“I died five times.”
There was a car accident, a bout with COVID-19, and a fall where she lay undiscovered for thirteen days in her Rochester apartment. But none of that stopped seventy-eight-year-old Almeta Whitis from fighting her way back to her sons, her family, her friends, and her community.
Whitis wasn’t done with her work as a storyteller, poet, dancer, teacher, community activist, actor … Well, the list goes on and on, as her seven-page curriculum vitae demonstrates. She’s a woman who has seemingly done it all and continues to create art for what to her feels like an era where creativity among young people is being compromised by AI, social media, and a slew of other societal pressures.
“They can’t even write anymore. They can’t even come up with an original thought,” she laments. Then, with a sly smile, she adds, “Unless they get Almeta Whitis in the classroom.”
Whitis has visited hundreds of area classrooms over the years to tell stories and teach creative workshops in her position as an art-in-education consultant for the Rochester City School District. “For decades, I would do anywhere from two to six performances a day, every day schools were in session.”
Her classroom visits resonated with students, and those now grown-up kids still remember her presence in the classroom. Schools weren’t the only places that Whitis shared her story- telling magic. “Weekends I would be doing workshops or performances,” Whitis recalls. “Sundays I was speaking in churches, synagogues, mosques—everywhere that people would gather for spiritual things.”
Whitis has worn dozens of creative hats over the years, but it all started with singing. As she recounts her first performance at the Apollo Theater in Buffalo at age seven, she gently and beautifully sings, “Not so long ago, you broke my heart in two, tears on my pillow, pain in my heart caused by you …” Her little-girl version of “Tears on My Pillow” by Little Anthony and the Imperials won her a $30 prize that would help her mother pay rent. The other prize was a stack of toys for her and her siblings.
Later, in the 1970s, she became principal dancer in Garth Fagan’s dance ensemble Bottom Of The Bucket, But…! This led to her positions as an assistant professor of dance at University of Rochester and of theater at SUNY Brockport.
Recently, Gaya R. Shakes interviewed Whitis as part of the In This Moment: Revolution, Reckoning, Reparations chapbook series. The series features interviews with Black luminaries across Rochester. The books are free and distributed through schools, libraries, and other organizations around the Area.
Whitis’s latest project is an eight-week online symposium through Lifetime Arts Creative Aging Collaborative (lifetimearts.org). This intergenerational storytelling and creative writing project is based on a story written by one of her sons. “The House of the Ruptured Ness” is an epic tale about three generations of aristocratic Scottish women with strong ties to their ancient pagan past and their complicated and intriguing connections to Africa and a servant named Sadaka. Participants will help create storylines and characters over the course of the class.
“People can help flesh out the characters, add more characters, or do little side journeys [off] the main story. It’s intergenerational, so that young people can create along with adults and the elders. It’s a way of reclaiming what we—people all over the world—want to hold onto: history. We want to show young people how to live after we’re gone. Keep the people going, keep the community going.”
When I ask where her creative ideas and energy come from, she laughs and says simply, “That’s how I roll. I mean, Spirit just gives me all these things.”
Her enthusiasm as she tells me of her projects past and present, near and far (she has traveled all over the world) grows by the minute. Every person who passes us in the lounge of her apartment building where we are talking stops to say hello. Each one tells me a story of how beloved Whitis is. The younger people treat her with care and reverence, and she has a smile and blessing for each one. It’s clear community and connection is everything to Whitis.
It’s not hard to imagine why she was chosen for an In This Moment profile or was named as one of Rochester Museum and Science Center’s “Changemakers: Rochester Women Who Have Changed the World.” It’s also not hard to picture her as an interfaith leader and wedding officiant. Her warm demeanor and infectious smile are not just surface level—she’s genuinely interested in forming and maintaining connections with the people around her. Her work, she notes, is for everyone and anyone.
“It’s for everybody who wants to come to the playpen. Bring your sand, bring your shovel, and we can build something together.”
Learn more about Whitis and the In This Moment series at inthismoment585.org.
This article originally appeared in the March/April 2026 issue of (585).
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