Barry Arnst (he/him) is teacher / teacher-trainer, linguaphile, grammar nerd, woodworker, and beard enthusiast. His teaching career started in Brazil in the mid-90s where he taught English as a Foreign Language to adult professionals at a language school in São Paulo.

Returning to Canada, Barry first taught ESL in a private language school, preparing international students for college in Canada in a course that focused on essay and research paper writing, presentation skills, and critical thinking. More recently, Barry moved out of the private sector and began teaching within the Ontario college system where his courses focus on critical analysis, technical writing, and workplace writing. His students now include international and domestic learners, as well as those requiring remedial / developmental instruction with reading and writing.

barry@arnst.ca

Taryn Lee is an artist, biracial, neurodiverse person with lived experience.  She has a Bachelor of Design from Ryerson's Fashion Communication program.  She has had illustrations published in Canadian magazines, Martin Dawber's 'The Big Book of Fashion Illustration', and most recently Goldfoil Magazine in the UK.  She works in oil paint with a focus on figurative art and portraiture.  Her fashion illustrations are created mostly in watercolour.  She has taught art to children in a classroom setting and just completed teaching an online watercolour course with Workman Arts.  She owns an Etsy shop called Bonnie & Clyde Vintage which sells primarily vintage jewelry.  Her love of fashion and jewelry history tie seamlessly into her fashion related art and illustration.

Suma (Susana Meza) (she/they) is a Venezuelan multidisciplinary artist and poet based in Toronto who creates hand-crafted sculptures, textiles, drawings, and paintings that help the artist cope with the world around and inside of them. Susana’s work is infused with intentional happiness and it responds to their recovery journey and lived experience of addiction, mental health, mourning, migration, multicultural identity, and their ever-constant exploration of the inner light. Susana enjoys working with mediums that are sensorial and keep their hands occupied and aims to explore the intersections of our tangible and virtual worlds while trying to spread some happiness. Susana works on their art practice on a daily basis and also serves as an arts facilitator, certified peer-support worker, and is a Newcomer Artist Ambassador for MABELLEarts, secretary of the board of directors of the North York Women Centre, a member of Workman Arts’ Member Advisory Committee an XOXO Downsview Jury Member and founder of Reclaimed Arts

Website: https://cargocollective.com/susanameza  Email: susanamakesart@gmail.com

Miranda Newman is nonfiction writer and editor based in Toronto who lives with BPD, post-traumatic stress disorder, major depressive disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder. Her lived experience informs her writing on topics related to mental health and trauma. Her work has been published in The Walrus, The Literary Review of Canada, Broadview, Xtra, The Montreal Gazette, and more. She’s co-editor of AFTERNOON, a yearly arts and letters publication, and publishes Life as a Lunatic, a monthly newsletter about coping with symptoms of mental illness. Miranda is a 2021-2022 Fellow at Yale University’s Lived Experience Transformational Leadership Institute (LET[s]LEAD). She is also a member of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health’s National Youth Action Council, WomenatthecentrE, and is a youth advisor to CAMH’s Client Learning Fund Committee.

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Website:  www.mirandanewman.co   

Maybella King Reynolds is an Anishinabek person within our community.  Maybella is a 2 Spirit Trans Kwe, Ojibway person and her home territory is that of the Potawatomi people. She is from Moose Deer Point First Nations on the Northern shores of Georgian Bay.  She carries two Spirit names – Thunderbird of the South and Walks with Medicine. Her clan is Bald Eagle and her Spirit helper is Bear. Maybella's community engagement pursuits and personal accomplishments are numerous and include being the Trans Grand Marshall in 2017, the First Nation Ambassador for Region 31, the Bareness-Georgous Activist of 2SLGBT Plus Mermaid, TICOT’s Tribute to Instrument of Drum Region33 of TICOT. She currently works as a 2S Trans Trauma Support worker at Native Women's Resource Center of Toronto, and sits on the Board of Directors at Ontario Aboriginal HIV AIDS Strategy.