Tourmaline (activist)

Tourmaline (born July 20, 1983;[2][3] formerly known as Reina Gossett)[1][4] is an activist, filmmaker and writer based in New York City, currently the 2016–2018 Activist-in-Residence at Barnard Center for Research on Women.[5] She is a transgender woman who identifies as queer.[3] 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.[6] In 2017, she edited the book Trap Door: Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility,[7] 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.[8]

Tourmaline
Tourmaline at MoMA, March 2016
Born
Reina Gossett[1]

(1983-07-20) July 20, 1983
Massachusetts, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materColumbia University
OccupationActivist • filmmaker • writer
Websitetourmalineproductions.com

Early life

Tourmaline 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 a scholar studying 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 and has lived there ever since.[9]

Education

Tourmaline attended Columbia University.[10] She received a B.A. in Comparative Ethnic Studies.[11] While at Columbia, she served on the President's Council on Student Affairs, a group which sought to advise the president on professors intimidating Jewish and pro-Israel students amidst the MEALAC Scandal.[12] She was also a chaplain's associate and a member of Students Promoting Empowerment and Knowledge. In addition, she taught creative writing classes at Rikers Island in New York.[13]

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.[5] She has been a featured speaker about transgender issues at GLAAD.[14]

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.[15] Tourmaline has done prison abolition work through a video series, titled No One is Disposable: Everyday Practices of Prison Abolition, with Dean Spade.[16]

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.[17] Instead, Tourmaline has stated that these materials are typically "accidentally archived."[18] Tourmaline has combated this with contemporary trans focused projects, including Tumblr blogs, such as The Spirit Was..., and podcasts.[18]

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.

In January 2016, Tourmaline publicly supported a protest of the A Wider Bridge reception at the National LGBTQ Task Force's Creating Change conference in Chicago, which was intended to honor the leaders of Jerusalem Open House, the Israeli LGBTQ center. The protest, which turned violent, was characterized as anti-Semitic by opponents, although it featured a Shabbat service and was co-organized by the group Jewish Voice for Peace.[19]

Films

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).[20] Her next work, also co-produced with Wortzel, Happy Birthday, Marsha!, explores the life of activist Marsha P. Johnson.[21][22] Trans women played every major role in the film and queer and trans activists volunteered at the event.[23][24][25]

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,[26] 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.[27][28][29][30] Independent investigations launched by both Jezebel and The Advocate exonerated France and concluded that Gossett's allegations against him were without merit.[31][32] The debate has brought up questions around cultural appropriation, who owns archival footage, and what constitutes an original creative idea.[33][34][35]

In 2020, the Museum of Modern Art acquired her film Salacia (2019) for its permanent collection.[36][37]

Honors

References
  1. "Tourmaline | Barnard Center for Research on Women". Barnard College, barnard.edu. Barnard Center for Research on Women. Retrieved December 1, 2018.
  2. "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. Retrieved 2019-07-20.
  3. James, Susan Donaldson (November 12, 2013). "Gay Man Says Millennial Term 'Queer' Is Like the 'N' Word". ABC News. Retrieved October 8, 2017.
  4. "Tourmaline is Fighting for the Unruly Queers of the World". them.us. Condé Nast. Retrieved December 1, 2018.
  5. "Social Justice Institute". Barnard Center for Research on Women. Barnard College. Retrieved October 8, 2017.
  6. Meronek, Toshio (2015). "Bitch In: Reina Gossett". Bitch Magazine: Feminist Response to Pop Culture (62): 10. Retrieved 9 November 2015.
  7. Gossett, Reina; Stanley, Eric A; Burton, Johanna (2017). Trap door: trans cultural production and the politics of visibility. ISBN 9780262036603.
  8. "Critical Anthologies in Art and Culture | The MIT Press". MIT Press. Retrieved 2018-03-16.
  9. Marks, Jade (April 2015). "Che and Reina Gossett". Mask. Retrieved October 8, 2017.
  10. "Reina Gossett and Sasha Wortzel". Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Retrieved October 8, 2017.
  11. "Reina Gossett | LinkedIn". LinkedIn. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
  12. "President's Council on Student Affairs - WikiCU, the Columbia University wiki encyclopedia". www.wikicu.com. Retrieved 2019-03-14.
  13. Stanley, Eric A., and Nat Smith. Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex. Edinburgh: AK Press, 2015. p. 359. ISBN 9781849352345
  14. 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.
  15. Lederman, Diane. "Hampshire College, which couldn't get Beyonce, President Obama or Bernie Sanders, replaces commencement speaker to address student gripes." MassLive.com, 04 May 2016.
  16. "No One is Disposable: Everyday Practices of Prison Abolition". Barnard Center for Research on Women. Barnard College. February 7, 2014. Retrieved October 8, 2017.
  17. 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.CS1 maint: others (link)
  18. 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.CS1 maint: others (link)
  19. "The Task Force's Rea Carey on the Protest That Rocked Her Conference". 2016-01-27. Retrieved 2018-04-06.
  20. 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.
  21. "Filmmakers share 'Happy Birthday, Marsha!'". MSNBC. December 4, 2015. Retrieved October 8, 2017.
  22. Ryan, Hug (December 19, 2015). "'Happy Birthday Marsha' Shows What the Gay Rights Movement Owes Trans People". VICE. Retrieved October 8, 2017.
  23. Dunham, Grace (2015-11-19). "Stuck in Stonewall". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2018-03-10.
  24. 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/
  25. "Reina Gossett and Sasha Wortzel". www.artforum.com. Retrieved 2018-07-01.
  26. "Review: 'The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson' Explores a Mystery". Retrieved 2018-07-01.
  27. 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.
  28. 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.
  29. 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.
  30. Rao, Sameer (2017-10-10). "ICYMI: Filmmaker Reina Gossett Says 'Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson' Director Stole Her Work | Colorlines". Colorlines. Retrieved 2018-07-01.
  31. "Who Owns Marsha P. Johnson's Story?". Jezebel. October 13, 2017.
  32. Ennis, Dawn (January 23, 2018). "Inside the Fight for Marsha P. Johnson's Legacy". Retrieved April 3, 2018.
  33. Juzwiak, Rich. "Who Owns Marsha P. Johnson's Story?". Jezebel. Retrieved 2018-03-10.
  34. "Inside the Fight for Marsha P. Johnson's Legacy". 2018-01-23. Retrieved 2018-03-10.
  35. Rao, Sameer (2017-10-10). "ICYMI: Filmmaker Reina Gossett Says 'Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson' Director Stole Her Work | Colorlines". Colorlines. Retrieved 2018-07-01.
  36. "Tourmaline. Salacia. 2019". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2021-01-31.
  37. Lax, Thomas J. (June 25, 2020). "Anything We Want to Be: Tourmaline's Salacia". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2021-01-31.
  38. "| Reina Gossett". QUEER | ART. Retrieved 2018-07-01.
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