Chautauqua

Editor’s Note: These are the prepared remarks for Chautauqua Institution’s President Michael E. Hill’s annual Three Taps of the Gavel address, delivered at Sunday’s morning worship service in the Amphitheater.

The long winter of our discontent may not be quite over in the world, but it sure is looking a lot like summer at Chautauqua.

I have spent the last several days getting to welcome many of you back to the grounds. We’ve been through so much, individually and collectively, since we were last together. It has been wonderful to share your stories and to share some of my own, including the news that since our last in-person Assembly, Peter and I were married, and we joined the mighty ranks of Chautauquans with a dog — a puppy that, like so many, enjoyed the 17-year arrival of cicadas. I know Wilbur, our 6-month-old golden retriever, looks forward to saying hello this summer. 

It is sometimes hard to even remember all we have seen and experienced through this surreal time in human history, among the most challenging that Chautauqua and Chautauquans have ever known, and, if I’m being honest, I can hardly believe you’re here. What a difference a year makes.

Last year I delivered the opening Three Taps of the Gavel address ushering in our 147th Summer Assembly in quite a different fashion. Looking out through a teleprompter, some 4,500 empty seats were my audience. I remember trying to envision you, wondering whether you were safely in your homes, praying that we had not lost any of you to a virus that was still deeply mysterious. I remember thinking about the launch of CHQ Assembly as a lifeboat to stay connected, and I hoped that I would never again open a Summer Assembly to an empty Amphitheater.

So here we are, you and I, reclaiming our beloved Chautauqua grounds, and today I cannot help but think about all of those who planned and sacrificed, sweated and worried, created safety plans and kept our society moving, all so we could get to this day. It is only fitting that we hold up these heroes as we start our Summer Assembly together, because it took far more than a village to bring us back. Please allow me a moment to share some of the heroics we have witnessed since our last gathering:

Chautauqua County’s Commissioner of Social Services and Public Health Director Christine Schuyler was swept to center stage when the world shut down last March. Day after day she hosted news conference after news conference, representing a calm and knowledgeable presence amid significant uncertainty. She repeatedly credited her staff for their heroics, and she sometimes represented her own humanity through tears that showed all of us that the days were long and impossible.

As the pandemic lingered, Christine kept her focus on serving the people of Chautauqua County, where she continues to lead the effort to enhance vaccine rates and reduce ambiguity.

Christine, thank you for your leadership and extraordinary commitment always — but especially over the past 15 months. We are and will remain grateful to you for getting us to where we are today. I am so hopeful a vacation is in the works. Please stand so we can publicly say “thank you” for all you’ve done.

Another in our community who faced this pandemic like a Marvel superhero is Chautauqua Lake Central School District, under the first-year leadership of Superintendent Josh Liddell. From the start of the 2020-2021 school year, Chautauqua Lake Schools represented creativity and resilience — offering multiple pathways to the classroom experience. The district just completed a remarkable 186-day school year in which it provided in-person instruction every school day for 95% or more of the district’s population. Dr. Liddell, congratulations, and thank you for the inclusive and careful way you and your staff navigated this sometimes frightening and always uncertain pandemic experience. We are fortunate to have you in our community serving as a model of caring for the youngest ones among us while demonstrating that lifelong learning especially matters at the earliest ages. Please stand for our thanks.

While I could go on for hours to recognize the many people in public office, private companies, hospitals, emergency services, police and volunteer organizations who deserve so much of the credit for our ability to be together now and through the next 65 days and beyond, I wish to also recognize the staff of Chautauqua Institution. 

Starting with our Building and Grounds and Chautauqua Police teams who continued to report to work every day while most of their colleagues were required to stay home — these individuals literally and figuratively powered this place for months. And they did so with an uncommon sense of pride and deep, deep commitment. I celebrate you and the entire Chautauqua staff for navigating these difficult days as a team — with good humor, sheer courage and a special pixie dust that looks a lot like love. Every Chautauquan, here and not here, thanks you for your care and your embodiment of Chautauqua’s mission. We gratefully salute you.

I am privileged to share leadership of Chautauqua with a very special group of people. Behind me are members of our board of trustees and members of the executive management team of Chautauqua. I so often wish that all at Chautauqua could witness first-hand the selfless servant leadership of this group of people. They have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic to preserve our most sacred traditions, to expand Chautauqua’s reach and to make it possible to safely return for a new season at Chautauqua. They have my unending gratitude, my deepest respect and my abiding love for their service.

And as part of all of that, I particularly want to take a moment to recognize the many colleagues across the Institution who responded to ever-changing rules and regulations over the course of the pandemic. Many members of our audience today might have had to make similar decisions for the companies and organizations that you lead, to continue to serve your core mission by pivoting, changing or re-evaluating your plans. This work may have left many exhausted from time to time. Some of you still might be exhausted. 

I want to specifically thank our program and safety teams for the work they did to make sure that we continued to serve our mission while maintaining safety as a top priority. I also want to thank our loyal Chautauquans who were willing to roll with the changes, and most importantly those who took the time to say to our staff, “Thanks for all that you are doing.” Your deep commitment to Chautauqua, and your continued kindness and understanding is deeply valued and appreciated.

And, finally, I want to thank each of you who call yourselves Chautauquans. From donated gate passes and financial donations to words of encouragement and notes of wisdom, you reminded us of the importance of Chautauqua’s permanence in a world that felt anything but permanent. For never losing your faith in the Chautauqua ideal, for joining us in its digital expression, for seeking refuge in this place if you could, and for always, always reminding us that Chautauqua must come out the other side, your love of Chautauqua fueled all of us trying to seek a way back. Thank you.

While we take this moment to give thanks for all that has been done, we are also gearing up for our sesquicentennial in 2024. I am excited about our developing plans; but only at Chautauqua can one lay claim to three 150th birthdays, and this year is the first; the second being the 150th Assembly season in 2023 and, in 2024,  marking 150 years since the opening of the first Assembly. But to the first: the grounds are 150 years old this year. It was in 1871 that the Chautauqua Lake Camp Meeting Association purchased the land, cleared the grounds and built the first auditorium in what is now Miller Park. The first camp meeting was opened on the morning of June 27, 1871 — exactly 150 years ago to this day and to this hour. Those early Chautauquans had a sense of the sacredness of this space, as the Rev. Carruthers opened the meeting with a sermon based on Matthew 18:20: “For where two or more gather in my name, there am I.”

But those who organized that first, modest gathering could have had no idea that they were laying the groundwork for such a legacy. When our wonderful archivist, Jon Schmitz, told me of this anniversary date a few weeks ago, my mind immediately went to this question: What are we doing today that could potentially spawn a movement worthy of mention 100 or more years from now?

Of course, it’s exceedingly difficult and dangerous to get into the business of predicting the future, so I’ll reflect with you on our hopes – those of our board of trustees and our leadership team and staff — for what the Chautauqua of today will be known for when those who come after celebrate that tomorrow.

We hope that future generations will look to this era in the life of Chautauqua as the moment that commenced a significant initiative to improve the condition of Chautauqua Lake. Amid a pandemic and related challenges, in 2020 and 2021, Chautauqua Institution launched an ambitious journey toward sustainability and ecological wellness for Chautauqua Lake in partnership with government and community leaders, and our celebrated science partner, The Jefferson Project. 

“After all we’ve just been through to get to this moment, to get back here, to come home to Chautauqua,  I believe nothing can stand in our way.”

-Michael E. Hill, 18th President, Chautauqua Insititution

Naming the science-based conservation of Chautauqua Lake among four top objectives in our strategic plan, 150 Forward, represents a firm commitment on behalf of the Institution that says: “We share responsibility for the care and conservation of Chautauqua Lake, and we intend to claim and maintain a leadership role in this work. We will not stop until Chautauqua Lake is removed from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation list of impaired waterways.” We see a future where Chautauqua Lake and the communities that depend on it serve as a model and example of recovery and collaboration that influences and informs freshwater conservation efforts in the U.S. and abroad.

