Washington is the founder of New Genesis, a performance group that emphasizes diversity and spiritual themes. New Genesis has eight members, but only Washington, his wife Shereel, and Ali and Lina Luna were part of the celebration.

It is New Genesis' third time participating in the program, which also involved a soul food lunch, including fried chicken, black-eyed peas and mustard greens.

Senior Center Director Diane Levinson said the group had been asked to return because the seniors really seemed to respond to the group's musical and dance interpretation of African-American history.

The history lesson started off with Washington on piano and Ali Luna on drums, while his wife Lina sang African chants. As they sang and played, Shereel Washington entered in a vibrant red dress, undulating, spinning and spreading her arms wide.

As the group moved through African-American history, the music, dancing and Washington's wardrobe changed accordingly.

When they sang slave spirituals such as "Wade in the Water," she appeared in a simple white dress, with a white head wrap. As they moved onto slavery in the Caribbean and the drums changed to more of an island beat, she appeared in a floral tank top and red skirt.

Washington said her dances are "short, quick little vignettes." She said she tried to use the sense of style from each time period when planning her movement.

Joseph Washington said the group teaches history in a fun and easily accessible way.

"It relaxes people and entertains them while we're teaching them important things," he said.

One of the important things Washington stressed during the performance was that learning and remembering the history of freedom is an important component to keeping that freedom alive.

"People who don't know the things that brought them freedom won't have it very long," he said.

One of the final numbers in the performance was "We Shall Overcome," which Washington said was in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.

Washington said he will be spending the morning of King's birthday at a Silicon Valley Black Chamber of Commerce meeting. He said he is not looking forward to the meeting because many of the promises made on King's birthday do not come to fruition.

"We do a lot of things and make a lot of promises we don't intend to follow through on," he said.

Washington said he can't wait to get to the second half of the day when he plans to reach out and talk to people in need of help and compassion.

A group that Washington believes is in desperate need of help is African-American artists. He and his wife are participating in the Black Artist Forum this spring. The forum will discuss why it is difficult for minority artists to get work in the Bay Area and what might be done to change that.

Both the Washingtons and the Lunas said they would love to have enough engagements that they could quit their day jobs and work on New Genesis full time.

Shareel Washington is a part-time office manager and dance teacher. Her husband works as a software consulting manager. Ali Luna is a dairy buyer for Whole Foods in San Francisco, and his wife works in the supermarket's floral department.

Joseph Washington said these jobs only add to the diversity of the group.

"Hey, it says Martin Luther King to me," he said