Yahmani Blackman

Yahmani Blackman (1989, Amsterdam) is a theater maker, dramaturg, teacher, and presenter. Her work operates at the intersection of personal stories, philosophical thinking, and social themes. From a deep belief in the power of the individual, she explores how personal experiences can contribute to both ancestral and universal connectedness.

At a young age, she participated in various productions at the Youth Theater School Southeast in Amsterdam, after which she developed into a versatile creator in the professional theater field. She was active at, among others, the Youth Theater School Southeast and De Engelenbak, and presented her own work at festivals such as Afrovibes, BlackMagicWoman, Bijlmer Boekt, and the GoGoGo Festival.

At the same time, she studied Pedagogy at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, where her love for working with and for others deepened. In 2018, she obtained her diploma from the Theater Teacher Training program at the Amsterdam University of the Arts. Since this training, she has been researching the tension between non-Western narratives and the structures of Western theater studies - a line of inquiry that continues to nourish her artistic practice.

Today, Yahmani is active as a theater maker and dramaturg within various theater institutions, and as a teacher in higher arts education. In her work, she questions and re-evaluates individual and collective frameworks of thought, with the aim of creating space for meaningful, multi-voiced artistic experiences.