Rabbi Peter Berg
2025-07-27 10:45, 2025-07-28 09:15, 2025-07-29 09:15, 2025-07-30 09:15, 2025-07-31 09:15, 2025-08-01 09:15 (America/New_York) | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Peter Berg became the fifth senior rabbi of The Temple since 1895 in July of 2008. Rabbi Berg is passionate about Jewish learning and meaningful worship, and he is an advocate for social change. Prior to coming to The Temple, he served as rabbi of Temple Beth Or in Washington Township, New Jersey and as the Associate Rabbi of Temple Emanuel-El in Dallas, Texas.
Over the years, Rabbi Berg has spent a great deal of time working with advocacy groups on issues including but not limited to: poverty & homelessness, criminal justice reform, preventing the human trafficking of minors, civil rights, religious freedom, ending mass incarceration, gun safety, hate crimes, the environment, combatting antisemitism, and strengthening the U.S.- Israel relationship. Rabbi Berg has served extensively in community and national board service. He currently serves on the Board of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the Anti-Defamation League, Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students (GEEARS), Faith In Public Life, OUTCRY: Faith Voices Against Gun Violence, Three Star, Home First, Georgia Interfaith Public Policy Center, The Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta, and the Commission On Social Action for Reform Judaism. He is Past President of the Atlanta Rabbinical Association. Rabbi Berg serves on the advisory Boards of: The American Jewish Archives (Vice-Chair), The Jewish Fertility Foundation, JumpSpark Teen Initiative, The Islamic Speakers Bureau, and the Grady Hospital Foundation.
A native of Ocean Township, New Jersey, Rabbi Berg holds a degree in Education and Human Development, with a focus in human services, counseling, and Judaic Studies, from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He earned his M.A. in Hebrew Literature and his rabbinic ordination from Hebrew Union College- Jewish Institute of Religion in New York and Jerusalem, where he was a Steinhardt Fellow. Rabbi Berg also holds a certificate in Chemical Dependency and Spiritual Counseling and is a trained Disaster, Fire, and Police Chaplain. He serves as a Chaplain for The Georgia State Patrol.
In 2009, Rabbi Berg was inducted into the College of Preachers at Morehouse College. Rabbi Berg was a member of the 2012 Leadership Atlanta class and is an active member of the Downtown Atlanta Rotary Club. He was recently re-appointed to the Georgia Holocaust Commission by the Lt. Governor. In 2013, Rabbi Berg was named by Newsweek and The Daily Beast as one of the top 50 most influential rabbis in the United States of America. From 2016-2022, he was named annually by Georgia Trend as one of the Most Influential Georgians and from 2019-2023 as one of Atlanta’s Most Powerful Leaders. In 2023 he received Atlanta’s highest honor from Mayor Dickens, the Phoenix Award, as well as the Distinguished Advocate Award from The American Jewish Committee.
Rabbi Berg lives in Atlanta with his wife Karen, a teacher and tutor, and their three children.

Twelve Step Meeting
2025-07-27 12:15, 2025-07-30 12:15, 2025-08-01 12:15, 2025-08-03 12:15, 2025-08-06 12:15, 2025-08-08 12:15, 2025-08-10 12:15, 2025-08-13 12:15 and 2 more dates | Hurlbut Marion Lawrance

Community Building and It's Importance, a panel discussion
2025-07-27 13:00 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall

CVA Open Studios
2025-07-27 14:00 | CVA: Arts Quad
We are excited to invite you to CVA Open Studios, occurring prior to the annual 6-week Resident Group Exhibition. Celebrate the work our resident artists have created during their time at Chautauqua Visual Arts. This event is free and open to the public.

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON
2025-07-27 14:10, 2025-07-27 17:15, 2025-07-28 17:50 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Crafted with loving fidelity to the 2010 animated classic by original co-director Dean DeBlois, this live-action adaptation starring Mason Thames and Nico Parker reaches enchanting heights of its own. “Those who adored it the first time around will be satisfied with the care with which it’s handled, those unfamiliar with its magic will be charmed as if the story is brand-new.” -Adam Graham, Detroit News “Toothless is as charismatic as ever; the flying sequences and natural landscapes are appropriately breathtaking.” -Bob Mondello, NPR (PG, 125m)

Family Entertainment: 123 Andrés
2025-07-27 15:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Christina and Andrés are 123 Andrés, the Grammy and Latin Grammy-winning duo for kids and families known for their interactive, high energy shows. They bring fresh original songs that blend Spanish and English, with an eclectic mix of sounds from all corners of Latin America. 123 Andrés pack their show with positive vibes and energetic songs that get the whole family dancing and learning.
Christina y Andrés son 123 Andrés, ganadores de Grammy y Latin Grammy, que hacen música para niños y sus familias. Presentan un show infantil, en inglés y en español, lleno de energía y que pone a bailar a todos, chicos y grandes. Ven a disfrutar canciones con valores positivos, letras pegajosas y movimientos graciosos, al son de la Cumbia, la Bachata y más ritmos que los pondrán a bailar.

CVA Six Week Residency exhibition reception
2025-07-27 15:00 | CVA: Arts Quad
CVA is honored to share our annual Resident Group Exhibition. Please join us to celebrate our 6-week resident artists at the CVA School of Art Gallery on the Art Quad. Join us to see the work our residents have created during their time at Chautauqua Visual Arts. This event is free and open to the public.

Sharon G. Flake and Caroline Starr Rose
2025-07-27 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Chautauqua Writers’ Center Faculty Reading — Week Six — Featuring Sharon G. Flake (Young Adult Fiction) and Caroline Starr Rose (Middle Grade Fiction)
Sharon G. Flake is the author of the groundbreaking novel, The Skin I’m In, which brought a bold dimension to literature for young readers. Now considered a modern classic, the book is used in classrooms worldwide and studied by experts in education and literature. Flake has authored over a dozen books, with more than 1.5 million in print globally. Her work has been translated into multiple languages including Korean, Italian, French and Portuguese. Her work has been recognized with several Coretta Scott King Author Honors; an NAACP Award Nomination; the YWCA Racial Justice Award, and numerous top ten best books for teens citations by libraries and industry organizations. Flake is a Kirkus Prize Award finalist. She has mentored aspiring authors for years virtually with the Virginia C. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University. The Family I’m In, her much anticipated YA novel, is due out April 1, 2025.
Caroline Starr Rose is a middle grade and picture book author whose books have been ALA-ALSC Notable, Junior Library Guild, ABA New Voices, Kids’ Indie Next, Amazon’s Best Books of the Month for Kids, and Bank Street College of Education Best Books selections. In addition, her books have been nominated for almost two dozen state award lists. Caroline was named a Publisher’s Weekly Flying Start Author for her debut novel, May B. She spent her childhood in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and New Mexico and taught social studies and English in four different states. Caroline now lives with her family in her hometown, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Church of the Wild
2025-07-27 16:00, 2025-08-03 16:00, 2025-08-10 16:00, 2025-08-17 16:00 | Outdoor Classroom
Kriss Young Miller and her husband Gary manage the Quaker House. Kriss is a 2022 graduate of Earlham School of Religion with her Master of Arts in Peace and Social Transformation. Kriss is currently a student of Victoria Loorz in the Seminary of the Wild Earth at the Center for Wild Spirituality. She has completed Wild Church Leadership training and is deeply grateful for the opportunity to work to build connections with Chautauquans in the sacred wild.

Orientation for New Chautauquans
2025-07-27 16:30, 2025-08-03 16:30, 2025-08-10 16:30, 2025-08-17 16:30 | Hultquist 101, Hultquist 101
Join us for lemonade and cookies at the Orientation for New Chautauquans, where we warmly welcome you to our vibrant community. This event is designed to acquaint you with the rich history, diverse programs, and unique experiences that Chautauqua has to offer. Meet fellow newcomers, engage with staff, and learn about the array of cultural, educational, and recreational opportunities available. Whether you’re here for a day, a week, or the entire season, this orientation will help you make the most of your visit and feel right at home.

Children's Organ Tour
2025-07-27 17:00, 2025-08-10 17:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater

Palestine Park Tour
2025-07-27 17:00, 2025-08-03 17:00, 2025-08-10 17:00 | Palestine Park, Palestine Park
“A Journey Through the Holy Land in the times of Jesus”

Hebrew Congregation, Shirley Lazarus Sunday Evening Lecture Series
2025-07-27 19:00, 2025-08-03 17:00, 2025-08-10 19:00 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall

Sacred Song Service - Ecumenical Communion
2025-07-27 20:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater

BECOMING LED ZEPPELIN
2025-07-27 20:15, 2025-07-28 20:50 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Interviews, performances and never-before-seen footage provide insight into the origins of Led Zeppelin and their meteoric rise to musical stardom. “The master-musicianship that the press initially overlooked, and which the tales of bad behaviour obscure, is front and centre here.” -Ludovic Hunter-Tilney, Financial Times “A hagiographic look at the group’s beginnings, the movie is as straightforward as it is headbangingly diverting.”-Manohla Dargis, New York Times “It”s like being at a concert. That sound is incredible.” -Christy Lemire, FilmWeek (PG-13, 122m)

CHQ Mystic Heart: David Gluck
2025-07-28 00:00, 2025-07-29 07:45, 2025-07-30 07:45, 2025-07-31 07:45, 2025-08-01 07:45 | Presbyterian Chapel
David Gluck began his study of meditation and yoga in 2001, with Jivamukti Yoga. He received accreditation as a certified yoga teacher in 2003, directly from Jivamukti founders, Sharon Gannon and David Life. Shortly thereafter, he began formal studies in the Gelug lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, primarily under the tutelage of Douglas Veenhof, current Resident Teacher at B. Alan Wallace’s Center for Contemplative Research, Miyo Samten Ling, in Crestone, Colorado. In 2022, he became an-accredited mindfulness teacher, studying with David Nichternand the Dharma Moon community. David has taught classes, workshops, and teacher training’s both nationally and abroad. In 2013, David developed and led the Yoga Philosophy, Training and Certification course at George Brown College, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In addition, he served as faculty for the Yoga Sanctuary Teacher Training program as Director of Philosophy, from 2013 until 2017. In 2017, David transitioned to working with children. Currently, his dharma teaching consists of private sessions wherein he helps practitioners develop and deepen their practice, and his annual participation in Chautauqua’s Mystic Heart program

Episcopal Holy Eucharist
2025-07-28 07:45, 2025-07-29 07:45, 2025-07-30 07:45, 2025-07-31 07:45, 2025-08-01 07:45, 2025-08-03 09:00, 2025-08-04 07:45, 2025-08-05 07:45 and 10 more dates | Chapel of the Good Shepherd, Chapel of the Good Shepherd

Daily Word Meditation
2025-07-28 08:00, 2025-07-29 08:00, 2025-07-30 08:00, 2025-07-31 08:00, 2025-08-01 08:00, 2025-08-04 08:00, 2025-08-05 08:00, 2025-08-06 08:00 and 7 more dates | Hall of Missions, Hall of Missions
(Programmed by Unity of Chautauqua)

Movement and Meditation with Monte Thompson
2025-07-28 08:30, 2025-07-30 08:30, 2025-08-01 08:30, 2025-08-04 08:30, 2025-08-06 08:30, 2025-08-08 08:30, 2025-08-11 08:30, 2025-08-13 08:30 and 1 more date | Hall of Philosophy Grove
Monte Thompson was a professional dancer, and also spent years as a restauranteur. His life was spent on his feet. Now retired, he is interested in continuing to be able to move easily and gracefully while using breathing and stretching techniques to help quiet his mind and prepare him to face each day with purpose and joy.

Catholic Mass
2025-07-28 08:45, 2025-07-29 08:45, 2025-07-30 08:45, 2025-07-31 08:45, 2025-08-01 08:45, 2025-08-04 08:45, 2025-08-05 08:45, 2025-08-06 08:45 and 7 more dates | Chapel of the Good Shepherd, Chapel of the Good Shepherd

Chautauqua Prays for Peace though Compassion
2025-07-28 08:55, 2025-07-29 08:55, 2025-07-30 08:55, 2025-07-31 08:55, 2025-08-01 08:55, 2025-08-04 08:55, 2025-08-05 08:55, 2025-08-06 08:55 and 7 more dates | Hall of Philosophy Grove

Service of Blessing and Healing
2025-07-28 10:15, 2025-07-29 10:15, 2025-07-30 10:15, 2025-07-31 10:15, 2025-08-01 10:15, 2025-08-04 10:15, 2025-08-05 10:15, 2025-08-06 10:15 and 7 more dates | Randell Chapel, UCC Headquarters

Celina Stewart
2025-07-28 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Celina Stewart is the chief executive officer of the League of Women Voters of the United States. In this role, she is charged with executing the mission to empower voters and defend democracy and managing the century-strong voting rights organization’s operations and resources. She joins the Chautauqua Lecture Series to discuss the League’s work to combat democratic backsliding and protect voters’ rights, opening a week exploring “The Global Rise of Authoritarianism.”
Stewart first joined the League in 2018 as director of advocacy and litigation and was promoted to senior director in April 2019 and to chief counsel in July 2020. In these roles, she worked to incorporate broader strategic vision and implementation by building stronger relationships with legal partners, strengthening relationships and visibility of the League on the Hill; executing the League’s redistricting initiative, People Powered Fair Maps; and launching the League’s multi-decade One Person One Vote campaign to end the Electoral College.
Prior to joining the League, she was acting chief operating officer and director of philanthropy at an electoral reform nonprofit. Other previous positions include litigation consultant to several Am 100 law firms handling complex merger and acquisition transactions; legislative aide at the Michigan legislature handling the public interest portfolio for the House Tax Chair; legal counsel to the Minority Leader Stacey Abrams at the Georgia House of Representatives; and executive director for the Congressional Black Caucus Institute’s 21st Century program. She earned her J.D. from Western Michigan University Law School and her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Spelman College.

Climate Change & Authoritarianism, with Micah Loewinger, co-host NPR On the Media
2025-07-28 12:15 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Micah Loewinger is co-host of WNYC’s On the Media, a nationally-syndicated public radio show that can be heard on over 400 stations across the country. His investigation into Zello, a walkie-talkie app used for recruitment and organizing by far-right militia groups in the lead up to January 6th, won the John M. Higgins Award for Best In-Depth/Enterprise Reporting and was featured on 60 Minutes. In Chautauqua’s weeklong exploration of the Global Rise of Authoritarianism, Loewinger will explore the link between the growing number and severity of climate-fueled natural disasters and rising support for authoritarian leaders. Researchers have documented how the rise in climate-driven migration drives countries at the receiving end toward anti-immigration populist authoritarianism. Loewinger’s groundbreaking investigative reporting has demonstrated how in the United States, right wing militia groups have capitalized on natural disasters as a powerful recruiting tool, preying on people’s distrust of the government to raise both funds and new supporters. Loewinger’s lecture will take you deep inside these militia movement strategies to leverage climate-fueled natural disasters in the service of authoritarian populism.

CLSC Book Discussion
2025-07-28 12:15 | Alumni Hall Porch, Alumni Hall Porch
Presenters Vanessa Weinert and Susan Allen will lead a community discussion on our Week Six CLSC selection Chain-Gang All-Stars: A Novel by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Piano Faculty Masterclass: HaeSun Paik
2025-07-28 14:00 | Sherwood-Marsh 101

Susan Hayward
2025-07-28 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Susan Hayward is a specialist on religion, peace, and human rights and a senior research fellow at the Georgetown University Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. From 2007 to 2021, she worked with the Religion and Inclusive Societies team at the U.S. Institute of Peace, partnering with religious actors worldwide to transform violence and advance just peace with a particular focus on Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Colombia. In this role, she strengthened religious literacy in U.S. foreign policy and global diplomacy, partnering with the State Department, USAID, and the European Union, among others.
From 2020 to 2023, Hayward supported the establishment of the Religion and Public Life program at Harvard Divinity School, building a graduate level certificate program for students seeking careers advancing religious literacy for just peace in vocations such as policymaking, humanitarian action, and organizing.
Hayward’s co-edited book Women, Religion and Peacebuilding: Illuminating the Unseen (2015), highlights the role of women religious peacebuilders worldwide.
She has served or currently serves on the selection committee for international awards recognizing religious peacebuilders, and as an advisor to Templeton Religion Trust and Churches for Middle East Peace.
Hayward studied Buddhism in Nepal and is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, currently serving as Minister of Justice and Formation at Creekside UCC in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
She holds degrees from Tufts University, Harvard University, and is pursuing her doctorate from Georgetown University. Hayward is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Jeremy Ben-Ami & Eugene Taylor Sutton
2025-07-28 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
With Geoffrey Kemp unable to join us, Chautauqua in 2025 pivots from its celebrated annual Middle East Update to an interfaith conversation between two esteemed leaders in that space.
Jeremy Ben-Ami is the president of J Street, bringing to the role both deep experience in American politics and government and a passionate commitment to the state of Israel. Ben-Ami’s family connection to Israel goes back 140 years to the first aliyah when his great-grandparents were among the first settlers in Petah Tikva. His grandparents were one of the founding families of Tel Aviv, and his father was an activist and leader in the Irgun, working for Israel’s independence and on the rescue of European Jews before and during World War II.
His political resume includes serving in the mid-1990s as the Deputy Domestic Policy Advisor in the White House to President Bill Clinton and working on seven presidential and numerous state and local campaigns including helping to manage a mayoral campaign in New York City in 2001. For nearly three years in the late 90s, Jeremy lived in Israel, where he started a consulting firm working with Israeli non-profit organizations and politicians. Ben-Ami received a law degree from New York University and is a graduate of the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.
The Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton is the senior pastor of Chautauqua Institution. Formerly the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland and Canon Pastor of Washington National Cathedral, he has also served as a college chaplain, parish priest, and a professor of homiletics and liturgy at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. Sutton is a frequent leader at conferences focused on spirituality, nonviolence, racial and social justice, and he has led multiple missions focused on peace and reconciliation to South Africa, Israel, and the Holy Land. He co-founded Contemplative Outreach of Maryland and Washington (COMW), an ecumenical network of those committed to the daily practice of centering prayer, and is a contributor to the books The Diversity of Centering Prayer, and Reclaiming the Gospel of Peace: Challenging the Epidemic of Gun Violence.
His board memberships have included the Institute for Christian, Jewish and Islamic Studies, the Institute for Sustainable Communities, the Ecumenical Leaders Group of Central Maryland, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and Bishops United Against Gun Violence. Bishop Sutton has been named by the Center for American Progress as one of “Fourteen Faith Leaders to Watch” for his faith-led efforts to promote nonviolent solutions to conflicts.

"Courageous Conversations on Death and Dying" Shahid Aziz
2025-07-28 15:30, 2025-08-04 15:30, 2025-08-11 15:30 | Presbyterian Chapel
Seminar

Chautauqua Chamber Music: Time For Three
2025-07-28 16:00 | Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall
Grammy and Emmy-winning ensemble Time For Three (TF3) defies convention and boundaries by showcasing excellence across different genres, including classical music, Americana, and singer-songwriter. Their unique sound captivates audiences, immersing them in a musical experience that merges various eras, styles, and traditions of Western music. TF3, consisting of Charles Yang (violin, vocals), Nicolas “Nick” Kendall (violin, vocals), and Ranaan Meyer (double bass, vocals), combines their instruments and voices in a remarkable sound, establishing a distinct voice of expression that resonates with listeners worldwide.
Time for Three also joins the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra on Saturday, July 26, with Rossen Milanov conducting.
Program to be announced.

CHQ @ 150 - ALL RISE
2025-07-28 16:00, 2025-08-04 16:00, 2025-08-11 16:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Celebrate the sesquicentennial of our iconic institution, while exploring the ever-evolving definition of democracy through powerful stories and performances that have unfolded here, with a stirring performance of Wynton Marsalis’ All Rise and appearances by Kathryn Hahn, Kwame Alexander, Misty Copeland and more. (NR, 55m)

Play CHQ: Art and Nature Meet
2025-07-28 16:00, 2025-08-04 16:00, 2025-08-11 16:00 | Miller Park, Miller Park
Play CHQ invites families to discover, create, and play together all season long! Enjoy a variety of engaging activities including games, crafts, STEM experiments, and more at pop-up locations throughout the Chautauqua grounds.
In case of inclement weather, all Play CHQ events will be relocated to Sheldon Hall of Education, Room 202.