That care for our environment was also behind the launch this year of the Chautauqua Climate Change Initiative. Like our lake initiative, this is a generational issue. But it is one to which we believe Chautauqua must commit. When future generations look back at this time in the life of this storied Institution, we hope there is overwhelming evidence that we helped to create greater awareness of climate change while also helping to bridge divides on the issue. Where there is disagreement, Chautauqua will play a role in bringing people together to focus on what they can agree on toward influencing and creating positive change for the planet. 

Through the generosity of two visionary philanthropist families, starting this year, Chautauqua invests in programs during and beyond the Summer Assembly, on and off these sacred grounds, in bringing people together to consider their role in stemming the trajectory of climate change. Our new director of the Chautauqua Climate Change Initiative, Mark Wenzler, brought national attention to us already in his choice to bike — not drive or fly — from our Washington, D.C. office to Chautauqua, New York, two weeks ago. He documented his five-day trip daily on social media by highlighting the beauty of creation along the way and the fragility of our world’s ecology exposed and exacerbated by human activity. 

During his short tenure with us, Mark has already begun to frame the initiative with three primary areas of focus: education, stewardship and justice. He will be with us most of the summer and will create opportunities to discuss his ideas and hear from you about yours. Mark is also hosting our first Chautauqua Travels program in November, to New Orleans, where Chautauqua will lead a group travel adventure with one-of-a-kind experiences to create deeper understanding of the impact of climate change in that part of the world, most notably the bayou region’s continuing recovery from the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina. I’m looking forward to joining Mark on the trip, and I hope some of you will be a part of the journey.

One cannot speak of justice in the world without reflecting on the other force that has rocked the United States alongside the pandemic, namely the continued quest to address the scourge of systemic racism that has plagued our nation. This has been an issue since the founding of our nation and since you and I gathered together on these sacred grounds, in this sacred grove, the nation has again experienced too many deaths of Black and brown bodies at the hands of hatred and indifference. 

So many of us have asked the question about what we can do to make a difference. I know we often feel so helpless and yet want to be a part of the solution. Dr. King gave us such a straightforward answer when he wrote, “Men hate each other because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they cannot communicate with each other; they can’t communicate with each other because they are separated from each other.”

I hope that in Chautauqua’s tomorrow, you and I figure out ways to make our own corner of the world a model for inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility, that we find ways to make Chautauqua less separated from any and all who wish to participate in our mission. I hope we realize the pledge to turn our gates into gateways. I’m so grateful that we begin this season with the leadership of Amit Taneja, our new Senior Vice President and Chief Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility Officer. While one hire alone will not realize Chautauqua’s desired vision for IDEA, I know having someone to help us shepherd this work will take us a long way toward it, and I’m deeply grateful for all those Chautauquans who invested to make this significant step possible. Welcome, Amit. 

As we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the first Chautauqua Lake Camp Meeting, we also hope that our vision to be more and do more in the world has begun to take hold. As we began our time together today, I was reminded that last year we convened our season through CHQ Assembly, our new digital collective that has allowed us to program regularly for the past year. I hope as we continue to embrace this important new resource this year and for years to come, that we will continue to find ways to transport our robust series of programs and services that exemplify the magic we create here during the Summer Assembly to any and all who cannot be with us in person. And I hope that we will more deeply explore the ways that Chautauqua can return to its roots of being as much a movement as it is a place. We learned just how important that can be when the pandemic took the gift of gathering in person, and we also learned that when we don’t choose between place and movement, as if there must be a winner and a loser, that we have the chance to do unimaginable things with and for the world.

Our distinctive formulas for diving deeper through interfaith engagement, exploring the critical issues of the day through lectures, learning and enrichment through the literary arts, and probing challenging issues through the lenses of performing and visual arts can and must be ever-more leveraged in communities and organizations across the nation with Chautauqua as a lead partner. And in so doing, I hope that the Summer Assembly itself continues to bring people here every year to engage across disciplines and amidst multiple generations of participants who seek an authentic community — all with a goal to bring newfound goodness and ideas to their other home communities.

As this Summer Assembly begins, I ask you to reflect on the themes we plan to investigate in the coming weeks. While we decide on these themes more than a year prior to the start of each season, I continue to marvel at how prescient they seem to be. In February 2020 — how did we know how important it would be to talk about empathy in 2021, much less resilience? “Navigating our Divides;” “Trust, Society and Democracy;” “Exploring Today’s Unknowns” — all these themes take on a more significant sense of importance and new meaning after what we have been through. And, most importantly, they promise to bring people of diverging perspectives together, face to face, once again. What a joy it is to be in community, at times agreeing to disagree, but always reaffirming our commitment to civil dialogue and celebrating the very best in human values.

And that’s what our forebears in that camp meeting 150 years ago really understood, isn’t it? That it is important for us to come together, to be in community, to learn and pray and laugh and cry and feel together. To feed off each other’s energy and intellect and artistry. To share in the delight of a passing greeting with a stranger, or a lengthy embrace with a long-missed neighbor.

From the first sermon on these grounds, again I recite Matthew 18:20: “For where two or more gather in my name, there am I.”

Whether you believe in a higher power or not, I know you understand the blessing that is this place and the company of one another. The expressions of joy I have witnessed across these grounds in recent weeks have been unlike any I’ve seen in my time at Chautauqua. Personally, I can’t count the number of times I’ve almost choked up in unexpected encounters with members of our community. It’s just so wonderful to see everyone again.

This moment is a gift. I urge you to feel it fully and deeply. Lean into those impromptu Bestor Plaza conversations. Allow yourself to be transported by a soaring aria. Let the majesty of the Massey Memorial Organ overwhelm you, as we all become one in its resonance.

Speaking of the Massey, the last time many of you heard this great organ in person, it was under the command of our beloved and dearly missed organist Jared Jacobsen. We shared some sorrowful days in the wake of Jared’s death, and many more since. The recent past has provided too many reminders that life is precious and fleeting.

And yet, the Massey is still here, in all its majesty, now animated by the masterful Joshua Stafford. And through wars, depressions, pandemics and the sheer toll of time, Chautauqua is here, 150 years after people first gathered in her groves, now given life anew by you. We honor our history and, especially, the adversity we’ve overcome by carrying the torch forward. Chautauqua the Place remains vibrant and full of light, after a year in which we proved Chautauqua the Movement is relevant and needed in the modern world.

I can’t help but think of Beethoven’s Ninth, a most triumphant artistic portrayal of the arrival of joy through suffering, which has countless times reverberated through this sacred space. Many of you are familiar with its final and most famous movement, an orchestration of Friederich Schiller’s famous “Ode to Joy.” One by one, the composer resurfaces and dismisses themes from the first three movements — too heavy, too dark, not joyful enough. He then introduces the choral finale by inserting his own line at the top of the poem: “O friends, not these tones! Let us take a more joyous strain.”

Friends, let this be our refrain this summer, which will still present its challenges. Whenever we feel the onset of darkness or bitterness, let us dismiss it and instead look for light and joy. Where we encounter injustice or hate, let us drive it out with justice and love. When we disagree, let us assume good faith in each other, and conduct ourselves with kindness and grace. This summer, let us take a more joyous strain. 

And in this season of joyousness, let us continue to clear the ground that will have Chautauquans 150 years from now celebrating our courage and our tenacity. Let’s harness the tremendous possibilities of Chautauqua for the betterment of our corner of the world and beyond. After all we’ve just been through to get to this moment, to get back here, to come home to Chautauqua, I believe nothing can stand in our way. 

So welcome home, Chautauqua, and let’s get to it.

I tap the gavel three times. 

Chautauqua 2021 has begun.

