Tourmaline (activist)

Tourmaline (born 1983;[1][2] formerly known as Reina Gossett)[3][4] is an American artist, filmmaker, activist, editor, and writer. She is a transgender woman who identifies as queer.[2] Tourmaline is most notable for her work in transgender activism and economic justice, through her work with the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, Critical Resistance and Queers for Economic Justice.[5]

Tourmaline
Tourmaline at MoMA, March 2016
Born (1983-07-20) July 20, 1983
Massachusetts, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Other namesReina Gossett
Alma materColumbia University
OccupationActivist • filmmaker • writer
RelativesChe Gossett (sibling)
Websitetourmalineproductions.com

In 2017, she edited the book Trap Door: Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility,[6] with co-editors Eric A. Stanley and Johanna Burton. The book is part of a series called Critical Anthologies in Art and Culture by MIT Press.[7] Tourmaline served as the 2016–2018 Activist-in-Residence at Barnard Center for Research on Women.[8] She is based in New York City.

Early life

Tourmaline was born on July 20, 1983,[1][2] and grew up in a feminist household in Massachusetts. Her mother is a union organizer and her father is a self-defense instructor and anti-imprisonment advocate. Her sibling Che Gossett is involved in AIDS activism and anti HIV criminalization work.[9]

Tourmaline and Che went to a bilingual elementary school in Roxbury where "the teachers were abusive," and later attended suburban schools where they "went from living in poverty to going to school with wealthy people like Mitt Romney's kids."[9]

Tourmaline moved to New York City for college in 2002.[9]

Education

Tourmaline attended Columbia University, and received a Bachelor of Arts[10] in Comparative Ethnic Studies.

Through a school program called Island Academy, she taught creative writing classes at Rikers Island correctional institution.[11][9] While at Columbia University, she served on the President's Council on Student Affairs amidst a Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures Departmental Scandal. In addition, she was also a chaplain's associate and a member of Students Promoting Empowerment and Knowledge.

Activism

Tourmaline has worked at various organizations dealing with transgender activism, economic justice, and prison abolition. She served as the Membership Coordinator for Queers for Economic Justice. At the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, she served as the Director of Membership.[8] She has been a featured speaker about transgender issues at GLAAD.[12]

Along with Critical Resistance, Tourmaline organized a campaign with low income LGBTGNC that prevented the NYC Department of Corrections from building a $375 million jail in the Bronx.[13] Tourmaline has done prison abolition work through a video series, titled No One is Disposable: Everyday Practices of Prison Abolition, with Dean Spade.[14]

Tourmaline has also performed work as a community historian for drag queens and transgender individuals around the Stonewall Inn rebellion, observing how archives and repositories rarely prioritize saving transgender artist materials.[15] Instead, Tourmaline has stated that these materials are typically "accidentally archived."[16] Tourmaline has combated this with contemporary trans focused projects, including Tumblr blogs, such as The Spirit Was..., and podcasts.[16]

Tourmaline was featured in Brave Spaces: Perspectives on Faith and LGBT Justice (2015), which was produced by Marc Smolowitz and screened as a Human Rights Campaign event.

Film

Tourmaline began her film career in 2010 when she worked on Kagendo Murungi’s Taking Freedom Home.  For this film she gathered oral histories form LGBTQ New Yorkers on the challenges faced accessing affordable housing, medical care, and social services. In 2016 she directed her first film The personal Things which features trans elder Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, who reflects on her life as an activist. In 2017 Tourmaline was awarded a Queer Art Prize for her work in on this film.  Tourmaline also worked on the Golden Globe nominated film Mudbound as an assistant director to Dee Rees.[17]

Tourmaline has made numerous films about trans activism. STAR People Are Beautiful People (2009), co-produced with Sasha Wortzel, documents the life and work of Sylvia Rivera and STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries).[18] Her next work, also co-produced with Wortzel, Happy Birthday, Marsha!, explores the life of activist Marsha P. Johnson.[19][20] Trans women played every major role in the film and queer and trans activists volunteered at the event.[21][22][23]

