Join us for a conversation about Christmas and holiday traditions in communities of the African Diaspora.

This Creative Dialogue is held in conjunction with the presentation of “Christmas Gift!”, an original Nolan Williams, Jr./NEWorks production featuring new and traditional yuletide music and dramatic readings.

This family- and community-oriented event draws its inspiration from the first compilation of African American Christmas themed literature, Christmas Gif': An Anthology of Christmas Poems, Songs, and Stories, which was published in 1963.

Numerous studies reveal that older adults who engage in creative activities can slow down the aging process by maximizing the use of their brains and bodies.

Join Rinde Eckert, creator of And God Created Great Whales, as he talks about the process of making a work about an artist who is slowly losing his memory while continuing to write music.

Other panelists include octogenarian visual artist David C. Driskell, poet A.B. Spellman and Sharon Simson, associate director of UMD’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.

For her newest work, On Behalf of Nature, Meredith Monk offers a poetic meditation on the environment, inspired in part by the Buddhist notion of conjoining heaven and earth through human beings.

Responding to the precarious state of our global ecology, Monk creates a space at the threshold where human, natural and spiritual elements are woven into a delicate whole, illuminating the interconnection and interdependency of us all.