CHQ Mystic Heart: Suzanne Watters
2025-07-28 16:45, 2025-08-11 16:45 | Hurlbut Church sanctuary, Hurlbut Church sanctuary
Suzanne Watters is a Pratt Institute MFA graduate with a concentration in painting/drawing. Her art practice centers around woven pieces made with found textiles painted with pigments and/or dyed with food waste and other organic matter. She has attended training in New York City and received a certification in sound meditation from the Sound Healing Academy. She has also done additional sound healing training at a retreat and session with Wyatt Mylius at Rooted In Sound in Pittsburgh, PA (trained with Peter Hess) and with indigenous sound healing practitioner Moises Tort in Mandarina, Mexico. Watters sees her sound meditation sessions as being led by an artist and guided with the relaxation tools and techniques of poetry, breath, and sound

Men's Softball League
2025-07-28 17:00, 2025-07-30 17:00, 2025-08-01 17:00, 2025-08-04 17:00, 2025-08-06 17:00, 2025-08-08 17:00 | Sharpe Field, Sharpe Field
Interested in playing slow pitch softball? Contact co-commissioner Wes Delancey
at markernalt21@gmail.com to be added to a team roster. Fee per team for league play.

CVA Lecture Series: Matt Bollinger
2025-07-28 18:30 | Hultquist 101, Hultquist 101
CVA Lecture Series: School of Art faculty
Matt Bollinger
Matt Bollinger received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and his MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. His work has been exhibited in solo shows in New York, Los Angeles, Dublin, London, and elsewhere. Recent museum exhibitions have been at the Akron Art Museum (2022), Westmoreland Museum of American Art (2022), South Bend Museum of Art (2020), the Schneider Museum (2018) and Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Saint-Étienne Métropole (2016). Residencies include the Seven Below Arts Initiative in Burlington, VT, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA, and the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program in Brooklyn, NY. In 2016 and 2021, he received NYFA fellowships in Painting. He is represented by mother’s tankstation and François Ghebaly Gallery. He lives and works in New York state.

Taize' and Tea Meditation Worship
2025-07-28 19:00, 2025-08-04 19:00, 2025-08-11 19:00 | Randell Chapel, UCC Headquarters

Chautauqua Opera Conservatory with the Music School Festival Orchestra: La Vida Breve
2025-07-28 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
La Vida Breve, with music by Manuel de Falla and a libretto by Carlos Fernández Shaw, is considered one of the greatest operas written in Spanish. Written in 1905, it’s a kind of “tragic zarzuela”, a hothouse verismo opera that mixes Andalusian folk songs into a score shimmering with French Impressionism. This vivid and engrossing opera centers on Salud, the working-class heroine, a victim of passion and betrayal. Salud loves Paco, a sophisticated cad, who offers her pledges of love but marries another, wealthier, girl, leaving Salud desolate with heartbreak. Only one hour long, La Vida Breve is sonically thrilling, with richly sung emotion and vivacious rhythms — a gripping story of the human condition.
The Chautauqua Opera Conservatory is designed to guide and empower young artists through training and vast performance opportunities in a wide array of repertoire with excellent faculty. Under the leadership of Denyce Graves-Montgomery, Artistic Advisor, and Jonathan Beyer, Director, a dynamic group of singers study, coach, and perform in an idyllic setting on the grounds of the Chautauqua Institution.
Comprised of top-tier students from conservatories and universities in the U.S. and abroad, Music School Festival Orchestra members participate in a variety of musical activities during their summers at Chautauqua including chamber music and private lessons along with their meticulous orchestral training. Alumni from the MSFO can be heard in many of the world’s top orchestras and chamber ensembles and can be found on music faculties worldwide. The MSFO is led by Artistic Director Timothy Muffitt, who serves as Music Director of the Lansing Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Laureate of the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra.

Javier Corrales
2025-07-29 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
The Dwight W. Morrow 1895 Professor of Political Science at Amherst College, Javier Corrales’ research focuses on democratization, presidential powers, ruling parties, democratic backsliding, populism, political economy of development, oil and energy, the incumbent’s advantage, foreign policies, and sexuality. He has published extensively on Latin America and the Caribbean, and his latest book — Autocracy Rising: How Venezuela Transitioned to Authoritarianism — argues that deep democratic backsliding is determined by party system features, variations in autocratic legalism, institutional capture, and innovations in the use of coercion. It is this scholarship that will frame his presentation for the Chautauqua Lecture Series in a week focused on “The Global Rise of Authoritarianism.”
Corrales’ other books include Fixing Democracy: Why Constitutional Change Often Fails to Enhance Democracy in Latin America — which develops the concept of power asymmetry between government and opposition forces to explain whether new constitutions will expand presidential powers, and in the process, hurt democracy — and The Politics of LGBTQ Rights Expansion in Latin America and Caribbean.
Corrales has taught at the Center for Latin American Research at the University of Amsterdam and at the Center for Latin American Studies at Georgetown University, and has offered short courses at the Institute of Higher Studies in Administration in Caracas, the School of Government at the University of the Andes in Bogotá, and at the Universidad de Salamanca.
In 2000, he became one of the youngest scholars ever to be selected as a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. Twice a Fulbright scholar, in 2005 in Caracas and 2016 in Bogotá, Corrales obtained his Ph.D. in political science from Harvard University.

BTG Brownbag. Richard Piacentini: Green Innovation by Botanical Gardens
2025-07-29 12:15 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens is a world leader in sustainable practices among gardens, zoos and aquariums. Its Center for Sustainable Landscapes (CSL) hosts one of the world’s greenest buildings, which generates all of its own energy and treats all storm and sanitary water captured on-site. It is the first and only building to meet seven of the highest green certifications. Phipps’ green evolution has taken it from its first LEED-certified campus structure to the pursuit of worldwide regenerative collaboration through The Climate Toolkit, a collaborative opportunity for museums, gardens, zoos, science centers, nature centers, field stations and related institutions who want to learn how to aggressively address climate change within their own organizations and inspire the communities they serve to follow their lead.

CHQ Mystic Heart: David Gluck
2025-07-29 12:30, 2025-07-31 12:30 | Hall of Missions, Hall of Missions

CHQ Dialogues
2025-07-29 12:30, 2025-07-30 12:30, 2025-08-05 12:30, 2025-08-06 12:30, 2025-08-12 12:30, 2025-08-13 12:30 | Presbyterian House, Presbyterian House

Justus Baird
2025-07-29 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Rabbi Justus Baird is Senior Vice President at the Shalom Hartman Institute, a pluralistic Jewish think tank and educational institute. He directs the North American Kogod Research Center, oversees the Institute’s interfaith and intergroup work, and is publisher of Sources: a Journal of Jewish Ideas. Prior to joining Hartman in 2019, he was Dean of Auburn Seminary.
Rabbi Baird has led and studied interfaith initiatives since 2002, including extensive work in Israel/Palestine, faith-rooted social movement work, an international multifaith teen leadership camp, interfaith learning for religion scholars, and most recently, Black/Jewish initiatives.
Raised in Texas, he lives in Montclair, NJ, with his rabbi-wife and their three children.

Chautauqua Opera Company presents An Afternoon of Song
2025-07-29 15:15 | Athenaeum Parlor, Athenaeum Parlor
Join us for an afternoon of song, featuring our 2025 Young Artists.

Social Hour at Denominational Houses
2025-07-29 15:15, 2025-08-05 15:15, 2025-08-12 15:15 | Denominational Houses (Selected)
Social hour at the Baptist House, Catholic House, Christian Church, Everett Jewish Life Center, Episcopal Cottage, Lutheran House, Unitarian House and United Methodist House

Heritage Lecture Series: Jonathan D. Schmitz
2025-07-29 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
As part of the Oliver Archives Center’s Heritage Lecture Series, Chautauqua Institution Archives and Historian, Jonathan D. Schmitz will present “Science and Religion (and Art) at Chautauqua”.

Piano Program Faculty Recital: HaeSun Paik. Music of Beethoven, Schumann, and Bartok.
2025-07-29 16:00 | Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall
Pianist HaeSun Paik has been hailed as a “sensitive and thinking musician first and an awesome technician second” (Los Angeles Times) with a “big and individual personality” (New York Times), whose performances are “a wonder — elastic, mercurial, charged with meaning, surprising” (Boston Globe) and “a rare example of technique actually serving both idea and feeling, head and heart” (Musical America). She performed with numerous orchestras including the Boston, National, London, City of Birmingham, Belgium National, Osaka, NHK, and KBS Symphony Orchestras, the Munich, Radio France, Tokyo, Warsaw, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestras, and the Russian National Orchestra among others.
One of the most sought-after pedagogical influences in Korea, Ms. Paik was the youngest pianist of her generation to be appointed as a music professor at Seoul National University, where she taught for ten years. She was on the piano faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music and currently is a member of the piano faculty at New England Conservatory.

Play CHQ: Crafting by the Water
2025-07-29 16:00, 2025-08-05 16:00, 2025-08-12 16:00 | Miller Park, Miller Park

BTG: Masterclass
2025-07-29 16:15 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Biophelia

I'M STILL HERE
2025-07-29 17:30, 2025-07-30 20:30, 2025-07-31 20:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
As Brazil faces the tightening grip of a military dictatorship, Eunice Paiva (Fernanda Torres), a mother of five, must reinvent herself and her family when authorities abduct her husband. “Director Walter Salles returns to the political filmmaking he employed in The Motorcycle Diaries. Like that film, this one follows a protagonist who becomes an activist after being jarred by political events.” -Odie Henderson, Boston Globe “In the face of inhumanity, Salles’s film simply radiates love.” -Nick Howells, London Evening Standard (PG-13, 137m, In Portuguese with subtitles)

Labyrinth History and Meditation
2025-07-29 18:30, 2025-08-05 18:30, 2025-08-12 18:30 | Turner (Outside of Building)
Bring gate pass. Adjacent to Turner Community Center

Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: A Beethoven Evening
2025-07-29 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Teddy Abrams, conductor
Alexander Kobrin, piano
Musical America’s 2022 Conductor of the Year and Louisville Orchestra music director Teddy Abrams returns to the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra for an all-Beethoven evening featuring his bold and exuberant Symphony No. 7. The concert opens with Alexander Kobrin in Beethoven’s elegant and lyrical Piano Concerto No. 3. Praised for his brilliant technique, musicality and emotional engagement with the audience, Kobrin currently serves as the Chautauqua Piano Program Heintzelman Family Artistic Advisor.
Program:
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92

EVERY LITTLE THING
2025-07-29 20:30, 2025-07-30 18:00, 2025-07-31 14:30 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Author and rehabber Terry Masear wants to save every injured hummingbird in Los Angeles. Over the course of Sally Aitken’s intimate and moving documentary, we become invested in Terry’s hummingbird patients — including Cactus, Jimmy, Wasabi, Raisin, and Mikhail. “These are small, scary steps for hummingbirds, seeding faith in giant leaps for humankind.” -Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times “Every Little Thing comes to embody the fragile yet uncontainable mystery of all life.” -Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine (NR, 93m)

Cultural Ethics Series - Larry Rizzolo
2025-07-30 09:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
“Science and Ethics at the Beginning and End of Life”

School of Music: Chamber Concert #1
2025-07-30 10:00 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall

Joan Donovan
2025-07-30 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Joan Donovan is an assistant professor of journalism and emerging media studies in the College of Communications at Boston University. She is also the founder of The Critical Internet Studies Institute, a nonprofit that develops cutting-edge research and educational programs advancing public knowledge of emerging technologies and the paradoxes of innovation. After first speaking for the Chautauqua Lecture Series remotely in 2020, Donovan will now make her in-person Amphitheater debut during the Week Six study of “The Global Rise of Authoritarianism,” sharing how alternative political media has evolved in recent years, particularly with regard to the swift advancements in AI, and how social media can be abused to enable and empower authoritarian regimes.
Donovan is co-author of the book Meme Wars: The Untold Story of the Online Battles Upending Democracy in America, which analyzes how meme culture became an important political communication strategy bridging social movements with contemporary political parties from Occupy to the Jan. 6 insurrection. Formerly, she was the research director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media Politics and Public Policy, where she oversaw the Technology and Social Change Research Project, which studied media manipulation, disinformation, and adversarial media movements. In 2023, she blew the whistle on corporate influence over that research program.
Previously, Donovan was the research lead for Data & Society’s Media Manipulation Initiative, which mapped how interest groups, governments, political operatives, corporations, and others use the internet and media to disrupt social institutions. She completed her Ph.D. in sociology and science studies at the University of California San Diego, and subsequently was a postdoctoral fellow at the UCLA Institute for Society and Genetics, where she studied white supremacists’ use of DNA ancestry tests, social movements, and technology.

Organ Recitals
2025-07-30 12:15 | Hall of Christ: Sanctuary

Women in Ministry
2025-07-30 12:15, 2025-08-06 12:15, 2025-08-13 12:15 | Hall of Missions, Hall of Missions

CLSC Young Readers Book Discussion
2025-07-30 12:15 | Alumni Hall Porch, Alumni Hall Porch
Presenters Stephaine Dawson and Mary Pat McFarland will lead a community discussion on our Week Six CLSC Young Readers selection Squire: A Graphic Novel by Nadia Shamas and Sara Alfageeh

CHQ Dialogue
2025-07-30 12:30, 2025-08-06 12:30 | Catholic House, Catholic House

Anantanand Rambachan
2025-07-30 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Anantanand Rambachan is of Professor Emeritus of Religion at Saint Olaf College, Minnesota, USA (1985-2021). He was also Forum Humanum Visiting Professor at the Academy for the Study of World Religions at the University of Hamburg in Germany (2013-2017).
Prof. Rambachan has been involved in interreligious relations and dialogue for over 40 years, as a Hindu contributor and analyst. He is a Co-President of Religions for Peace, the largest global interfaith network. and serves as President of the Board of Arigatou International NY, a global organization advocating for the rights of children and mobilizing the resources of religions to overcome violence against children. He also Chairs the Board of Directors of the Minnesota Multifaith Network. He is active in the dialogue programs of the World Council of Churches and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue at the Vatican, and currently participates in the Ethics in Action dialogues at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. In 2008, at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Professor Rambachan delivered the distinguished Lambeth Interfaith Lecture at the Lambeth Palace in London. Professor Rambachan led the first two White House Celebrations of the Hindu Festival of Diwali in 2003 and 2004.
His books include Accomplishing the Accomplished: The Vedas as a Source of Valid Knowledge in Ṡaṅkara; The Limits of Scripture: Vivekananda’s Reinterpretation of the Authority of the Vedas, The Advaita Worldview: God, World and Humanity, A Hindu Theology of Liberation: Not-Two is Not-One; Essays in Hindu Theology and Pathways to Hindu-Christian Dialogue. In addition, Professor Rambachan has authored numerous book-chapters and journal essays. The British Broadcasting Corporation transmitted a series of 25 lectures on Hinduism by Prof. Rambachan around the world.

African American Heritage House Lecture: Paige Alexander
2025-07-30 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Paige Alexander serves as chief executive officer of The Carter Center, a nonprofit organization founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter to advance peace and health worldwide. Alexander joined the Center in 2020 at a pivotal time for the organization and the country. In her first year, Alexander led the organization through the COVID-19 pandemic and a period of national social upheaval, while envisioning a path forward for The Carter Center as it transitioned from an organization that was founder-led to one that is guided by its founders’ principles.
Since that time, Alexander has strengthened the Center’s core peace and health programs and led the organization in new directions, including adding programs to address: the global mental health crisis; political polarization in the United States; and the impact of climate change on global peace and public health.
Before joining The Carter Center, Alexander had a distinguished global development career, with more than two decades of experience in the government and nonprofit sectors. She held Senate-confirmed senior leadership positions at two regional bureaus of the United States Agency for International Development, covering missions and development programs in 25 countries.

CHQ Dialogues
2025-07-30 15:30, 2025-08-06 15:30, 2025-08-13 15:30 | Catholic House, Catholic House

Piano Faculty Masterclass: Alexander Kobrin
2025-07-30 16:00 | Sherwood-Marsh 101

Play CHQ: STEM by the Water
2025-07-30 16:00, 2025-08-06 16:00, 2025-08-13 16:00 | Miller Park, Miller Park

School of Music: Chamber Concert #3
2025-07-30 16:00 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall

CHQ Mystic Heart: Therapeutic Gong Meditation with Kim Hehr
2025-07-30 16:45, 2025-08-06 16:45, 2025-08-13 16:45 | Hurlbut Church sanctuary, Hurlbut Church sanctuary
Kim Hehr is a lifelong Chautauquan and a certified level 2 teacher of Kundalini Yoga and Meditation. She has been a yoga and meditation practitioner for 30 years and has been teaching Kundalini Yoga and Meditation for 25 years. A retired hospice nurse, she is presently the coordinator of the CHQ Mystic Heart Meditation Program. Kim specializes in healing addictive patterns through yogic technology. Passionate about teaching meditation, performing Gong Baths, and pranayama (breath work), her objective is to help others with their anxiety and everyday stress. Her goal is to facilitate bringing more peace and self-acceptance into people’s lives.

Party on the Art Quad
2025-07-30 17:30 | CVA: Arts Quad
The Friends of CVA and Chautauqaua Visual Arts will once again host our annual ticketed fundraising event in the heart of the CVA Arts Quad. The proceeds benefit CVA School of Art residency program scholarships. This event provides an opportunity to connect with fellow art lovers and to bid on original pieces of art as well as experiences, Amphitheater performance tickets and more!

Chautauqua Opera Conservatory 2025 Scenes Program with Kensho Watanabe
2025-07-30 18:30 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall
Join celebrated conductor Kensho Watanabe as he leads us on a captivating journey through some of opera’s most cherished moments.
The program features eleven unforgettable scenes from classics including La Traviata, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Street Scene, Die Zauberflöte, and more—showcasing the drama, beauty, and emotional depth that define the operatic art form.
Don’t miss this spectacular evening of music and storytelling at its finest.
Japanese-American conductor Kensho Watanabe is internationally acclaimed for his dynamic musicality, thoughtful interpretations, and engaging presence on the podium. Following a successful run at the Metropolitan Opera of Kevin Puts’ The Hours last season, Watanabe returns to the Met this season for eight performances of Puccini’s La bohéme.
In addition to Watanabe’s return to the Met, highlights of the 2024-25 season include a Suntory Hall debut with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, and debuts with the Calgary Philharmonic and Opera Theatre St. Louis. The 2023-24 season saw Watanabe make his Detroit Opera debut with Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, as well as returns to l’Orchestre Métropolitain in Montréal, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the RTE Concert Orchestra in Dublin. Recent highlights include work with the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, with whom he maintains a close relationship following his tenure as Assistant Conductor from 2016-19.
Based in Paris, France, Watanabe is an accomplished violinist, receiving his MM from the Yale School of Music, and serving as a substitute violinist of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 2012-16. A protégé of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Watanabe was the inaugural conducting fellow of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with both Nézet-Séguin and Otto-Werner Mueller. Additionally, he holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Yale, where he studied molecular, cellular, and developmental biology.

