Digital Transgender Archive

Crisosto Apache Oral History

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OUTWORDS interview with Crisosto Apache conducted by Mason Funk on July 21, 2016 in the home he shares with his husband, Todd, in Lakewood, CA. Crisosto is a Native LGBTQI and Two Spirit advocate, as well as an educator, poet, and writer. In 1998 Crisosto moved to Denver and encountered the Two Spirit Society of Denver. The organization was devoted to restoring the traditional importance of two spirited people within Native American culture. They helped Crisosto reclaim his sexual identity and understand it within the context of his own cultural traditions. From 2008-2010 Crisosto served as the director of the Two Spirit Society of Denver. In 2009 he organized the 21st Annual International Two Spirit Gathering in Estes Park Colorado, bringing together a record number of the community. In 2011 he founded Two Spirit National Cultural Exchange, Inc. Based in Denver, the organization promotes the two-spirit identity and helps LGBT Native Americans connect with their tribal and cultural traditions. He was featured on MTV’s “Free Your Mind” Indigenous Writers Ad campaign. He has since published a book GENESIS (Lost Alphabet), performed his poems in a wide variety of settings, presented his work at academic conferences, and written articles about Two Spirit people. He has developed indigenous curriculum for schools and is currently a faculty member of the English department at Red Rocks Community College and Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design in Lakewood, CO.

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