Mirha Soleil Drawing

The ArQuives has arrived at this year’s MYSEUM:INTERSECTIONS festival collaborating on four innovative projects. Two exhibits at The 519 are Escondidos No More! a pictorial history of the LatinX LGBTQ+ communities in Toronto and Jeanne B ‘93: A Gendertroublemaker Arrives, an exhibit of the work of transsexual artist/activist Mirha-Soleil Ross. Jeanne B’93 is curated by Sid Cunningham, inspired by the prolific collection of Ross’s work that includes photography, video, artefacts, and original writing. The exhibit contextualizes Mirha Soleil-Ross’s ground-breaking trans, sex work, and animal rights activism. The Queering the Intersections exhibit opening, Thursday, March 8th at The 519, will include performance and will delve into the intersections within the community through a panel discussion with Samuel Lopez, co-founder of Latinos Positivos; Trish Salah, author, and friend of Mirha-Soleil Ross; and Shadmith Manzo, a trans Latina activist whose whose deportation to Mexico in 1998 galvanized the trans and LatinX communities to unite in a campaign to raise awareness and support for LGBTQ+ refugees in Canada. Across town at the Gladstone hotel, The ArQuives is collaborating with the RT Collective on the Now and Then exhibition, which includes new video works based on material in The ArQuives collections. Finally, if you’re in the mood for storytelling go out to The Journey Not the Arrival Matters, by Jeffery Canton Productions starting from Oscar Wilde’s visit to Toronto in 1882 and beyond. The MYSEUM:INTERSECTIONS Arrivals + Departures runs from February 25th  to March 31st, 2018.   GenderTrashMirha-Soleil Ross: Gendertroublemaker By: Sid Cunningham Mirha-Soleil Ross is a transsexual video maker, performer, sex worker, and animal rights activist. After arriving in Toronto in search of economic opportunities to finance gender-affirming surgery, she met local trans writer and activist Xanthra Phillippa Mackay. The two began a romantic and creative partnership with a whirlwind of artistic productivity — creating the video Gendertroublemakers as well as the first two issues of their groundbreaking ‘zine Gendertrash before the end of 1993. Jeanne B ‘93 draws from the extensive and varied collection of materials that Mirha-Soleil Ross donated to The ArQuives; it honours her work as an individual and illuminates the path that lead from her arrival in Toronto to her growth as an artist and activist. Due to the deeply collaborative nature of her work, Ross’ materials also serve to make visible local and international networks of mutual support between multiple marginalized people. We hope that witnessing Ross’ own distinct and powerful voice, as well as the diversity and resilience of the wide-ranging communities she has connected with, will serve to inform, inspire, and transform how we think about the social and cultural possibilities of our communities today and into the future. The ArQuives is honoured to be the repository of the comprehensive collection of works from the groundbreaking and powerful voice of Mirha-Soleil Ross. Myseum:Intersections is an annual festival in Toronto that explores the “intersectional perspectives of Toronto.” The exhibit will screen Gendertroublemakers (1993) and run a free button-making workshop. It runs from March 8, 2018 to March 30, 2018 at The 519. Read on to learn more about Ross and her work – and then head to the exhibit on March 8th!