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bionic womxn

  • Writer: yannick-robin eike mirko
    yannick-robin eike mirko
  • Dec 8, 2022
  • 2 min read

cw: [in alphabetical order] ableism, central florida, sexual harassment




• • • the more i think about my childhood the more my abnormally-thin blood boils at the defenseless nature of my [almost lack of] existence• • •





listening to a podcast where an accidental conversation surrounding 'home room' in public schools ensues due to a co-hosts lack of involvement in it, i question how many people don't have that as a shared experience.


'seminar' then comes to mind - which was every other day and probably only in my schedule because i was in a school within the Department of Defense systems. the r___ wasn't exclusive to the DOD, though. that happened to me in the civilian schools, too. i question how many people don't have that as a shared experience.


only three minutes to get to one side of the campus from another between classes gave plenty of time for my heart palpitations to start my monitor screeching away as the chords and stickers pull and tug the skin over-exerting itself to get from one inaccessible side of a field of orange groves to the other in 180 seconds or less. only leaving enough time for chaos to ensue outside, for them all to come in without being noticed as they go to hide in the accessible stall. only enough time for me to have to wait to go to the restroom during my next class, so i can readjust my heart monitor, reapplying wires + patches that almost made me late for the upcoming period because the school sheriff's kept trying to get me to stop running with tech since i "wasn't allowed to use a walkman during school hours". i got everyone to start calling me Bionic Woman, like the sci-fi tv series from the 70's, which sadly but helpfully stuck in the principal's mind more than my doctors notes and medical records did. i question how many people don't have that as a shared experience.




contrary to the prior [and potentially standing] conspiracies of my estranged mother and the likes of her, no. i am not transgender or queer because i was g___r____ during first puberty, by grown men. any kind of person can get r____, anytime. i know this as a non-binary person in my 20's in a city. i knew it as a closeted preteen in the farmlands, and all throughout my life on army bases. how many wires need to be crossed wrong in your brain for you to get to that prompt to begin with...i question how many people don't have that as a shared experience.





i haven't the slightest clue how a comedy podcast led me to these memories. my cptsd scares me. i question how many people don't have that as a shared experience.


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yannick-robin eike mirko [who communicates in Spanish, English, + ASL] is a Manhattan-based Biawaisa/Yamoká-hu/Maorocoti multidisciplinary artist, choreographer, writer, doula and disability justice activist with a rare disease. His work sits at the intersection of movement, access, queer and indigenous survival, death care, and institutional accountability, using the body as archive, protest, and living evidence.

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Her relationship with dance and movement has never been linear or purely technical. From Off-Broadway to online, their work has been shaped by access, interruption, advocacy, and forced stillness. Movement and progress, for yannick-robin, is not simply choreography or activism; it is testimony, how a marginalized body speaks when institutions fail to listen. 
 

In 2021, yannick-robin participated in Drawing Breath, a visual and embodied project by Risa Puno that centered marginalized voices during COVID, with yannick-robin representing disabled people. The work focused on breath, endurance, and visibility at a time when disabled lives were being openly treated as expendable. This project cemented their understanding of movement as political: presence itself became resistance.
 

In 2022, disability justice became inseparable from his professional life. He was the first physically disabled actor/musician [acoustic and electric guitar, accordion, glockenspiel, xylophone, tambourine] to play a physically disabled role written through an ableist lens and publicly fought the theatre and writers for accountability. This work was documented in his blog and a documentary, a social media movement, and ultimately led to his inclusion in the University of Minnesota’s Tretter Transgender Oral History Project, archiving his contributions to disability, gender, and labor justice in theatre (the most recent edition/collection of years awaiting entering the public access archive due to funding and completion of editing. Help fund the preservation of non-cis history here).
 

That same year, he worked on Mr. Holland’s Opus at Ogunquit Playhouse as an actor/musician [bugle, trumpet, drum kit], a fully captioned production where his lived experience as a non-cis deaf and physically disabled artist directly informed their performance rhythm, physical storytelling, and musicality. Also in 2022, she performed in the inaugural Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival on Theatre Row under the direction of L Morgan Lee, delivering work as an actor involving monologuing about wheelchair use, access failure, and systemic injustice, using their body not as metaphor, but as evidence. 
 

In 2024 after a year and some change prioritizing deathcare work, they returned to theatre at New York Stage and Film (NYSAF), contributing to the work of disabled choreographer Jerron Herman as an actor/dancer. They also released their multi-genre EP passing that year, which catalogs their multi-instrumental writing and use of music for processing as they fall deeper into grief, hearing loss and deafness, and a world of being misunderstood for not being cis.

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In 2025, yannick-robin worked on the developmental process for Jay Alan Zimmerman’s upcoming show Songs for Hands on a Thursday, following Jerron Herman’s recommendation. The project included a residency at New York Theatre Barn’s Choreography Lab and a music workshop premiere, where yannick-robin served as both choreographer and dancer. The piece centered a Deaf father’s death and a CODA grappling with silence; yannick-robin’s role was to integrate sign language into choreography and bridge gaps between sound, access, and movement for d/Deaf performers.
 

Alongside his performance work, yannick-robin has been active in nonprofit and advocacy spaces since 2020. She worked for Imara Jones of TransLash Media, one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2023, where they were nominated for a Webby Award as an associate and digital producer for The TransLash Podcast, contributed to The Anti-Trans Hate Machine series, and wrote obituaries for TGNC siblings lost to violence. He has written for TalkDeath on racial disparities and discrimination in death care and other deathcare and injustice related topics and now offers obituary writing, death doulaship, and bereavement counseling for TGNC decedents and their families, people with rare diseases, and disabled communities.


for commissions, death care, speaking engagements and more, press the contact button.
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yannick-robin eike mirko is represented by Arise Artists Agency

© 2026 yannick-robin eike mirko

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