Opera
  • Home
  • CHQ Assembly
  • 2023 Season
        • Sweeney Todd
        • La Tragédie de Carmen
        • 2023 Young Artists
        • 2023 Festival & Guest Artists
        • 2023 Directors, Designers & Choreographers
        • 2023 Opera Conservatory
  • About
        • Mission & History
        • Past Productions
        • Leadership
        • Performance Venues & Accessibility
        • Opera in the Schools
  • Young Artists
        • Young Artist Program
        • Audition FAQs
  • Alumni
  • Opera Conservatory
  • Opera Guild
  • Media
        • Press Releases
        • Chautauquan Daily Articles
        • Opera Virtual Porch Events
  • Contact
  • Donate
  • Buy Tickets
Theater
  • Home
  • CHQ Assembly
  • About
        • Leadership
        • Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Accessibility
        • New Play Development
        • Young Playwrights Project
        • Past Productions
        • Our History
  • Conservatory
        • Acting Conservatory
        • Design & Directing Fellowships
        • FAQ
        • Alumni in the News
  • Your Visit
  • Get Involved
        • Conservatory Application
        • Administrative & Production Positions
        • Friends of CTC
  • Press
        • Press Releases
  • Donate
  • Buy Tickets
Give
  • Home
  • CHQ Assembly
  • Make a Donation
        • Chautauqua Fund
        • Strategic Initiatives
        • Endowment
        • Monthly Giving
  • Ways to Give
        • Appreciated Securities
        • Capital Support
        • Chautauqua Fund
        • Endowment/Naming
        • Gift Planning
        • Honor Your Host
        • Honorary/Memorial
        • Matching Gifts
        • Monthly Giving
        • Program Sponsor
        • Scholarships
  • Donor Recognition
        • 1874 Society
        • Bell Tower Society
        • Bestor Society
        • Daugherty Society
        • Lewis Miller Circle
        • NOW Generation
        • Foundation Membership
        • Honorary and Memorial Tree Program
  • Foundation
        • History & Mission
        • Board of Directors
        • Foundation Staff
        • Foundation Membership
        • Foundation Publications
        • Contact
  • Advancement
        • Institution Board of Trustees
        • Advancement Staff
        • Advancement Publications
        • Contact
  • Donate
  • Buy Tickets
Foundation
  • Home
  • CHQ Assembly
  • Mission
  • Board of Directors
  • Staff
  • Publications
  • Membership
  • Endowment/Naming
  • Contact
  • Donate
  • Buy Tickets

Summer

  • Fall / Winter / Spring
  • CHQ Assembly
  • Discover
        • Plan Your Experience
          • Experience Planner
          • 2024 Season
          • Buy Gate Passes and Tickets
          • Ticket Information
          • Visit Must-Dos
        • About Chautauqua
          • News & Announcements
          • 150 Forward Strategic Plan
          • Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA) at Chautauqua
          • Staff Directory
          • Washington, D.C. Office
        • Places To Stay
          • Athenaeum Hotel
          • Minerva Bed & Breakfast
          • Private Accommodations
          • Denominations and Religious Organizations
          • Nearby Accommodations
        • Explore the Grounds and Gardens
          • Maps and Directions
          • Bus and Tram Tracker
          • Accessibility at Chautauqua
          • Plaza Cam
          • Chautauqua Lake Conservation
        • Eat, Drink & Shop
          • Dining
          • Heirloom Restaurant
          • Shopping & Services
        • Experience Community
          • African American Heritage House
          • Chautauqua Women’s Club
          • Bird, Tree & Garden Club
          • LGBTQ+ and Friends
          • “Friends of” Groups
          • CPOA (Property Owners)
          • Denominations and Religious Organizations
          • Chautauqua Trail
          • CHQ Dialogues
        • Resources
          • The Smith Memorial Library
          • Post Office
          • Chautauqua Bookstore
          • Services & Amenities
          • Business Center
          • Property Owner Resources
          • AED Locations on Grounds
          • Chautauqua Lake Conservation
          • Program Archive
          • Chautauqua Institution Archives
          • FAQs
          • CHQ Assembly Digital Guide
          • The Chautauquan Daily
          • CHQ&A Podcast
          • Chautauqua Magazine
          • Grounds Policies
  • Schedule
        • Events
          • All Events
          • Weekly Themes
          • Event Calendar
          • Experience Planner
        • Lectures
          • Chautauqua Lecture Series
          • Interfaith Lecture Series
          • Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
          • Other Lectures
        • Performing & Visual Arts
          • Entertainment and Concerts
          • Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra and Classical Concerts
          • Galleries
          • Chautauqua Chamber Music
          • Dance
        • Resident Programs
          • Chautauqua Literary Arts
          • Chautauqua Opera Company & Conservatory
          • Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra
          • Chautauqua Theater Company
          • Chautauqua Visual Arts
          • Chautauqua Climate Change Initiative
          • CHQ Artists in Residence
        • Classes
        • Religion
          • Daily Worship
          • Sacred Music
          • Abrahamic Program for Young Adults
          • CHQ Mystic Heart Meditation Program
          • Denominations and Religious Organizations
          • CHQ Dialogues
        • Discover CHQ
        • Recreation
          • Chautauqua Health & Fitness Center
          • Sports Club
          • Golf Club
          • Swimming
          • Tennis Center
          • Sailing
          • Youth Recreation
          • CHQ Trail
        • Youth & Family
          • Day Camps
          • Educational Experiences
          • Youth Activities Center (YAC)
          • Youth Recreation
          • Babysitting
          • Family Scholarship Program
        • Chautauqua Cinema
  • Groups
        • Book a Group Experience
        • Tour Operators
        • Road Scholar
        • Chautauqua on a Budget
        • Chautauqua Travels
        • Tour Chautauqua County
  • Festival Schools
        • School of Music
          • Conducting Fellowship
          • Instrumental Program
          • Opera Conservatory
          • Piano Program
        • Dance
        • Art
        • Theater
        • Chautauqua Music Camps
        • Alumni
        • Chautauqua Connections
  • Giving
        • Make a Donation
        • Donor Recognition
        • Ways to Give
        • Chautauqua Foundation
        • Advancement
  • Buy Tickets
  • Give
  • Donate
  • Buy Tickets

