Surdists Series 2026

Please join us for any and all of these engaging zoom sessions where Surdists (Deaf, DeafBlind, DeafDisabled, etc. creatives) share about their work and process.

Registration link – coming soon

My Art, My Voice: A Deaf Persian Woman’s Journey
Maryam Hafizirad
Date: October 29, 2026
Time: 7 PM EST

Registration link: coming soon

My art is my voice. Through my art, I share my journey as a Deaf Persian woman, my identity, my culture, my struggles, my strength, and my freedom. Each work carries a part of my story, connecting my Persian roots, my Deaf experience, and the woman I have become. My art speaks where words cannot.

Short bio:
Maryam Hafizirad is an international award-winning multidisciplinary Deaf Canadian Persian visual artist, working across painting, sculpture and design. She is an art curator, teacher, mentor, and advocate for Deaf artists. A graduate of Isfahan University of Fine Arts (2002), her exhibitions have been featured in Iran, China, Germany, Malaysia, India, Canada, and the United States. Maryam’s Persian classical early works were dark in subject and colour, with women’s faces and bodies forbidden. When she moved to Malaysia and settled in Canada (2011), her work transformed. She began painting using Persian and Deaf View Image Art (De’VIA) metaphors with strong contrasting colours, textures, and incorporating Deaf experience and values. Pomegranates were symbols of hidden love released, fish in water represented sincere human beings in her silent world of pure visual beauty, and birds embodied her newfound freedom as a Deaf woman in this new country. Maryam is Deaf curator for the Canadian Cultural Society of the Deaf and on faculty of the national Deaf Arts Academy, Deaf Arts Retreat Centre, Grande-Digue, New Brunswick.

Image description for the profile picture: Black and white photo of a Persian woman with black hair and large smile. She has a sheer scarf across her front and folded arms.

Join Carlisle (they/them) as they share their journey of creating comics and artwork. They will discuss their art process and reflections as a Deaf, queer cartoonist and artist. Through their work, and humor, they use art to spark dialogue and challenge society’s views on Deaf and queer communities. These questions will be discussed: What does it mean to be an artivist? How can we use our art to shift perceptions of Deaf and other marginalized groups? Dodo* with the rise of AI? And how can we claim our space, not just in the art world, but across the world at large? 

*Dodo = what to do in ASL

Short bio:
Carlisle Robinson (they / them) is a comic creator and illustrator from Canada and USA. They are passionate about educating the public with rarely told stories by the minority groups, especially deaf people. They mainly use Procreate and Adobe products to create works. They went to Gallaudet University for undergrad. They graduated from The Center for Cartoon Studies in Spring 2015 with a Master of Fine Arts. They currently reside in Toronto. 

Image description for the profile picture: A long brown haired white person with glasses is smiling at the camera. They are wearing a green jacket, white buttoned up shirt, with dark green tie, and they have flower pins on their jackets and are wearing flower earrings. 

zeffy link to register https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/zoom-series-presents-laurie-m-landry-fitting-in-to-stand-out-navigating-deaf-and-disability-worlds

Laurie M. Landry Fitting In to Stand Out: Navigating Deaf and Disability Worlds

This talk explores Deaf cultural identity and the disability umbrella — not as a problem to solve, but as a space she lives in. Laurie M Landry discusses when and why she steps under each umbrella, and the advantages and disadvantages of both.

Landry also shares her work processes, reflections on a recent trip to Seoul, and her experience being part of a documentary currently in production in Canada.

Bio: Laurie M. Landry is a Deaf Canadian artist particularly intrigued by the ways in which hands and bodies can communicate ideas without speaking. In her oil paintings on canvas and panels, she focuses on the power of hands to convey meaning and emphasize unspoken statements, using gestural imagery with contemporary subjects. Landry’s works has been exhibited in art galleries across Canada and South Korea. She has received awards and grants such as the 2025 NaAC X Won Lee Prize and Geoff McMurchy Artist Development Grant. Landry currently lives and works in Vancouver, BC, Canada.