underscore News for writing this incredible story at our recent Portland launch of the book. Thanks to Jarette Werk for the great photos. Additionally, we thank Mick Rose, Shilo George, Meena Richardson, Trae Middlebrooks, and the staff at Future Generations Collective for making this beautiful event happen. We have a Seattle launch on November 10th from 11-2 at Washington Hall in partnership with Gathered in This Place (GiTP) two spirit drum group and Hummingbird Family Services.
New Children’s Book Tells Story of Young Two-Spirit Person
by Nika Bartoo-Smith and with photos by Jarrette Werk
Families and community members passed under a doorway adorned with hanging stars, and walked into a room at Barbie’s Village covered with galaxy themed art projects on September 14. They gathered for a book reading of a new children’s book, “Cosmo, From the Stars,” which shares the story of a young Two-Spirit person.
“I know that books were really important to me,” said Itai Jeffries, Yésah (Occaneechi), co-creator of the book. “My hope is really that a kiddo is exposed to this and if they have questions later — about their identity, about their family, about things they need to either advocate for themselves or just accept themselves — that this is part of the backdrop of how they make sense of that.”
Interactive art stations covered the room, including a spot for glittery face paint. A tie-dye fabric canvas hung from one wall. Attendees were invited to add the name of one of their ancestors for an art installation. In another area, coloring pages from the book were strewn across the tables with colored pencils for people to draw with. The next art station encouraged people to create a “spacey” self-portrait, depicting themself as someone from the stars.
An altar table sat in the back of the room, adorned with candles, an image of Nex Benedict and painted signs with words such as, “Indigenous joy is sacred,” and “Two-Spirit are sacred.”
A hush fell over the room partway through the morning as Shilo George, Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho descent, prepared to read the book aloud to dozens of people gathered together. Children and families moved closer, sitting in chairs and on soft furs and pillows covering the floor at George’s feet.
“And you know, all of you are gifts as well from your ancestors,” George said, looking out into the crowd full of smiling faces. “Thank you for being here.”
‘Cosmo, From the Stars’
In 2021, the Paths (Re)Membered Project, a Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board program advocating for Two-Spirit and LGBTQ+ people, published “Sassy Sassafras: A Two Spirit Story.”
Written by Jeffries and Victoria Persinger Ferguson, with illustrations by Trae Middlebrooks, the children’s book tells the story of a young Two-Spirit person, assigned male at birth, learning about their identity. It weaves culture and tradition into a story full of love.
Jeffries knew after that book that they wanted to create a companion story as well, about a Two-Spirit young person assigned female at birth.
Mulling it over for months, at 4 a.m. one morning about a year and a half ago, inspiration struck. Jeffries called their longtime friend and creative partner, Middlebrooks, who answered right away. Jeffries began to put an outline of the story to paper while Middlebrooks began to work on the illustrations.
But the story is not theirs alone. In fact, “Cosmo, From the Stars” is credited to the Paths (Re)Membered Project with illustrations by Middlebrooks.
“I think I put some of the skeleton on the paper, but it’s not my story,” Jeffries said. “I am constantly in community with people and it’s things that I’ve heard, things that I’ve thought about, things that we talk about in different spaces. So part of it went through me, but it felt like something bigger than my story.”
The book was written with input from Pacific Northwest Native youth. They asked to include other important themes impacting some of their communities, such as substance use.
The story follows Cosmo from newborn through adolescence, and highlights their connection to culture and the gifts from the ancestors that they are able to share with their community.
During the reading on September 14, children of varying ages gathered at George’s feet, pointing to the illustrations projected on the screen and thoughtfully answering questions generated from the book.
“My biggest hope, well it’s sort of happening right now,” Middlebrooks said, looking out at the room of people gathered for the book launch and reading. “It’s reaching the people that it needs to reach.”
Centering our Two-Spirit Relatives
George was a perfect fit to do the reading. They pointed out details in the illustrations, asked the audience questions and engaged the crowd through the inflections in their voice while reading different parts of the story.
George is co-host of the “Your Two-Spirit Aunties” podcast. They are also an artist, and said the illustrations from the book really stood out to them.
“I really loved how they were able to speak about our modern day lives, our existence, and at the same time, bring in traditions and talk about ancestors and validate our actual survival and lives,” George said. “I think we have to be careful when we’re writing books or talking, because our tribes are all very different. And so I think we want to be careful to not portray ourselves as a monolith, which I don’t think that they did that here. I think they did a great job at making it personal and universal.”
George believes that because of colonization, and specifically Christianity, information about both traditional and modern-day Two-Spirit identity can be hard to find, but this book is now a resource that community can look to.
“I really love the part of the book that validates that you can learn traditions, you can get messages from ancestors now,” George said. “So even if some of that information was lost through colonization, we can still be taught that and new information and we can trust the ancestors to tell us what we really need to know for ourselves and our community.”
In “Cosmo, From the Stars,” Cosmo’s dreams are filled with teachings from their ancestors that they then share with their community. They learn to embody a special place in community because of this gift.
For George, Jeffries and Middlebrooks, the book is important because although the format is a children’s book, the content is something that can speak to people of all ages, and can be an important resource.
Jeffries has heard first hand from community members how powerful the stories and messages in their books are.
“Just like with Sassy Sassafras, I had people come up to me,” Jeffries said. “I even had a young person who was like 14 talk about how the book helped save their life. And that is a very, extremely hard thing to hear because you don’t feel responsible for that, and nobody wants to be. But it’s real.”
These words that conclude the story of Cosmo, are a call for love for our Two-Spirit relatives today.
“Cosmo is no superhero. They are a reminder that everyone is a gift. Everyone is brought here for a reason.
Two Spirit people, like Cosmo, remind us that just because someone may seem different or out of place doesn’t mean that they don’t belong among our People.
Our Ancestors have always known this.”
Community resources
Talking about identity can be challenging for many people, and Middlebrooks and Jeffries understand that it is natural to need support through those conversations.
“One of the things I liked most about this story is that Cosmo had to make time to heal themself and that then they were able to heal other people,” Middlebrooks said. “And I think that’s just a really important thing to keep in mind for people who are in helping professions, or are important to a lot of folks.”
The Paths (Re)Membered Project centers the Two-Spirit and LGBTQ+ community and offers a variety of free resources.
“Anybody who needs more support or someone to talk to right now, we’ll make it happen,” Jeffries said.
Free mental health services are available here.
“Cosmo, From the Stars” and “Sassy Sassafras” can be ordered or downloaded at nativehealthresources.com.
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Underscore Native News is a nonprofit investigative newsroom committed to Indigenous-centered reporting in the Pacific Northwest. We are supported by foundations and donor contributions. Follow Underscore on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.
