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So Many Stars
An Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 24 weeks
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 24 weeks
So Many Stars knits together the voices of trans, nonbinary, genderqueer, and two-spirit elders of color as they share authentic, intimate accounts of how they created space for themselves and their communities in the world. This singular project collects the testimonies of twenty elders, each a glimmering thread in a luminous tapestry, preserving their words for future generations—who can more fully exist in the world today because of these very trailblazers.
De Robertis creates a collective coming-of-age story based on hundreds of hours of interviews, offering rare snapshots of ordinary life: kids growing up, navigating family issues and finding community, coming out and changing how they identify over the years, building movements and weathering the AIDS crisis, and sharing wisdom for future generations. Often narrating experiences that took place before they had the array of language that exists today to self-identify beyond the gender binary, this generation lived through remarkable changes in American culture, shaped American culture, and yet rarely takes center stage in the history books. Their stories feel particularly urgent in the current political moment, but also remind readers that their experiences are not new, and that young trans and nonbinary people today belong to a long lineage.
The anecdotes in these pages are riveting, joyful, heartbreaking, full of personality and wisdom, and artfully woven together into one immersive narrative. In De Robertis's words, So Many Stars shares "behind-the-scenes tales of what it meant—and still means—to create an authentic life, against the odds."
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
May 13, 2025 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781668650387
- File size: 334865 KB
- Duration: 11:37:37
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Starred review from April 1, 2025
A chorus of queer voices elaborate on the "gender revolution" that changed their lives, past and present. Novelist De Robertis assembles insightful and educative life experiences from interviews in 2022-23 with 20 multicultural transgender, genderqueer, nonbinary, genderfluid, butch, Two-Spirit, transfeminine, and transmasculine people. Each personal history is notable in its own scope and perspective, but collectively these voices representing elder queer generations of color become extraordinary. Generous anecdotes about what coming out queer or questioning gender was like three, four, or five decades ago form the crux of several stories. Trailblazing activists Adela V�zquez recalls being a "fat, loud, queeny little kid" who identified as a girl, and Brooklyn-born transmasculine punk musician KB Boyce relates seeing himself as a little boy and "didn't feel gender, I just felt like I was me." Elsewhere, participants share coming-of-adolescence stories and unflinching anecdotes touching on familial transphobia, "chosen family," identity, and survival; they oscillate between bittersweet pain and defiant audacity, as in Black trans woman Ms Billie Cooper's U.S. Navy enlistment, where astounded fellow servicemen "could see that I came from a different realm." Iconic San Francisco drag artists Landa Lakes and septuagenarian Donna Personna share vivid anecdotes from childhoods revealing misunderstanding from family and peers and memorializing the resilience that made them whole. Each story--from trailblazing trans activists and advocates to pioneering community leaders to a trans Latine immigrant business owner to cultivators of queer culture--reflects on how the joys and pains of living authentic queer lives formed the people they have become. The lasting impressions each of them has made on society beautifully amplify the heartbeat of queer trans life. A colorful tapestry of potent, radiant, and relevant testimonials from queer people of color.COPYRIGHT(2025) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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