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Connor Yuzwenko-Martin

by | Feb 23, 2023

Connor’s headshot from mid-chest up. He is white, male, with short-buzzed head, neatly trimmed beard, and thick black-rimmed glasses. He looks directly at the camera, head slightly tilted, with an expression somewhere between asking a question and listening to an unexpected answer. His left arm lays across his lower chest (covered with a t-shirt) while his right hand is held up aloft in a “who knows?” pose. Right wrist has two beaded bracelets.

Connor Yuzwenko-Martin (he/him) is a Deaf creator and a fourth-generation settler with ancestry in Ireland and Ukraine. Both nations have a long and complicated history of working alongside or against the Indigenous peoples of Treaty 6, which include the Tsuut’ina, Nehiyawak, Anishnaabe, the Nakota Sioux, and the Niitsitapi.

Connor is a public relations specialist, actor, producer, and playwright. He has nurtured a lifelong passion for theatre and accessibility, beginning in grade school with simple skits and continuing into his young adulthood with his first professional engagement as a rookie improvisor at Rapidfire Theatre. To date, he has worked with organizations including Edmonton Fringe, Intrepid Theatre/Victoria Fringe, Theatre SKAM, SOUND OFF Deaf Theatre Festival, Nextfest, RISER Edmonton, Tiny Bear Jaws, Good Women Dance, Outside the March, Quickdraw Animation Society, and Sync Canada.

Currently he is slowly and gently launching The Invisible Practice, a hybrid Deaf arts collective and public relations agency based in amiskwaciy’waskahikan. The Invisible Practice will be premiering Carbon Movements, a solo Deaf contemporary movement performance, in March 2023, and has already produced and premiered After Faust as part of the RISER Edmonton 2023 season.

Connor relentlessly explores the intersections between Deaf/Disability experience, art, advocacy, and leadership. He is also a certified Access Activator through Tangled Art+Disability’s training program. In 2021, Connor completed his Public Relations diploma from MacEwan University and also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science at the University of Alberta (2014).