A potential benefit of digitizing zines is increasing their accessibility. While a physical copy of Mirha-Soleil Ross’ gendertrash from hell might be hard to come by for many people in 2017, putting a high quality scan of the zine online makes it accessible to anyone with an internet connection, right? Not really. Depending on the context, “access” can take on very different meanings. I think we should think critically about what it means to make […]
Archival objects can be powerful and moving. When they are centred around LGBTQ people, they can bring hope and joy. Some objects found in the Mirha-Soleil Ross fonds demonstrates this hopefulness to me. In her collection Mirha-Soleil Ross donated some pictures that were professionally taken of her and her partner at the time, Xanthra Phillippa MacKay. When Ms. Ross donated the photos to the CLGA, she attached a note requesting that we digitize them soon, showing […]
The Collaboratory is beginning its work in organizing the archives of this amazing transsexual artist and activist, housed at the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives in Toronto. Eight years ago, while CLGA was moving into its current location at 34 Isabella Street, a large collection of Mirha-Soleil Ross’ personal papers, videos, notebooks and other material arrived at the archives. This week, Cait McKinney (Collaboratory postdoctoral fellow) and Aaron Cain (CLGA volunteer and iSchool grad student) […]