The Music School Festival Orchestra will perform onstage for the first time in over a year at 8:15 p.m. Monday, June 28 in the Amphitheater. Musical and Artistic Director Timothy Muffitt will lead the orchestra with help from this year’s David Effron Conducting Fellow, Joshua Hong. 

“A lot of us are super-excited to be playing with a full orchestra for the first time in a year and a half,” said violinist Natasha Kubit. “Even though we have to sit 3-6 feet apart from each other, it’s just so exciting to be able to hear woodwinds and brass again.”

The MSFO usually has over 80 students, but due to COVID-19 regulations, this year’s orchestra has just over 60 students. However, the orchestra will still fill the Amp tonight with the sounds of pieces by Weber, Harlin and Schumann. 

“We have a smaller orchestra than we normally do,” Muffitt said. “Smaller orchestras are typically associated with music from the 17th and 18th centuries. But typically, the bulk of what we do in MSFO comes from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. So finding pieces that would give us a broad variety of musical style, as much as possible and fully engage all the members of the orchestra, was a bit of a challenge.”

The performance will open with Hong conducting Carl Maria von Weber’s Overture to Der Freischütz. From the 18th century, this three-act piece was considered one of the first German Romantic operas. The title, which translates to “Free Shooter,” tells the story of seven magical bullets provided by the devil, six of which are guaranteed to hit its mark and the seventh under the devil’s control. 

“I think it’s such a good piece to open up the concert with,” said violist Sydney Link. “It starts off quiet and then just grows into this loud sound throughout the orchestra. There’s this really awesome horn quartet at the beginning. With our great horn section, it’s just such a great way to start our season off.”

The piece is not that long, hitting just around 10 minutes, but students said it’s full of energy. 

“It’s very dramatic and has a lot of character and color,” said clarinetist Elle Crowhurst. 

The next piece, “River of Doubt,” by American composer Patrick Harlin is not only a new style but uses unique sounds and instruments. Harlin will also be present in the audience tonight. 

“This will be the first time that this piece will be performed in this capacity,” Harlin said. “It’s the first live performance that I’ve been able to attend after the pandemic, so that’s exciting.”

Harlin’s inspiration for this piece came from his expedition to the Amazon for his doctorate. 

“I actually use recordings from the Amazon that I gathered when I was down there,” Harlin said. “It’s something exceptionally rare. I give each of the woodwinds and percussion bird calls that you would hear if you were down there. I give them the liberty to decide when they want to come in. As a unit, they create the Amazon bird calls while there’s conducted music going on. This gives you the sense of being down there.”

Harlin said “River of Doubt” is unique because of the deviation from the orchestra’s usual performance of romantic era and classical pieces. 

“This piece blends soundscapes I recorded from the natural world with orchestral music, and I use some of those sounds as the musical material to make up the piece,” Harlin said. 

This piece is something new — not just for the audience, but for the students, as well. 

“I’m most excited for (“River of Doubt”) because it’s technically challenging, but it’s different from the classical standard sound that everyone’s used to hearing and what we’re used to playing,” Link said. “There’s something called a waterphone in this piece. It’s this round instrument that’s placed by percussion and you bow it with a bass bow. It makes this ethereal sound that’s like birds and animals that makes you feel like you’re in the rainforest.”

This new instrument depicts Harlin’s experience in the Amazon and seemingly transports the audience to the rainforest.

“The waterphone has a sort of haunting sound,” Harlin said. “What’s really interesting is that when you’re in the Amazon, oftentimes you hear one call and you hear it just once and then you never hear it again. I wanted to play off this idea of something that is a little bit haunting.”

The final piece of the concert is Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, op. 97, Rhenish. Schumann captures his feelings about the Rhineland and its atmosphere through this exuberant, relaxing and lyrical piece. Each movement captures different moods and scenes through blaring horns and gentle winds. 

“The Schumann is a piece that really suits the size of our orchestra well,” Muffitt said. 

For students, this return to the stage marks the beginning of an incredible season to come. 

“After the first rehearsal, everyone was just giddy with the feeling of being able to play with a full orchestra again,” Crowhurst said. 

Toni Morrison said in her lecture “Unspeakable Things Unspoken” that “we have always been imagining ourselves.”

“Personal Geographies,” the theme for the 2021 Chautauqua Writers’ Festival, directed by Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, echoed that idea of how we imagine ourselves and how that can alter the world around us. The festival, which ran virtually from last Wednesday through Saturday, included workshops, panels readings from faculty members Jess Row, Martha Collins, Porochista Khakpour and Marcelo Hernandez-Castillo, and a keynote on Thursday from DaMaris B. Hill.  

Hill is the author of A Bound Woman Is a Dangerous Thing, an Amazon No. 1 best seller in African-American poetry and a Publishers Weekly top 10 history title. Her other books include The Fluid Boundaries of Suffrage and Jim Crow: Staking Claims in the American Heartland. Her work has appeared in African American Review, ESPNW, Sou’wester, Sleet Magazine, American Studies Journal, Meridians, Shadowbox, Tidal Basin Review, Reverie, Tongues of the Ocean, and numerous anthologies.

Evoking Morrison’s style, Hill gave a presentation that was one-part essay and one-part memoir, interspersed with readings from her book A Bound Woman Is a Dangerous Thing. She opened her presentation by talking about her current personal geography goals. 

“In my personal geography, I am trying to be a better steward over the wholeness of who I am,” Hill said. “So rather than divide myself into a scholar sometimes and a writer at other times, I’m trying to bring those things together as much as possible.” 

Before moving into her first reading, Hill took a moment to comment on the role of all the writers that were in attendance, tying it directly into the theme of “Personal Geographies.”

“When considering the past, present and futures of creative writing, we are tracing where we have been and charting where we are going as writers,” said Hill, who got her doctoral degree in writing from the University of Kentucky. “We become a tribe of cartographers, making connections about how we see ourselves in the context of the spaces around us.”

She opened by reading “Shut Up In My Bones,” a poem about the life she shared with her grandmother that she called an ethnography and testament to the fact that despite being generations apart, they still shared a love of literature. 

Hill took the time to punctuate the line “I am the savory morsel in America’s teeth,” by rattling a fork against a plate. 

She allowed the poem to percolate in the minds of her audience for a moment before she started to talk about what the book is, not according to publishing categories, but according to her. 

“This book is classified as a memoir in verse, but what it is, is a remix of who I am, who I was and who I wish to be,” she said. “What the book does is it takes on the responsibility of persona poems and life writing. It deceptively tells you what I want you to know about others and the subjects in the book while, simultaneously and ironically in the same words, it illustrates and details who I am and what I value.” 

Hill chose to include in her book some historically accurate nonfiction vignettes and sought to chart Black women or the subjects’ lives in the currency of Black women’s language, mother tone and gossip. She read one of these poems, called “The Concession of Annie Cutler,” that told the story of a middle-class Black woman who ran away from home with her sweetheart to work at a hotel in Philadelphia until they could marry. However, by the time she had moved, her “sweetheart” had married and impregnated another woman. 

As she mapped these women out across the poems in her book, Hill said it was important that the renderings of each woman were representative of them — not only in content but in the form the poem would take on the page. 

The care that Hill took to tell these stories was highlighted in her poems “Ida B. Wells” and “Harriet is Holy.”

“Ida B. Wells” is a poem about lynching written in linguistic narrative and mathematical composition. In the poem, Hill lists the number of lynchings reported in each state while Wells was alive, painting a powerful picture of the violence committed against Black men and women. 

She brought the mood to a lighter topic by reading her second-to-last poem of the day, “Harriet is Holy.” As she held her book up to the screen, she said that she had tried for a long time to write about Harriet Tubman liberating people in a geographic space, and that that was where the issue was.

“The whole gag with Harriet Tubman is that you could never find her,” Hill said. “For me to try and locate her in any space was not doing Harriet Tubman justice.”

She read “Harriet is Holy” not once, but twice. The poem plays with form and construction in a way that allows it to be read in any direction and still make sense. 

