Michelle Josef and Transgender (In)visibility at the CMHR

By Amy Mazowita*

 

This audio guide addresses the invisibility of transgender narratives at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, and juxtaposes the discrete location of Michelle Josef’s story with the elaborate, and unmissable, Taking the Cake exhibit. By raising Josef’s story out of the museum’s digital archives, and imagining how this narrative might be reframed, I strive to highlight the personal and individual aspects of Josef’s experience without diminishing her significant impact on the lived experiences of transgender Canadians.

Click here to read the audio guide script.

Sources Consulted

  • de Szegheo-Lang, Naomi. “Disruptive Desires: Reframing Sexual Space at the Feminist Porn Awards.” Disrupting Queer Inclusion: Canadian Homonationalisms and the Politics of Belonging, edited by OmiSoore H. Dryden and Suzanne Lenon, UBC Press, 2015, pp. 66-81.
  • Dhoot, Sonny. “Pink Games on Stolen Land: Pride House and (Un)Queer Reterritorializations.” Disrupting Queer Inclusion: Canadian Homonationalisms and the Politics of Belonging, edited by OmiSoore H. Dryden and Suzanne Lenon, UBC Press, 2015, pp. 49-65.
  • Lamble, Sarah. “Unknowable Bodies, Unthinkable Sexualities: Lesbian and Transgender Legal Invisibility in the Toronto WOmen’s Bathhouse Raid.” Queerly Canadian: An Introductory Reader in Sexuality Studies, edited by Maureen FitzGerald and Scott Rayter, Canadian Scholars Press, 2012, pp. 81-98.
  • “Michelle Josef (1954 – ) drummer.” A Gender Variance Who’s Who, 8 April 2009.
  • “Michelle Josef writes us about being fired by Prairie Oyster.” SooToday, 29 October 2006.
  • One Gay City: A History of LGBT Life in Winnipeg. Absolutely Manitoban, CBC Player, 2015.
  • Taking the Cake.Canadian Journeys Gallery, Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Winnipeg. 5 January 2018.
  • Transgender Canadians. Canadian Journeys Gallery, Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Winnipeg. 5 January 2018.
  • Trevenen, Kathryn and Alexa DeGagne. “Homonationalism at the Border and in the Streets: Organizing against Exclusion and Incorporation.” Disrupting Queer Inclusion: Canadian Homonationalisms and the Politics of Belonging, edited by OmiSoore H. Dryden and Suzanne Lenon, UBC Press, 2015, pp. 100-115.
  • Tyburczy, Jennifer. “Introduction: All Museums Are Sex Museums.” Sex Museums: The Politics and Performance of Display. The University of Chicago Press, 2016, pp. 1-37.
  • “Visitor Guide.” Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Winnipeg. n.d. Print.
  • Wahab, Amar. “Unveiling Fetishnationalism: Bidding for Citizenship in Queer Times.” Disrupting Queer Inclusion: Canadian Homonationalisms and the Politics of Belonging, edited by OmiSoore H. Dryden and Suzanne Lenon, UBC Press, 2015, pp. 35-48.

Sound Credits
Voice: Amy Mazowita
Effects:

  • “Speaker Buzz.” Freesound, uploaded by Ev-Dawg, 20 February 2016, https://freesound.org/people/Ev-Dawg/sounds/337434/.
  • “TRAFFIC road sounds: 05581 ambulance in city traffic.” Freesound, uploaded by Robinhood76, 2 December 2014, https://freesound.org/people/Robinhood76/sounds/256469/.
  • “WEDDING BELLS.” Freesound, uploaded by Maurice_J_K, 4 June 2016, https://freesound.org/people/Maurice_J_K/sounds/346941/.
  • “Drum Solo.” Free Music Archive, uploaded by Pika, 1 July 2011, http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Pika/Live_at_WFMU_on_Nat_Roes_Show_June_29_2011/Drum_Solo.

Image Credit
“Michelle Josef (1954 – ) drummer.” A Gender Variance Who’s Who, 8 April 2009, zagria.blogspot.ca/2009/04/michelle-josef-1954-drummer.html#.Wq17QSMrKfQ.

 

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*Imagined, designed, recorded, and edited by Amy Mazowita. Mastered by Julia Dyck.