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Yao Kahlil Newkirk
Keynotes, interactive workshops, and creative residencies for schools, universities, organizations, and cultural institutions.
For Teams, Leaders & Organizations
Deeper listening. Broader perspectives. Meaningful connection.
Our experiences shape how we communicate, collaborate, and lead. Yao’s facilitated programs give participants space to examine those influences through storytelling, guided reflection, and creative participation.
Designed for staff development, leadership retreats, employee gatherings, and conferences, these experiences invite people to listen across differences, recognize assumptions, and consider perspectives beyond their own.
Workshops & Residencies
Explore, create, and learn together.
Choose a keynote and workshop, a three-session program, or a six-session creative residency. Participants engage with stories, reflect on lived experience, and develop creative responses through guided activities.
The Living Archive Experience centers on stories, memory, and collective artmaking. The EMBODY Experience explores presence, perspective, and human connection. Programs are adapted to your audience and learning goals.
Keynote Speaking
Keynote Speaking
Compelling stories. Historical insight. Questions that stay with you.
From a year-long performance honoring Trayvon Martin to the recovery of an ancestor’s overlooked legacy, Yao brings original scholarship and lived experience to the stage.
His presentations invite audiences to examine memory, identity, leadership, learning, and the ways we define progress.
EMBODY Praxis™
EMBODY Praxis™
Our lived experiences are sources of knowledge.
Created by Yao Kahlil Newkirk, The EMBODY Praxis™ connects storytelling, performance, reflection, and creative expression. Rooted in Black cultural memory, it provides the foundation for his approach to learning through lived experience.
About Yao
About Yao
Yao Kahlil Newkirk is an artist-scholar, keynote speaker, and educator whose work connects Black cultural memory, performance, and participatory learning.
His practice spans historical research, theatre, performance art, and cultural storytelling. Across these forms, he explores how the stories we inherit and the experiences we carry become sources of knowledge and creative possibility.
Watch Yao Speak
Watch Yao Speak
Experience Yao’s approach to historical storytelling and public scholarship. Explore a recorded presentation, selected publications, press coverage, and highlights from his creative work.
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