In October 2017, Tourmaline alleged that filmmaker David France plagiarized her grant submission to the Arcus Foundation to create the documentary The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson,[24] which debuted on Netflix on October 6. Tourmaline and collaborator Sasha Wortzel were applying for a grant for financial assistance to release their short film, Happy Birthday, Marsha!. This claim was supported by transgender activist Janet Mock. France denied the allegation.[25][26][27][28] Independent investigations launched by both Jezebel and The Advocate exonerated France and concluded that Gossett's allegations against him were without merit.[29][30] The debate has brought up questions of artistic integrity, who owns archival footage, and what constitutes a valid accusation.[31][32][33]

Also in 2017, Tourmaline’s work was featured at the New Museum in New York in an exhibition titled Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon.[34]

In 2020, the Museum of Modern Art acquired her 2019 film Salacia, about Mary Jones, for its permanent collection.[35][36] In 2021, The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired two works by the artist, including Summer Azure, for display in Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room.[37]

Honors

See also

References
  1. "Tourmaline on Instagram: "Had my portrait taken by the deeply talented Texas Isaiah who also happens to be my birthday twin (today's our birthday!). ⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ We met up…"". Instagram. Archived from the original on December 25, 2021. Retrieved July 20, 2019.
  2. James, Susan Donaldson (November 12, 2013). "Gay Man Says Millennial Term 'Queer' Is Like the 'N' Word". ABC News. Retrieved October 8, 2017.
  3. "Tourmaline | Barnard Center for Research on Women". Barnard College, barnard.edu. Barnard Center for Research on Women. September 25, 2017. Retrieved December 1, 2018.
  4. "Tourmaline is Fighting for the Unruly Queers of the World". them.us. Condé Nast. June 21, 2018. Retrieved December 1, 2018.
  5. Meronek, Toshio (2015). "Bitch In: Reina Gossett". Bitch Magazine: Feminist Response to Pop Culture (62): 10. Retrieved November 9, 2015.
  6. Gossett, Reina; Stanley, Eric A; Burton, Johanna (2017). Trap door: trans cultural production and the politics of visibility. MIT Press. ISBN 9780262036603.
  7. "Critical Anthologies in Art and Culture | The MIT Press". MIT Press. Retrieved March 16, 2018.
  8. "Social Justice Institute". Barnard Center for Research on Women. Barnard College. Archived from the original on October 7, 2017. Retrieved October 8, 2017.
  9. Marks, Jenny (April 2015). "Che and Reina Gossett". Mask. Archived from the original on January 7, 2017. Retrieved October 19, 2021.
  10. "Pay Me What You Owe Me: Reina Gossett Wants Her Just Due". Bitch Media. Retrieved October 19, 2021.
  11. Stanley, Eric A., and Nat Smith. Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex. Edinburgh: AK Press, 2015. p. 359. ISBN 9781849352345
  12. Heffernan, Dani (September 26, 2013). "New staff member Tiq Milan joins Kye Allums, Laverne Cox and Reina Gossett at GLAAD trans visibility panel". GLAAD. Retrieved October 8, 2017.
  13. Lederman, Diane. "Hampshire College, which couldn't get Beyonce, President Obama or Bernie Sanders, replaces commencement speaker to address student gripes." MassLive.com, May 4, 2016.
  14. "No One is Disposable: Everyday Practices of Prison Abolition". Barnard Center for Research on Women. Barnard College. February 7, 2014. Retrieved October 8, 2017.
  15. Trap door : trans cultural production and the politics of visibility. Tourmaline,, Stanley, Eric A.,, Burton, Johanna. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2017. ISBN 978-0-262-03660-3. OCLC 978286466.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  16. Trap door : trans cultural production and the politics of visibility. Tourmaline,, Stanley, Eric A.,, Burton, Johanna. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2017. p. 380. ISBN 978-0-262-03660-3. OCLC 978286466.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  17. Williams, Kiyan (January 14, 2020). "In Films That Bring Underacknowledged Histories to the Fore, Tourmaline Fills in Gaps in the Historical Archive". ARTnews.com. Retrieved December 1, 2022.
