Keynote Speaking

Available Formats: Keynote Lectures, Lecture-Performances, Conference Presentations, Campus Programs, Community Engagement Events, Multi-Day Residencies, Customized Institutional Experiences

Separation Anxiety

The Hoodie as Witness, The Body as Archive

What happens when an article of clothing becomes a living archive?

Inspired by Separation Anxiety, a year-long durational performance in honor of Trayvon Martin and every victim of lynching, this keynote explores how memory, identity, trauma, resilience, and cultural history are carried within the body. The keynote also serves as an introduction to EMBODY Praxis™, an embodied framework developed through the performance and its ongoing application in educational, artistic, and community-centered spaces. Through storytelling, performance, reflection, and embodied engagement, audiences are invited to consider how the experiences we carry shape the ways we learn, lead, connect, and imagine new possibilities for ourselves and our communities.

Uncovering Peyton Harris

Memory, Leadership, and the Legacy of a Buffalo Pioneer

Through archival research, family history, and historical storytelling, Dr. Newkirk traces the remarkable life of his ancestor Peyton Harris—a formerly enslaved man who became a respected businessman, landowner, civic leader, and advocate in nineteenth-century Buffalo, New York. This keynote explores the power of historical recovery, community leadership, and the enduring impact of individuals whose contributions helped shape future generations.

Teaching in the Flesh

Embodied Learning and the Practice of Presence

Drawing from the EMBODY Praxis™, this keynote challenges educators, leaders, and facilitators to rethink learning as an embodied process rather than a purely intellectual one. Through performance, reflection, and practical examples, participants explore how presence, lived experience, and embodied engagement can deepen learning, strengthen connection, and create more meaningful educational environments.

Behind Schedule

Overachieving. Overwhelmed. Overcoming.

Achievement rarely happens in a straight line. Drawing from his journey toward completing a Ph.D. while navigating housing instability, unemployment, family responsibility, adult discovery of ADHD, homeschooling, and an unexpectedly prolonged dissertation process, Dr. Yao Kahlil Newkirk explores what happens when the life you planned collides with the life you are actually living. Through personal storytelling, reflection, faith, and practical insight, this keynote helps audiences examine resilience, neurodiversity, purpose, and the pressure to measure progress by someone else’s timeline. Participants leave challenged to redefine success, recognize the progress they may be overlooking, and continue moving forward even when the path changes.

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