CHQ Dialogues
2025-07-30 18:30, 2025-08-01 12:30, 2025-08-06 18:30, 2025-08-08 12:30, 2025-08-13 18:30, 2025-08-15 12:30 | Lutheran House, Lutheran House

Miko Marks
2025-07-30 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Finding freedom through music is something that Miko Marks knows all too well. But it’s more than just freedom. It’s liberation. Deliverance. After living what seems to be multiple lives over, Miko has finally come into the life she was born to live. And she’s more than ready to live it to the fullest – one of truth, authenticity, vulnerability, joy and honesty. There’s a clip on YouTube that is quite striking. It’s an interview from a local Bay Area news channel featuring Miko Marks talking about her journey as a Black woman in country music. “For me, being a country music singer-songwriter, I’m truly dedicated to the work, so it’s an uphill battle, but it’s one I’m willing to climb.” That clip is from 2007. The conversations and the questions 15 years later, in 2022, are the same. Miko has answered them time and time again, but there’s more to her story than the barriers she bridles. She has more to give than the small confines of that one line of questioning. Miko’s life as a Black woman in country and roots music is only a small part of the story. As she readies her latest album, Feel like Going Home, for release (October 14, 2022 via Redtone Records), it’s beyond time to dig deeper.
Miko was born in Flint, Michigan, by a single mother, a free spirit; undoubtedly where Miko gets her fire for life. Along with being passionate about being a mother and instilling strength and independence in Miko, her mother also had a calling for fighting for equal rights for all. She would spend free time protesting on a local level in their town and would travel to Detroit for larger demonstrations, always looking to make a genuine connection with everyone she met, leaving the world better than she found it. This impacted Miko greatly as she grew and was pivotal in Miko finding her own voice. To provide for Miko, her mother would spend nights working 3rd shift at the automotive factory, while Miko’s grandmother would watch over her, helping raise her for most of her young life. For Miko, the women in her life were of utmost importance to her and their hopes and dreams for her were cautiously optimistic while being pragmatic due to the barriers they faced in their own lifetime. The path that Miko is on now would be almost unimaginable for women like her grandmother. Even still she was raised to rise. Miko reflects on the contributions of these women in “Good Life.” “My grandmother’s family came out of the south, working in cotton fields, struggling, looking for hope up north as so many did during the great migration. I wanted to describe that in song and praise her and my mother and my ancestors for their power, and to thank them for persevering so that I could have a good life.”

School of Music: Chamber Concert #4
2025-07-31 10:00 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall

Paige Alexander
2025-07-31 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Paige Alexander serves as chief executive officer of The Carter Center, a nonprofit organization founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter to advance peace and health worldwide. She joins the Chautauqua Lecture Series in a week exploring “The Global Rise of Authoritarianism” to discuss evolving threats to democracy worldwide, and how The Carter Center works to address those threats.
Alexander joined the Center in 2020 at a pivotal time for the organization and the country. In her first year, Alexander led the organization through the COVID-19 pandemic and a period of national social upheaval, while envisioning a path forward for The Carter Center as it transitioned from an organization that was founder-led to one that is guided by its founders’ principles. Since that time, Alexander has strengthened the Center’s core peace and health programs and led the organization in new directions, including adding programs to address: the global mental health crisis; political polarization in the United States; and the impact of climate change on global peace and public health.
Before joining The Carter Center, Alexander had a distinguished global development career, with more than two decades of experience in the government and nonprofit sectors. She held Senate-confirmed senior leadership positions at two regional bureaus of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), covering missions and development programs in 25 countries.
Alexander currently serves on the boards of the Romanian American Foundation, the World Affairs Council of Atlanta, and the Free Russia Foundation, and as an advisory board member of several human rights organizations.
This Chautauqua Lecture Series program is presented in collaboration with the African American Heritage House at Chautauqua.

CTC Theater Chats
2025-07-31 12:15, 2025-08-07 12:15, 2025-08-14 12:15 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Theater Chats (formerly known as Brown Bags)
On selected Thursdays at 12:15 p.m., bring lunch to Smith Wilkes Hall and join special guests, including actors, designers, playwrights and more, for a look at our upcoming productions and discussions on the craft of theater-making. Free and open to the public.

CHQ Dialogue
2025-07-31 12:30, 2025-08-07 12:30, 2025-08-14 12:30 | Everett Jewish Life Center, Everett Jewish Life Center

Duplicate Bridge
2025-07-31 12:45, 2025-08-07 12:45, 2025-08-14 12:45 | Sports Club, Sports Club
Don’t have a partner? One will be provided. Game managed by Shelley Dahlie. $10/person.

School of Music: Chamber Concert #5
2025-07-31 13:00 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall

A Showcase of One Acts - Drama League Directing Fellow’s Presentation
2025-07-31 14:00, 2025-07-31 19:30 | Bratton Theater, Bratton Theater
The Drama League’s FutureNow Stage Directing Fellows take over Bratton Stage for an evening of one-act plays featuring the talents of our 2025 design fellows and acting conservatory.

Brendan Murphy
2025-07-31 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Brendan Murphy is the founding director of the Bearing Witness Institute for Interreligious and Ecumenical Dialogue at Marist School.
He has taught history at Marist since 1994 and is actively involved in developing educational initiatives and created a compelling “History and the Holocaust” seminar at Marist that is complemented by cocurricular international field trips to sites in Europe that were significant during the Holocaust. Over the years, high demand for Murphy’s thought-provoking antisemitism presentations at churches and synagogues in Atlanta, Georgia and across the country spurred the creation of the Bearing Witness Institute.
Murphy has received numerous awards, including the Outstanding Educator Award from the Anne Frank Center in New York, the ADL’s Abe Goldstein Human Relations and Unsung Hero Awards. His dedication to excellence in teaching has been acknowledged at Marist School and on the state level, with the Distinguished Service Award from the Georgia Independent School Association and twice with the Georgia Outstanding Educator of the Year Award from the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust. He also has been recognized as Teacher of the Year by the University of Notre Dame. Additionally, Murphy has participated in prestigious programs such as the Museum Teacher Fellowship at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. and the Lerner Fellowship at the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous in New York City. Recently, he was selected to participate in Leadership Atlanta’s Class of 2025.
In addition to serving as director of the Bearing Witness Institute and teaching his Holocaust seminar, Murphy moderates a Peace by Piece group, which brings students from Christian, Jewish, and Muslim communities together to foster friendship and understanding. In the coming years, he will replicate this Peace by Piece model in communities and schools across the nation.
A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Murphy earned a bachelor’s degree in education and history from the University of Notre Dame and holds a master’s degree in theology from Spring Hill College.

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
2025-07-31 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle Presentation — Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Loretta Thurwar and Hamara “Hurricane Staxxx” Stacker are the stars of the Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly popular, highly controversial profit-raising program in America’s increasingly dominant private prison industry. It’s the return of the gladiators, and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom.
In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death matches before packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. As fan favorites, teammates, and lovers, Thurwar and Staxxx fight for their lives and consider how they might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games. But CAPE’s corporate owners will stop at nothing to protect their status quo, and the obstacles they devise have devastating consequences.
In his debut novel, Chain-Gang All-Stars, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah examines an America in which systemic racism, wanton capitalism, and mass incarceration combine to create a new privatized and monetized gladiator production in the United States, on which the kaleidoscopic lives of his main characters take center stage as they fight to survive and pursue their freedom — by any means necessary. A work longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal of Excellence and named a finalist for the 2024 Chautauqua Prize, among other accolades, Chain-Gang All-Stars combines prose that is both provocative and forthright in its critique of the American incarceration system.
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah was raised in Spring Valley, New York, and now lives in the Bronx. His debut collection, Friday Black, was a New York Times bestseller, won the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Award and the Dylan Thomas Prize. His first novel Chain-Gang All-Stars was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction, shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize and the Books Are My Bag Awards, and selected as a New York Times Top Ten Books of the Year. Adjei-Brenyah is a National Book Foundation’s ‘5 Under 35’ honoree.

CHQ Dialogues
2025-07-31 15:30, 2025-08-07 15:30, 2025-08-14 15:30 | United Methodist House, United Methodist House

CHQ Dialogues
2025-07-31 15:30, 2025-08-07 15:30, 2025-08-14 15:30 | Baptist House, Baptist House

CHQ Dialogues
2025-07-31 16:00, 2025-08-07 16:00, 2025-08-14 16:00 | AAHH African American Heritage House
The Dialogue is devoted to the AAHH Lecture on Wednesday at 3:30pm

Play CHQ: Get your Game On!
2025-07-31 16:00, 2025-08-07 16:00, 2025-08-14 16:00 | Miller Park, Miller Park

School of Music: Chamber Concert #6
2025-07-31 16:00 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall

Air Band
2025-07-31 16:30 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Boys’ and Girls’ Club Groupers return to the Amphitheater for our annual Air Band competition!

TIANANMEN TONIGHT
2025-07-31 17:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Meet the Filmmakers! Free Admission! In these perilous times for American journalism comes a story of truth telling in service to democracy. Tiananmen Tonight reveals the powerful human drama of Dan Rather and the CBS Evening News team battling for life and reputation while courageously reporting the extraordinary student uprising in 1989 that brought China to the brink of democratic reform. The film is produced and directed by Bestor Cram and Michael Streissguth. (NR, 84m)

CHQ Dialogues
2025-07-31 18:30, 2025-08-07 18:30, 2025-08-14 18:30 | Disciples of Christ House, Disciples of Christ House

Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto
2025-07-31 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Rossen Milanov, conductor
Sharon Roffman, violin
Experience an evening of passion and virtuosity as the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra’s new concertmaster Sharon Roffman takes the stage for Tchaikovsky’s breathtaking Violin Concerto, a dazzling showcase of lyricism and fire. The journey continues with Rachmaninoff’s sweeping Symphony No. 3, a masterpiece of rich harmonies and soaring melodies. Don’t miss this unforgettable night of Russian Romanticism, filled with heart-stirring emotion and exhilarating brilliance!
Program:
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 44

Alsu Kurmasheva, Roger Carstens & Almar Latour
2025-08-01 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Press freedom advocate and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty editor Alsu Kurmasheva and U.S. hostage negotiator Roger D. Carstens join Almar Latour, the CEO of Dow Jones and publisher of The Wall Street Journal, in conversation for the Chautauqua Lecture Series to close a week on “The Global Rise of Authoritarianism.”
Alsu Kurmasheva is a journalist and editor at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), where she has reported extensively on cultural and human rights issues in Russia’s Volga-Ural region. She first joined RFE/RL in 1998 as a radio program moderator and has since built a career covering the experiences of ethnic minorities in Russia. Her reporting has also focused on gender issues, with in-depth investigations into domestic violence and women’s rights.
In October 2023, Kurmasheva was detained in Russia and charged with failing to register as a foreign agent. Two months later, she was accused of spreading “false” information about the Russian military, a charge linked to her alleged role in distributing a book featuring accounts from Russians opposed to the invasion of Ukraine. Held for more than nine months, in July 2024, Kurmasheva was sentenced to six and a half years in prison. In August 2024, she was released as part of a prisoner exchange that also saw the return of fellow American journalist, The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
Following her release from detention in Russia, she has emerged as a vocal advocate for press freedom, drawing on her own experience of imprisonment to highlight the risks journalists face in authoritarian regimes.
Ambassador Roger D. Carstens is the inaugural John McCain Freedom for Political Prisoners distinguished senior fellow at the McCain Institute in Washington. Prior to assuming this role, Carstens was the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs at the U.S. Department of State. He previously served in Amman, Jordan, as the country director for a U.S.-based international NGO that provided humanitarian assistance to Syrian refugees and internally displaced persons. Prior positions include senior civilian advisor on the Commander’s Advisory and Assistance Team (CAAT) in Afghanistan; project director for an NGO based in Somalia; senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security; and special assistant for legislative affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
Carstens is a retired Army lieutenant colonel who served in Special Forces and the 1st Ranger Battalion. He is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and holds master’s degrees from the U.S. Naval War College and St. John’s College. Carstens is the recipient of the 2023 Robert A. Levinson Excellence in Government Service Award, the St. John’s College Alumni Association’s Award of Merit, and was selected as a Distinguished Member of the Special Forces Regiment.
Almar Latour is publisher of The Wall Street Journal and CEO of Dow Jones, a world-leading news and business information services company. He was named CEO in 2020 and, under his leadership, Dow Jones has delivered record financial results, more than doubling profitability in four years, with significant growth in subscriptions and business information services. The company has doubled digital subscriptions, while safeguarding The Wall Street Journal’s reputation as one of the world’s most-trusted news organizations. Dow Jones’ portfolio of business information offerings including Factiva, OPIS and Risk & Compliance provide businesses with key data and insights to make better decisions.
Latour has an extensive track record of building successful news media businesses in the digital age. He oversaw the creation of the Barron’s Group, quadrupling the group’s digital audience at Barron’s and MarketWatch, and led the modernization of The Wall Street Journal’s website. He also led the development of The Wall Street Journal in Japan, Korea and China.
Latour has been stationed as a journalist in Brussels, London, Stockholm, New York and Hong Kong. He has also served as a bureau chief in New York, the managing editor of The Wall Street Journal online, and the editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones in Asia-Pacific before being appointed its executive editor.

Summer on the Steps with Chautauqua Literary Arts
2025-08-01 12:15 | Alumni Hall Porch, Alumni Hall Porch
Summer on the Steps with Chautauqua Literary Arts: A Reading and Open Mic featuring Chautauqua Literary Arts Staff

Introduction to Jumu'ah Muslim Prayer
2025-08-01 12:30, 2025-08-08 12:30, 2025-08-15 12:30 | Hall of Christ: Sanctuary
Jumu’ah introduction for visitors is at 12:30 PM. Jumu’ah Service is at 1:05 PM

Opera Conservatory: Sing-Out
2025-08-01 13:00 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall

Matthew D. Taylor
2025-08-01 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Matthew D. Taylor is senior scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies in Baltimore, where he specializes in American Christianity, American Islam, Christian extremism, and religious politics. His new book, The Violent Take It by Force: The Christian Movement that is Threatening Our Democracy (Broadleaf, 2024), tracks how a loose network of charismatic Christian leaders called the New Apostolic Reformation was a major instigating force for the January 6th Insurrection and is currently reshaping the culture of the religious right in the U.S. He is the creator, writer, and narrator of the Charismatic Revival Fury audio-documentary series on the Straight White American Jesus podcast. He is also the author of Scripture People: Salafi Muslims in Evangelical Christians’ America (Cambridge, 2023). Taylor holds a PhD in religious studies and Muslim-Christian relations from Georgetown University and an MA in theology from Fuller Theological Seminary. He also serves as an associate fellow at the Center for Peace Diplomacy in New Orleans, where he works on preventing religion-related violence surrounding U.S. elections. Previously he served on the faculty of Georgetown University and of George Washington University.

CHQ Dialogues
2025-08-01 15:30, 2025-08-08 15:30, 2025-08-15 15:30 | Unitarian Universalist Fellowship

CHQ Dialogues
2025-08-01 15:30, 2025-08-08 15:30, 2025-08-15 15:30 | Episcopal Cottage, Episcopal Cottage

CHQ Dialogues
2025-08-01 15:30 | Alumni Hall Ballroom, Alumni Hall Ballroom

Piano Program Play-Out
2025-08-01 16:00 | Sherwood-Marsh 101

Hebrew Congregation Evening Kabbalat Shabbat Service
2025-08-01 17:00, 2025-08-08 17:00, 2025-08-15 17:00 | Miller Park, Miller Park

Chautauqua Theater Company presents All the Little Boxes
2025-08-01 18:00, 2025-08-02 19:30, 2025-08-03 14:00 | Bratton Theater, Bratton Theater
by Vichet Chum, Directed by Mei Ann Teo, Bratton Theater
Chan finds an unexpected way to care for the strangers around him: He organizes their closets and unpacks their skeletons, but all the decluttering in the world won’t relieve Chan of his own baggage. All the Little Boxes is a moving and surprisingly hilarious new play for the Marie Kondo inside us all.

FLOW
2025-08-01 18:00, 2025-08-02 20:00, 2025-08-03 15:00, 2025-08-03 21:00, 2025-08-04 18:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
This Latvian Oscar Winner for Best Animated Feature follows a courageous cat after his home is devastated by a great flood. Teaming up with a capybara, a lemur, a bird, and a dog they must rely on trust, courage, and wits to survive the perils of a newly aquatic planet. “A film full of wonders but not a single word of dialogue.” -Cath Clarke, Guardian
“Dreamy, epic, perilous and very beautiful.” -Ty Burr, Washington Post “Poignant, unique, absolutely gorgeous, and a must-see.” -Kristy Puchko, Mashable (PG, 84m)

A Service of Compline
2025-08-01 19:30, 2025-08-08 19:30, 2025-08-15 19:30 | Episcopal Chapel

The Avett Brothers
2025-08-01 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Four-time GRAMMY Award nominees The Avett Brothers made mainstream waves with their critically acclaimed 2009 major label debut, I and Love and You. In 2012, The Carpenter hit #4 on the Billboard 200, followed by Magpie and the Dandelion in 2013, which debuted at #5 on the Billboard 200. The 2017 documentary May It Last: A Portrait of The Avett Brothers (co-directed by Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio) chronicles the process of writing 2016’s True Sadness, which debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Top Albums, #1 on Rock Albums, #3 on the Billboard 200, and scored two Grammy nominations. The film was released theatrically and on HBO to rave reviews and is available on DVD/BluRay/VOD. In 2019, the band released their tenth studio album Closer Than Together featuring the single “High Steppin’” which reached #1 on the Americana Radio Singles Chart. The Third Gleam came out amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Americana/Folk Albums, #1 Rock Albums, #1 Vinyl Albums, and the single “Victory” hit #1 on the Americana Radio Singles Chart. This year saw the release of The Avett Brothers, an album that is as much untitled as it is self-titled: a collection of songs that revealed themselves naturally over time. Swept Away – a musical inspired by and featuring the music of The Avett Brothers – recently debuted on Broadway. The Avett Brothers have been inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame and have earned a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Americana Music Association. They are currently on tour throughout the U.S.

SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D'ETAT
2025-08-01 20:30, 2025-08-02 16:30, 2025-08-03 17:30, 2025-08-04 20:30 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
United Nations, 1960: the Global South ignites a political earthquake, jazz musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach crash the Security Council, Nikita Khrushchev bangs his shoe, and the U.S. State Department sends Louis Armstrong to Congo to deflect attention from a CIA-backed coup. Director Johan Grimonprez’s magnificent essay film captures the moment when African politics and American jazz collided. “A mind-blowingly rich tapestry of research, music, and the jazziest history lesson imaginable, with freewheeling beats and riffs echoing into today with urgent purpose.” -Tomris Laffly, Harper’s Bazaar “Riveting and propulsive!” -Lovia Gyarkye,Hollywood Reporter (NR, 150m)

CHQ Mystic Heart Meditation: Carol McKiernan
2025-08-02 07:15, 2025-08-09 07:15, 2025-08-16 07:15 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Carol McKiernan grew up at Chautauqua and says that her love of mystical practices began here on the grounds. She was formally introduced to meditation many years ago at an off-season yoga and meditation retreat led by Subagh Singh Khalsa and has been practicing Centering Prayer daily ever since. She has attended many seminars, workshops, and retreats offered by Contemplative Outreach, founded by the late Father Thomas Keating, a Trappist Monk who was instrumental in the creation of Centering Prayer. Carol practices Centering Prayer with weekly groups in Campus Ministry at Villanova University and at St. David’s Episcopal Church outside of Philadelphia. She has led and participated in many Centering Prayer workshops and groups in the areas surrounding her hometown of Philadelphia. She is a member of the Augustinian Affiliates, the lay order of the Augustinian Friars and volunteers for the Friars in the Villanova Province. Carol is a past board member and treasurer of the Chautauqua Catholic Community.