The last poem Hill read for her presentation was titled “A Recipe for a Son,” written for her son 26 years ago, which led her to reflect on the path her life had taken. 

“When I think about my personal geographies and cartographies about who I am, my mapping is never quite complete and ink spills off the page and onto the table,” Hill said. “My fingerprints are everywhere over this map that is my life and it’s smudged and not perfect.”

Thursday closed with a reading from faculty members Hernandez-Castillo and Khakpour. Both authors were introduced and enthusiastically welcomed by Bertram. 

Castillo chose to read a series of poems from his book Cenzontle broken up not by other works, but notes from his journal. Castillo received a silent round of applause from his Zoom audience, and according to Bertram, his reading was “beautiful and haunting.”

Khakpour closed out the evening by reading an essay from her book Brown Album. The essay “How to Write Iranian-America” or “The Last Essay” that chronicled her life as an Iranian-American writer from the time she was a little girl up until she was 17.

“In the Amargosa Desert, on a seldom-used trail, there was a pump. Tied to the pump in a baking powder can, was the following letter.” So began the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson in the opening sermon for the 2021 Chautauqua Summer Assembly Season.

There was no sermon title. The scripture was Isaiah 58: 6-12.

The letter said, in part, that the pump was fine as of June 1932 but that the washer had a tendency to dry out and the pump needed to be primed. Desert Pete, who wrote the letter, had buried a bottle of water, cork end up, under the rock nearby so it would not evaporate. There was enough water to prime the pump, but not if some water was drunk before doing so.

Desert Pete suggested that the thirsty person pour out about one-quarter of the water and let it sit a minute to get the washer wet, then pour the rest of the water to get the pump going. 

“Pump like crazy and it will never run dry,” he wrote. “But you have to prime the pump first and you will get all the water you can hold.” 

When you have had enough, fill the bottle and put it back under the rock for the next person, Desert Pete wrote.

“This is our faith-works connection,” Robinson said. “One without the other is not useful. Faith without work gets us nothing, and work without faith will not get us where we need to be.”

The past 16 months had been a challenging experience for the Institution and its trustees. 

“They were either going to be crazy or courageous in the decisions they made,” Robinson said. “We had a staff, the likes of which I have never seen, and an almost-always positive president, who even if he did not think we could pull it off, had faith we were planning for a real season.”

The stories in the Bible, said Robinson, are all about journeys — sometimes scary and dangerous journeys. 

Abram went off to a land he did not know and “his descendants are as numerous as the stars.” Moses returned to Egypt to confront Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. Moses did not believe he could do it, but he had the faith that God could – through him.

“Isaiah wrote of a world free of oppression,” Robinson said. “Jesus was cut from the same cloth. We need to visit prisons, care for the vulnerable and love our enemies like the prophets.”

He continued, “Whether we have visions of justice or believe in ‘the best of human values,’ these ideas are destinations. It takes a lifetime to learn to love our neighbor as ourself. We have to work for the impossible.”

Robinson challenged the congregation to think about their journey at Chautauqua. 

“Chautauqua is more an intellectual, emotional or political journey than a physical one. …Do more than just say you care about (issues). I am going to try to understand my privilege as a white man. Let us love our enemies even when they are so unlikable.”

It takes the balance of all four pillars of Chautauqua to provide the water for a journey through the wilderness.

 “The arts and recreation can provide that water for the desert journey,” he said.

“I suggest you listen for God’s voice on the journey,” Robinson continued. “What journeys is God calling you to consider? How do you know if it really is God calling you? If it is something that you really already want to do, it is probably your own ego doing a good impression of God.”

However, if it is something hard that you would rather not do, Robinson said, “chances are it is God calling. Pay attention.”

Robinson invited the congregation to contemplate what journey they were being called to now, what desert they were being invited to cross. 

“Remember, you are not alone,” he said. “There are refreshments — the symphony, the lake, the golf course, Smokey Robinson. We are not alone. As we begin, I wish you safe travels, enjoyment and bon voyage.”

The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, vice president of religion and senior pastor, presided. Candace Littell Maxwell, chair of the Chautauqua Board of Trustees, read the scripture. Joshua Stafford, the Jared Jacobsen Chair for the Organist and Director of Sacred Music, played the Massey Memorial Organ and conducted the choral octet. The organ prelude was “Dawn” by Cyril Jenkins. The prelude was followed by the Three Taps of the Gavel opening address by Chautauqua Institution President Michael E. HIll. The anthem, sung by the choral octet, was “Hymn After a Song of Wisdom,’’ by Charles Villiers Stanford. During the time of remembrance for Chautauquans who have died since June 2020, Aaron Dubois, a trumpeter with the Chautauqua Music School Festival Orchestra, played “Taps.” Written in 1862 during the “Peninsula Campaign” by David Butterfield of the 83rd Pennsylvania Regiment from Erie, “Taps” was first played by Oliver W. Norton, from Sherman, New York, for whom Norton Hall is dedicated. The offertory anthem was “With What Shall I Come Before the Lord,” by John Ness Beck. The postlude was “Final” from Symphonie No. 1 by Louis Vierne. The Gladys R. Brasted and the Adair Brasted Gould Memorial Chaplaincy provides support for this week’s chaplains and worship services.

Chautauqua has always been about convening. After a year spent socially distanced, Chautauquans are finally able to come together once more in the community they all love.

All across the grounds, families are holding picnics, Chautauquans are engaging in conversations on porches and benches, once-empty homes are filled with life, and friends old and new are being reunited, many having not seen each other since the 2019 Summer Assembly Season. 

With Chautauqua Institution President Michael E. Hill’s Three Taps of the Gavel on Sunday, the season has officially begun, and the most essential element of the Chautauqua Experience, Chautauquans themselves, have come to convene for this 148th Summer Assembly. 

It has been a long and painful road, but Chautauquans who have waited two years for this moment are finally home at last.

Mary Lee Talbot – Staff writer

The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson will preach at the 10:45 a.m. Sunday Service of Worship and Sermon in the Amphitheater. Robinson replaces previously announced Sunday preacher the Rev. Liz Theoharis, who is attending to an urgent personal matter and is unable to travel to Chautauqua during Week One. 

Robinson serves as vice president of religion and senior pastor of Chautauqua Institution. He was elected Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire on June 7, 2003, becoming the first openly gay and partnered priest to be elected bishop in historic Christendom. He served as the Ninth Bishop of New Hampshire until his retirement in early 2013. 

A senior fellow at both the Center for American Progress and Auburn Seminary, Robinson is a celebrated interfaith leader whose ministry has focused on helping congregations and clergy, especially in times of conflict, utilizing his skills in congregational dynamics, conflict resolution and mediation. 

He is the author of In the Eye of the Storm: Swept to the Center by God and God Believes in Love: Straight Talk about Gay Marriage. 

In 2009, at the invitation of President Barack Obama, Robinson prayed the invocation at the Opening Inaugural Event at the Lincoln Memorial.

In his weekly column in The Chautauquan Daily, Institution President Michael E. Hill, who will deliver is annual Three Taps of the Gavel address to open the Summer Assembly Season prior to the Service of Worship and Sermon, said that the Chautauqua community was saddened not to welcome Theoharis to the Amphitheater pulpit.

“She is in my prayers, and I look forward to her joining us in a future season,” Hill wrote.

Please see the 9 a.m. Monday through Friday Morning Devotional listings in The Chautauquan Daily for information on Week One’s additional substitute preachers.

Mark Wenzler, the first director of Chautauqua’s Climate Change Initiative, began his Chautauqua tenure with a 370–mile bike ride to the grounds from Chautauqua’s Washington, D.C. office. Wenzler documented his journey through Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York on social media, using the trip as a teaching and learning opportunity. The ride was aligned with Climate Ride, raising funds for and awareness of the Climate Change Initiative. Watch for comprehensive coverage of the initial stages of the initiative this summer in the Daily.

