Veronica Vera

Veronica Vera is a former Wall Street trader turned sex-positive feminist and activist who writes, acts, and runs Miss Vera’s Finishing School for Boys Who Want to Be Girls, which she founded in New York City in 1992. Vera founded her school, which is a resource for the adult male population who desire to dress in women’s clothing, as a way to finance her memoir of the same title (Doubleday, 1997) chronicling her experiences as a former porn star and journalist. Freedom of expression is a core tenet of Vera’s school and self: she has testified in Washington D.C. regarding her experiences in adult media, and her anti-censorship testimony became part of the Meese Commission Report on pornography. As a part of the exhibition Porn’ im’age’ry collection at the University of Michigan in 1992, Vera’s video docu-diary Portrait of A Sexual Evolutionary was the focus of a censorship lawsuit between the University of Michigan and the ACLU, which represented the artists. The artists won the lawsuit and the exhibition was reinstalled in October of 1993. Also in 1993, Portrait of A Sexual Evolutionary was screened at The Kitchen as a part of SPEW/New York. Vera has also performed at The Kitchen in 1988 as a part of the Carnival of Sleaze and in 1991 as part of An Evening With...The Portable Lower East Side. For more information see the artist’s website, www.missvera.com.