New book highlights healing power of dance and more

The big picture: As Maker-Clark describes in the book, dance offers therapeutic effects as one of the "most powerful lifestyle factors for reducing dementia risk."

Yes, but: Dance is just one of the nine medicines (or, as she frames them, "remembrances") the Evanston-based integrative physician illuminates in her lyrical new book.

• Others include nature, food, plants, community, service, trust, gratitude and play.

Driving the news: Maker-Clark will discuss "Medicine For All" and demonstrate some of its recipes Wednesday at Hewn Bakery in Evanston.

• The Endeavor Health doctor, educator and dancer may even bust a few funky moves in the process.

Maker-Clark spoke to Axios recently about writing the book and where she loves to dance around town.

What they're saying: "This book took root out of decades of quiet observations as a physician, traveller, lifelong apprentice to my patients, and a community advocate, about what truly makes us well," she tells Axios.

• It's "a gathering of the science, ancestral wisdom, relationships with people, plants and nature, and lived experiences that taught me that medicine is everywhere, if we can remember how to find it and see it."

The bottom line: "We already have many of the medicines we need to move with more energy, calm our nervous systems, nourish our bodies, strengthen our relationships, and protect our long-term health," Maker-Clark says.

• The book "shows us how to reclaim these everyday medicines to shatter the paradigm of health as a privilege determined by wealth, access, and circumstance. It can be more accessible to everyone."

Favorite places to dance: "I love to dance with my sisters of Ayodele Drum and Dance on the South Side (classes are Monday nights at Sherman Park!) on the beach in the summer with friends, and at home in my living room."

If you go: Tickets for Wednesday's event cost $95 and include a Q&A with the author, an autographed copy of the book, bites and drinks from Hewn's kitchen, and a cooking demo.