(RED BANK, NJ) -- Count Basie Center for the Arts presents Langston Hughes' Black Nativity on Sunday, December 28, 2025 at 4:00pm. A joyous retelling of the traditional Nativity story in music, dance and verse, Black Nativity is a Gospel "song play" based on the Gospel of St. Luke, using the poetry of Langston Hughes and performed by an all-Black cast of singers, actors, dancers and musicians.
An important civic tradition in many cities across the country, Black Nativity is directed by veteran actor and director Darrell Lawrence Willis, Sr., Producing Artistic Director of the Dunbar Repertory Company, whose mission is to perpetuate an appreciation of cultural diversity and celebrate African-American culture.
As a young man, Hughes participated enthusiastically in the activities of the Karamu Players in Cleveland, and later he was to found Negro theatres in Harlem, Los Angeles and Chicago. He wrote a number of plays and musicals before creating what he calls "the Gospel Song-Play" … which is Black Nativity. It was one of the first plays authored by an African-American to be performed on Broadway.
First performed at the York Theatre and then at President Kennedy's International Jazz Festival, it went on to cause a sensation at the Festival of Two Worlds at Spoleto, Italy. In London, Oslo, Brussels, Copenhagen and Rotterdam, Black Nativity triumphed before its return to New York and the then-new Lincoln Center.
Tickets start at $24.85 and are available for purchase online. Count Basie Center for the Arts is located at 99 Monmouth Street in Red Bank, New Jersey.