Fall / Winter / Spring

  • Summer
  • CHQ Assembly
  • Discover
        • About Year-Round at Chautauqua
        • Plan Your Experience
          • 2024 Season
          • Experience Planner
          • Grounds Access and Operations
          • Visit Must-Dos
        • About
          • 150 Forward Strategic Plan
          • Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA) at Chautauqua
        • Arts Education
        • Classes
        • Resident Programs
          • Literary Arts
          • Chautauqua Opera Company & Conservatory
          • Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra
          • Chautauqua Theater Company
          • Chautauqua Visual Arts
          • Chautauqua Climate Change Initiative
          • CHQ Artists in Residence
        • Explore the Grounds and Gardens
          • Maps and Directions
          • Accessibility at Chautauqua
          • Plaza Cam
          • Chautauqua Lake Conservation
        • Eat, Drink & Shop
          • Dining
          • Shopping & Services
        • Resources
          • The Smith Memorial Library
          • Post Office
          • Chautauqua Bookstore
          • Services & Amenities
          • Business Center
          • Chautauqua Lake Conservation
          • Property Owner Resources
          • AED Locations on Grounds
          • Program Archive
          • Chautauqua Institution Archives
          • FAQs
          • CHQ Assembly Digital Guide
          • The Chautauquan Daily
          • CHQ&A Podcast
          • Chautauqua Magazine
          • Grounds Policies
  • Accommodations
        • Weddings & Conferences
        • Athenaeum Hotel
        • Other Places To Stay
        • Private Rentals
        • Check Athenaeum Hotel Room Availability

        • Minerva Bed & Breakfast
  • Recreation
        • Chautauqua Health & Fitness Center
        • CHQ Trail
        • Golf Club
          • Golf Course
            • Membership Rates
            • Pro Shop
            • Scorecards
          • Events & Banquets
        • Golf Instruction
          • Adult Golf Clinics
          • Jr. Golf Clinics & Camps
          • Learning Center
          • Private Lessons
        • Golf Tournaments
          • Upcoming Events & Tournaments
          • Group Outings
          • NJCAA Golf Championship
  • Groups
        • Tour Operators
        • Book a Group Experience
        • Road Scholar
        • Tour Chautauqua County
        • Chautauqua Travels
  • Festival Schools
        • School of Music
          • Conducting Fellowship
          • Instrumental Program
          • Piano Program
          • Opera Conservatory
        • Dance
        • Art
        • Theater
        • Chautauqua Music Camps
        • Alumni
  • Giving
        • Make a Donation
        • Donor Recognition
        • Ways to Give
        • Foundation
        • Advancement
  • Buy Tickets
  • Give
  • Donate
  • Buy Tickets

looking for something?

  • Contact
  • Blog
    • CHQ Experiences
    • CHQ Assembly
    • Announcements
    • Institution News
    • From Our President
    • Chautauqua Theater Company
    • Chautauqua Opera Company
    • Chautauqua Foundation
  • 2024 Program Suggestions
  • Quick Reference Guide to Chautauqua
  • Request an In-Kind Gift
  • Request Information from Chautauqua
  • Make a Donation
  • Send Programming Suggestions
  • Staff Directory
  • Media Resources
January 9, 2020 | Announcements

Sony Ton-Aime Named Director of Literary Arts

SonyTonAime_portrait_web.jpeg

Chautauqua Institution today announced the appointment of Sony Ton-Aime to the position of director of literary arts, effective Jan. 13, 2020. A poet, teaching artist and arts administrator, Ton-Aime is currently program operation coordinator for Lake Erie Ink, a Cleveland-based literary arts organization, and worked previously with Chautauqua Literary Arts in 2018 and 2019 at the Chautauqua Writers’ Center and Poetry Makerspace.

