Mirha-Soleil Ross | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1969 |
| Other names | Jeanne B |
| Known for | Videography, trans and animal-rights activism |
Mirha-Soleil Ross is atransgendervideographer,performance artist,sex worker andactivist. Her work since the early 1990s inMontreal andToronto has focused ontranssexual rights, access to resources, advocacy for sex workers andanimal rights.
Ross grew up in a poor neighbourhood ofMontreal,Quebec. As a teenager during the 1980s, she became aware ofanimal abuse, becoming avegetarian and getting involved withanimal rights activism.[1] She struggled to "pass" as a boy and was often attacked for looking too feminine.[2] Ross moved from Montreal toToronto during the early 1990s, where didsex work and began producingzines and videos.
From 1993 to 1995, Ross and her partner Xanthra Phillippa MacKay publishedgendertrash from hell, a quarterlyzine 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 fortranssexual,transgender andtransvestite 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 ofgendertrash were published, and its run ended in 1995.[5]
Ross' videos, primarilyshort films, centre on gender, sexuality, animal rights and the transsexual body. Her videos are distributed byVtape in Toronto.[6]
| Title | Date | Credits | Length | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chroniques | 1992 | Mirha-Soleil Ross | 12:00 | Clips from Ross' video diary in which she recounts situations where she had unsafe sex with clients.[7] |
| An Adventure in Tucking with Jeanne B | 1993 | Mirha-Soleil Ross | 5:00 | A humorous video that shows Ross attempting totuck withScotch tape before meeting a client.[8] |
| Gendertroublemakers | 1993 | Mirha-Soleil Ross and Xanthra MacKay | 20:00 | Ross 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 Dunnigan | 1997 | Mirha-Soleil Ross | 24:00 | An interview with Toronto activist andtrans man Peter Dunnigan about his transition, sexuality, addiction and recovery.[10] |
| Dysfunctional | 1997 | Mirha-Soleil Ross | 9:00 | A response to society's fascination with and repulsion from transsexual bodies.[11] |
| Journée Internationale de la Transsexualité | 1998 | Mirha-Soleil Ross | 38:00 | A documentary about the trans women's event hosted by l'Association des Transsexuels-les du Québec.[12] |
| G-SPrOuT! | 2000 | Mirha-Soleil Ross and Mark Karbusicky | 12:00 | "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 Derrière | 2000 | Mirha-Soleil Ross | 24:51 | A video of Ross' 1999 performance of the same name which featured stories from her work and stories about her anus.[14] |
| Tremblement de Chair | 2001 | Mirha-Soleil Ross and Mark Karbusicky | 3:40 | A meditation on sexuality in a trans woman's body.[15] |
| Madame Lauraine's Transsexual Touch | 2001 | Mirha-Soleil Ross,Viviane Namaste and Monica Forrester | 34:00 | A film on safer sex between transsexual sex workers and their clients.[16] |
| Lullaby | 2001 | Mirha-Soleil Ross | 4:00 | A 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 Whore | 2002 | Mirha-Soleil Ross and Mark Karbusicky | 74:00 | A film of Ross' one-woman show by the same name.[18] |
| Proud Lives | 2002 | Mirha-Soleil Ross and Mark Karbusicky | 5:00 | Film footage of Ross as the grand marshal of theToronto Pride Parade in 2001.[19] |
| Allo Performance! | 2002 | Mirha-Soleil Ross and Mark Karbusicky | 13:00 | A video of Ross at theGolden Gate Bridge as part of her performance art piece The Pregnancy Project.[20] |
| Materstina (Langue Maternelle) | 2003 | Mirha-Soleil Ross and Mark Karbusicky | 11:40 | "ACzech 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 Up | 2006 | Mirha-Soleil Ross and Mark Karbusicky | 15:00 | Footage of Forum XXX, a four-day sex workers' activist event held in Montreal in May 2005.[22] |
| Brandee aka Lana Lamarre | 2007 | Mirha-Soleil Ross and Mark Karbusicky | 3:00 | A memorial video for the performer Brandee, who passed away in 2007.[23] |
| Les Vérités Vo(i)lées | 2007 | Mirha-Soleil Ross | 31:45 | A look at sex workers' response to the scapegoating of sex workers for the spread ofHIV/AIDS and otherSTIs.[24] |
Ross produced aone-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 andcoyotes, inspired by the American sex-worker organizationCOYOTE.[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 ofwomb transplants for transsexuals.[27]
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 tocisgender 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 includedAiyyana Maracle andMax 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]
During the 1990s and early 2000s, Ross was involved insocial service work for trans and sex worker communities in Toronto.[33] In 1999, she was the founding coordinator of Meal-Trans atthe 519, a drop-in program offering meals andpeer support to trans people. Ross was involved in the expansion of the 519's trans-related programs, providing services for trans people who areHIV-positive and sex workers as well as founding peer support groups for trans men and trans women with colleagueRupert Raj.[34]
She worked withwomen's shelters,community centres and sex worker organizations to improve access and educate service providers.[35] Ross was involved in pushing back against efforts byresidents' associations in theGay Village andAllan Gardens areas to expel sex workers.[36]
Ross has received severalgrants from theCanada Council for the Arts. Her videoMateřština (co-directed with Mark Karbusicky) won the Marian McMahon Award at the 2004Images Festival in Toronto.[37] In 2001, Ross was thegrand marshal ofToronto's Pride Parade.[38] In 2011, she was inducted into Canada'sQ Hall of Fame.[39]
| Exhibition | Dates | Exhibitor | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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, 2018 | Contact Festival, Stephen Bulger Gallery | Toronto, Canada |
| The Edgy Women Festival[42] | March 2006 | Studio 303 | Montreal, Canada |