Old First Night Race
2025-08-02 07:30 | Sports Club, Sports Club
The Sports Club is hosting the popular 49th Annual Old First Night Run/Walk Race and Kids Fun Runs. The OFN 2.75 mile chip-timed race follows the perimeter of Chautauqua’s beautiful grounds. This year we will also host two kids races – a 1 mile non-chip timed race and little kids short fun run. Kids hats included with race registration. If you are not on the grounds August 2, you can participate in the virtual Around the World race. Race registration includes t-shirt. Sign up at oldfirstnight.com. Questions? Contact sportsclub@chq.org

Chabad Jewish House, Community Shabbat Service, Rabbi Zalman Vilenken
2025-08-02 09:30, 2025-08-09 09:30, 2025-08-16 09:30 | Chabad Jewish House

Sabbath Morning Worship, Hebrew Congregation
2025-08-02 10:30, 2025-08-09 10:30, 2025-08-16 10:30 | Hurlbut Church sanctuary, Hurlbut Church sanctuary

Kiddish Luncheon
2025-08-02 11:30, 2025-08-09 11:30, 2025-08-16 11:30 | Hurlbut Truesdale

Contemporary Issues Forum: Arthur S. Levine, M.D.
2025-08-02 15:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Arthur S. Levine is a Distinguished University Professor; a professor of medicine, molecular genetics, and neurobiology; senior vice chancellor emeritus of health sciences; and dean emeritus of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The executive director of Pitt’s Brain Institute, in 2020, he stepped down from his role as Pitt’s dean of medicine and senior vice chancellor for the health sciences to establish and lead the Assault on Alzheimer initiative. The topic of his Contemporary Issues Forum lecture for the Chautauqua Women’s Club is “The Biology of Alzheimer’s Disease and the Challenge of Treatment.”
Before his tenure at the University of Pittsburgh, Levine served at the National Institutes of Health for more than three decades. Throughout his career, Levine has also been engaged in molecular biologic research and continues to direct his own laboratory, which is focused on the molecular mechanisms that maintain the fidelity of the genome. Recently the lab has begun to explore this same theme in the brain.
The recipient of numerous honors, including the Meritorious Service and the Distinguished Service Medals of the United States Public Health Service, Levine is a graduate of Columbia College. He received his M.D. from the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science and completed his internship and residency in pediatrics at the University of Minnesota Hospitals.

Catholic Mass
2025-08-02 17:00, 2025-08-09 17:00, 2025-08-16 17:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy

Laufey: A Night at the Symphony with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra
2025-08-02 20:15, 2025-08-03 19:30 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
“As a musician, my goal is to bring jazz and classical music to my generation through a more accessible road,” declares the composer, singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Laufey (pronounced lay-vay). The LA-based, Icelandic-Chinese artist’s trailblazing approach paid off, as she is now the top streaming jazz artist in the world with an audience of over 15M across all socials.
Inspired by jazz greats and classical masters while possessing a point of view that could only be conveyed by a 21st century twenty-something, Laufey’s GRAMMY-winning second album Bewitched is a reflection on “the magic and luster unique to youthful love.” Her self-assured musicianship and deeply felt lyrics takes the idea of “classic” music and humanize it, giving her music a relatability to the next generation. “There are very few examples of artists who are on stage with an orchestra one day and making TikToks the next,” she notes dryly. Laufey’s straddling of those two worlds has put her in a singular place across music.

Episcopal Holy Eucharist
2025-08-03 07:45, 2025-08-10 07:45, 2025-08-17 07:45 | Chapel of the Good Shepherd, Chapel of the Good Shepherd

Song, Prayer, Communion & Meditation
2025-08-03 08:30, 2025-08-10 08:30, 2025-08-17 08:30 | Hurlbut Church sanctuary, Hurlbut Church sanctuary

United Church of Christ Worship Service
2025-08-03 09:00, 2025-08-10 09:00, 2025-08-17 09:00 | Randell Chapel, UCC Headquarters

Catholic Mass
2025-08-03 09:15, 2025-08-10 09:15, 2025-08-17 09:15 | Hall of Christ: Sanctuary

Unity Service
2025-08-03 09:30, 2025-08-10 09:30, 2025-08-17 09:30 | Hall of Missions, Hall of Missions

Quaker Worship Service
2025-08-03 09:30, 2025-08-10 09:30, 2025-08-17 09:30 | Quaker House
Quaker Worship Sevice

Unitarian Universalist Service
2025-08-03 09:30, 2025-08-10 09:30, 2025-08-17 09:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy

Sister Teresa Maya
2025-08-03 10:45, 2025-08-04 09:15, 2025-08-05 09:15, 2025-08-06 09:15, 2025-08-07 09:15, 2025-08-08 09:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Sister Teresa Maya is a member of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio. She has served as teacher, history professor, administrator, leader, facilitator and speaker. She is passionate about forming ministers committed to transforming Church and society . She believes in life-long learning and has a strong conviction in the future of consecrated life.
Sister Teresa got her B.A. at Yale University, her M.A. at the Graduate Theological Union at Berkeley and the Ph.D. in El Colegio de Mexico in Mexico City. She served fourteen years in the leadership of her religious institute and on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) presidency from 2016-19. She accompanies other religious congregations as facilitator and consultant.
She is currently serving as Senior Director for Theology and Sponsorship in the Catholic Health Association (USA).

CLSC Vigil Ceremony Rehearsal
2025-08-03 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy

Austin Walkin' Cane
2025-08-03 15:00 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Austin Walkin’ Cane is not your typical bluesman-he’s a storytelling troubadour with a guitar in one hand and a slide in the other, roaming the backroads of the blues with a style that’s as gritty as it is soulful. Hailing from Cleveland, Ohio, Austin’s music is steeped in the traditions of Delta blues, but it’s his life experiences that really give his sound its unique edge. Whether he’s playing a resonator guitar that echoes the ghosts of blues legends or belting out lyrics that cut straight to the bone, Austin brings an authenticity to his performances that can only come from living the blues.
With a voice like gravel dipped in honey, Austin has toured the world, sharing stages with icons like Buddy Guy and Robert Lockwood Jr. But it’s his solo shows, where the intimacy of his performance pulls the audience into the heart of the blues, that truly showcase his artistry. Austin Walkin’ Cane is more than a musician; he’s a bluesman in the truest sense of the word with a sound and style that are all his own.

Marita Golden and Valerie C. Woods
2025-08-03 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Chautauqua Writers’ Center Faculty Reading — Week Seven — Featuring Marita Golden (Prose) and Valerie C. Woods (Writing for TV/Film)
Marita Golden is an award-winning author of over twenty works of fiction and nonfiction. Her books include the novels The Wide Circumference of Love, and After, and the memoirs Migrations of the Heart, Saving Our Sons, and Don’t Play in the Sun: One Woman’s Journey Through the Color Complex. Her most recent work of nonfiction is The New Black Woman: Loves Herself, Has Boundaries, Heals Every Day, a sequel to her book The Strong Black Woman: How a Myth Endangers the Physical and Mental Health of Black Women. In February 2025, Mango Publishing released How To Become A Black Writer: Creating and Honoring Black Stories That Matter.
She is the recipient of many awards including the Writers for Writers Award presented by Barnes & Noble and Poets and Writers, an award from the Authors Guild, and the Fiction Award for her novel After awarded by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. She has lectured and read from her work internationally. She has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, been featured as a question on Jeopardy, and is a two-time NAACP Image Award nominee. She has been frequently interviewed on NPR.
Co-founder and President Emerita of the Zora Neale Hurston/ Richard Wright Foundation, Marita Golden is a veteran teacher of writing. She taught at the University of Lagos, in Nigeria and has served as a member of the faculties of the MFA Graduate Creative Writing Programs at George Mason University and Virginia Commonwealth University and in the MA Creative Writing Program at John Hopkins University. She has served as a Distinguished Writer in Residence at the University of the District of Columbia. As a literary consultant, she offers writing workshops, coaching, and manuscript evaluation services.
Valerie C. Woods is the Emmy winning Co-Executive Producer/writer for the Disney+ series The Crossover (2023). She was also a Co-Executive Producer/writer for the AppleTV+ mini-series, The Big Cigar (May 2024) and Co-Executive Producer/writer on Season 2 of the Netflix drama series Sweet Magnolias (2021-22). She also worked in the same position for Season 4 (2018-2019) of the critically acclaimed television drama series Queen Sugar, airing on Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). Ms. Woods is in development, through her MCV Productions banner, on the television adaptation of A Cowboy to Remember, the Cowboys of California trilogy of novels by Rebekah Weatherspoon. Also in development is a television adaptation based on Wrapped in Rainbows – The Life of Zora Neale Hurston, the award-winning biography written by Valerie Boyd.

Sacred Song Service - Celebrating the CLSC
2025-08-03 18:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy

CLSC Vigil Ceremony
2025-08-03 21:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy

CHQ Mystic Heart: Kainat Felicia Norton & Muinuddin Charles Smith
2025-08-04 07:45, 2025-08-05 07:45, 2025-08-07 07:45, 2025-08-08 07:45 | Presbyterian Chapel
: Kainat Felicia Norton and Muinuddin Charles Smith are senior Sufi teachers, retreat guides, and interfaith ministers within the Inayati Sufi Order. Together they founded and facilitate the Light of Guidance Center for Sufi Studies in New York City. Charles teaches leadership and sustainability studies at Hofstra University and Felicia teaches at the United Nations International School. They are married and live in New York City. Felicia has been touring the solo dance/theatre piece ‘NOOR’, depicting the life of Noor Inayat Khan, Sufi WW2 heroine, in London, Edinburgh, UK, France, and NYC. Together Felicia and Charles co-authored the book, ‘An Emerald Earth–Cultivating a Natural Spirituality and Serving Creative Beauty in Our World.’ Their book offers basic practices, poetry, and wisdom teachings from the Sufi tradition with the theme of joining inner cultivation and sacred ecology. They travel and offer retreats and workshops throughout the US, Canada, Asia, and Europe.

Maggie Smith & Kwame Alexander
2025-08-04 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
NOTE: Previously announced conversation partner LeVar Burton is unable to travel to Chautauqua at this time, and we wish him all the best.
Honoring a shared mission to change the world through the power of storytelling, award-winning author, poet, producer and educator Kwame Alexander returns to the Amphitheater stage to lead a series of conversations on making a positive difference. He launches this week for the Chautauqua Lecture Series with Maggie Smith, the celebrated, bestselling and award-winning poet and memoirist.
Maggie Smith is the author of seven award-winning books: Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life, You Could Make This Place Beautiful, Lamp of the Body, The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison, and Good Bones (named by The Washington Post as one of the Five Best Poetry Books of 2017), Keep Moving and Goldenrod. Her newest poetry collection, A Suit or a Suitcase, is forthcoming from Washington Square Press in 2026.
The title poem of Good Bones was called the “Official Poem of 2016” by Public Radio International and has been translated into nearly a dozen languages. Smith’s poems have appeared in The New York Times, Tin House, The Believer, The Paris Review, Kenyon Review, Best American Poetry and on the CBS primetime drama “Madam Secretary.” A Pushcart Prize winner, Smith has received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Academy of American Poets, the Ohio Arts Council, and the Sustainable Arts Foundation.
Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, producer and No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of 40 books, including Why Fathers Cry at Night, An American Story, The Door of No Return, Becoming Muhammad Ali (co-authored with James Patterson), Rebound, which was shortlisted for the prestigious UK Carnegie Medal, and The Undefeated — the National Book Award nominee, Newbery Honor, and Caldecott Medal-winning picture book illustrated by Kadir Nelson.
The Michael I. Rudell Artistic Director of Literary Arts and Inaugural Writer-in-Residence at Chautauqua Institution, Alexander is the recipient of numerous awards, including The Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, The Coretta Scott King Author Honor, three NAACP Image Award nominations and the 2017 Inaugural Pat Conroy Legacy Award. In 2018, he opened the Barbara E. Alexander Memorial Library and Health Clinic in Ghana, as a part of LEAP for Ghana, an international literacy program he co-founded. Alexander is executive producer, showrunner, and Emmy-winning writer of “The Crossover” TV series, which premiered on Disney+ in April 2023. “The Crossover” was produced in partnership with LeBron James’ SpringHill Company and Big Sea Entertainment, Alexander’s production company where he serves as CEO and co-founder, dedicated to creating innovative, highly original children’s and family entertainment.
His mission is to change the world, one word at a time.

CLSC Book Discussion
2025-08-04 12:15 | Alumni Hall Porch, Alumni Hall Porch
Presenters Steven Pallie and Toby Schermerhorn will lead a community discussion on our Week Seven CLSC selection Mỹ Documents by Kevin Nguyen.

Climate Leadership in the National Parks: What Does the Future Hold?
2025-08-04 12:30 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Shawn Norton led the National Park Service climate and sustainability program for decades before retiring this spring. Shawn will speak to the many ways in which the national parks have stepped up to climate leadership, including programs we worked on in collaboration with Chautauqua Climate Change Iniatiative director Mark Wenzler in his former capacity as senior vice president of the National Parks Conservation Association. Shawn will also address how much of the National Park Service’s climate work is now under threat.

CLSC Young Readers Book Discussion
2025-08-04 13:20 | Alumni Hall Porch, Alumni Hall Porch
Presenters Anne Pekrul and Mary Pat McFarland will lead a community discussion on our Week Seven CLSC Young Readers selections J vs. K by Kwame Alexander and Nic Blake and the Remarkables by Angie Thomas.

Liz Bucar
2025-08-04 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Liz Bucar is a leading expert in religious ethics, a professor of religion at Northeastern University, and a prizewinning author. Her writing, teaching, and public lectures cover a wide range of topics—from sexual reassignment surgery to the politics of religious clothing–but generally focus on how a deeper understanding religious difference can change our sense of what is right and good.
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Liz has written for The Atlantic, Teen Vogue, The Los Angeles Times, and Religion News Service, among others, and her work has been discussed in the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, and Instyle Magazine. She has written four books, including her most recent, Stealing My Religion: Not Just Any Cultural Appropriation. She is also the Director of Sacred Writes, a grant-funded project that provides media training for religion scholars.
Liz received a degree in government from Harvard and a Ph.D. in religious ethics from the University of Chicago. She is a certified Kripalu yoga teacher and leads a popular study abroad program along the Camino de Santiago in Spain.

"How Sweet the Sound: A Visual Interpretation by Charly Palmer" exhibition opening reception and artist talk
2025-08-04 15:00 | CVA: Arts Quad
“How Sweet the Sound: A Visual Interpretation by Charly Palmer” exhibition opening reception and artist talk. Exhibition runs August 4-15. Charly Palmer’s illustrations are featured in the book “How Sweet the Sound”, written by Kwame Alexander, Chautauqua’s Michael I. Rudell Artistic Director of Literary Arts and Writer in Residence.
Charly Palmer is a renowned award-winning fine artist and illustrator known for his compelling artwork that reflects African ancestry and contemporary experiences. Through his paintings, Palmer creates rhythmic visual narratives that challenge viewers’ perceptions. His innate ability to capture the nuances of Blackness is expressed through rich depth, intricate patterns, symbols, and textures. Notable achievements include designing the Black Heritage Stamp honoring Judge Constance Baker Motley, creating the album cover for John Legend’s “Bigger Love,” and illustrating the cover for TIME Magazine’s “America Must Change.” He also co-authored the award-winning “New Brownies Book: A Love Letter To Black Families.”

"How Sweet the Sound: A Visual Interpretation by Charly Palmer" Exhibition
2025-08-04 15:00 - 2025-08-15 17:00 | CVA: Arts Quad
“How Sweet the Sound: A Visual Interpretation by Charly Palmer” exhibition runs August 4–15. Charly Palmer’s illustrations are featured in the book “How Sweet the Sound,” written by Kwame Alexander, Chautauqua’s Michael I. Rudell Artistic Director of Literary Arts and Writer in Residence.
Charly Palmer is a renowned award-winning fine artist and illustrator known for his compelling artwork that reflects African ancestry and contemporary experiences. Through his paintings, Palmer creates rhythmic visual narratives that challenge viewers’ perceptions. His innate ability to capture the nuances of Blackness is expressed through rich depth, intricate patterns, symbols, and textures. Notable achievements include designing the Black Heritage Stamp honoring Judge Constance Baker Motley, creating the album cover for John Legend’s “Bigger Love,” and illustrating the cover for TIME Magazine’s “America Must Change.” He also co-authored the award-winning “New Brownies Book: A Love Letter To Black Families.”

Ted Deutch
2025-08-04 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
CEO of American Jewish Committee

Forum Dialogues: Financial Sustainability Listening Sessions
2025-08-04 15:30 | Hall of Christ: Sanctuary

Chautauqua Chamber Music: Trio Bohémo
2025-08-04 16:00 | Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall
Trio Bohémo is a dynamic chamber ensemble known for passion, precision and engaging performances. Hailing from the Czech Republic, the trio brings fresh interpretations to both classical and modern repertoire. Their artistry and synergy have earned them accolades at international competitions and festivals. Trio Bohémo continues to captivate audiences worldwide with their dedication to musical excellence and emotional depth.
Program:
Antonín Rejcha: Piano Trio No. 6 in A major, Op. 101
Johannes Brahms: Piano Trio No. 1 in B major, Op. 8
Jan Vičar: Cycle of folk songs ‘From Moravia’

Houston Ballet II with Students from Chautauqua School of Dance
2025-08-04 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Houston Ballet II is the second company of Houston Ballet, America’s fourth-largest ballet company. Comprised of a stellar array of ballet students from around the world, Houston Ballet II members perform a diverse range of works, including excerpts from classics like The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, and The Nutcracker, Balanchine ballets, and contemporary works by Houston Ballet Artistic Director, Stanton Welch AM, and others.
Under the direction of Julie Kent and Stanton Welch AM, Artistic Directors, and Jennifer Sommers, Director of the Academy, Houston Ballet II dancers are led by internationally acclaimed coach and teacher Claudio Muñoz, Ballet Master for Houston Ballet II and Houston Ballet’s artistic staff. Houston Ballet II tours nationally and internationally. Most recently, they performed along the East Coast in a multi-city tour presenting classical and contemporary work.

Children's School Old First Night Sing Along
2025-08-05 10:00 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall

Ada Calhoun & Kwame Alexander
2025-08-05 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Ada Calhoun’s career, the Village Voice noted in 2015, “can seem as though it were cobbled together from the resumés of three ambitious journalists.” Calhoun is a reporter, essayist, memoirist, ghostwriter and — as of this year — novelist; now, she will make her Chautauqua Lecture Series debut in conversation with Kwame Alexander, discussing the passions and opportunities that have shaped her life.
Ada Calhoun is the author of, most recently, Crush — her debut novel released in 2025. Other works include Also a Poet: Frank O’Hara, My Father, and Me, which was longlisted for an Andrew Carnegie Medal for Nonfiction; Why We Can’t Sleep: Women’s New Midlife Crisis; St. Marks Is Dead: The Many Lives of America’s Hippest Street; and the memoir Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give.
Throughout her career, Calhoun has been a crime reporter for the New York Post, frequent contributor to The New York Times Book Review, and theater listings editor for New York magazine. She is an A‑list ghostwriter, having anonymously collaborated on 30 major nonfiction books in the past dozen years, including several No. 1 New York Times bestsellers. She has written for Time, National Geographic Traveler, the Times Literary Supplement, the New Republic, Billboard, Cosmopolitan, The Washington Post and Redbook.
Calhoun’s national news reporting has won several awards, including a USC-Annenberg National Health Journalism Fellowship, a Kiplinger fellowship, a CCF Media Award (for her New York Times Magazine work on a legal challenge in Alabama), a Croly Award, and an Alicia Patterson Foundation fellowship. She received a MacDowell colony stay in 2013 for St. Marks Is Dead and has been granted several residencies in the New York Public Library’s scholars’ rooms, including in 2023–24. In 2023 she was a fellow at the Hawthornden Castle in Scotland.
Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, producer and No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of 40 books, including Why Fathers Cry at Night, An American Story, The Door of No Return, Becoming Muhammad Ali (co-authored with James Patterson), Rebound, which was shortlisted for the prestigious UK Carnegie Medal, and The Undefeated — the National Book Award nominee, Newbery Honor, and Caldecott Medal-winning picture book illustrated by Kadir Nelson.
The Michael I. Rudell Artistic Director of Literary Arts and Inaugural Writer-in-Residence at Chautauqua Institution, Alexander is the recipient of numerous awards, including The Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, The Coretta Scott King Author Honor, three NAACP Image Award nominations and the 2017 Inaugural Pat Conroy Legacy Award. In 2018, he opened the Barbara E. Alexander Memorial Library and Health Clinic in Ghana, as a part of LEAP for Ghana, an international literacy program he co-founded. Alexander is executive producer, showrunner, and Emmy-winning writer of “The Crossover” TV series, which premiered on Disney+ in April 2023. “The Crossover” was produced in partnership with LeBron James’ SpringHill Company and Big Sea Entertainment, Alexander’s production company where he serves as CEO and co-founder, dedicated to creating innovative, highly original children’s and family entertainment.
His mission is to change the world, one word at a time.