If the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson had to write a school essay on what he learned this summer, it might begin this way:

“‘I learned that a 147-year-old institution, that worships its past, is far more nimble and courageous than it is sometimes given credit for,’” he would write. “‘It was a reminder that, in spite of our love of tradition, in the Institution’s DNA is the ability to pivot instead of curl up and go away. I am proud to be a part of it; it has been exciting and humbling. Nothing short of a pandemic says, ‘Change or let it defeat you.’”

Robinson, senior pastor and vice president of religion at Chautauqua Institution, will be the chaplain for the final service of worship and sermon at 11 a.m. EDT Sunday, Aug. 30, on the CHQ Assembly Video Platform. The service will be recorded live in the Amphitheater. His sermon title is “Chautauqua: For Such a Time as This” (Esther 4:14), and the scripture text will be Genesis 32: 22-31.

“I am very close to our entire team: Maureen Rovegno, Zach Stahlsmith, Roz Dahlie and Justin Schmitz and Josh Stafford. It has never taken a team this large to do what we do in the Department of Religion, but it would not work if any one of them was missing,” Robinson said.

Robinson was elected Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire on June 7, 2003, becoming the first openly gay and partnered priest to be elected bishop in historic Cristendom. He served as the ninth bishop of New Hampshire until his retirement in early 2013.

A senior fellow at both the Center for American Progress and Auburn Seminary, Robinson is a celebrated interfaith leader whose ministry has focused on helping congregations and clergy, especially in times of conflict, utilizing his skills in congregational dynamics, conflict resolution and mediation.

He is the author of In the Eye of the Storm: Swept to the Center by God, published in 2006, and God Believes in Love: Straight Talk about Gay Marriage, published in 2012. In addition to being a popular speaker in the United States and abroad, he writes opinion columns on a variety of topics for The Daily Beast, Huffington Post and Time.com.

This program is made possible by the Marie Reid-Edward Spencer Babcox Memorial Fund.

Chautauqua Institution was built on traditions — both big and small. From front porch conversations, to Recognition Day for the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, Bryant Day, Old First Night and the Three Taps of the Gavel. When it was decided the 2020 season would take place online, Chautauqua Institution President Michael E. Hill wasn’t willing or ready to leave any of them behind. 

“We had a conversation early on in our planning, where we talked about one of our goals being not allowing the arc of tradition to snap. I’m sad we couldn’t bring every tradition forward, but I think we really, really tried to get the biggies,” Hill said. “It was fun for me to see how many people showed up for them.”

Hill will reflect on the virtual season during the final Sacred Song Service and Closing Three Taps of the Gavel, “If We Knew Then …” at 8 p.m. EDT Sunday, Aug. 30, on the CHQ Assembly Video Platform. 

I certainly think the closing ceremony and Three Taps — doing them from the Amphitheater with the Massey Organ — is a way to reassure people that the Chautauqua you know and love is still here,” Robinson said.

Aside from traditions, Hill said Chautauqua Institution is known for its “heavy sense of community.” Vice President of Religion and Senior Pastor Gene Robinson believes that the success of the season falls to both the Chautauqua staff and the Chautauquans watching from home “standing with the mentality that they are all in this together.”

“It’s one thing to produce the content, but if you don’t have people who are also willing to learn … and show up on a daily basis, then you don’t have as much of a program,” Robinson said. “I feel like we did our part and Chautauquans did their part, and that is a sense of community even though we weren’t together in one physical place.”

Preceding Hill’s remarks, Robinson will celebrate the completion of the virtual season through his final sermon “Chautauqua: For Such a Time as This,” at 11 a.m. EDT, also on the CHQ Assembly Video Platform, and then as he leads the Sacred Song Service. According to Robinson, the focus of the morning sermon will be about the “extraordinary experiment we embarked on.”

“What do we have the opportunity to learn from all of this, and what do we do about all of that?” Robinson said. “People will probably be just fascinated to see and sort of get a progress report — how did it go? Was it exactly what we thought? What were the surprises?”

One of the benefits from the virtual season, Robinson said, is the ability to continue programming year round. 

“When we say ‘next season,’ we would normally be talking about next summer; but because of CHQ Assembly, next season begins the day after closing day, so we are looking forward to what happens in fall, winter and spring,” Robinson said. “To that end, I am putting together a once-a-month-lecture interview series on notable books … and authors, some of which we know and love.”

In terms of the next Summer Assembly, only time will tell how Chautauquans will gather together  — whether that is strictly virtual again, or in a hybrid of both virtual and in-person programming, according to Hill. 

“I am looking forward to ideally being with people in-person again, but if we can’t, (we know) that we have a vehicle that will allow us to hold the 148th Assembly,” Hill said. “Just knowing that it will happen no matter what is a great comfort.”

Regardless of what platforms next year’s traditions will belong to, Robinson rests assured the “symbolism” and sentimentality behind them all will carry through.

“I certainly think the closing ceremony and Three Taps — doing them from the Amphitheater with the Massey Organ — is a way to reassure people that the Chautauqua you know and love is still here,” Robinson said.

Through a collaborative partnership between Mather and Chautauqua Institution, Chautauquans are offered a unique opportunity to add their voice to future research that will explore people’s influences, behaviors, and attitudes.

Chautauquans are invited to join the new Mather Institute Research Panel. This panel, made up of members from across the United States, will serve as the foundation for future Institute studies on wellness and aging well topics. Members of the panel will receive invitations to participate in several surveys a year, contributing insights and experiences on such topics as positive aging, hope, solitude, ageism, resilience, gratitude, wellness and motivators of healthy behaviors. 

Staffed by researchers, Mather Institute is an award-winning resource for applied research and information about wellness, aging, and innovations in aging services. The Institute is part of Mather, a not-for-profit organization founded in 1941 that is dedicated to creating ways to age well.

The first survey will open in late September. Each survey will be online and is estimated to take 10 to 30 minutes to complete. Survey participants will receive a summary of the research findings when they become available.

Mather Institute will use the panel’s responses to explore fresh insights into the experiences of individuals during these unprecedented times.

Anyone who is at least 18 years old is welcome to join the Mather Institute Research Panel. To join, simply complete a demographic online survey here. Answers on this initial survey will be used for future research in which panel members can participate. Please note that Mather Institute takes personal privacy very seriously. The information shared will be confidential and none of the information you provide will be attributed to individual survey-takers.

Nestled in Ellery, there is a forest thick with towering trees and winding streams in the watershed of Chautauqua Lake. Birds chirp and float from branch to branch as the flora and fauna bask in the summer sun. Deer pass through, nibbling on greenery and bedding down in the brush. This is First Forest.

First Forest is more than a picturesque Western New York landscape. First Forest has made history. Year-round Chautauquans Ted and Deborah First purchased this property in 2013 out of their love for nature and hiking. But they longed to do more than just love the land.

“We wanted to see if we could do more than be active land managers. Preservation wasn’t enough, because with the global impacts of invasive species and climate changes, you really need to take a more active role in terms of building a sustainable forest for the future,” Ted First said. “Then, we realized in the process of getting involved in that we needed a partner. We needed the skills of somebody that was committed to sustainable forestry that was going to deal with not just the woodlot, but all these other conditions — the invasive species, the overrun of deer, the climate change, the planning for the future.”

But, that partnership could not exist in preservation alone. 

“What Ted and Deb have done for (FSF) is tremendously impactful, but I believe that the vision they have for the region is equally (impactful),” said Annie Maloney, executive director of FSF. “Their donation is quite visionary, to be the first that we’ve ever protected in New York State. To really want to see people come into the property to learn about sustainable forestry and to think in a different way about their property is a really big deal for the region, and of course is a big deal for a small organization like ours to be able to have a broader impact on our landscape.”