  18. Brandão, Rodrigo (August 14, 2014). "Crowdfunder's Forum: A New Film Celebrates and Honors The Legacy of Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera". IndieWire. Retrieved October 8, 2017.
  19. "Filmmakers share 'Happy Birthday, Marsha!'". MSNBC. December 4, 2015. Retrieved October 8, 2017.
  20. Ryan, Hug (December 19, 2015). "'Happy Birthday Marsha' Shows What the Gay Rights Movement Owes Trans People". VICE. Retrieved October 8, 2017.
  21. Dunham, Grace (November 19, 2015). "Stuck in Stonewall". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
  22. Happy Birthday, Marsha! Explores the story of Marsha "Pay it No Mind" Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, two best friends at the cusp of the 1969 stonewall riots. It begins after a disappointing day when Marsha attempts to celebrate her birthday and no one attends all while Sylvia tries to introduce her lover to her family for the first time, it proves unsuccessful and Sylvia unintentionally forgets her best friend's birthday party. Through this unrelenting day, the womxn experience street harassment, police violence, and isolation before meeting at the Stonewall Inn to celebrate Marsha's birthday. The night ends differently than expected, causing the two to face difficult decisions that change history.https://filmmakermagazine.com/87120-kickstarting-trans-visibility-on-screen-sasha-wortzel-on-funding-happy-birthday-marsha/
  23. "Reina Gossett and Sasha Wortzel". www.artforum.com. Retrieved July 1, 2018.
  24. Jaworowski, Ken (October 5, 2017). "Review: 'The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson' Explores a Mystery". The New York Times. Retrieved July 1, 2018.
  25. Weiss, Suzannah (October 8, 2017). ""The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson" Creator Accused of Stealing Work from Filmmaker Reina Gossett". Teen Vogue. Retrieved October 8, 2017.
  26. Marotta, Jenna (October 7, 2017). "Netflix Doc 'The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson': Did Director David France Steal a Filmmaker's Research?". IndieWire. Retrieved October 8, 2017.
  27. Anderson, Tre'vell (October 9, 2017). "Trans filmmaker Reina Gossett accuses 'The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson' creator of stealing work". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 9, 2017.
  28. Rao, Sameer (October 10, 2017). "ICYMI: Filmmaker Reina Gossett Says 'Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson' Director Stole Her Work | ColorLines". ColorLines. Retrieved July 1, 2018.
  29. "Who Owns Marsha P. Johnson's Story?". Jezebel. October 13, 2017.
  30. Ennis, Dawn (January 23, 2018). "Inside the Fight for Marsha P. Johnson's Legacy". Retrieved April 3, 2018.
  31. Juzwiak, Rich. "Who Owns Marsha P. Johnson's Story?". Jezebel. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
  32. "Inside the Fight for Marsha P. Johnson's Legacy". January 23, 2018. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
  33. Rao, Sameer (October 10, 2017). "ICYMI: Filmmaker Reina Gossett Says 'Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson' Director Stole Her Work | ColorLines". ColorLines. Retrieved July 1, 2018.
  34. "Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon". www.newmuseum.org. Retrieved December 1, 2022.
  35. "Tourmaline. Salacia. 2019". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved January 31, 2021.
  36. Lax, Thomas J. (June 25, 2020). "Anything We Want to Be: Tourmaline's Salacia". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved January 31, 2021.
  37. "In 'Before Yesterday We Could Fly,' Visions of a Fictive Black Future Take Flight at the Met". Vogue. November 2, 2021. Retrieved February 5, 2022.
  38. "| Reina Gossett". QUEER | ART. Archived from the original on July 2, 2018. Retrieved July 1, 2018.
  39. "Soros Justice Fellowships". www.opensocietyfoundations.org. Retrieved June 14, 2023.
  40. "| Mentorship". QUEER | ART. Retrieved June 14, 2023.
  41. Manzella, Sam (September 23, 2020). "Is This Year's Time 100 List the Queerest Yet?". NewNowNext. Retrieved November 16, 2021.
  42. "John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | Tourmaline". Retrieved December 6, 2021.
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