Dementia and Caring: Arts Performance and Panel Discussion

An Arts Performance on Dementia, "Vamping," by Kali Quinn, followed by panel presentations and discussion with U. of Toronto Medical Anthropologist Janelle Taylor, Jessica Ruhle (Director of Education), Lisa Gwyther (LCSW) , and the carer of a patient with dementia. The event will explore dementia through anthropology and performance art. Faculty, staff and students are all invited, as well as the Durham community.

About the performance "Vamping": With 91 years of experience, Eleanor now sits in a nursing care facility longing for her home of sixty-three years. As she moves through medical testing and care for Alzheimer's Disease, she pieces together her fractured memories, reckons with her regret, plays through her childhood, and finds her own way to complete her life. Performed by solo theater artist Kali Quinn, this show has moved audiences throughout the US over the past ten years with the hope to grapple with ageism and through witnessing Compassionate Creativity, create a new intergenerational culture, care, and around the possibilities of elder hood.