“In an area like Chautauqua County that has serious low employment opportunities — (to) integrate sustainable harvest into the long-term plan was the only thing that (made) sense to us. What people in this region don’t need is more land locked up in preservation that nobody can access,” Deb First said. “We wanted a management plan that would engage a handful of local people who would be able to make a living through the harvesting and processing of lumber. That was a pretty integral part. It should add to the community’s economic health, as well as add to the environmental health.”

While acting as a board member for the Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy, Ted First came across the Foundation For Sustainable Forests, a nonprofit land trust based in northwest Pennsylvania that protects and stewards 2,000 acres of working woodlands. By rehabilitating forests and setting up sustainable lumbering operations, FSF provides local jobs and improves ecological health to the regions it serves.

After two years of coordination, the Firsts finalized their 113-acre donation to FSF in 2019. Their agreement stated that the couple would maintain seven acres of meadow and a cabin, while FSF developed 106 acres. 

“What Ted and Deb have done for (FSF) is tremendously impactful, but I believe that the vision they have for the region is equally (impactful),” said Annie Maloney, executive director of FSF. “Their donation is quite visionary, to be the first that we’ve ever protected in New York State. To really want to see people come into the property to learn about sustainable forestry and to think in a different way about their property is a really big deal for the region, and of course is a big deal for a small organization like ours to be able to have a broader impact on our landscape.”

FSF moved in to make improvements. First, they cleared pathways and reinforced banks to ensure easy access for the horse teams they used while lumbering — one of FSF’s most identifiable lumbering quirks. 

“Horses are great, because they have less of a footprint on the forest floor when you’re getting logs out of a forest, but they can’t get out as long distance as a mechanical skidder — so therefore you have to improve … the access road so that a logging truck can get a little further so that the horses don’t have to get as far out,” Maloney said.

Then came the ecological improvements. FSF did an “ash salvage,” where they cleared white ash trees on the property that were dead or dying because of the invasion of the emerald ash borer — a beetle that’s feeding and egg-laying under the bark of ash trees and has decimated forests in 35 states in the last two decades. Some lumber could be used, some could not.

“There’s a little bit of a time sensitivity there, where it doesn’t take very long for those ash trees to no longer be commercially useful once they start to die,” Maloney said. “So we had to act quickly on that.”

After allowing the land to settle, land manager Guy Dunkle said he plans to selectively cut parts of the forest to allow new growth, giving the land structural and age diversity. Dunkle and his team will then create a strategy to diversify the trees in the forest as a response to the high numbers of hemlock and Sugar Maple trees, threatened by wipeouts due to disease and climate change, respectively. 

While these improvements were being done, FSF tentatively scheduled the inaugural public event for the land — a woods walk — for spring 2021. Initially, it was set for spring 2020, and fall 2020, but was repeatedly postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the walk, the public will learn about the FSF’s approach to sustainable forestry after the initial forest improvements are made. 

One pillar of their forestry style is the worst-first method. Instead of clear-cutting large swaths of forest, the crew will strategically select individual trees for harvest. Maloney noted that the status quo in lumbering is to take the highest-grade wood first. FSF, however, targets compromised or less successful trees first. 

There’s great joy in doing this,” Deb First said. “There’s a great joy in knowing that we’ve done something that lasts well beyond our lifetime — that will have a benefit to people who we’ll never meet and won’t care a fig if they ever know our names, but it will make a difference.”

“That’s always been an argument — like, ‘Oh, let’s take this beautiful healthy cherry tree and these two smaller compromised cherry trees next to them will thrive.’ Part of the reason that doesn’t really work for cultivating resilience and health in a forest is that then those already-compromised trees don’t do well. They’re more prone to wind damage or storm damage, and they also are the ones that are left to reseed the forest,” Maloney said. “Let’s send those (compromised trees) out, allowing the trees that have been more successful to continue to thrive and reseed the forest — but (also create) space for regeneration in the forest floor. 

Maloney noted that this approach is uncommon, because it does not offer an immediate flood of profit for the owner. 

“The difference of that approach is at any one time, there’s not going to be as big of a net revenue for the land owner. They’re not going to get as big of a check as you might get in … (a strategy of) ‘take the best and leave the rest,’” Maloney said. “But if you do the worst-first (strategy) in a more frequent, but less intense, manner over time, you play the long game. The economic yield can be comparable. Certainly, the ecological benefits … show themselves over time with healthier, more resilient forests.”

FSF believes lumbering efforts in Ellery will bring new jobs to Chautauqua County. The project will offer jobs for horse crews, log haulers, truck drivers, excavating crews, understory managers and invasive plant managers. 

Like the financial outcomes of this type of lumbering, the partnership of goals and values between the Firsts and FSF will have a lasting legacy on the economy and the ecology of Chautauqua County. 

“There’s great joy in doing this,” Deb First said. “There’s a great joy in knowing that we’ve done something that lasts well beyond our lifetime — that will have a benefit to people who we’ll never meet and won’t care a fig if they ever know our names, but it will make a difference.”

For the last three years, the end of a Chautauqua Opera Company season has been marked by the company’s final Opera Invasion: the Grand Finale.

For this event, the Opera’s Young Artists usually spread out across the grounds. While singing, they slowly make their way to the center of the Institution, accumulating a crowd of listeners along the way. The Young Artists eventually unite at Bestor Plaza and lead Chautauquans in a rousing sing-along to help close out the season.

General and Artistic Director Steven Osgood was determined that this year’s virtual season would not end sans-finale.

“(Each Opera Invasion) has their own tone to them,” Osgood said. “Some of them have been drastically silly, and these last two in particular (are) really nostalgic, so as a set of four I think they really give Chautauquans the breadth of what Opera Invasions would be in the normal season.”

The virtual Opera Invasion Grand Finale will air at 10 a.m. EDT Friday, Aug. 21, on the CHQ Assembly Virtual Porch.

The 15-minute video will take viewers on a walk around the Institution, while highlights from all 20 of this season’s Young Artists play over the footage.

“The end of it brings us to Bestor Plaza,” Osgood said. “So, albeit digitally, we get to see all 20 of our Young Artists gathered around Bestor Plaza as we wrap up the season.”

Collecting the footage of the Institution was a community effort. Kendra Green, a Chautauqua Opera stage manager and CHQ Assembly production planner, spent time recording herself walking around the grounds and was assisted by Leland Lewis, the general manager of the Athenaeum Hotel, and Chautauquans Cynthia Norton and Rich Moschel, who all sent in their own footage for the Invasion.

Osgood said the community response to the season’s virtual invasions has been “really, really wonderful.”

“The responses to the silly ones have been really enthusiastic, (like), ‘Boy, that was fun,’ and the response to the nostalgic ones have been, ‘Oh, that was really what I needed,’” he said. “Opera Invasions have done what (they) needed to do in this virtual season.”

While the 2020 season at Chautauqua may have been drastically different from a normal year, not all of the changes brought on by the pandemic have been negative. Some have been opportunities for Chautauquans to learn, especially about the importance of having an online infrastructure.

“When we have these events — the Great American Picnic and the silent auction — not everyone gets to be here, in Chautauqua,” said Pat McDonald, the vice president of membership for the Alumni Association of the CLSC. “We’re thinking maybe even next year, we’ll do something like an online auction after the real auction, or before, so that people who aren’t able to come that week are still able to participate.”

The Alumni Association of the CLSC’s Online Auction, which began last Wednesday and ends today, Aug. 19, marks the first time in Chautauqua history that the Association’s auction has been conducted entirely virtually. And though the Great American Picnic, the Brick Walk Book Walk and Authors Among Us Book Fair have been canceled, the auction’s annual quest to raise scholarship funds remains.

“All of the money from the auction goes to scholarships for local teachers, students and librarians to take classes in the literary arts here at Chautauqua,” McDonald said. “This year, we didn’t have as many scholarship people come, of course, but our adult scholarship winners all have taken a virtual class.”

