Mirha-Soleil Ross

Last updated
Mirha-Soleil Ross
Born1969
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Other namesJeanne B
Known forVideography, trans and animal-rights activism

Mirha-Soleil Ross is a transgender videographer, performance artist, sex worker and activist. Her work since the early 1990s in Montreal and Toronto has focused on transsexual rights, access to resources, advocacy for sex workers and animal rights.

Contents

Early life

Ross grew up in a poor neighbourhood of Montreal, Quebec. As a teenager during the 1980s, she became aware of animal abuse, becoming a vegetarian and getting involved with animal rights activism. [1] She struggled to "pass" as a boy and was often attacked for looking too feminine. [2] Ross moved from Montreal to Toronto during the early 1990s, where did sex work and began producing zines and videos.

gendertrash from hell

From 1993 to 1995, Ross and her partner Xanthra Phillippa MacKay published gendertrash from hell, a quarterly zine which "[gave] a voice to gender queers, who've been discouraged from speaking out & communicating with each other." [3] They managed the zine's publisher, genderpress, which also distributed other trans pamphlets and literature, corresponded with local organizations and sold buttons.

In standard zine format, gendertrash was a combination of art, poetry, resource lists, serialized fiction, calls to action, classified ads, illustrations, collages and movie reviews. By and for transsexual, transgender and transvestite people, it addressed gender experiences at the individual and societal level and prioritized sex workers, low-income queer people, trans people of colour and prisoners. [3] Articles frequently addressed the erasure of transsexuals from queer communities and the co-opting of trans identities and issues. [4] Four issues of gendertrash were published, and its run ended in 1995. [5]

Videography

Ross' videos, primarily short films, centre on gender, sexuality, animal rights and the transsexual body. Her videos are distributed by Vtape in Toronto. [6]

Videos

TitleDateCreditsLengthSummary
Chroniques1992Mirha-Soleil Ross12:00Clips from Ross' video diary in which she recounts situations where she had unsafe sex with clients. [7]
An Adventure in Tucking with Jeanne B1993Mirha-Soleil Ross5:00A humorous video that shows Ross attempting to tuck with Scotch tape before meeting a client. [8]
Gendertroublemakers1993Mirha-Soleil Ross and Xanthra MacKay20:00Ross and MacKay speak frankly with each other about their sexuality and negative experiences with gay men. [9]
I never would have known: A conversation with Peter Dunnigan1997Mirha-Soleil Ross24:00An interview with Toronto activist and trans man Peter Dunnigan about his transition, sexuality, addiction and recovery. [10]
Dysfunctional1997Mirha-Soleil Ross9:00A response to society's fascination with and repulsion from transsexual bodies. [11]
Journée Internationale de la Transsexualité1998Mirha-Soleil Ross38:00A documentary about the trans women's event hosted by l'Association des Transsexuels-les du Québec. [12]
G-SPrOuT!2000Mirha-Soleil Ross and Mark Karbusicky12:00"A cyberspace encounter turns into a trans/polysexual vegan-docu-porno featuring urban veggie lovers speaking out on dating, intimacy and sex in a meat-centered culture." [13]
Tales from the Derrière2000Mirha-Soleil Ross24:51A video of Ross' 1999 performance of the same name which featured stories from her work and stories about her anus. [14]
Tremblement de Chair2001Mirha-Soleil Ross and Mark Karbusicky3:40A meditation on sexuality in a trans woman's body. [15]
Madame Lauraine's Transsexual Touch2001Mirha-Soleil Ross, Viviane Namaste and Monica Forrester34:00A film on safer sex between transsexual sex workers and their clients. [16]
Lullaby2001Mirha-Soleil Ross4:00A video produced as part of Ross' performance art piece where she simulated pregnancy for 9 months. [17]
Yapping Out Loud: Contagious Thoughts from an Unrepentant Whore2002Mirha-Soleil Ross and Mark Karbusicky74:00A film of Ross' one-woman show by the same name. [18]
Proud Lives2002Mirha-Soleil Ross and Mark Karbusicky5:00Film footage of Ross as the grand marshal of the Toronto Pride Parade in 2001. [19]
Allo Performance!2002Mirha-Soleil Ross and Mark Karbusicky13:00A video of Ross at the Golden Gate Bridge as part of her performance art piece The Pregnancy Project. [20]
Materstina (Langue Maternelle)2003Mirha-Soleil Ross and Mark Karbusicky11:40"A Czech woman speaks about her exile in Canada and about her sense of loss as it relates to language and her relationship with her children." [21]
Live eXXXpressions: Sex Workers Stand Up2006Mirha-Soleil Ross and Mark Karbusicky15:00Footage of Forum XXX, a four-day sex workers' activist event held in Montreal in May 2005. [22]
Brandee aka Lana Lamarre2007Mirha-Soleil Ross and Mark Karbusicky3:00A memorial video for the performer Brandee, who passed away in 2007. [23]
Les Vérités Vo(i)lées2007Mirha-Soleil Ross31:45A look at sex workers' response to the scapegoating of sex workers for the spread of HIV/AIDS and other STIs. [24]

