Estée Klar

Estée Klar, PhD

Artist, Director

Estée Klar is a PhD in Critical Disability Studies, specifically in neurodiversity, relation and research creation from York University. She holds an M.A. also in Critical Disability Studies from York and a Fine Arts Degree from the University of Toronto. She is the co-founder with Adam Wolfond of dis Assembly (formerly The A Collective) and the founder of The Autism Acceptance Project (2006-2018). She was also the original blogger of The Joy of Autism (2004-2008) which is archived on this website with her next blog esteeklar.com. She is also a curator of art.

Estée uses a relational-movement and artistic experimental approaches to understanding supportive typing, which initially incited this deeper exploration of neurodiversity in relation. She educates others toward supportive movement practices. These practices are studied at dis assembly in Toronto where other neurodiverse/ neurodivergent people participate with each other in their own social relationships. Her research is supported by SSHRC: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

Adam Wolfond

Poet/Artist, Co-Director

Adam Wolfond is now transitioning to university and is the co-founder of dis Assembly (formerly The A Collective). He is non-speaking, using an iPad, text to speech application to communicate. He is a contributor to academic journals and a regular public speaker at universities and conferences. He released two books of poetry in the summer and fall, 2019 with Unrestricted Editions and is the youngest poet to be published on poets.org. His upcoming work in Milkweed will be released in 2022. He is a collaborator on Klar’s dissertation: Neurodiversity in Relation: an artistic intraethnography. Wolfond’s interest is in neurodiverse ways of studying and collaborating, noting that mutual support is essential to access and creation.

Ciragh Lyons

Assistant Director

Ciragh is an innovative leader and educator. Her teaching has taken her all over the world; at English prisons through George Orwell, inspiring language confidence in Japan using dance and movement, and directing Mexico City teenagers in Shakespeare comedies. Ciragh also founded PIFF, the only film festival in Ontario showcasing movies by adults with disabilities. She is also a graduate of the Arts Management Program at Centennial College where she won the Peter Dickenson award for “out of the box thinking.” To Ciragh, the arts in all their diverse forms are paths to self-discovery and empowerment. She has a passion for connecting people from all backgrounds to share and learn about each other. She brings her passions to support neurodiversity and artistic collaboration to dis assembly in January 2022!

Veronica McLeod

Lead Support Assistant

Veronica recognizes support work as a vocational calling. As a devotee of Baghavan Ramana Maharishi and resonant with the Mevlani sufi tradition, she experiences supporting as a way to practice deep listening and learning, a dance with a still point in its centre. 

She holds a degree from University of Toronto in Religious Studies, Philosophy, and Buddhism Psychology, where she was an Arbor scholar. She also holds a Social Service Worker diploma from George Brown College.

Her ongoing interest in experiencing perspectival knowledge shifts through embodiment practices has led to her ongoing study of various dance and movement practices, such as German Expressionist Modern, and the Axis Syllabus. Most currently, she is informed by the task based movement, self development, and communication practice of Fighting Monkey (FM) with Elke Schroeder. 

She brings to dis assembly her YES to the variable and sometimes troublesome dance of relation, which she sees, through the lens of FM, as a form of training to develop an earthquake architecture of self and community. She wishes, through gathering in this way, to always transcend what we think we are, to experience the whole animal range of our aliveness, and to invite communion.

She lives in an intentional community house (which includes her three orchids). 

Jessamyn Polson 2018-2021

Jessamyn (she/her, settler) is an educator, researcher, occasional podcaster, and forever learner. As the former assistant director of dis Assembly, Jessamyn worked collaboratively with members to imagine new projects, and figure out how to make them happen. Jessamyn’s interests were relationality of teaching and learning; in her teaching practice she made room for learning that were joyful, messy, sometimes difficult, and often generative. As a graduate student at OISE/University of Toronto, Jessamyn received the Ontario Graduate Scholarship for her work on ethical solidarities and anti-oppressive pedagogy. In her spare time Jessamyn enjoys weightlifting, going to weird art events, and visiting Mexico City.

Mariana Aguilera (2018-2020)

Mariana completed her undergraduate degree at Concordia University with a double major in Psychology and Human Relations. She currently tutors and mentors youth as well as designs and facilitates workshops for a variety of social initiatives. Her passion for social justice led her to new interdisciplinary approaches in addressing social issues. Mariana has been grateful to work alongside a great team at dis assembly (fomerly The A Collective) to further explore support work anchored in disability justice.

Chris Martin

Poet, Collaborator

Chris Martin’s fourth book of poetry, Things to Do in Hell, will be published by Coffee House Press in 2020. He is also the author of The Falling Down Dance (Coffee House, 2015), winner of the 2016 Midwest Independent Booksellers Choice Award; Becoming Weather (Coffee House, 2011); and American Music (Copper Canyon, 2007) chosen by C. D. Wright for the Hayden Carruth Award. He is the recipient of grants from the Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Minnesota State Arts Board. In 2015 he co-founded Unrestricted Interest, an organization dedicated to helping neurodivergent learners transform their lives through writing. He also co-edits Unrestricted Editions, dedicated to transforming poetry and song though the voices of differently minded writers. He lives in Minneapolis, where he professes at Hamline University and Carleton College, partners with the poet Mary Austin Speaker, and parents two young boys. 

Jean Allynn (2018-2021)

Social Group Coordinator

Jean Allynn (she/her) is a queer, sober, immigrant, and brown Pin@y with a Bachelor of Arts in Child and Youth Care from Ryerson University. She is the former Program Coordinator for dis Assembly’s Social Group, which highlighted neurodiverse collaboration, exploration of interests, and building relationships. Jean has been focused on challenging ‘inclusivity’ in the neurodiverse key, while striving to increase accessibility in different spaces. Her other work involves providing peer support to 2SLGBTQIA+ BIPOC youth, exploring their relationship to substances, and prioritizing relational and anti-oppressive approaches in connecting with others. She can also be found adding titles to her ‘Books by People of Colour’ list, propagating succulents, and eating Pilipino food (probably bread).

Ellen Bleiwas

Artist, Collaborator

Ellen Bleiwas' sculptural investigations take particular interest in space, the body, slowness, and sensory perception. She has recently exhibited at Angell Gallery (Toronto), Idea Exchange (Cambridge), and Kunstraum Tapir (Berlin). Bleiwas holds an MFA from York University (2017), and a Master of Architecture from McGill University (2010). She has received support for her work from the Toronto Arts Council, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and from 401 Richmond as the 2017-18 recipient of the Career Launcher Prize. Ellen works with the A Collective Learning Community as an art instructor/co-creator/facilitator.
Photo credit: Cole Breiland

Eva Kolcze (2018-19)

Filmmaker, Collaborator

Eva Kolcze is a Toronto-based artist who creates films and installations that investigate themes of landscape, architecture and the body. She assisted in the making of S/Pace (2019) with Adam and Estee. Her work has screened at venues and festivals including the National Gallery of Canada, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MAC), MOCA Toronto, the Gardiner Museum, Nuit Blanche, Cinémathèque québécoise, Birch Contemporary and the Images Festival. She currently teaches filmmaking at Humber College and is co-director of Film for Artists: Site and Cycle, an analog filmmaking residency. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from OCAD University and a Master of Fine Arts from York University.