Among the many items available for bidding is an antique marble washstand from 1915, a loom and a book of Grecian History by James Richard Joy that was used in a Chautauqua course in the late 19th century. 

“We also have these really interesting oil paintings,” McDonald said. “They came out of one person’s condo — these oil paintings were in there. They’re very nice and beautifully framed. Nobody knows who did them, all we know about them is that they’re supposed to be scenes from Austria.”

For McDonald, helping to run the Online Auction — along with the auction committee — made her feel like she was contributing to “keeping the Chautauqua spirit alive.”

“She is the catalyst for the group and has pulled this all together, and she’s had the vision for the scholarships that was necessary to do all of this,” said Caroline Young, a member of the auction committee. 

McDonald said that at the very least, the Online Auction is “giving people something to think about, and clueing them in to things they might want.”

“We saw the Women’s Club doing a great job still collecting for the flea market and storing things, and we thought, ‘Gosh, they’re doing it, so maybe we can do something, too,’” she said.

History cannot be erased. It cannot be changed. It is immutable.

But when it comes to erecting statues of problematic historical figures, Petina Gappah said, “we are who we honor.”

Gappah, whose book, Out of Darkness, Shining Light, won the 2020 Chautauqua Prize, is an author and international trade lawyer — and an astute observer of the historically marginalized.

Gappah’s book is the story of the people who transported the body of the explorer David Livingstone across the African continent, all so that his body could be returned to England.

Meanwhile, in 2020, statues of historical figures like Cecil Rhodes, the imperialist founder of Rhodesia, and Edward Colston, a slave trader and member of British parliament, are being removed amid great controversy.  

“Having public commemorations is a form of national myth-making,” said Gappah. “What are we telling the children of slaves if our public streets and parks commemorate those who enslaved their ancestors? What are we telling those whose ancestors died in colonial wars of conquest if we honor those who shared that blood?”

At 3:30 p.m. EDT Monday, Aug. 10, on the CHQ Assembly Video Platform, after remarks by Matt Ewalt, vice president and Emily and Richard Smucker Chair for Education, and Sony Ton-Aime, Chautauqua’s director of literary arts, as well as Chautauqua Institution President Michael E. Hill, Gappah was honored with the ninth Chautauqua Prize for Out of Darkness, Shining Light.

Celebrating a book that creates a richly rewarding reading experience, the $7,500 annual Chautauqua Prize honors an author for a significant contribution to the literary arts.

The T.M. Gappah Foundation will give opportunities to the kind of child that my father was, and will provide scholarships for poor rural children who have what it takes to succeed against the odds, and for whom the only thing standing between them and education and a bright future is a want of money,” she said. “So I’m particularly grateful to receive this Prize, as the Prize money will go towards endowing my father’s memorial foundation.”

This year, roughly 80 volunteer readers collectively read more than 220 nominated books, the most nominees the Prize has ever received, to assemble the longlist for the award. That longlist resulted in seven finalists, announced this past spring. 

“One role of the fiction writer or the creative mind is to inquire and imagine a world of complex individuals, and giving voices to those left in the margins,” said Ton-Aime. “And this is what Petina intended and did in this novel.” 

Ton-Aime said that, in giving voices to those left in the margins, authors like Gappah are completing an important function of studying history: shining light on those corners left in the dark.

“Correcting the actions of the past is also a part of history,” he said. “It is important because those of us who look like her and are descended of her kind, too often are ashamed or enraged when we read about her kind.” 

In the past, Ton-Aime said that readers had two ways of dealing with racist caricatures in literature: Either accept them as truth, or separate themselves from those caricatures. 

“There’s a third way,” he said. “And that is what Ms. Gappah has found. And it requires empathy to see (the characters in Gappah’s novel) as one of us: To see (them) as flawed, yet talented and confident as human beings. Out of Darkness, Shining Light is a novel that tries to do things similar to what the Chautauqua Institution’s mission aims to do: Explore the best of human values and enrichment of life, and reach and complete the lives of those who were worthy of their humanity.”

Gappah’s novel seems to act as both a doorway — a significant symbol in the life of one of her main characters, Halima — and a light switch for readers to access a distant, shadowy past, a comparison reflected in this year’s physical representation of the Chautauqua Prize: A door that seems to beckon readers in just as much as it carries them through; once opened, a brilliant golden light emanates from the piece, created by Ryan Laganson.

For Gappah, 2020 has been a particularly difficult year, the pandemic aside — she lost her father in January. 

“(My father) was born in 1940 and he died on Jan. 23, just a month before what would have been his 80th birthday,” she said. “And it gives me some solace that my father read this novel, not once, but twice before he died. And that one of the last long conversations we had was when he subjected me to an intense interrogation as to what was fact and what was fiction in the novel. He was passionate about education, about reading and about books.”

Gappah said that her father “emancipated his mother and his sisters from grinding rural poverty in Rhodesia,” and that her family is planning a memorial foundation in his honor.

“The T.M. Gappah Foundation will give opportunities to the kind of child that my father was, and will provide scholarships for poor rural children who have what it takes to succeed against the odds, and for whom the only thing standing between them and education and a bright future is a want of money,” she said. “So I’m particularly grateful to receive this Prize, as the Prize money will go towards endowing my father’s memorial foundation.”

Though Gappah said she’s mourning the loss of her father, she also said she feels for the thousands of people who have been denied access to their loved ones because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“It seemed like such a neat number, 2020, but we’ll always remember just the year in which the world grieved while in a state of suspended animation,” she said. “We’ll remember 2020 as the year of broken hearts. The year of broken dreams. More than 700,000 dead across the world from the COVID-19 virus, many more dying because we’re not able to get treatment for other conditions. Global economies have shuttered to a hold. Companies are closing. Job losses are everywhere. A global recession is looming.”

The supreme irony, Gappah said, is that the very interconnectedness that we celebrate about our age is the “very thing that has endangered the world.”

Gappah said that just over a year ago — “in another life, in another world” — she embarked on a journey on a container ship so as to find time to write in tranquility. 

“As we found ourselves surrounded by an endless field of water, and I became (used) to the repetitive life onboard ship, and as I took daily walks on deck with the Atlantic in every view, I began to reflect on the many Africans who had made this trip to the Caribbean — not from Europe, as I had done, but from Africa and who made this, too, without the tools that I had,” she said.

Above all, Gappah said she had the “freedom and the will to travel,” and that when she arrived in the Caribbean, she had a moment of sudden realization.

“It came to me with a visceral shock that just about everyone I met was here because his or her ancestors were brought here as captives,” she said. “These are people living in what Nathaniel Hawthorne called ‘unaccustomed earth.’ Their ancestors were transplanted as cargo from Africa. Almost every Black person I saw was the descendant of a slave: entire nations, whole nations descended from slaves. There in the Caribbean, it struck me forcibly that what is considered by some to be the past is very much the present.”

One of the questions asked of Chautauquans who live here all year (sometimes called Winter Chautauquans or year rounders) is “What do you do the rest of the year?” Children go to school and adults volunteer to tutor students. People go to the library to play games or read, to the post office to see the friendly staff. We go to church and synagogue or other religious activities. There are at least three book clubs, a bowling league, and a play reading group. Chautauqua County in the fall is beautiful, and there are numerous harvest festivals around the area. 

We are not untouched by the events of the world beyond the gates. As many Chautauquans return to the centers of commerce and government, we follow the news of the day as much as others do. 

When New York State “paused” to slow the spread of COVID-19, we paused. But there were many, as elsewhere, who went beyond staying physically distant and quarantined and tried to make life better — and in Chautauqua, youth and young adults stepped up to make life a little better for everyone.

Acts of Kindness
The stones began to appear about the same time that residents of Chautauqua began to shut themselves inside during New York State’s pause to combat the novel coronavirus. Left around the grounds or on people’s doorstep, the stones were painted with messages like “Faith,” “Believe,” and “We are in this together.”

