"I identify as White" (Produced 04.09.2020) is the original inspiration for fUNhOUSE LIVE by artist Yao Kahlil Newkirk. This short film speaks to those whose sense of identity and cultural belonging is challenged from within. Those accused of selling out and conforming to European standards of speech, beauty and life are often shamed or ostracized for appearing to do so. A Black man who isn't Black enough becomes an Exotic White. The question posed in this film is "When did you become White? Who told you, you were White?" It is not limited to non-White persons only, but the idea confronts the social construct of identity which lead to ideals regarding what is vs. what it fails to be.

"I enjoy watching the people who think they're watching me. This is what happens when the audience becomes the performance." -YKN fUNhOUSE LIVE, created at the onset of quarantine during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, was originally scheduled to be performed in front of a live audience for the MA Final Thesis of Artist Yao Kahlil Newkirk. Forced to pivot, as life often causes us to do, Newkirk transformed his basement into a performance space, and called upon his spouse and children to be his co-actors. Inspired by Yao's short film "I identify as White," this thesis highlights a personal experience of Newkirk's, engaging prejudice within his own identifying community. This recording of Zoom shows the audience and performance in competition one with the other, challenging our idea of who is the performer and who is the audience. Who is centered in this conversation? Have those watching the replay now become the watchers of the watchers? Or simply the audience of those unaware they are performing?

The making of the artist Yao Kahlil Newkirk's first public Installation which showed from February 12-14, 2021 at Shea's' Smith Theatre in the Historic Theatre District of Buffalo, NY. Newkirk, drawing inspiration from HBO's popular Game of Thrones series, draws parallels to the public display of those labeled sinners, criminals or enemies of the state in King's Landing, and those labeled criminals, a threat, and have endured public judgements and trials faced by those who fought for justice and freedom in the land of the free and home of the brave. This installation is dedicated to the martyrs of the Civil Rights Movement.