BTG Brownbag. Marcus Rosten, Western NY Land Conservancy: Animal Tracking for Wildlife Corridors
2025-08-05 12:15 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Marcus Rosten is the WNY Wildway Director at the Western New York Land Conservancy. He’s served as an interpretive park ranger in our national parks and forests, led environmental education programs and stewardship projects with local non-profit organizations, and worked as a fish and wildlife technician conducting wildlife surveys and managing habitats for state and federal agencies. Marcus is a 30 Under 30 Awardee (2020) from the North American Association for Environmental Education and has been featured nationally in Scholastic News, the Nike Journal, NPR’s BirdNote, and on PBS Nature. His talk at Chautauqua will focus on Animal Tracking for Wildlife Corridors.

CHQ Mystic Heart: Kainat Felicia Norton and Muinuddin Charles Smith
2025-08-05 12:30, 2025-08-07 12:30 | Hall of Missions, Hall of Missions

Marie Griffith
2025-08-05 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Marie Griffith is the John C. Danforth Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis. She served for 12 years (2011-2023) as the director of the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics and the editor of the Center’s journal, Religion & Politics. Her research focuses on American Christianity, including the changing profile of American evangelicals and ongoing conflicts over gender, sexuality, and marriage.
Professor Griffith obtained her undergraduate degree at the University of Virginia in Political and Social Thought and her Ph.D. in the study of religion from Harvard University. Before moving to Washington University in 2011, she served as professor of religion and director of the women and gender studies program at Princeton University, where she was awarded the President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching; and later as the John A. Bartlett Professor of New England Church History at Harvard. In 2015 she was appointed a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians.
Griffith is the author or editor of seven books. Her first, God’s Daughters: Evangelical Women and the Power of Submission (University of California Press, 1997), examines the practices and perceptions of contemporary evangelical women. Her next book, Born Again Bodies: Flesh and Spirit in American Christianity (University of California Press, 2004), explores the history of Christian-influenced attitudes and practices related to embodiment in modern America; while Moral Combat: How Sex Divided American Christians and Fractured American Politics (Basic Books, 2017) traces conflicts over sexual morality, feminism, and gender in American religion and politics. Her latest book, Making the World Over: Confronting Racism, Misogyny, and Xenophobia in U.S. History (UVA Press, 2021), urges a re-reading of the nation’s history that opens up greater complexity than our stock narratives. These books, along with her three edited volumes—Women and Religion in the African Diaspora: Knowledge, Power, and Performance (co-edited with Barbara Dianne Savage, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006), Religion and Politics in the Contemporary United States (co-edited with Melani McAlister, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), and American Religions: A Documentary History (Oxford University Press, 2007)—exhibit Griffith’s varied research interests. In addition to her books, Professor Griffith has published numerous scholarly articles, book chapters, and essays.
Griffith is a frequent media commentator and public speaker on current issues pertaining to religion and politics. She is currently writing the first in-depth comparative history of the clergy sexual abuse crises within American Christianity, focusing on the U.S. Catholic Church and evangelical groups such as the Southern Baptist Convention.

SACRAMENTO
2025-08-05 15:00, 2025-08-06 18:00, 2025-08-07 20:45 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Following the death of his father, energetic and free-spirited Rickey (Michael Angarano) convinces long-time friend Glenn (Michael Cera) to go on an impromptu road trip from Los Angeles to Sacramento. In the worn yellow seats of Glenn’s old college convertible, the two men confront their anxiety-ridden lives, addressing past mistakes and questioning what their futures hold. “The prickly comedy of male-pattern personality collapse gives way to wisdom, something that Sacramento has in abundance.” -Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times (R, 89m)

Heritage Lecture Series: Jonathan D. Schmitz
2025-08-05 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
As part of the Oliver Archives Center’s Heritage Lecture Series, Chautauqua Institution Archives and Historian, Jonathan D. Schmitz will present “Three Noteworthy Chautauquans”.

School of Music Faculty Spotlight Series: Hornapalooza!
2025-08-05 16:15 | Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall
Closing out our series, we proudly present the venerable Horn Section of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra (Roger Kaza, Bill Bernatis, Donna Dolson, Daniel Kerdelwicz and Mark Robbins)! Prepare to be captivated by a stirring program featuring the timeless works of Hindemith, Faure, and Shaw. Each piece promises to showcase the majestic sound and artistry of the horn section in a way you won’t want to miss. Join us for a celebration of music that will resonate long after the final note.

THE LAST RANGER
2025-08-05 17:30 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Meet the Filmmaker Special Event! Free Admission! 2025 Oscar Nominated Live Action Short Film. When young Litha is introduced to the magic of a game reserve by the last remaining ranger, they are ambushed by poachers. In the ensuing battle to save the rhinos, Litha discovers a terrible secret. Actor/Writer and Executive Producer, David S. Lee, will host discussion to follow. (NR, 28m)

Old First Night
2025-08-05 18:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Old First Night is Chautauqua’s birthday party, and all are invited!
In the early years of Chautauqua, the season’s first night was not in late June but early August. Therefore, Old First Night (OFN) is a celebration of the original first night of the season at Chautauqua.
This event begins with music from Thursday Morning Brass at 6 p.m., followed by vespers and a traditional Chautauqua salute called the Drooping of the Lilies, which honors Chautauquans who are no longer with us. The program continues with music and audience participation events, and all generations are involved, including Children’s School and Boys’ and Girls’ Club. The program concludes with a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday” accompanied by the Massey Memorial Organ.

The Acrobats of Cirque-Tacular
2025-08-05 19:30 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Get ready for a circus like no other! With breathtaking acrobatics, world-class talent, and heart-stopping feats, our award-winning production has dazzled audiences in over 70 countries. Honored with the New York Parents’ Choice Award, we celebrate the spirit of American circus—bold, brilliant, and brimming with joy. Mind-boggling artistry and athleticism ignite the imagination of the young and the young in spirit alike!

LIZA: A TRULY TERRIFIC ABSOLUTELY TRUE STORY
2025-08-05 20:15, 2025-08-06 20:30, 2025-08-07 15:15, 2025-08-07 18:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
This star-studded tribute brings into focus the dazzling, complex period of Liza Minnelli’s life just after the tragic death of her mother Judy Garland, as she confronts personal and professional challenges on the way to becoming a bona fide legend. “A creation story in a minor key, it traces how the only child of two film immortals beat the odds, survived terrible loss, weathered unfortunate relationships and became an international star in her own right.” -Manohla Dargis’ New York Times “A lovely film. I loved it completely.” -Tim Cogshell, FilmWeek (NR, 104m)

CHQ Mystic Heart: Kainat Felicia Norton and Muinuddin Charles Smith
2025-08-06 07:45 | Presbyterian Chapel

CLSC Recognition Day
2025-08-06 09:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy

Carla Hall & Kwame Alexander
2025-08-06 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
In the midst of a week dedicated to finding one’s passions, seizing opportunities and changing the world, chef and author Carla Hall joins Kwame Alexander in conversation to discuss her work and the philosophy at the heart of it: Always cook with love.
Carla Hall first won over audiences when she competed on Bravo’s “Top Chef” and “Top Chef: All Stars.” A trained chef who has worked in several professional restaurant kitchens in and around the Washington, D.C. area, Hall believes food connects us all — a belief she strives to convey through her work, her cooking, and in her daily interactions with others.
Known for her work as a judge on Food Network competition shows like “Harry Potter: The Wizards of Baking” and the many iterations (summer, holiday and Halloween) “Baking Championships,” Hall spent seven years co-hosting ABC’s Emmy Award-winning, popular lifestyle series “The Chew,” and is currently featured as the host of “Chasing Flavors” on Max.
Her most recent cookbook, Carla Hall’s Soul Food: Everyday and Celebration, was published in 2018, landing on annual “Best Cookbook” lists across the country and receiving an NAACP Image Awards nomination. Her debut picture book, Carla and the Christmas Cornbread, was published in November 2021 with Denene Millner Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing. Illustrated by Cherise Harris, Carla and the Christmas Cornbread is loosely based on Hall’s childhood growing up in Nashville and celebrates family traditions, old and new. Her second children’s book, Carla and the Tin Can Cake, will be available October 2025.
The culinary ambassador chef at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, in 2024 Hall was honored by Les Dames d’Escoffier as Grande Dame, a lifetime achievement award and honorary title is given to members in recognition of extraordinary contributions within the fields of food, beverage and hospitality.
Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, producer and No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of 40 books, including Why Fathers Cry at Night, An American Story, The Door of No Return, Becoming Muhammad Ali (co-authored with James Patterson), Rebound, which was shortlisted for the prestigious UK Carnegie Medal, and The Undefeated — the National Book Award nominee, Newbery Honor, and Caldecott Medal-winning picture book illustrated by Kadir Nelson.
The Michael I. Rudell Artistic Director of Literary Arts and Inaugural Writer-in-Residence at Chautauqua Institution, Alexander is the recipient of numerous awards, including The Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, The Coretta Scott King Author Honor, three NAACP Image Award nominations and the 2017 Inaugural Pat Conroy Legacy Award. In 2018, he opened the Barbara E. Alexander Memorial Library and Health Clinic in Ghana, as a part of LEAP for Ghana, an international literacy program he co-founded. Alexander is executive producer, showrunner, and Emmy-winning writer of “The Crossover” TV series, which premiered on Disney+ in April 2023. “The Crossover” was produced in partnership with LeBron James’ SpringHill Company and Big Sea Entertainment, Alexander’s production company where he serves as CEO and co-founder, dedicated to creating innovative, highly original children’s and family entertainment.
His mission is to change the world, one word at a time.

Organ Recitals
2025-08-06 12:15, 2025-08-13 12:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater

Climate Science and Disaster Preparedness in a Post-DOGE world
2025-08-06 12:15 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Tom Di Libert is a former Public Affairs Specialist and Climate Scientist at NOAA and currently directs communications for the nonprofit Climate Central. Tom was forced out of NOAA during the “Department of Government Efficiency” federal agency purges in 2025. Tom will speak to the importance of federal climate science, in particular the weather and climate researching and forecasting led by NOAA.

Homeboys group talk
2025-08-06 12:15 | Randell Chapel, UCC Headquarters

Lisa Fishbayn Joffe
2025-08-06 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Dr. Lisa Fishbayn Joffe is the Shulamit Reinharz Director of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute at Brandeis University, where she teaches in the department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies.
She is an expert on women’s rights under Jewish family law and on the intersection between secular and religious family law. Her publications include Gender, Religion and Family Law: Theorizing Conflicts Between Women’s Rights and Cultural Traditions (2012); The Polygamy Question (2015); Women’s Rights and Religious Law, (2016) and a special issue of Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women’s Studies and Gender Issues on New Historical and Legal Perspectives on Jewish Divorce (Volume 31, 2017). She is editor of the Brandeis University Press Series on Gender, Culture, Religion and the Law, and of the HBI Series on Jewish Women.
She is a co-founder of the Boston Agunah Task Force, devoted to research, education and advocacy for women under Jewish family law. She holds law degrees, from Osgoode Hall Law School and Harvard Law School, served as law clerk to Justice Iacobucci of the Supreme Court of Canada, and was called to the bar of the Law Society of Upper Canada. Before coming to Brandeis, she taught English law and comparative law at the Faculty of Laws, University College, London.

WYNTON MARSALIS' ALL RISE
2025-08-06 15:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Special Program Event! Free Admission with Gate Pass! Recorded live at the Chautauqua Amphitheater in 2024 this is Wynton Marsalis’s massive jazz symphony All Rise performed in it’s entirety featuring the Music School Festival Orchestra and the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus. (NR, 115m)

African American Heritage House Lecture: The Rev. Shavon Arline-Bradley
2025-08-06 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
The Rev. Shavon Arline-Bradley is the president and chief executive officer for National Council of Negro Women and brings 21 years of experience in healthcare; diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI); government affairs; and executive leadership. She is also the founding principal and CEO of R.E.A.C.H. Beyond Solutions, a public health, advocacy, and executive leadership firm.
Prior to starting R.E.A.C.H., Arline-Bradley served as senior adviser and director of external engagement during the Obama Administration in the Department of Health & Human Services for the 19th U.S. Surgeon General, Vivek H. Murthy. Prior to that, she served as executive vice president of strategic planning and partnerships, as well as former chief of staff, at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In 2024, Arline-Bradley became the youngest person ever to keynote the Martin Luther King, Jr. Beloved Community Commemorative Service, the annual celebration of King’s birthday organized by the King Center.
Arline-Bradley earned her undergraduate degree in exercise science and master’s in public health from Tulane University and graduated from the Samuel Dewitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University with a Master of Divinity, where she too became an ordained minister.

Operalogue: Puccini's La bohème
2025-08-06 17:00 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Join us for an operalogue to learn more about the music, with performances by young artists.

CVA Lecture Series: Luis Sahagun Nuño
2025-08-06 18:30 | Hultquist 101, Hultquist 101
CVA Lecture Series: CVA Galleries exhibiting artist
Luis Sahagun Nuño
Luis Sahagún Nuño is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice transforms drawing into ceremony and art into medicine. Born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, México, and raised in Chicago’s Southland, his practice is grounded in curanderismo, the traditional healing practices of Latin America. His work reimagines Mexica and Yucatec Maya rituals within contemporary art. Incorporating limpias (energetic cleansings) and soul retrievals, his practice functions as both offering and ritual, acts of reclamation, reconnecting lost energies, and weaving fragmented memories back into wholeness.
Sahagún received a BFA from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale and an MFA from Northern Illinois University. His work is part of the permanent collections of Fidelity, AltaMed, and the Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art, as well as private collections including Amir Shariat, Carmen Rita Wong, Nick Cave, and many others. He has exhibited globally, including at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, The Bronx Museum of Art, Roswell Museum of Art, DePaul Museum, Freeport Art Museum, Charlie James Gallery, The Chicago Cultural Center, Arvika Konsthall (Sweden), The National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago, EXPO Chicago, Untitled Miami, NADA Art Fair, and the University of Virginia, among others. He has been featured in Artforum, Hyperallergic, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Univision, FOX, NBC, NPR, and The Latinx Project in NYC: Sahagún has received the 3Arts Award and the United States Artist Fellowship.

Chautauqua Opera Company presents Puccini's La bohème
2025-08-06 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Giacomo Puccini’s lush and ravishing score returns to Chautauqua for the first time since 2003. Stage Director Keturah Stickann (LA TRAVIATA, L’ORFEO, THE MOTHER OF US ALL, and HANSEL AND GRETEL) tells this tragic tale through the eyes of an older and affluent Rodolfo, as the poet is haunted by the ghost of Mimì, and the memory of his fellow bohemians. With a full orchestra in the pit, and a strikingly reimagined chamber chorus framing the central characters on stage, this surprisingly intimate LA BOHÈME brings the grand emotions of Italian opera back to Chautauqua’s Amphitheater.

Amna Nawaz
2025-08-07 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Amna Nawaz serves as co-anchor of the PBS News Hour, for which she has reported across the country and around the world on a range of topics including politics, immigration, foreign affairs, education, gun violence, criminal justice reform, the climate, culture and sports. She joins the Chautauqua Lecture Series during the “Kwame Alexander and Friends” week to share stories from her reporting career that showcase the best in human values, highlighting our capacity for strength, resilience, love and inspiration.
Nawaz has also received four Peabody Awards for News Hour team coverage of some of the biggest stories of our time: in 2024 reporting from Israel after the Hamas Oct. 7 attack; in 2023, reporting from Uvalde, Texas, after the mass school shooting, as part of a gun violence series; in 2021, reporting from outside the U.S. Capitol during live coverage of the Jan. 6 insurrection; and in 2019, for an in-depth look at our global plastic pollution problem. Prior to joining PBS News Hour in April 2018, Nawaz was an anchor and correspondent at ABC News; prior to that, she served as foreign correspondent and Islamabad Bureau Chief at NBC News. She is also the founder and former managing editor of NBC’s Asian America platform.
In 2024, Nawaz was the recipient of the Diversity Woman Media’s Pioneer Award, as well as the Women’s Foreign Policy Group’s Breaking Barriers in Journalism Award. In 2023, she was named an A100 honoree by Gold House. She was the recipient of the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies’ Vision Award and the Media Award from the Muslim Affairs Public Council’s Media Award in 2022. Nawaz earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and her master’s degree from the London School of Economics.

"Inside/Outside: Open CVA Members Exhibition 2025" - August 7–21
2025-08-07 13:00 | Fowler-Kellogg Art Center: 1st Floor
“Inside/Outside: Open CVA Members Exhibition 2025” runs August 7–21.
Each year we highlight the exceptional work of our CVA Exhibiting Members who work in a wide range of materials and techniques. From lush landscapes to cozy interiors, this year’s exhibition is inspired by the theme “Inside/Outside”. These artists take time to consider the spaces we inhabit, dream about, and take care of.

Mary Anne Case
2025-08-07 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Mary Anne Case is the Arnold I. Shure Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School. A graduate of Yale College and the Harvard Law School, Mary Anne Case studied at the University of Munich; litigated for Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; and was professor of law and Class of 1966 Research Professor at the University of Virginia before joining the Law School faculty. She also served as a visiting professor at New York University in 1996-97 and in 1999, a Bosch Public Policy Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin in 2004, a Crane Fellow in Law and Public Affairs at Princeton University in 2006-07, a Samuel Rubin Visiting Professor at Columbia Law School in 2013, a Fernand Braudel Fellow at the European University Institute in 2016, and a Guest Professor at Goethe University Frankfurt in 2018.
Subjects Case has taught include feminist jurisprudence, constitutional law, regulation of sexuality, marriage, family law, sex discrimination, religious freedom, and European legal systems. She is the convener of the Workshop on Regulating Family, Sex, and Gender and board member of the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality. While diverse research interests include German contract law, theological anthropology, and the First Amendment, her scholarship to date has concentrated on the regulation of sex, gender, sexuality, religion, and family; and the early history of feminism.

"Inside/Outside: Open CVA Members Exhibition" Exhibition Opening Reception
2025-08-07 15:00 | Fowler-Kellogg Art Center: 1st Floor
Exhibition runs August 7–21. Each year we highlight the exceptional work of our CVA Exhibiting Members who work in a wide range of materials and techniques. From lush landscapes to cozy interiors, this year’s exhibition is inspired by the theme “Inside/Outside”. These artists take time to consider the spaces we inhabit, dream about, and take care of.

Chautauqua Opera Company presents An Afternoon of Song
2025-08-07 15:15 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall

Kevin Nguyen
2025-08-07 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle Presentation — Mỹ Documents: A Novel by Kevin Nguyen
Ursula, Alvin, Jen, and Duncan grew up as cousins in the sprawling Nguyen family. As young adults, they’re on the precipice of new ventures: Ursula as a budding journalist in Manhattan, Alvin as an engineering intern for Google, Jen as a naïve freshman at NYU, and Duncan as a promising newcomer on his high school football team. Their lives are upended when a series of violent, senseless attacks across America creates a national panic, prompting a government policy that pushes Vietnamese Americans into internment camps. Jen and Duncan are sent with their mother to Camp Tacoma while Ursula and Alvin receive exemptions.
Cut off entirely from the outside world, forced to work jobs they hate, Jen and Duncan try to withstand long, dusty days in camp and acclimate to life without the internet. That is, until Jen discovers a way to get messages to the outside. Her first instinct is to reach out to Ursula, who sees this connection as a chance to tell the world about the horrors of camp—and as an opportunity to bolster her own reporting career in the process.
Informed by real-life events, from Japanese incarceration to the Vietnam War and modern-day immigrant detention, Kevin Nguyen’s novel gives us a version of reality only a few degrees away from our own. Moving and finely attuned to both the brutalities and mundanities of racism, Mỹ Documents is a strangely funny and touching portrait of American ambition, fear, and family. The story of the Nguyens is one of resilience and how we return to one another, and to ourselves, after tragedy.
Kevin Nguyen is the author of the novel New Waves. He is the features editor at The Verge and was previously a senior editor at GQ. He lives in Brooklyn.
Nguyen will replace the previously announced Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle author Angie Thomas, who was originally scheduled for August 7. Her book, Blackout, remains a 2025 CLSC selection.

