Come, all ye faithful to “Black Nativity” at its new location, the Emerson Paramount Center! Edmund Barry Gaither, director of the National Center of Afro-American Artists (NCAAA), is “telling it on the mountain and everywhere” that the 44th season production of Langston Hughes’s gospel-play is soulfully spreading the good news once again.

Speaking of fidelity, no cast member has been more faithful than Dorchester’s Vivian Cooley-Collier, whose glorious mezzo-soprano has been featured in “Nativity” solos for more than four decades. One of about a dozen Dot/Mattapan residents in the 2014 cast, she has seen to it that her children and grandchildren grew up performing yearly alongside her.

Besides Cooley-Collier, other Dot residents are Dwayne Burgess, Sheila Adams, Tracey Joseph, and Shirley Jones. Cast members from Mattapan include Ashley Villar, Nina Vidal, James T. McDonough, Tamika Smith, Teagan Smith, and Stephen O’Neal.

Hughes’s simple retelling of Luke’s account of the birth of Christ with a black ensemble was first produced off-Broadway in 1961. The Boston premiere came in 1970, making the NCAAA’s production by far the longest running gospel-play in the country.

The NCAAA production, says Gaither, is “a gift from Boston’s black community to all men and women of good will. The more than four decades of mounting Langston Hughes’s “Black Nativity” honors the conviction of NCAAA founder Elma Lewis and original Musical Director John Andrew Ross that spiritual and humane values have to be celebrated to build wholesome communities.”

Long associated with the atmospheric Tremont Temple Baptist Church, “Black Nativity” is returning to a central downtown location after having eked out the lean times at temporary homes at Northeastern University and Roxbury Community College. But now another great Hub school has come to the rescue.

In honor of Elma Lewis, an alumna and a passionate advocate for the arts, Emerson College recently established the Elma Lewis Center for Civic Engagement, Learning, and Research. “We’re thrilled to host this wonderful holiday tradition and historic production on our campus. It reaffirms the important role that the arts have in bringing communities together and creating shared experiences,” said Emerson College President Lee Pelton.

Executive Director Voncille Ross promises that “this year’s production will warm our hearts through the delicate voices of children, luminous chords of adults, and the thunderous beat of African drums to herald in the holiday season.”

Twelve shows will run from Dec. 5 through Dec. 21 at Emerson College’s Paramount Center, 559 Washington St. in Boston. Tickets are $45, $36, and $32. To purchase online at paramountboston.org.