Performance art

Ross produced a one-woman show, Yapping Out Loud: Contagious Thoughts from an Unrepentant Whore, based on her sex work and activism, at the 2002 Mayworks Festival of Working People and the Arts and in 2004 at the Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. [25] The show intended to educate audiences about issues facing sex workers and refute stereotypes contributing to violence against them. [26] Yapping Out Loud also incorporated Ross' animal-rights activism with comparisons between oppression faced by sex workers and coyotes, inspired by the American sex-worker organization COYOTE. [25] In 2001 and 2002, she performed The Pregnancy Project, a 9-month piece where she appeared in public with a prosthetic belly to spark conversations about gender, motherhood and the possibility of womb transplants for transsexuals. [27]

Counting Past 2

In 1997, 1998, and 1999, Ross ran Counting Past 2 (CP2), a trans film, video, performance and spoken-word festival which provided a space for trans people to speak for themselves without catering to cisgender audiences. [28] The festival's goal was to be more inclusive of trans artists than mainstream gay and lesbian film festivals by centering trans voices, accepting less-polished work and including cabaret and performance components instead of restricting submissions to films. [29] Participants included Aiyyana Maracle and Max Wolf Valerio. [30] [31] In 2002, the festival returned after a two-year hiatus, under the stewardship of Boyd Kodak and Cat Grant. [32] In a 2007 interview with Viviane Namaste, Ross said that her efforts with CP2 to create transsexual spaces outside a lesbian and gay framework had failed and that those spaces had disappeared or been absorbed by the LGBT community. [4]

Social service

During the 1990s and early 2000s, Ross was involved in social service work for trans and sex worker communities in Toronto. [33] In 1999, she was the founding coordinator of Meal-Trans at the 519, a drop-in program offering meals and peer support to trans people. Ross was involved in the expansion of the 519's trans-related programs, providing services for trans people who are HIV-positive and sex workers as well as founding peer support groups for trans men and trans women with colleague Rupert Raj. [34]

She worked with women's shelters, community centres and sex worker organizations to improve access and educate service providers. [35] Ross was involved in pushing back against efforts by residents' associations in the Gay Village and Allan Gardens areas to expel sex workers. [36]

Awards

Ross has received several grants from the Canada Council for the Arts. Her video Mateřština (co-directed with Mark Karbusicky) won the Marian McMahon Award at the 2004 Images Festival in Toronto. [37] In 2001, Ross was the grand marshal of Toronto's Pride Parade. [38] In 2011, she was inducted into Canada's Q Hall of Fame. [39]

Exhibitions

ExhibitionDatesExhibitorLocation
No Master Territories: Feminist Worldmaking and the Moving Image [40] June 19–August 28, 2022 Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin,

Germany

Queering Family Photography [41] April 21–May 26, 2018Contact Festival, Stephen Bulger GalleryToronto, Canada
The Edgy Women Festival [42] March 2006Studio 303Montreal, Canada