Beach-to-Beach Color Sprint
2025-08-07 16:30 | Sports Club, Sports Club
Ages 6+ are invited to run the color sprint. $13 fee includes white t-shirt. Powdered paint tossed at participants as they run from the children’s beach to Heinz beach.Great photo opp at the end! Questions? contact sportsclub@chq.org

Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Legend and Triumph
2025-08-07 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Timothy Muffitt, conductor
Conductor Timothy Muffitt joins the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra for a captivating evening of orchestral storytelling and symphonic brilliance. Fauré’s Pelléas et Mélisande Suite weaves a tale of mystery and romance with its lush, impressionistic beauty, setting the stage for Prokofiev’s powerful Symphony No. 5, a triumphant and deeply expressive work of grandeur. Experience an unforgettable night where delicate lyricism meets bold, heroic energy in a concert that will leave you spellbound!
Program:
Gabriel Faure: Pelleas et Melisande Suite, Op. 80
Sergei Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, Op. 100

Christopher Jackson & Kwame Alexander
2025-08-08 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Closing a week of conversations and presentations about finding one’s passions, seizing opportunities and, ultimately, changing the world, Kwame Alexander welcomes award-winning songwriter, composer, vocalist and actor Christopher Jackson to the Amphitheater stage. Jackson rose to fame portraying George Washington in Hamilton, and together the poet and the president will discuss Jackson’s personal journey — and the journey of America — through the soundtrack of our country.
Christopher Jackson is a Tony Award nominated actor, as well as a Grammy and Emmy Award-winning songwriter/composer best known for starring as George Washington in the critically acclaimed, award-winning musical Hamilton on Broadway and Disney+. Jackson starred in the hit CBS drama “Bull,” which ran for six seasons, and he can now be seen on HBO Max’s series “And Just Like That …”
In early 2021, Jackson starred in Freestyle Love Supreme on Broadway alongside Lin-Manuel Miranda. Additionally, he starred in Ava DuVernay’s Netflix mini-series, “When They See Us.” In December 2018, “One Last Time (44 Remix)” was released as a part of the Hamildrop series which featured Jackson alongside President Barack Obama and BeBe Winans. His Broadway credits include Holler if Ya Hear Me, After Midnight, The Bronx Bombers, In the Heights, Memphis and The Lion King (Simba). Off Broadway credits include Bronx Bombers (Primary Stages); The Jammer (Atlantic Theater Co.); Lonely, I’m Not (Second Stage); In the Heights (37 Arts), and Cotton Club Parade (ENCORES at City Center).
Additional TV and film credits include “Freestyle Love Supreme,” “Person of Interest,” “A Gifted Man,” “Fringe,” “Gossip Girl,” “Tracers,” “Afterlife” and the 2021 film adaptation of “In the Heights.” Jackson voiced “Where You Are” for the Disney film “Moana,” and served as composer/songwriter for “Sesame Street” (garnering seven Emmy nominations and one win), and co-music supervisor and writer for “The Electric Company” (PBS). Jackson won an Emmy Award for his song with Will.I.Am, “What I Am,” and he’ll release his second studio album later this year.
Jackson has performed sold-out concerts all over the United States, including Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center, and a command performance at the White House in 2023.
Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, producer and No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of 40 books, including Why Fathers Cry at Night, An American Story, The Door of No Return, Becoming Muhammad Ali (co-authored with James Patterson), Rebound, which was shortlisted for the prestigious UK Carnegie Medal, and The Undefeated — the National Book Award nominee, Newbery Honor, and Caldecott Medal-winning picture book illustrated by Kadir Nelson.
The Michael I. Rudell Artistic Director of Literary Arts and Inaugural Writer-in-Residence at Chautauqua Institution, Alexander is the recipient of numerous awards, including The Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, The Coretta Scott King Author Honor, three NAACP Image Award nominations and the 2017 Inaugural Pat Conroy Legacy Award. In 2018, he opened the Barbara E. Alexander Memorial Library and Health Clinic in Ghana, as a part of LEAP for Ghana, an international literacy program he co-founded. Alexander is executive producer, showrunner, and Emmy-winning writer of “The Crossover” TV series, which premiered on Disney+ in April 2023. “The Crossover” was produced in partnership with LeBron James’ SpringHill Company and Big Sea Entertainment, Alexander’s production company where he serves as CEO and co-founder, dedicated to creating innovative, highly original children’s and family entertainment.
His mission is to change the world, one word at a time.

LGBTQ+ & Friends at Chautauqua: Book Bans: Fighting Censorship and Celebrating our Diversity
2025-08-08 12:15 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall

Summer on the Steps: A Brick Walk Book Talk
2025-08-08 12:15 | Alumni Hall Porch, Alumni Hall Porch
Join us to hear from Chautauquan and local authors: Fred Zirm, Chris Flanders, John Brantingham, Karen J. Weyant

Asha Dahya
2025-08-08 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Asha Dahya is an Emmy-nominated Producer, writer, TEDx speaker and storyteller. Asha was born in the UK, raised in Australia, and now resides in Los Angeles, California. She has spent the last 20 years creating, producing and hosting content for networks and organizations such as MTV, MSN.com, Disney, ABC, Nickelodeon, Fox, the ACLU, Supermajority, Snapchat, Nine Network Australia and more.
Asha is the director and producer of an award-winning short documentary about later abortion called Someone You Know. She created, Executive Produced and co-hosted an audio and video series about Latin America’s Green Wave abortion rights movement called Green Tide Rising, which was nominated for a Webby Award in the U.S., and a One World Media award in the UK, both in 2025.
In 2024, she was nominated for an Emmy Award for her work producing the short film My Name Is Siri, an autism awareness documentary that premiered on PBS.
Asha is the founder of a daily feminist digital magazine called GirlTalkHQ.com, which spawned a book deal in 2018. She is the author of ‘Today’s Wonder Women: Everyday Superheroes Who Are Changing The World’, featuring inspirational stories of 50 women and girls.
Passionate about advocacy, she is also the Board Chair of the national non-profit Religious Community for Reproductive Choice (RCRC.org) and has been involved with the organization since 2021.
She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children.

Chautauqua Opera Company workshops: Ida by Lamplight and Sitcom
2025-08-08 15:15 | Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall
IDA BY LAMPLIGHT
IDA BY LAMPLIGHT is the third chamber opera to be realized from Jerre Dye’s anthology libretto THE SUMMER PLACE, commissioned by the Chautauqua Opera Guild, which captures Chautauqua Institution’s history from its founding through today. Jeremy Gill, Chautauqua Opera Company’s 2016 composer-in-residence, will set the 20-minute score. IDA BY LAMPLIGHT invites the audience into the office of THE CHAUTAUQUAN, late one night in 1886. Ida Tarbell, managing editor of THE CHAUTAUQUAN, and Kate Kimball, an early leader of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle (CLSC) read and answer letters to the nascent CLSC as they survey the profound effect their work is having on thousands of readers across the United States. Commissioned by Chautauqua Opera Company to celebrate The 150th anniversary of Chautauquan Daily in 2026, IDA BY LAMPLIGHT will be given a one-week workshop, capped by a public reading with piano accompaniment.
SITCOM
The neo-baroque comic chamber opera SITCOM, with music by Luke Styles and libretto by Alan McKendrick, was developed in collaboration with Opera Philadelphia and Producing Fund Partner Andrew Martin Weber. Sitcom will receive a ten-day workshop with harpsichord accompaniment at Chautauqua. As in classic television sitcoms, the opera’s four main characters are delightfully trapped in the eternal present of their own worlds. Conceived as four 30-minute “episodes,” each episode will take Max, Bettina, Joan and Vendetta on hugely transformative journeys, but crucially return each of them to their status quo for the beginning of the next episode. Chautauqua Opera will workshop 60 minutes of the score, with a public presentation to wrap up the final week of the 2025 season.

BAD SHABBOS
2025-08-08 17:30, 2025-08-09 20:50, 2025-08-10 15:05, 2025-08-10 20:50, 2025-08-11 18:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
An engaged interfaith couple are about to have their parents meet for the first time over a Shabbat dinner when an accidental death gets in the way, in director Daniel Robbins situational comedy. “A strong ensemble cast nails the tasty dialogue and increasingly frantic action without falling into shtick.” -Alissa Simon, Variety “Neither too “oy vey” nor Weekend at Bernie’s but steeped in the best aspects of both Jewish and black comedy, Bad Shabbos is a treat any night of the week.” -Bob Strauss, San Francisco Chronicle (NR, 84m)

Mary Chapin Carpenter | Brandy Clark
2025-08-08 19:30 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
One of music’s “most reliable and empathetic songwriters” (Pitchfork), Mary Chapin Carpenter has sold over 16 million records over the course of her renowned career. With hits like “Passionate Kisses” and “He Thinks He’ll Keep Her,” she has won five Grammy Awards (with 18 nominations), two CMA Awards, two ACM Awards and is one of only fifteen female members of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Carpenter’s record “One Night Lonely” was nominated for Best Folk Album at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards, and in 2023 the songwriter was awarded the Poet’s Award at the ACM Honors, recognizing outstanding and longstanding musical and lyrical contributions throughout her career. Most recently, Carpenter unveiled her new podcast, “Hope is a Muscle,” which finds her in conversation with people from all walks of life. During its run, the podcast was in the top five music podcasts on both Apple and Spotify Platforms. In early 2025 the album “Looking For The Thread,” a collaborative recording with Scottish Singer-Songwriters Karine Polwart and Julie Fowlis, was released worldwide. Of the album, The Arts Desk wrote, “It’s only January but this is an album of the year.”
The 2025 tour will feature songs from Mary Chapin’s entire catalog and her new album set for early summer release.
A GRAMMY, CMA and Americana Award-winner, Brandy Clark is one of her generation’s most esteemed songwriters and musicians. In the midst of a landmark year, Clark won Best Americana Performance at the 66th GRAMMY Awards and Song of the Year at the 2024 Americana Honors & Awards with her acclaimed song, “Dear Insecurity,” featuring 11x Grammy-winner Brandi Carlile. The track is from Clark’s self-titled album, which was produced by Carlile and features her most personal songwriting to date. Released to overwhelming praise, Forbes calls the record “an Americana Masterpiece,” while Variety proclaims it “further clarifies that she’s one of America’s treasures” and Billboard declares, “Clark continues to convey her inexorable talents as both a song-crafter and vocal interpreter.” In addition to her work as a solo artist, Clark has written songs such as “A Beautiful Noise,” the GRAMMY-nominated duet performed by Brandi Carlile and Alicia Keys, and Kacey Musgraves’ “Follow Your Arrow.” She also composed the music for the hit musical comedy, Shucked, alongside her longtime collaborator, Shane McAnally. With the show, Clark won Outstanding Music at the 67th Drama Desk Awards and was nominated for Best Original Score at the 76th Tony Awards, with Shucked receiving nine Tony nominations overall last year.

A COMPLETE UNKNOWN
2025-08-08 20:00, 2025-08-09 17:30, 2025-08-10 17:30, 2025-08-11 20:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Timothée Chalamet stars and sings as Bob Dylan in James Mangold’s compelling biopic, the electric true story behind the rise of one of the most iconic singer-songwriters in history. Co-stars Edward Norton and Elle Fanning. “Utterly fascinating, capturing a moment in time when songs had weight, when they could move the culture–even if the singer who made them was as puzzling as a rolling stone.” -Mark Kennedy, Associated Press “The performances are fantastic, all of them.” -Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic (R, 141m)

Torah Study
2025-08-09 09:30, 2025-08-16 09:30 | Hurlbut Marion Lawrance

Contemporary Issues Forum: Kim Henderson, M.D.
2025-08-09 15:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Kim Henderson is Morgan Stanley’s Head of Wealth Management Health and Wellness Education, serving in the department of Family Office Resources as the company’s subject matter expert on multiple health- and wellness-related topics — including COVID-19, women’s health, health equity, resiliency, sleep, wellbeing and adolescent and family mental health. Previously, she served Morgan Stanley as its associate medical director, providing direct oversight of and coordination among the firm’s global medical, health and wellness services. In her Contemporary Issue Forum presentation for the Chautauqua Women’s Club, Henderson will discuss the topic “Health is Wealth.”
Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Henderson was the senior medical director at CVS Health, where she spent 14 years supporting enterprise-wide initiatives and retail health programs, including oversight of MinuteClinic nurse practitioners. She has spent 17 years in the medical field, including as an attending emergency medicine physician at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center.
Henderson is an executive sponsor for the inaugural Morgan Stanley HBCU Scholars Program, which awards a four-year college scholarship and ongoing academic support to underprivileged youth. She has also judged the Morgan Stanley Innovation Awards program, which provides a $100,000 grant and business training to start-ups focused on child and adolescent mental health. She earned both her medical doctorate and juris doctorate from Georgetown University.

Saturday Spotlight Series: L'Histoire du soldat
2025-08-09 16:15 | Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall
L’Histoire du soldat, or Tale of the Soldier, is a literary work by the French author Jules Michelet, which delves into the essence of history and its significance in understanding humanity. The piece presents history not just as a series of events but as a living narrative shaped by human experiences, emotions, and struggles. Michelet emphasizes the importance of individual stories and the collective consciousness of society, advocating for a more personal and relatable approach to historical study. Through vivid storytelling, he invites readers to reflect on the past and its lessons for the present and future.
In this production of L’Histoire, audiences will witness a unique collaboration among talented artists from the School of Music Instrumental Program, Dance Program, and Chautauqua Theatre Conservatory. This interdisciplinary performance promises to be a rich inter-arts experience, blending music, dance, and theatrical artistry to create a captivating narrative. Attendees can expect a vibrant showcase that highlights the creativity and synergy of these diverse artistic disciplines, making it a truly one-of-a-kind event exclusive to Chautauqua.

Houston Ballet with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra
2025-08-09 19:30 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Rossen Milanov, conductor
With over 50 years of rich history, Houston Ballet has evolved into the country’s fourth-largest ballet company with a global reach, touring in renowned theaters in Dubai, London, Paris, Moscow, Spain, Montréal, Ottawa, Melbourne, New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Tokyo and more.
Australian choreographer Stanton Welch AM has served as Artistic Director of Houston Ballet since 2003. Welch has choreographed 43 new works for Houston Ballet during his tenure while ensuring the growth of the Company’s repertoire by presenting works from George Balanchine, William Forsythe, Jiří Kylián, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, John Neumeier, and Jerome Robbins. Welch continues the legacy of Houston Ballet being a choreographic Eden by commissioning over 30 works from world-renowned choreographers including Aszure Barton, Trey McIntyre, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and Justin Peck. Julie Kent joined Welch as Artistic Director in 2023, after serving as Artistic Director of The Washington Ballet from 2016 – 2023 and following a storied career as a Principal ballerina of American Ballet Theatre – the longest-tenured dancer in ABT’s 85-year history.
Program:
Divertissements from Act I of Giselle
Grand pas de deux from Act III of The Sleeping Beauty
Flames of Paris pas de deux
Four Last Songs

Chautauqua Theater Company presents the world premiere of The Witnesses (formerly titled Tell Me You’re Dying) (Preview)
2025-08-09 19:30, 2025-08-10 19:30, 2025-08-12 14:00, 2025-08-12 19:30 | Bratton Theater, Bratton Theater
By C.A. Johnson
Directed by Jade King Carroll
The Witnesses compels us to question not only if we can change but if we have time to do so while the world appears to be ending.
Infused with C.A. Johnson’s brutal honesty, exacting humor, and heartfelt exploration of human relationships, the story pulses with urgency, vulnerability and unexpected warmth.
While an apocalyptic plague rages, five individuals unite in their weekly support group to forge a sanctuary of care and companionship. Centering on the darkly funny and wildly magnetic Millicent and her chosen family of misfits, this play explores the undeniable physical urge for human connection.
This production is recommended for audiences ages 13 and older.

Sunday School
2025-08-10 10:15 | Children’s School, Children's School
Weekly Sunday School Program for Ages 3-11. Children of all faiths and no faith are welcome.

Rev. Dr. J. Peter Holmes
2025-08-10 10:45, 2025-08-11 09:15, 2025-08-12 09:15, 2025-08-13 09:15, 2025-08-14 09:15, 2025-08-15 09:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
The Rev. Dr. J. Peter Holmes has served since 2001 as the Minister of the Congregation of the historic Yorkminster Park Baptist Church in the heart of Toronto. During this time the congregation has grown into an increasingly diverse and multi-cultural family. While the church has a long history of excellence in music, liturgy and preaching, it has also become a community centre for culture and the arts as well as many missional endeavours focussed on relieving food insecurity, providing shelter and offering housing for those who are homeless and support for refugees.
While Peter’s family roots are in Ontario, as a child of the manse he spent most of his formative years in Victoria, British Columbia where he graduated from the University of Victoria and served as Ombudsman of the university. He holds a Master of Divinity degree from Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto, and a Doctor of Ministry from Acadia University in Nova Scotia. Prior to his call to Yorkminster Park, he served churches in Toronto and Montreal.
Peter approaches the pulpit as a gifted story teller with a pastoral heart. He has often led pilgrimages of sacred spaces in both Canada and the USA and is the host of Yorkminster Park’s Lester Randall Preaching Fellowship which attracts clergy from far and wide. Peter has contributed to Biblical commentaries and preached in churches in Europe, the Middle East and in both Canada and the United States.
In recognition of Peter’s leadership in ecumenical and interfaith endeavours in the city and beyond, the Toronto Commandery of the Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem named him as the recipient of their 2022 Marjorie McKinnon Ecumenical Lifetime Achievement Award. Peter was a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth ll Diamond Jubilee medal and the King Charles Coronation medal, both awarded to “honour significant contributions and achievements by Canadians.” In 2016 Peter was named an Honorary Lifetime Fellow of Acadia Divinity College and in 2024 awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity from the same school. He serves as Chaplain to the Royal Commonwealth Society, and a board member of the House of Compassion
Peter is married to Janet and they have two daughters, a son and one delightful granddaughter. In his spare time Peter loves to garden, cycle, walk and cheer for the Leafs, Blue Jays and Buffalo Bills.

Chabad Jewish House - Kosher BBQ
2025-08-10 12:00 | Miller Park, Miller Park
Rabbi Zalman Vilenkin-In the Miller park near the Bell Tower, (across the road, On the side of the road that is closer to the lake)
B&G-Please provide:
16 Folding Tables
75 Folding Chairs
10 Trash Cans

Friends of Chautauqua Writers' Center: Literary Arts Contests Awards Ceremony
2025-08-10 14:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy

Chautauqua School of Dance: Student Gala II
2025-08-10 15:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Chautauqua School of Dance presents an outstanding mixed repertoire matinee of new and established works featuring the most exceptional young talent in the country. Under the leadership of Sasha Janes,
Bonnefoux McBride Artistic Director of Chautauqua School of Dance, the school continues its long tradition of excellence as a top-tier summer training program focused on bringing the next generation of dance stars from the studio to the stage.