These acts of kindness were the idea of the Taliercio triplets — Landon, Fynn and Ethan. When their school closed in Cleveland, they came to Chautauqua to stay with their grandparents, Mike and Marg Metzger. 

The triplets’ parents are doctors. Their regular caregivers were not available so the boys spent the weekdays on the grounds and would go home on weekends. “It was kind of annoying to have to switch houses. We were not used to going back and forth,” said Fynn.

Ethan said, “Grandma suggested we do something to help seniors who were at home and did not have much to do and might be feeling down. We all decided to paint rocks.”

Fynn had seen an article about a rock painting club in Ohio. Landon came up with an emoji for circular rocks. He would draw the faces. 

“We got the rocks at Barcelona Beach,” Landon added. They liked the rocks that washed up on the beach, as they have a smooth surface to paint on.

They painted many “doctor” rocks, with the face of a doctor on them. Their parents would take them to work and give them to colleagues.

The triplets walked around Chautauqua, putting rocks by people’s doors, on Bestor Plaza, in trees. One rock even got to the top of the fountain in Bestor Plaza, although they never figured out who put it there.

While they have been playing baseball, sailing and exploring the ravine by Boys’ and Girls’ Club, they said they miss Club — especially the Club Carnival.

In all, the boys think that they painted between 50 and 75 rocks. Ethan used the stones as part of his final fourth grade project and called the project “Acts of Kindness.” They also included their cousins, Michael and Reagan, in the project.

“It was a way to make people feel joyous,” Ethan said. “It was like giving them a candle in a dark room.”

Community Service
The day after school finished on June 11, Josie Dawson and Eve Kushmaul, who live in Chautauqua year round, decided to do some community service — cleaning up the dog park near the Turner Community Center.

Josie and Eve had been walking a neighbor’s dog up to the park and noticed that “it was overgrown with plants on the fence,” Eve said. So they decided to fix it up.

“It took a while to make some progress,” she said. “We worked every other day for about two weeks.”

Asked if there was any poison ivy, Josie said that “there was, mostly up in the corner where the dogs like to hang out. We had to wear long sleeves and gloves and long pants to protect ourselves.”

Mostly there were vines wrapped around the fence and thorns on a lot of the plants. The girls found some holes that dogs were digging under the fence and they worked to refill the holes.

“It makes me proud that dogs can come here more safely. I was disappointed to find a pile of rotting tennis balls and dog poop in one corner,” Josie said.

Another added amenity is a treat bucket. “We would run out of treats, so we got a canister and filled it with dog treats,” Eve said. 

They said that the dog park should be a priority for Chautauqua. “The dogs need a place to go and play,” Josie said. “It needs more work, but it is still a very fun place, and will become better.”

Eve likes to come to the park and sit on the large pipe with some water when she is bored. This summer she has taken a break from violin lessons and is studying piano. Josie decided to “just wing it and go with the flow.”

The girls made another addition to the park — a stone, painted purple with “BLM,” for Black Lives Matter, painted in gold on it. The idea came from both of them. “We thought it would be a good spot because a lot of people come here and we made it big so they will see it,” they said. They used a rickety old wagon to get it to the park. 

Black Lives Matter
Regan Sims is a theater actor, trying to figure out what to do next. “I want to continue the work to be bold and brave and reflect the times I am in, like Nina Simone (did). I want to be bold and rock the world. As an artist and person, she reflected her times,” Sims said.

Sims is part of a mime troupe that does virtual content for kids and is teaching a high school summer camp class on acting via Zoom. She is finding her voice in this time of a pandemic and civil rights protests.

She led a protest for Black Lives Matter on June 19 in Bestor Plaza. Over 200 people came, masked and physically distant, to lend their support to the movement. 

A life-long Chautauquan, Sims’ family has owned the Rose Cottage for several generations. 

The family moved here permanently in June. 

“It was a joyous protest,” she said. “With COVID-19, we think about staying inside. Life goes on and it can be tragic, but it is also invigorating, New things are happening that I did not know I could be a part of. I am finding my voice. 

Sims talked with her sister, PJ, and they decided they had to do something. Regan was the speaker. PJ did the groundwork of getting the message out.

“There are not a lot of people here who look like us, and that was the reason we needed to do this action,” Sims said. “We have felt on the outside looking in. And we stand out. I have a voice and want to be heard where I stick out.”

PJ came up with the idea of chalk messages on Chautauqua’s streets and sidewalks to get the word out about the gathering. 

On the day of the protest, there were thunderstorms all around the lake, booming in the distance, but the rain held off at Chautauqua. 

Sims had bullet points she wanted to make in her speech, but it turned into a heart-felt, slightly rambling talk as she said what she needed to. She thought five people would show up and the whole thing would last five minutes.

“I was leading from love but there were some points I wanted to make. First, we were meeting to protest the death of George Floyd and others. Second was to say the names of those others killed. And third, was to protest police brutality and the lack of systemic empathy and love,” she said. 

She continued, “It is our job to be out in the streets and the desire of everybody to show up for their neighbor and love their neighbor as themselves. I can’t imagine how mothers feel — parents, sisters, brothers, children.”

Sims said reactions to her, PJ and their brother Joey have been different since the protest. “The conversation has changed. People say, “I know you,’ and start talking to me,” she said. 

“People can talk all day, but what are you doing?”

Her dream for Chautauqua is that it would be more of a reflection of the world. She would like changes to systems “that have oppressed people since the dawning of America.”

“I am not afraid of the work and the tough conversations. I want hearts to be open and to chip away at collective insensitivity,” she said. “I don’t want to be scared anymore. I don’t want to fear. I want to push through the feelings. That is the work.”Her latest project, A Kid’s Play About Racism, streamed on Broadway on Demand, Zoom and Theater for Young Audiences/USA the first weekend in August. The play was adapted by Khalia Davis from Jelani Memory’s book A Kid’s Book About Racism.

Grab your coffee, your toaster strudels and your kazoos, and turn on those computer screens: It’s Library Day, people.

Chautauqua’s Smith Memorial Library turns 89 years old this year, and Scott Ekstrom is ready to celebrate. 

“We’re a community center: an iconic, beautiful building on Bestor Plaza,” said Ekstrom, the director of the Smith. “We always have as many books as we can get by those who speak at Chautauqua, and we encourage (Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle) membership. And our children’s room is an important space for intergenerational gatherings.”

At 9 a.m. EDT Thursday, Aug, 6, on the Chautauqua Institution Facebook Page, Library Day will commence, giving people from all around the country and the world a chance to honor Smith Memorial Library and to share their favorite books with each other, too.

“The library is the blood of the literary arts department,” said Sony Ton-Aime, Chautauqua’s director of literary arts. “It’s a very important day, because we want to encourage people to read, and the place to do so is the library. We want to keep this resource that we have alive.”

Library Day is hosted by the Friends of Smith Memorial Library, a group of library patrons who help promote and support the library in a variety of ways.

“Usually, the in-person version (of Library Day) includes inviting librarians from Western New York to the grounds,” Ekstrom said. “We’ll have no in-person physical gathering because of the pandemic, but most other things we’re trying to do digitally, with one exception — we will not have digital coffee or donut holes. So bring your own coffee or toaster strudel to your computer.”

A highlight of Library Day for the last six years is the kazoo chorale, Ekstrom said, which involves a group of Chautauquans — armed with kazoos — playing various songs on the library’s front steps.

“There’s not really any reason for it, except that it’s fun,” he said. “Obviously this year, we’re not going to be on the front steps, spitting on each other. So instead, we’re inviting people to email 30-second videos of either themselves or of so-called ‘quaranteam’ bands playing kazoos, to library@chq.org. We’ll be posting those videos on Facebook.”

Ekstrom said other Library Day highlights include a temporary Facebook profile frame that users can add to their profile pictures, as well as an opportunity to join the Friends of the Smith Memorial Library or make a gift to the library at smithlibrary.com.