As director of literary arts, Ton-Aime will serve as a senior member of the Department of Education and as an entrepreneurial and collaborative partner in strengthening and deepening the value of the literary arts program and experience for Chautauqua Institution stakeholders. The director of literary arts manages and provides administrative leadership and hands-on involvement with the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, the Chautauqua Writers’ Center, the literary journal Chautauqua, two national literary prizes, and the Poetry Makerspace in partnership with Kent State University’s Wick Poetry Center, and works collaboratively with Department of Education colleagues to select and administer the CLSC Young Readers program.

Additionally, Ton-Aime will participate as a member of a collaborative team in planning Chautauqua’s core nine-week summer assembly season and serve as a strategist in implementing the vision of a recently adopted strategic plan that calls the Institution to expand the reach and length of its impact and engage new, larger and more diverse audiences.

“I’m thrilled to have Sony join Chautauqua as a major contributor to the programmatic work and educational mission of this institution,” said Matt Ewalt, vice president and Emily and Richard Smucker Chair for Education. “The literary arts have been core to Chautauqua’s mission of lifelong learning for nearly 150 years. Building upon this legacy, Sony brings unrivaled energy and enthusiasm to the work, an emphasis on making the literary arts both accessible and an entry point for difficult, meaningful conversation, and a belief in the transformative power of Chautauqua.”

At Lake Erie Ink, a not-for-profit providing creative expression opportunities and academic support to youth in the Greater Cleveland community, Ton-Aime helps foster creative writing spaces for students in schools as well as youth-serving organizations. As a fellow at Kent State University’s Wick Poetry Center, Ton-Aime led a group of interns and coordinated poetry outreach in the Kent, Ohio, community. That outreach work brought Ton-Aime to Chautauqua in 2018, where for two summers he managed Wick’s Traveling Stanzas exhibit, now in the Hultquist Center’s Poetry Makerspace. At Chautauqua, Ton-Aime also served as liaison for writers-in-residence at the Chautauqua Writers’ Center and mentored undergraduate literary arts interns.

“As a poet who’s taught at Chautauqua numerous times, I was overjoyed to learn of Sony’s appointment as the new director of literary arts,” said former Chautauqua poet-in-residence Shara McCallum, professor at Penn State University and former director of the Stadler Center for Poetry at Bucknell University. “His commitment to community-building and his expansive vision of literature is palpable in all he does, and Chautauqua is incredibly fortunate to have him shaping and leading the literary arts into the future.”

“Sony brings to Chautauqua his rare gift of bringing people together over literature, which is of course what Chautauqua is all about, too,” said former Chautauqua prose writer-in-residence Toni Jensen, who teaches at the University of Arkansas and Institute of American Indian Arts. “He is the best sort of literary citizen, one who values the work itself and who sees the writers as people.”

Ton-Aime is the author of the chapbook LaWomann and a forthcoming Haitian Creole translation of the book Olympic Hero: The Story of Lennox Kilgour. He is the co-founding editor of ID13 — an online publication that published creative works by inmates he led in poetry workshops at the Lake Erie Correctional Institute. His works have appeared in Brainchild, La Revista PingPong, The Oakland Review, Dunes Review, Poets.org, and more. A native of Haiti who first came to the United States in 2010, Ton-Aime received his MFA in creative writing and poetry and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Kent State University.

“I am humbled and forever grateful to be part of the Chautauquan family,” said Ton-Aime. “I have come to see and appreciate the importance of community for this institution. From Chautauqua’s conception to today, it has been the pillar that holds the center together. In leading the literary arts at Chautauqua, I’m excited to continue this community-centered legacy by empowering readers and writers who have gathered together each summer and creating a welcoming atmosphere for those experiencing Chautauqua for the first time.”

Save Your Trip

Fill out the form below to save your trip. You will receive a link to your saved list via email.

  • Hidden
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Save Your Favorites

Fill out the form below to save your favorites. You will receive a link to your favorites list via email.

"*" indicates required fields

Name*
Hidden

Notice!

You have now entered the season. Some website content may differ depending on the current season we are in: Summer or Fall/Winter/Spring. You can toggle between the two season options at any time.

Okay

Subscribe to Chautauqua Institution’s email newsletter

  • About
  • Resources
  • Sustainability
  • Contact
  • Whistleblower Policy
  • Employment
  • Ethics Point
  • Labor Law Notices
  • Privacy Policy
  • ADA Compliance
Chautauqua Institution
P.O. Box 28
One Ames Ave.
Chautauqua, N.Y. 14722

1.800.836.ARTS
Washington, DC Office
1150 Connecticut, Avenue NW | Suite 700
Washington, DC 20036
202.480.2244
  • CHQ Assembly logo
  • Privacy Policy
  • ADA Compliance

© 2022 Chautauqua Institution. Chautauqua Institution is a non-profit organization, dependent upon your gifts to fulfill its mission. Gate tickets and other revenue cover only a portion of the cost of your Chautauqua experience.