Meet Yohannes Yamassee: CEO of Yohannes Studios

We had the good fortune of connecting with Yohannes Yamassee and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Yohannes, can you talk to us a bit about the social impact of your business?
Right now, we are laying the foundation, and essential building blocks of establishing Yohannes Studios, the First Black & Native Indigenous Animation Studio. Yohannes Studios creates animated content and consumer products in order to effect positive social change. We want to create and lead a world filled with educational animated content, allowing children to find inspiration from this company to connect with their true identity. Because we are combating the traditional exclusion of diaspora communities from public/institutional memory, our diversity driven content will ensure communities can begin to better understand themselves, their cultures and their unlimited possibilities.  

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Yohannes Studios is an animation company that specializes in hand drawn 2D, 3D and stop motion animation. With Black/Brown and Native Indigenous protagonists at the forefront of historically accurate storytelling, we use technology and art to bridge the Black/Brown/Red/Yellow and White communities together.

Yohannes Studios plans to develop multiple animated series highlighting the Truth of all cultures, such as our upcoming short film ‘Project Goldflakes’. By sharing the Truth of all Nations through educational animated stories, technology and more, Yohannes Studios will be able to restore the missing links of our Ancient past.

The journey to start Yohannes Studios has been one with many challenges. We have crawled, walked, stepped, ran, hurdled, leaped, flown, by the will of our Ancestors. The company began as an acorn from a pine tree. Pulling from our Black/Brown and Native Indigenous cultures, our company goal is to grow with more nations to live in Umoja (Unity) with honor to our Ancestors and cultural identities, coming together and becoming a pine forest overflowing with acorns.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Places to be, anywhere in Nature. On the beach, on a hike, in the forest, swimming in the ocean. I would recommend finding peace in nature, in order to find peace within oneself. 

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Wynn Thomas, Art Directors Guild Production Designer, deserves credit for helping shape my story. As the first Black Production Designer, Wynn has been one of my main sources of inspiration and a true role model for finding my first steps as a young designer. Wynn has taught me how to communicate in this field, while remaining a true Black Artist. As a mentor, he has given me the strength to walk into rooms at Walt Disney Imagineering and the Art Director’s Guild as a grounded individual. Other mentors and animation inspiration that deserve credit are Disney Legend Floyd Norman, Warren Drummond, Kokayi Ampah, Warren Alan Young, Fat Albert, Static Shock by Dwayne McDuffie, and the greatest of all time Muhammad Ali. These black men are what inspired the transformation of Yohannes Studios into the First Black & Native Indigenous Animation Company.

Website: https://www.yohannesyamassee.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yohannesyamassee/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yohannesyamassee/

Other: yohannesstudios.com

Image Credits
Credit: MaahaSkies