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References

  1. ↑ Vaughan, Claudette (October 2003). "Shaking Things Up: Queer Rights / Animal Rights". Satya. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 30 January 2025.
  2. ↑ Bell, Shannon (1995). Whore Carnival. New York: Autonomedia. p. 141. ISBN   9781570270222.
  3. 1 2 Mackay, Xanthra Phillippa; Ross, Mirha-Soleil (1993). Zine: Gender Trash #1. Toronto: genderpress – via QZAP - Queer Zine Archive.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  4. 1 2 Namaste, Viviane K. (2011). Sex change, social change: reflections on identity, institutions and imperialism (2nd ed.). Toronto: Women's Press. p. 121. ISBN   978-0-88961-483-3.
  5. ↑ "Mirha-Soleil Ross fonds (f0033)". The ArQuives Digital Exhibitions. Retrieved 30 January 2025.
  6. ↑ "Artist: Mirha-Soleil Ross". Vtape. Retrieved 30 January 2025.
  7. ↑ "Chroniques". Vtape.
  8. ↑ "An Adventure in Tucking with Jeanne B". Vtape.
  9. ↑ "Gendertroublemakers". Vtape.
  10. ↑ "I never would have known: A conversation with Peter Dunnigan". Vtape.
  11. ↑ "Dysfunctional". Vtape.
  12. ↑ "Journée Internationale de la Transsexualité". Vtape.
  13. ↑ "G-SPrOuT!". Vtape.
  14. ↑ "Tales from the Derriere". Vtape.
  15. ↑ "Tremblement de Chair". Vtape.
  16. ↑ "Madame Lauraine's Transsexual Touch". Vtape.
  17. ↑ "Lullaby". Vtape.
  18. ↑ "Yapping Out Loud: Contagious Thoughts from an Unrepentant Whore". Vtape.
  19. ↑ "Proud Lives". Vtape.
  20. ↑ "Allo Performance!". Vtape.
  21. ↑ "Materstina (Langue Maternelle)". Vtape.
  22. ↑ "Live eXXXpressions: Sex Workers Stand Up". Vtape.
  23. ↑ "Brandee aka Lana Lamarre". Vtape.
  24. ↑ "Les Vérités Vo(i)lées". Vtape.
  25. 1 2 Salah, Trish (March 2007). "What's All the Yap? Reading Mirha-Soleil Ross's Performance of Activist Pedagogy". Canadian Theatre Review. 130: 64–71. doi:10.3138/ctr.130.011. ISSN   0315-0836.
  26. ↑ O'Connor, Jennifer (17 April 2002). "Sex trade imbalance". Xtra Magazine. Retrieved 30 January 2025.
  27. ↑ Brown, Eleanor (13 June 2001). "Pride's special people". Xtra Magazine. Retrieved 30 January 2025.
  28. ↑ Namaste, Viviane K. (2011). Sex change, social change: reflections on identity, institutions and imperialism (2nd ed.). Toronto: Women's Press. pp. 67–68. ISBN   978-0-88961-483-3.
  29. ↑ Cowan, T.L. (2016). "Cabaret Performance and the Social Politics Of Scene-Making: A little show that we would do for our riff-raffy freaky friends". In Householder, Johanna; Mars, Tanya (eds.). More Caught in the Act: An Anthology of Performance Art by Canadian Women. Toronto: YYZBOOKS. ISBN   978-0-920397-64-0.
  30. ↑ Ross, Mirha-Soleil (1998). Counting Past 2 Program.
  31. ↑ Aiyyana Maracle Fonds Inventory. University of Victoria. 2016.
  32. ↑ Salah, Trish (2013). "Notes Toward Thinking Transsexual Institutional Poetics". In Karpinski, Eva C.; Sowton, Ian; Henderson, Jennifer; Ellenwood, Ray (eds.). Trans/Acting Culture, Writing, and Memory: Essays in Honour of Barbara Godard. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. p. 180. ISBN   978-1-55458-839-8.
  33. ↑ Namaste, Viviane K. (2011). Sex change, social change: reflections on identity, institutions and imperialism (2nd ed.). Toronto: Women's Press. p. 118. ISBN   978-0-88961-483-3.
  34. ↑ "When she was a boy". Xtra!. 15 June 1999.
  35. ↑ Chabot, Frederique, ed. (August 2022). "The Toolbox: What Works for Sex Workers" (PDF). pp. 38–41.
  36. ↑ Sheffield, Rebecka (2011), Trans Programming at the 519 Church Street Community Centre: A Case Study in Social Entrepreneurship, Toronto: CAMH, p. 7
  37. ↑ Irving, Dan (June 2013). "Against the grain: Teaching Transgender Human Rights". Sexualities. 16 (3–4): 319–335. doi:10.1177/1363460713479746. ISSN   1363-4607.
  38. ↑ "About Us". Pride Toronto. Retrieved 30 January 2025.
  39. ↑ "Inductees". Q Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on 1 March 2014.
  40. ↑ "No Master Territories: Feminist Worldmaking and the Moving Image". e-flux. Retrieved 10 July 2022.
  41. ↑ Bloom, Jessica (22 May 2018). "This Contact exhibit presents an intimate glimpse into the domestic lives of LGBTQ2+ people". Toronto Life. Retrieved 30 January 2025.
  42. ↑ "Archives / Edgy Women". Studio 303. Retrieved 30 January 2025.
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