Shonda Buchanan and Joy Priest
2025-08-10 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Chautauqua Writers’ Center Faculty Reading — Week Eight — Featuring Shonda Buchanan (Creative Non-Fiction) and Joy Priest (Poetry)
Kalamazoo, Michigan native Shonda Buchanan is a twice Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, Oxfam Ambassador and a PEN Emerging Voices Fellow and PEN America Mentor. A professor in the Department of English at Western Michigan University and Alma College’s MFA Program in Creative Writing, Shonda is the author of three collections of poetry, Who’s Afraid of Black Indians?, Equipoise: Poems from Goddess Country and the forthcoming, The Lost Songs of Nina Simone, as well as the award-winning memoir, Black Indian, chosen by PBS NewsHour as a “Top 20 books to read to learn about institutional racism.” Former Board President for Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center and Board member of the Kalamazoo Poetry Festival and the Kalamazoo Arts Council, Shonda has published in The Mississippi Review, the Los Angeles Times, the LA Weekly, LA Times Magazine, AWP’s The Writer’s Chronicle, Indian Country Today, Red Ink Journal, LA Parents Magazine and freelanced for the International Review of African American Art, Westways, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Daily Press and Sisters of AARP.
Shonda’s forthcoming essay collection, Children of the Mixed Blood Trail, explores mixed-race migration in North America. An English Language Specialist with the Department of State, Shonda is currently shopping a Black Lives Matter book of poetry, America’s Bloodflowers: Poems, as well as Artificial Earth: Poems and Essays, about the first founding mixed race “settlers” of Los Angeles and California Indians. Descendant of the African Mende nation of Sierra Leone, and in North America, the Coharie, Choctaw and Eastern Band Cherokee, and Europeans, Shonda writes on Chumash/Tongva lands in Los Angeles and in the Midwest on Ojibwe/Anishinaabe, Ottawa and Potawatomi lands. Shonda has taught creative writing, research and BIPOC/American literature for the past 24 years.
Joy Priest (she/her) is a writer from Louisville, KY. She is the author of HORSEPOWER (Pitt Poetry Series, 2020), selected by the 19th U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey as the winner of the Donald Hall Prize for Poetry, and the editor of Once a City Said: A Louisville Poets Anthology (Sarabande, 2023). Priest is the recipient of a 2021 National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, a 2019-2020 Fine Arts Work Center fellowship, the Imprint Paul Verlaine Prize in Poetry, and the Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize from the American Poetry Review.
Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Atlantic, Boston Review, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, among others, as well as in commissions for the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Her essays have appeared in The Bitter Southerner, Poets & Writers, ESPN, and The Undefeated.
Priest received her bachelor’s in Print Journalism from the University of Kentucky, her MFA in Poetry with a certificate in Women & Gender Studies from the University of South Carolina, and her doctorate from the University of Houston where she was an Imprint MD Anderson Foundation fellow.
Joy has facilitated poetry workshops with incarcerated juvenile and adult women, and she is a member of the Affrilachian Poets. She is currently an Assistant Professor of African American / African Diaspora Poetry in the University of Pittsburgh’s MFA Writing Program, and the Curator of Community Programs & Practice (CCPP) at the Center for African American Poetry & Poetics (CAAPP).

Sacred Song Service - Hope: The Family of Abraham Gathers
2025-08-10 20:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater

CHQ Mystic Heart: Larry Terkel
2025-08-11 07:45, 2025-08-12 07:45, 2025-08-13 07:45, 2025-08-14 07:45, 2025-08-15 07:45 | Presbyterian Chapel
Larry Terkel, along with his wife Susan, founded The Spiritual Life Society, an inter-denominational center for spiritual and holistic studies, where he teaches yoga and meditation and gives weekly talks. As its licensed minister, Larry has officiated at over 2,000 weddings for couples of all faiths. He is also the founder of Temple Beth Shalom, in Hudson, Ohio. Larry and Susan are co-authors of the book, Small Change: It’s the LITTLE Things in Life That Make a BIG Difference! (Tarcher/Penguin) a finalist for the 2004 National Books for a Better Life Award.

Allen Fromherz
2025-08-11 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Allen Fromherz is a professor of Middle East, Gulf and Mediterranean history at Georgia State University, where he directs the university’s Middle East Studies Center. His latest book is The Center of the World: A History of the Persian Gulf from the Stone Age to the Present, in which each chapter centers on a different port around the Gulf. From ancient Dilmun to medieval Basra to modern Dubai, The Center of the World shows how the people of the Gulf adapted to larger changes in world history, creating a system of free trade, merchant rule and commerce that connected the Mediterranean with the Indian Ocean and continues to define the region today. It is this history that forms the basis for Fromherz’s Chautauqua Lecture Series appearance, opening our week on “The Middle East: The Gulf States’ Emerging Influence.”
Fromherz served as president of the American Institute for Maghreb Studies from 2015 until 2021. He is also the founding series editor, with Matt Buehler, of Edinburgh Studies on the Maghrib, and is North Africa senior editor for the Oxford Research Encyclopedia Africa. Since 2024, he is co-chair of the Monsoon Book Prizes, which celebrate the archaeology, history and political economy of the Indian Ocean world. The author of several other books on Gulf and Mediterranean history, including Qatar: A Modern History, Fromherz has also edited three volumes, including The Gulf in World History. He received his Ph.D. in Islamic history from St. Andrews University in St. Andrews, Scotland, and his bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth.

CLSC Book Discussion
2025-08-11 12:15 | Alumni Hall Porch, Alumni Hall Porch
Presenters Georgia Court and Fred Zirm will lead a community discussion on our Week Eight CLSC selections The Tiny Journalist by Naomi Shihab Nye and the little book of e by E. Ethelbert Miller

Just the Right Climate for Metaphors! With CSO Double Bassist, Caitlyn Kamminga
2025-08-11 12:30 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
How can artists engage young people with a complex topic that is contributing to growing feelings of eco-anxiety and hopelessness, without dumbing down the stark fact that without radical change, we will literally cook the planet? In this hour-long interactive session, CSO bassist and teaching artist, Caitlyn Kamminga, explores how the arts can act as a catalyst for change and transformation.

Lecture Overflow
2025-08-11 14:00 | Hall of Christ: Sanctuary

Shai Held
2025-08-11 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Rabbi Shai Held, one of the most influential Jewish thinkers and leaders in America, is President and Dean of the Hadar Institute in New York City.
Rabbi Held received the prestigious Covenant Award for Excellence in Jewish Education, and has been named multiple times to Newsweek’s list of the most influential rabbis in America and to the Forward’s list of the most prominent Jews in the world.
He is the author of Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Call of Transcendence (2013) and The Heart of Torah: Essays on the Weekly Torah Portion (2017). His newest book, Judaism is About Love, was published by Farrar, Straus, & Giroux in March 2024.

The 21st Annual Robert H. Jackson Lecture on the Supreme Court of the United States — Kim Lane Scheppele
2025-08-11 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Kim Lane Scheppele is the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. She is also a faculty fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Her primary field is the sociology of law and also works in sociological theory, comparative/historical sociology, political sociology, sociology of knowledge and human rights.
Scheppele’s research examines the rise and fall of constitutional government. After 1989, she moved to Eastern Europe, studying the way that new constitutions were being enacted and entrenched. After 9/11, she examined how constitutions fared under the stress of anti-terrorism campaigns with their repressive new laws, both in the United States and elsewhere. She has studied the way that democracies have come under stress, focusing on the rise of new autocrats, particularly those who are elected on populist political platforms and who then use the law to undermine constitutional institutions. Now, she concentrates in particular on changes within the European Union, exploring the way that the EU has had difficulty holding its own against national popular movements that brought about Brexit and the rise of illiberal autocracies among the member states.
In 2014, Scheppele received the Kalven Prize from the Law and Society Association, and in 2016 was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is also an elected member of the International Academy of Comparative Law and serves as a “global jurist” on the executive committee of the International Association of Constitutional Law. She served as the elected president of the Law and Society Association from 2017 to 2019. Her book, Legal Secrets, won Special Recognition in the Distinguished Scholarly Publication competition of the American Sociological Association as well as the Corwin Prize of the American Political Science Association.
Chautauqua Institution’s Robert H. Jackson Lecture is named in honor of the former Chautauquan, Jamestown lawyer, New Dealer, Solicitor General, Attorney General, Supreme Court justice, and Nuremberg chief prosecutor. Every summer the Jackson Lecture is a leading expert discussing the Supreme Court, the Justices, signal decisions, and related legal developments.
Chautauqua’s previous Jackson Lecturers have been Geoffrey Stone (2005), Linda Greenhouse (2006), Seth Waxman (2007), Jeffrey Toobin (2008), Paul Clement (2009), Jeff Shesol (2010), Dahlia Lithwick (2011), Pamela Karlan (2012), Charles Fried (2013), Akhil Amar (2014), Laurence Tribe (2015), Tracey Meares (2016), Judge Jon O. Newman (2017), Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella of Canada’s Supreme Court (2018), Donald B. Verrilli, Jr. (2019), Ruth Marcus (2020), Melissa Murray (2021), Reva Siegel (2022), Justin Driver (2023) and Kate Shaw (2024).

Music School Festival Orchestra
2025-08-11 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Comprised of top-tier students from conservatories and universities in the U.S. and abroad, Music School Festival Orchestra members participate in a variety of musical activities during their summers at Chautauqua including chamber music and private lessons along with their meticulous orchestral training. Alumni from the MSFO can be heard in many of the world’s top orchestras and chamber ensembles and can be found on music faculties worldwide. The MSFO is led by Artistic Director Timothy Muffitt, who serves as Music Director of the Lansing Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Laureate of the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra.

Vali R. Nasr
2025-08-12 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Vali R. Nasr is the Majid Khadduri Professor of International Affairs and Middle East Studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Between 2012 and 2019 he served as dean of SAIS, and between 2009 and 2011 as senior adviser to Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Nasr, who has previously contributed to Chautauqua Institution’s Middle East Update and Chautauqua Lecture Series, returns for a week on “The Middle East: The Gulf States’ Emerging Influence.” He’ll discuss the state of play in the Gulf States, and the role the United States is playing in the rapidly-changing map of the Middle East.
Nasr has advised world leaders and major corporations, and is the author of several books, including Iran’s Grand Strategy: A Political History; How Sanctions Work, Iran and the Impact of Economic Warfare; The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in Retreat; The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam will Shape the Future; and Democracy in Iran. He has also written articles in scholarly journals, and commentary in The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. He is a member of Global Board of Trustees of Asia Society, the recipient of Carnegie Scholar Award, and the Frank Guggenheim, and MacArthur Foundation research fellowships. He was selected as Henry Alfred Kissinger Resident Scholar at Library of Congress for 2024-2025.
He received his Bachelor of Arts from Tufts University in international relations; his master’s from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in international economics and Middle East studies; and his Ph.D. from MIT in political science.

Judy Gallagher, Insects & Macrophotography
2025-08-12 12:15 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
BTG Brownbag

CHQ Mystic Heart: Larry Terkel
2025-08-12 12:30, 2025-08-14 12:30 | Hall of Missions, Hall of Missions

Mah Jongg Luncheon
2025-08-12 13:00 | Sports Club, Sports Club
Drop-in mah jongg at the Sports Club directed by PattyArmstrong

Brock Bahler
2025-08-12 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Brock Bahler is a teaching professor and director of undergraduate studies in the religious studies department at Pitt, where he advocates for more diverse syllabuses, relates religion to social issues and pushes students to think outside of the box.
He earned his PhD in Philosophy from Duquesne University and is the author of Childlike Peace in Merleau-Ponty and Levinas: Intersubjectivity as Dialectical Spiral as well as many academic articles and contributions to edited volumes.

Heritage Lecture Series: David Kinkela
2025-08-12 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
As part of the Oliver Archives Center’s 2025 Heritage Lecture Series, Dr. David Kinkela will present “Chautauqua: A Place and an Idea in Progressive Era America”.
Dr. Kinkela is an environmental historian who explores U.S. history in a global context. His first book, DDT and the American Century: Global Health, Environmental Politics, and the Pesticide That Changed the World (2011) examined the interconnections between U.S. environmentalism and U.S. foreign policy. Currently, he is working on a number of projects, including one that explores the history of plastic waste. His research on the history of Chautauqua Institution is part of an NEH funded project and forthcoming edited book Beyond the City: Re-Placing the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (SUNY Press).

SOULEYMANE'S STORY
2025-08-12 18:00, 2025-08-13 15:30, 2025-08-13 20:30, 2025-08-14 19:15 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Souleymane a Paris food delivery cyclist and asylum seeker, has two days to prepare his story for a make-or-break interview to secure his legal residency. “Abou Sangaré is magnificent as Souleymane…He is on screen for virtually every second, and he holds your attention without fail.” -Karl Quinn, Sydney Morning Herald “If the hero’s dire situation is a ticking clock, Boris Lojkine’s intelligent and empathetic film places us right alongside him, with each cog of circumstance and each gear of good fortune grinding against him at every turn.” -Jessica Kiang, Variety “Refreshingly human.” -Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com (NR, In French with subtitles. 92m)

Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Classical Remix
2025-08-12 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Rossen Milanov, conductor
Jaren Atherholt, oboe
Noah Kay, oboe
Join conductor Rossen Milanov for a dynamic evening of orchestral elegance, innovation, and charm. Mozart’s Idomeneo Ballet Music opens with regal grace, leading to Viet Cuong’s Extra(ordinarily) Fancy, a dazzling new concerto showcasing the brilliance of Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra oboists Jaren Atherholt and Noah Kay. The journey continues with Anna Clyne’s atmospheric This Moment before concluding with the youthful energy and lyricism of Schubert’s Symphony No. 3, making for a night of musical surprises and pure delight!
Program:
W.A. Mozart: Idomeneo Ballet Music
Viet Cuong: Extra(ordinarily) Fancy Concerto for 2 oboes and orchestra
Anna Clyne: This Moment
Franz Schubert: Symphony No. 3, D. 200

SECRET MALL APARTMENT
2025-08-12 20:30, 2025-08-13 18:00, 2025-08-14 14:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
In 2003, eight Rhode Islanders created a secret apartment inside the busy Providence Place Mall and kept it going for four years, filming everything along the way. Far more than just a wild prank, the secret mall apartment became an incredibly meaningful act for all the participants, at once an act of defiance against local gentrification, a boundary-pushing work of public/private art, and a 750 square foot space that sticks it to the man. “A profoundly humane portrait of creativity and community.” -Ann Hornaday, Washington Post (NR, 91m)

Cultural Ethics Series - Fish Stark
2025-08-13 09:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
“The New Humanism”

Robin Wright
2025-08-13 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Robin Wright is a contributing writer and columnist for The New Yorker, which she has written for since 1988. A distinguished fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, she is a former correspondent for The Washington Post, CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, and the Sunday Times of London, and has reported from more than 140 countries. A frequent Chautauqua contributor, Wright returns to the Amphitheater stage for a week on “The Middle East: The Gulf States’ Emerging Influence,” to discuss the evolving Middle East order.
Wright received the U.N. Correspondents Association Gold Medal for international coverage, and the Overseas Press Club Award for the “best reporting in any medium requiring exceptional courage and initiative,” for her coverage of African wars. The American Academy of Diplomacy named her journalist of the year for “distinguished reporting and analysis of international affairs.” She also won the National Press Club Award for diplomatic reporting and has been the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation grant. Her first piece on Iran won the National Magazine Award for best reporting.
Wright is the author of several books, including The Last Great Revolution: Turmoil and Transformation in Iran, Sacred Rage: The Wrath of Militant Islam, and Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East, which was selected by The New York Times and The Washington Post as one of the most notable books of 2008. Her book, Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World, was selected as the best book on international affairs by the Overseas Press Club.

CLSC Young Readers Book Discussion
2025-08-13 12:15 | Alumni Hall Porch, Alumni Hall Porch
Presenters Suzanne Fassett-Wright and Rachel Lykins will lead a community discussion on our Week Eight CLSC Young Readers selection Grace Notes: Poems About Families by Naomi Shihab Nye

Miami of Ohio Program with Jason Rech
2025-08-13 12:30 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Climate Change and the Unfolding Water Crisis in the Middle East

Kat Armas
2025-08-13 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Kat Armas is a Cuban American writer and podcaster from Miami, FL. She holds a dual MDiv and MAT from Fuller Theological Seminary, where she was awarded the Frederick Buechner Award for Excellence in Writing, and is currently pursuing a ThM at Vanderbilt Divinity School. Kat’s writing explores the intersections of women, decolonialism, faith, and identity.
Her first book, Abuelita Faith: What Women on the Margins Teach Us About Wisdom, Persistence, and Strength, delves into the stories of marginalized women and how they offer transformative wisdom. Her second book, Sacred Belonging is a 40-Day “decolonized” devotional that focuses on creation, wisdom, spirit, the body, and the feminine. Kat’s third book, Liturgies for Resisting Empire: Seeking Community, Belonging, and Peace in a Dehumanizing World is set to release in November 2025.
Kat is the creator and host of The Protagonistas, a podcast that amplifies the voices of Black, Indigenous, and other women of color in theological spaces. She is also a contributor to Voices of Lament: Reflections on Brokenness and Hope in a World Longing for Justice and has written for the National Catholic Reporter, Plough Magazine, RELEVANT, The Christian Century, Christianity Today, Sojourners, Christians for Biblical Equality, Missio Alliance, and more. Her work continues to center decolonial thought, women’s voices, and the intersection of faith and identity.

African American Heritage House Lecture: Asha Castleberry
2025-08-13 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Asha Castleberry is an adjunct fellow at the American Security Project, with more than a decade of experience in Middle East policy. In addition to being a national security and foreign policy expert, she is a U.S. Army veteran, author of Why National Security Matters, and former U.S. Congressional candidate. She served as a senior adviser in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs under the Biden-Harris Administration and held key roles in Kuwait, Iraq and Jordan.
Castleberry has participated in high-level forums, including the Erbil Security Forum and the Foreign Policy Institute Black Sea Conference. Currently a Cyrus Vance Visiting Professor at Mount Holyoke College, she has also taught at Fordham, George Washington, and Baruch College. A major in the Army Reserves, Castleberry is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and founder of the Diversity in National Security Network. Her work has garnered numerous honors, including the Middle East Policy Council’s 40 Under 40.
Castleberry is a graduate of Hampton University and Columbia University, with studies at Oxford and in China.

Chautauqua Theater Company presents the world premiere of The Witnesses (formerly titled Tell Me You’re Dying)
2025-08-13 18:00, 2025-08-14 14:00 | Bratton Theater, Bratton Theater

CVA Lecture Series: Jessica Pinsky
2025-08-13 18:30 | Hultquist 101, Hultquist 101
CVA Lecture Series: School of Art faculty
Jessica Pinsky: “Weaving pixels: Using technology to weave across generations”
Jessica Pinsky is an artist whose work bridges painting, weaving, and sculpture. Born in Akron, Ohio, Pinsky moved to Cleveland in 2011 after receiving a BFA from New York University in 2006 and an MFA from Boston University in 2009. Her work has been exhibited nationally, including a recent solo show at Hedge Gallery in Cleveland, Ohio. Her work can be found in several collections including Whidden Hospital, Everett, MA and Metro Health in Cleveland, OH. In 2012, she partnered with Cleveland Institute of Art to found Praxis Fiber Workshop, a 5,000 sq. ft studio featuring 27 floor looms, 3 large print tables, a full dye lab, and assorted equipment to meet every fiber related need. She is currently the Executive Director at Praxis and teaches at Cleveland Institute of Art. She is represented by Hedge Gallery in Cleveland, OH.

Chautauqua Chamber Music: Canadian Brass
2025-08-13 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Canadian Brass, the world’s most famous brass quintet, returns to Chautauqua this summer. Celebrated for their virtuosic performances and engaging stage presence, the group seamlessly blends classical, jazz, and contemporary music, making their concerts both diverse and accessible. Since its founding in 1970, Canadian Brass has released over 130 recordings, earning accolades for their artistry and creativity. Their signature style, complete with humor and flair, has delighted audiences worldwide, from grand concert halls to intimate venues. With their iconic gold-plated instruments and passion for music, Canadian Brass continues to redefine the brass ensemble experience.
Program to be announced.

