Poet and activist Nikki Giovanni urged the older generation atLynchburg College"s annual Conference on Aging to"write your story down." "We should not have to be apologizing for our age,"said 68-year-old Giovanni Tuesday afternoon to a packed audience atthe college"s Snidow Chapel. "There"s something entirely crazy about that… Wehave to tell our story so they can see how we came to be." Giovanni — a Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech —fired up the audience with jokes, poems and stories about gettingolder. She called hospice workers among the "greatest peoplein America" and chided our nation"s obsession withyouth. "We in American have a bad habit of thinking everyone shouldbe dumb and young ... Every age is wonderful and every age opens upto something different." Giovanni"s talk culminated a day-long conference that tackledthe theme "Aging Well in Mind, Body and Spirit." Theevent, sponsored by LC"s Beard Center on Aging, drew a recordcrowd of 425 people. With more than 24 workshops on topics ranging from dementia tosocial security, the conference aimed to raise awareness aboutissues affecting the region"s expanding elderly population. Year round, the Beard Center on Aging organizes classes onAlzheimer"s and dementia, along with other support services.The center collaborates with more than 90 local agencies, healthcare providers and organizations to address concerns impactingelderly citizens and their families. The Conference on Aging servesas a marquee event, drawing speakers from Lynchburg and beyond. The conference kicked off with keynote address by Dr. Peter Betz, ageriatric psychiatrist and medical director for Centra"sSenior Psychiatric Program. Betz spoke about mental health changesthat can occur during the aging process. Giovanni added a poet"s perspective to a lineup of speakerswho mostly came from the medical field. Dubbed a "livinglegend" by Oprah Winfrey, she has received nationalrecognition for her writing, including the Rosa L. Parks Woman ofCourage Award and the Langston Hughes Medal for poetry. She recounted the tough love approach she took with her fatherwhile he was recovering from a stroke, and talked with humor aboutthe challenges of communicating with her granddaughter, for whomletters are an alien concept. "I have to text her or Facebook her. I haven"t learnedhow to twit yet," she said in a bumbling reference toTwitter, drawing laughs from the audience. Giovanni said she approaches life "with a good feeling"and finds a reason to smile each morning. As writer, Giovanni built her career around crafting observationsinto words and poems, but that has not stopped her from taking partin the action. "I"ve spent most of my career letting things come tome…" she said. "But my response to almosteverything is ‘yes."" Between the stories and jokes, Giovanni echoed her advice to writedown stories for the future generations: "If you"re not going to tell it now, when are you goingto tell it?". I am an expert from toner-cartridge-chips.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Kyocera toner chips , China Lexmark toner chips, Ricoh toner chips,and more.
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