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Yao Kahlil Newkirk is a multidisciplinary artist-scholar, keynote speaker, and creator of EMBODY Praxis, an embodied framework that bridges performance, pedagogy, Black cultural memory, and embodied pedagogy. His work exists at the intersection of art, education, embodiment, and social inquiry, using performance as a space for reflection, embodied inquiry, critical engagement, and collective transformation.

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Through keynote lectures, lecture-performances, workshops, residencies, and community engagement, Yao collaborates with universities, cultural institutions, organizations, and communities seeking deeper approaches to learning, leadership, creativity, and public dialogue. His work challenges audiences to move beyond passive observation and toward embodied participation, reflection, and dialogue.

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As the founder and Artistic Director of Black Feather Theatre Company, Yao develops interdisciplinary work rooted in Black expressive traditions, ritual, storytelling, and contemporary performance practice. His scholarship and creative practice explore embodiment, racial trauma, memory, ritual, and the role of performance as both archive and intervention.

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His one-year-long durational performance, Separation Anxiety, further expanded his exploration of endurance, visibility, grief, and embodied witnessing. Created in honor of Trayvon Martin and every victim of lynching both present and past, the work became a living meditation on racial trauma, memory, and survival while helping shape the continued evolution of EMBODY Praxis as both a pedagogical and artistic methodology.

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Yao’s work continues to evolve across performance, education, and public engagement, developing transformative learning experiences that connect artistic practice, scholarship, embodiment, and collective inquiry. Through performance, facilitation, and cultural engagement, he creates spaces where embodiment, critical reflection, and artistic practice become catalysts for dialogue, transformation, and cultural imagination.