Suzi Mirgani
2025-08-14 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Suzi Mirgani is editor and assistant director for publications at Georgetown University in Qatar’s Center for International and Regional Studies, where her research lies at the intersection of politics and popular culture. She joins the Chautauqua Lecture Series in a week exploring “The Middle East: The Gulf States’ Emerging Influences” to discuss art, culture and identity in the region, and her work as both a scholar and an artist in this field.
Mirgani is the author of Target Markets: International Terrorism Meets Global Capitalism in the Mall; editor of both Informal Politics in the Middle East, and Art and Cultural Production in the Gulf Cooperation Council; and co-editor of Bullets and Bulletins: Media and Politics in the Wake of the Arab Uprisings, and Food Security in the Middle East. Recent publications include “Peeking behind the Curtain: Gulf Filmmakers Imagine the Lives of Female Migrant Domestic Workers in the Arabian Peninsula,” in Reorienting the Middle East: Film and Digital Media Where the Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea, and Indian Ocean Meet and “Consumer Citizenship: National Identity and Museum Merchandise in Qatar” in Middle East Journal.
Mirgani served as book review editor for the Journal of Arabian Studies from 2015 to 2022, and she publishes short stories and poetry, some of which have appeared in Mizna; International Feminist Journal of Politics; and Journeys Home: An Anthology of Contemporary African Diasporic Experience.
As a complement to her academic work, Mirgani is an award-winning filmmaker whose works include “Kamala Ishag: States of Oneness,” “Virtual Voice,” “Al-Sit,” “Caravan” and “Hind’s Dream.” She holds degrees in media studies and museum studies from University College London Qatar, and her Ph.D. in communication and media studies from Eastern Mediterranean University.

Dr. Tamara Gray
2025-08-14 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Dr. Tamara Gray is a founder of Rabata, an organization dedicated to promoting positive
cultural change through creative educational experiences. As President and CEO, she focuses on
uplifting Muslim women within community and without. She has a special interest in digital
spaces in faith communities.
Dr. Gray holds a doctorate in leadership from the University of St. Thomas, a master’s degree in
Curriculum Theory and Instruction from Temple University and spent twenty years in traditional
learning spaces studying Islamic sciences, Quran, and Arabic in Damascus, Syria.
Dr. Gray is also an author and translator. Her publications range from several culturally
appropriate English language curriculum programs to translations of sacred texts. She has
authored two books: Joy Jots: Exercises for a happy heart & Project Lina: Bringing our whole
selves to Islam and co-translated the Mukhtasir al-Jami’ fi al-Sīra al-Nabawiyya by Shaykha
Samīra Zayid [Compendium of the Collection of Sources on al-Sīra al-Nabawiyya]. She is
currently working on a third book about theology and creed.
In addition to her work at Rabata, Dr. Gray also serves as a Senior Fellow at the Yaqeen Institute
and is a member of the Fiqh Council of North America. She has recently taken on the position of
Board Chair for the Minnesota Multifaith Network. Dr. Gray is Full Focus Certified Pro
exemplifying her commitment to productivity and impactful leadership.
She is a mother of three, grandmother of two, an avid reader and a lover of cultures, coffee, and road trips.

Naomi Shihab Nye and E. Ethelbert Miller
2025-08-14 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle Presentation — The Tiny Journalist by Naomi Shihab Nye and the little book of e by E. Ethelbert Miller
The Tiny Journalist
Internationally beloved poet Naomi Shihab Nye places her Palestinian American identity center stage in her latest full-length poetry collection inspired by the story of Janna Jihad Ayyad, the “Youngest Journalist in Palestine,” who at age 7 began capturing videos of anti-occupation protests using her mother’s smartphone. Nye draws upon her own family’s roots in a West Bank village near Janna’s hometown to offer empathy and insight to the young girl’s reporting. Long an advocate for peaceful communication across all boundaries, Nye’s poems in The Tiny Journalist put a human face on war and the violence that divides us from each other.
Award-winning Palestinian American poet, essayist, and educator, Naomi Shihab Nye, describes herself as a “wandering poet.” She has spent more than 40 years traveling the country and the world to lead writing workshops and inspiring students of all ages. Nye was born to a Palestinian father and an American mother and grew up in St. Louis, Jerusalem, and San Antonio. Drawing on her Palestinian American heritage, the cultural diversity of her home in Texas, and her experiences traveling in Asia, Europe, Canada, Mexico, and the Middle East, Nye uses her writing to attest to our shared humanity.
Naomi Shihab Nye is the author and/or editor of more than 30 volumes of poetry, essays, and fiction for adults and children. Naomi Shihab Nye was a Lannan Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a Witter Bynner Fellow (Library of Congress). She has also been the recipient of many awards and prizes including a Lavan Award, Isabella Gardner Poetry Award, four Pushcart Prizes, Robert Creeley Prize, NSK Neustadt Award for Children’s Literature, May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Award, Lon Tinkle Award for Lifetime Achievement, two Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards, the Ivan Sandrof Award for Lifetime Achievement, the 2024 Texas Writer Award and the 2024 Wallace Stevens Award. In 2021 she was voted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Nye was affiliated with The Michener Center for writers at the University of Texas at Austin for 20 years and was also poetry editor at The Texas Observer for 20 years. In 2019-2020 she was the editor for New York Times Magazine poems. She is Chancellor Emeritus for the Academy of American Poets and is Professor of Creative Writing – Poetry at Texas State University.
the little book of e
In the little book of e poet E. Ethelbert Miller embraces the Japanese poetic form of haiku to comment on our contemporary world in a collaboration with translator Rafi Ellenson. Haiku presented in English and Hebrew is symbolic of how language can bring people together. Miller and Ellenson have given us a book that shows how Black and Jewish relations can continue to be a beacon of hope. This book is filled with words that blossom like flowers.
E. Ethelbert Miller is a literary activist and author of two memoirs and several poetry collections. He hosts the WPFW morning radio show On the Margin with E. Ethelbert Miller and hosts and produces The Scholars on UDC-TV which received a 2020 Telly Award. Miller is Associate Editor and a columnist for The American Book Review. He was given a 2020 congressional award from Congressman Jamie Raskin in recognition of his literary activism, awarded the 2022 Howard Zinn Lifetime Achievement Award by the Peace and Justice Studies Association, and named a 2023 Grammy Nominee Finalist for Best Spoken Word Poetry Album. Miller’s latest book is the little book of e published by City Point Press. Recently Miller was awarded the Furious Flower Lifetime Achievement Award.
Exploring the various ways in which language and story bring us together, Naomi Shihab Nye and E. Ethelbert Miller will be featured together in conversation during our Week Eight CLSC lecture on Thursday, August 14, 2025, in the Hall of Philosophy.

GARLAND JEFFREYS: THE KING OF IN BETWEEN
2025-08-14 16:30 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Meet the Filmmaker Special Event! Free Admission! Hubris, anger, prejudice…doo-wop, reggae, rock…expectations, heartbreak, transformation… An enigmatic performer since his start in the Greenwich Village clubs, Garland Jeffreys never quite reached the success predicted for him. Director Claire Jeffreys film asks why, and explores how his commitment to writing about race in America is more relevant now than ever. Claire will host the screening and discussion following the film. (NR, 70m)

Chautauqua Theater Company presents the world premiere of The Witnesses (formerly titled Tell Me You’re Dying)
2025-08-14 19:30, 2025-08-16 19:30 | Bratton Theater, Bratton Theater
By C.A. Johnson
Directed by Jade King Carroll
The Witnesses compels us to question not only if we can change but if we have time to do so while the world appears to be ending.
Infused with C.A. Johnson’s brutal honesty, exacting humor, and heartfelt exploration of human relationships, the story pulses with urgency, vulnerability and unexpected warmth.
While an apocalyptic plague rages, five individuals unite in their weekly support group to forge a sanctuary of care and companionship. Centering on the darkly funny and wildly magnetic Millicent and her chosen family of misfits, this play explores the undeniable physical urge for human connection.
This production is recommended for audiences ages 13 and older.
This performance offers:
Pick Your Price (PYP)
CTC’s PYP program ensures theater remains accessible to all by allowing patrons to choose ticket prices based on their budget. This flexible pricing model fosters inclusivity and encourages greater community participation.
Live Audio Descriptions (LAD)
LAD provides narrated descriptions of key visual elements during pauses in dialogue, enhancing accessibility for blind and visually impaired audiences. This complimentary service also benefits neurodiverse patrons and those with attention or processing challenges.

Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Symphonie fantastique
2025-08-14 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Rossen Milanov, conductor
Embark on a thrilling musical journey through Berlioz’s groundbreaking Symphonie fantastique. This dramatic, five-movement masterpiece will take you through the fevered imagination of an artist, filled with sweeping romance, dark fantasies, and powerful orchestral colors. Don’t miss this chance to experience one of the most vivid and exhilarating works in the classical repertoire!
Program:
Hector Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14

Thomas Friedman
2025-08-15 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Thomas Friedman is the bestselling author of The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century and foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times. Renowned for his direct reporting and accessible analysis of complex issues shaping the world, Friedman is the winner of three Pulitzer Prizes — two for international reporting from the Middle East and a third for his columns written about 9/11 — and has covered monumental stories from around the globe for The New York Times since 1981. It is this extensive reporting and analysis that will inform his remarks as he closes our Chautauqua Lecture Series week exploring “The Middle East: The Gulf States’ Emerging Influence.”
Friedman has written seven books since 1989 that have sold 10 million copies in 40 different languages. They include From Beirut to Jerusalem (which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction), The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization, The World is Flat and, most recently, his latest bestseller Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations, in which Friedman offers a blueprint for overcoming the stresses and challenges of a world being transformed by technology, globalization and climate change.
Friedman was featured in Showtime’s climate change documentary series “Years of Living Dangerously,” executive produced by James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

CLSC Unbound Book Discussion
2025-08-15 12:15 | Alumni Hall Ballroom, Alumni Hall Ballroom
Presenters Stuart Blerch and Mary Weiser will discuss our CLSC Unbound selections, Harlem Rhapsody: A Novel by Victoria Christopher Murray and The Queens of Crime: A Novel by Marie Benedict

Drew Jackson
2025-08-15 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Drew Jackson is a poet, speaker, and public theologian. He is the author of God Speaks Through Wombs: Poems on God’s Unexpected Coming, which was a finalist for the Christian Book Award, and Touch the Earth: Poems on The Way. His work has appeared in Oneing from the Center for Action and Contemplation, The Isolation Journals with Suleika Jaouad, Christianity Today, Made for Pax, The Journal from the Centre for Public Christianity, Fathom Magazine, and other publications. Drew was a contributing artist on Jon Batiste’s Grammy-nominated album World Music Radio and also appeared in the award-winning documentary American Symphony on Netflix. Drew is also a co-host of the Everything Belongs podcast from the Center for Action and Contemplation.
Drew received his B.A. in Political Science from the Univ. of Chicago and his M.A. in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary. He currently works as the Managing Director of Mission Integration for the Center for Action and Contemplation, and lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife and daughters.

Elizabeth O'Connor
2025-08-15 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
The Chautauqua Prize Award Ceremony and Presentation – Whale Fall: A Novel by Elizabeth O’Connor
Chautauqua Institution presents author Elizabeth O’Connor with the 2025 Chautauqua Prize for her book Whale Fall: A Novel. Awarded annually since 2012, The Chautauqua Prize celebrates a book of fiction or literary/narrative nonfiction or a full length collection of poetry that provides a richly rewarding reading experience and to honor the author for a significant contribution to the literary arts.
Whale Fall is a striking and sensual debut that defies simple genre classification. While it is a beautiful bildungsroman and work of historical fiction, it is also a study in anthropology, ethnography and folklore. It is a rich, metaphorical examination of the bones of what makes us human — history, culture, storytelling — against a backdrop of the literal bones of a decaying whale carcass washed ashore on the coast of Wales.
In a seafaring community with a population that is slowly diminishing in the wake of industrialization and a world on the brink of World War II, it is the whale that sets the events of Whale Fall in motion. The changing tides bring not just a whale, but two ethnographers interested in recording the quiet way of life in — and preserving the traditions of — the small island town the main character, a young woman named Manod, calls home.
Since first appearing on bookshelves in May 2024, Whale Fall has been named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker and NPR, an ALA Notable Fiction Book, and was longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award.
O’Connor lives in Birmingham, England. Her short stories have appeared in The White Review and Granta, and she was the 2020 winner of the White Review Short Story Prize. She holds a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Birmingham, specializing in the modernist writer H.D. and her writing of coastal landscapes.

THE LIFE OF CHUCK
2025-08-15 17:15, 2025-08-16 20:30, 2025-08-17 14:15 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
From childhood to adulthood, Charles “Chuck” Krantz (Tom Hiddleston) experiences the wonder of love, the heartbreak of loss, and the multitudes contained within all of us in director Mike Flanagan’s life-affirming, genre-bending film. “Feels like the coziest of blankets enveloping you in the theater. However, you should expect a few jolts of static…this touching, beautiful film is based on a novella by Stephen King.” -Odie Henderson, Boston Globe “A story of profound humanity, ultimately spirit-expanding.” -Nell Minow, Movie Mom (R, 110m)

Chautauqua Theater Company presents Best for Baby (a CTC Commission)
2025-08-15 18:00, 2025-08-16 14:00, 2025-08-17 14:00 | Bratton Theater, Bratton Theater
by Sharyn Rothstein, Directed by Oliver Butler, Bratton Theater
After the birth of her child, a woman returns to work at Johnson & Johnson — America’s most trusted brand — and maker of the powder she uses on her own little girl. But can she trust it? Best for Baby portrays corporate personhood with in-your-face theatrical absurdity and blistering wit, unflinchingly examining the cost of valuing profits over people.
Best for Baby is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

F1: THE MOVIE
2025-08-15 20:00, 2025-08-16 17:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt) was Formula1’s most promising driver of the 1990s until an accident on the track nearly ended his career. Thirty years later, former teammate Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem) convinces Sonny to come back for one last shot at saving the team and being the best in the world. “This movie is entirely about the driving, and the speed.” -Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times “It’s a plot as old as the horseless carriage, but in F1 it’s fuel-injected by an exceptionally appealing cast.” -Ann Hornaday, Washington Post “Exactly what summer blockbusters are supposed to be, exciting, romantic, funny, glamorous, and purely entertaining.” -Nell Minow, RogerEbert.com (PG-13, 155m)

Los Lobos
2025-08-15 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Over the course of their 50-year career, Los Lobos have crafted an unprecedented body of work and unparalleled legacy. With 100+ gigs a year, 17 studio albums, 7 live LPs, and numerous accolades—including 4 Grammys, an Austin City Limits Hall of Fame induction, and Congressional recognitions—their accomplishments are staggering. But beyond the numbers, their legacy is rooted in the tremendous heart of five blood brothers who’ve dedicated their time off-stage to helping others. Together they have penned some of the most important music of their time, turning stories of struggle into songs of hope and resilience.
Influenced by soul, R&B, blues, jazz, rock ‘n’ roll, and their Mexican and Latin American roots, Los Lobos blend diverse musical styles, spreading cultural richness around the globe. From Antwerp to Luxor to Bulgaria, their music has connected people across continents. For half a century, they’ve done it all on their own terms, with the same founding members—David Hidalgo, Louie Pérez, Jr., Cesar Rosas, Conrad Lozano, and Steve Berlin—solidifying their place as one of the tightest, most prolific bands in history.
Experience their vibrant, genre-defying sound live at the Chautauqua Amphitheater on August 15!

Chautauqua Theater Company presents Bratton Late Night
2025-08-15 22:00 | Bratton Theater, Bratton Theater
CTC’s favorite late-night talent showcase is back by popular demand! An evening of sketches and songs featuring the extraordinary talents of our 2025 conservatory.

Contemporary Issues Forum: Maureen Lichtveld, M.D.
2025-08-16 15:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Maureen Lichtveld is an epidemiologist and the dean of the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Public Health, where she studies environmental public health, focusing on environmentally induced disease, health disparities, environmental health policy, disaster preparedness, public health systems, and community resilience. At the University of Pittsburgh, Lichtveld is also the Jonas Salk Professor of Population Health and professor of environmental and occupational health. The topic of her Contemporary Issues Forum program for the Chautauqua Women’s Club is “Lessons from COVID, the Imminent Avian Flu Threat, and the Certainty of Future Pandemics.”
Before joining Pitt in January 2021, Lichtveld chaired Tulane University’s Department of Environmental Health Sciences in the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. She also directed Tulane’s Center for Gulf Coast Environmental Health Research, Leadership, and Strategic Initiatives. She spent 18 years with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.
A member of the National Academy of Medicine and a member of the board of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health, Lichtveld earned her Masters of Public Health from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Hygiene and Public Health and her medical doctorate from Anton de Kom University of Suriname and the University of Leiden in the Netherlands.

Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Gershwin’s Concerto in F
2025-08-16 20:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Rossen Milanov, conductor
Aaron Diehl, piano
One hundred years ago, composer George Gershwin, fresh off the successful premiere of Rhapsody in Blue, holed up in a practice cabin at Chautauqua Institution to work furiously on what became his Concerto in F. This summer, pianist Aaron Diehl joins Rossen Milanov and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the concerto’s premiere. Come hear a piece of Chautauqua’s history performed by a celebrated pianist who is redefining the lines between jazz and classical today.
Program
Antonin Dvorak: The Water Goblin, Op. 107
Carlos Simon: Four Black American Dances
George Gershwin: Piano Concerto in F

Brian McLaren
2025-08-17 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. A former college English teacher and pastor, he is a passionate advocate for “a new kind of Christianity” – just, generous, and working with people of all faiths for the common good.
Brian is Dean of Faculty for the Center for Action and Contemplation. and a podcaster with Learning How to See. He is a co-host of Southern Lights. His newest books are Faith After Doubt (January 2021), Do I Stay Christian? (May 2022), and Life After Doom: Wisdom and Courage for a World Falling Apart (2024). His co-authored children’s book Cory and the Seventh Story was released in 2023. The first book of a new science fiction trilogy, The Last Voyage, will be published in summer, 2025. He is an Auburn Senior Fellow, a contributor to We Stand With Love, and a leader in the Convergence Network, through which he is developing an innovative training/mentoring program for pastors and church planters.
He is an active and popular blogger, a musician, and a songwriter, offering a variety of resources through his website, www.brianmclaren.net.

Pilobolus: Family Friendly Performance
2025-08-17 15:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Pilobolus’s performances for families and students captivate young minds, with child-friendly costuming and a soft start to accommodate those unexpected delays. Audiences become part of the action with interactive engagement and enjoy laughter-filled moments that spark creativity and connection. With Pilobolus, artistry and fun take center stage—a perfect outing for students and families alike!

Ellen Crosby and Alan King
2025-08-17 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Chautauqua Writers’ Center Faculty Reading — Week Nine — Featuring Ellen Crosby (Mystery Fiction) and Alan King (Poetry)
Ellen Crosby is the author of 18 mystery novels; Deeds Left Undone, her most recent book, is the 13th book in a mystery series set in a vineyard in Virginia and will be out in August 2025. She also wrote four mysteries about an international photojournalist and a standalone, Moscow Nights. Her books have been nominated for the Mary Higgins Clark Award and the Library of Virginia People’s Choice Award. Before writing fiction full time, she was a freelance regional reporter for The Washington Post, Moscow correspondent for ABC Radio News, and an economist at the U.S. Senate. She is on the national board of Mystery Writers of America and is also a member of the Literary Society of Washington, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers.
Alan King is a Caribbean American poet, husband, father, and award-winning documentary filmmaker. The son of Trinidadian immigrants, he has published two poetry collections, Point Blank (Silver Birch Press, 2016) and Drift (Willow Books, 2012), as well as the chapbook Crooked Smiling Light (Plan B Press, 2021). His work delves into themes of family, identity, and social justice and has earned multiple nominations for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net awards.
King’s poetry caught the attention of former U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo, who remarked, “Alan Kingis one of my favorite up-and-coming poets of his generation. His poems are not pop and flash, rather more like a slow dance with someone you’re going to love forever.”
A Cave Canem graduate fellow, King holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the Stonecoast Program at the University of Southern Maine. He was the 2018/19 Writer-in-Residence for the Howard County Poetry and Literature Society. King lives with his family in Bowie, Maryland.
