Features

Bol Malual remembers dodging crocodiles when he was a child. The water-dwelling predators were just one of the threats he faced on his journey as one of the thousands of Lost Boys of Sudan.

Joan Brown Campbell labors over the prayers she writes for the service on the Fourth of July. “Joan probably spends more time working on her prayers for the Fourth of July weekend than any other day of the year,” said Jared Jacobsen, organist and coordinator of worship and sacred music. Actually, Campbell and Jacobsen work well in advance to plan the Fourth of July services.

“Unless you educate the young people, you will not succeed,” said featured speaker Eboo Patel to representatives of Chautauqua Institution at The Ismaili Centre in London in fall 2005. Patel lauded Chautauqua Institution for its dedication to promoting interfaith education and teaching about the relationships found within the Abrahamic tradition and particularly about Islam.

Dust off your tuba or your tenor sax — Uncle Weintraub wants you! The Chautauqua Community Band welcomes all instrumentalists for its Independence Day concert, which takes place at 12:15 p.m. today on Bestor Plaza. Director Jason Weintraub started the all-inclusive group 21 years ago. It has grown from a few dozen members into a group of more than 70 people of all ages and experience levels.

Is there hilarity in housekeeping? Can bathroom sinks and fun appear in the same sentence? In Chautauqua, it appears the answer can sometimes be yes.

When Paul Farmer spoke to a crowded Amphitheater audience earlier this week about global health efforts in Haiti and Rwanda, one audience member was right there in Rwanda with him. When Melissa Driver Beard, executive director and CEO of Engineering World Health, came to Chautauqua’s “Global Health and Development as Foreign Policy” week, she had two goals in mind.

SLIDESHOW & VIDEO: Scenes from Friday morning's Children's School's Independence Day Parade

When Kent and Fredrika “Freddy” Groff first visited Chautauqua in the summer of 1976, they were so taken with the place that they settled here almost immediately. “We came on a Sunday and bought a house on Friday,” Kent said. Their attraction to the Institution remains unwavering after 35 years, and they are committed to help facilitate other families’ visits to Chautauqua, particularly those who are less able financially.

SLIDESHOW: U.S. Army Field Band & Soldiers' Chorus

SLIDESHOW: Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square deliver two stirring performances in their fourth Amphitheater appearance

The following is a transcript of Chautauqua President Thomas M. Becker’s Three Taps of the Gavel address to the Amphitheater on June 26, 2011. Welcome to this morning’s service of worship and to this ceremonial gaveling that we conduct for the purposes of opening the season and dedicating ourselves to the amazing array of gifts contained within the next nine weeks of the Chautauqua experience.

After almost a year of construction, trucks are lining the foot of Bowman Avenue for the last time as Rachel Mazza Borzilleri hurries across the porch of the new Hagen-Wensley Guest House, making last-minute adjustments. Borzilleri, the hostess of the Hagen-Wensley, welcomed the house's first guests Saturday, reigniting a tradition of integrating speakers and guests into Chautauqua's daily fabric.

So where is the portrait of Anna Pennybacker, the iconic president of the Chautauqua Women’s Club, who last served in 1937? Is the portrait’s absence and the possibility that it may not return to its prominent position over the fireplace mantle of the Women’s Club living room a symbol of today’s members’ 21st century energy and spirit? That energy and spirit have led to a recent redo of the Women’s Club bylaws creating a board of directors with a chairwoman and a $500,000 clubhouse renovation.

On Sunday morning in the Amphitheater, Chautauqua President Thomas M. Becker will mark the beginning of the 2011 Season with the ceremonial three taps of the gavel. While the gavel has come to symbolize the opening and closing of the Chautauqua Season, the history of “Three Taps” is murky at best, according to Chautauqua historian and archivist Jonathan Schmitz.

A brand new entrance to the ground and an extensive rain garden designed to help protect Chautauqua Lake from Institution water runoff are just two projects that highlight a typically busy off-season for Chautauqua’s grounds and landscape staff, whose efforts were severely hindered by rainfall heavier than many could recall.