Christmas in Black:
The Enduring Legacy of Langston Hughes’s “Black Nativity”

A free public dialogue launching our 56th season of Black Nativity

Friday, October 30, 2026 | 6:00 to 8:00 PM
Roxbury Community College Media Arts Center

In 1961, Broadway made a quiet decision about how the infant Christ could be depicted in “Black Nativity.” Boston made a very different one, and has stood by it for 56 years.

Join us for an evening of conversation, poetry and song that tells the story behind Boston’s most beloved holiday tradition. You’ll hear how Langston Hughes’s ties to a Roxbury family shaped the music of our production, how Elma Lewis made “Black Nativity” a tradition passed down through generations, and why Boston’s choices on stage still matter today.

Featuring

• Wallace Best, Princeton University, author of Langston’s Salvation: American Religion and the Bard of Harlem
• Rashida Z. Shaw McMahon, Wesleyan University, author of The Black Circuit: Race, Performance, and Spectatorship in Black Popular Theatre
• Judge Milton L. Wright Jr., a 42-year member of the Black Nativity cast and its adult choral director, narrator and soloist
• Moderated by Amanda Shea, Boston Music Award winner and Emmy-nominated spoken-word artist

The program also includes performances of Langston Hughes’s poetry and by Black Nativity’s Voices of Black Persuasion choir.

Friday, October 30, 2026 | 6:00 to 8:00 PM
Roxbury Community College Media Arts Center
1234 Columbus Avenue, Boston, MA

Admission is free, but seats are limited.

Can’t make it in person? HowlRound Theatre Commons will livestream the event at Howlround.com.

Presented by the National Center of Afro-American Artists in partnership with Roxbury Community College and HowlRound Theatre Commons. Curated by NCAAA Executive Director Akiba Abaka, MFA.

Black Nativity runs December 4 to 20 at the Emerson Paramount Center.