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Sara Toth
Editor

Growing up on a reservation just south of Syracuse, New York, Rex Lyons said he had a great upbringing in a great community. At the foundation of that was the sport of lacrosse.

“It was the foundation; it was fundamental,” Lyons said in opening his lecture Tuesday in the Hall of Philosophy, part of the Interfaith Lecture Series theme on “A Spirit of Play.” “We talk about the spirit of game, the spirit of play, the spirit of sport, and lacrosse is a great platform for that. I had the good fortune — if you’re a male, and you’re born in one of our territories, you’re one of three things. You’re either a speaker of the language, or you conduct the ceremonies, singing the songs that you need for the ceremonies. Or you’re a lacrosse player. That’s how fundamental it is.”

To illustrate just how important the Creator’s Game is to people of the Onondaga Nation and their cultural tapestry, Lyons held his lacrosse stick in hand.

“It’s something we have extreme reverence for, and I want to share some of that reverence with you today,” he said. “… It’s our gift to the world.”

And Lyons — a world-class  player and coach who was on the original Iroquois Nationals team (before they became the Haudenosaunee Nationals) — is feeling pretty good these days. He had just returned from San Diego and the lacrosse World Championships, where last week the Nationals took bronze. “Not bad,” he said, especially considering the team’s humble beginnings.

“We had a mission of putting a team together … so we can have a place for athletes to go and compete on the international stage, and also a vehicle for some of our political needs and necessities that we’re really trying to implement — our sovereignty, our self determination,” Lyons said. “Lacrosse has provided us a great vehicle for that. It’s been an extraordinary journey.”

From a “mom-and-pop” operation to fielding sponsorships from the likes of Nike, every step of the Haudenosaunee Nationals’ journey has involved the athletes’ spirit of and reverence for the game.

As the Nationals were competing in the World Championships last week, they were also honoring Alfie Jacques, a master stick maker from Turtle Clan who passed away in June at the age of 74. He was, Lyons said, “one of the premier stick makers,” and it was proper to mention his name.

“He was really a force to be reckoned with. He was really a great storyteller,” Lyons said. He was passionate about his work, which enabled Lyons and countless others to continue the tradition of the Creator’s Game. 

Lacrosse is, by its origins, a medicine game, Lyons said.  Anyone who picks up a stick, “we have a game for protection of their health. … We ask for the Creator’s blessing so that he protects our athletes, that they have a strong and prosperous season, and that everybody gets to enjoy the Creator’s Game.” 

When a stick maker goes into the forest, they look for certain characteristics in a hickory tree — characteristics that lend themselves to making a good lacrosse stick.

“While he’s doing that, he’s already communing with the natural world. There’s a whole process of thanking all the life-giving forces that brought this tree to maturity, the winds, the thunders that bring the rain,” Lyons said. “…  (In doing this,) you’ve already started a different process where you’re communing now with the natural world, and you’re in concert with it.”

Stick makers don’t just harvest trees; they plant them. Those trees represent all that grows; the leather represents the animal nation, as deer are considered the leaders of all animals. The interlocking weave represents all the clans and families of the Six Nations Haudenosaunee Confederacy, “all arm in arm, so to speak,” he said.

The ball is an actual medicine ball that hasn’t been used yet in a ceremony.

“You have all that grows all of nature. You have the animal nation, you have the families, the human beings linked together in concert with the medicine, here playing the Creator’s favorite game,” Lyons said. “He loves nothing more than a great contest. Win, lose or draw, it brings a greater joy. We all win. We all get to experience that vitality.” 

Lacrosse is about working together for a common goal and the common good — athletes understand that nothing can be compartmentalized or put in a silo, because “that’s not how life works,” Lyons said. “We’re all connected, whether we understand it or not. We’re all part of this world. … We understand that we have a duty and a responsibility to those life-giving forces as Indigenous people.”

When talking about the overlap of the natural world, individual and communal responsibilities, and the power of tradition, lacrosse exists at that intersection — and it provides an opportunity for an important truth.

“It just brings us closer to connect; it brings us closer together,” Lyons said. “We celebrate our differences, and we celebrate our similarities. We’re a lot more alike than different, no matter where you go. We’re human beings. We’re a family.”

Sarah Russo
Staff Writer

During the early 20th century, the influence of African American culture and jazz grabbed the attention of composers such as Maurice Ravel and George Gershwin.

“The world had never seen such a broad range of musical styles as what emerged at this time,” said Timothy Muffitt, artistic director of the School of Music and conductor of the Music School Festival Orchestra.“I enjoy concerts that highlight that feature, that do a little bit of a time capsule look at the early 20th century.”

Muffit will help highlight this transformative time, leading the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra in its performance of pieces by Florence Price and Igor Stravinsky at 8:15 p.m. tonight in the Amphitheater. 

“It’s about the broad range of musical styles,” Muffitt said. “(These are) just two dots on the plot of many others. I think this is just an interesting program in that it takes a look at a couple of very influential elements of the evolution of music in the first half of the 20th century.”

The program will open with Price’s Symphony No. 1 in E minor, premiered by the Chicago Symphony in 1933, making it the first symphony composed by a Black woman to be performed by a major American orchestra. 

For decades, it was nearly impossible to hear a piece of price’s music. Despite her immense talent and drive, many classical music performers and gatekeepers put her aside, and her work failed to gain traction with the large, almost exclusively white institutions that had the power to catapult her to the mainstream. 

As Price herself wrote in a letter to famed conductor Serge Koussevitzky, “I have two handicaps — those of sex and race.”

“Certainly Florence Price was a pioneer, to put it mildly, and she was an inspired musician — an inspired, prolific composer,” Muffitt said. “Naturally, she had a hard time getting her music played. People wouldn’t look at it, they wouldn’t even consider it, but she’s a composer of just extraordinary historical significance.” 

As an African American female composer of the 20th century, Price comes from a different background than her fellow composers of the time period. She uses her own individual perspective, while integrating a well-known and well-established musical vocabulary. 

“I think that’s where a lot of the interest in her music lies,” Muffitt said. “It’s not like she’s inventing a whole new musical language. She’s using a language that’s already established. How that comes through in her music, … she’s speaking a language we recognize, but it has an inflection and a spirit that is fresh still today, even though this piece is almost 100 years old.” 

Born in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1887, Price wrote four symphonies: Symphony No. 1 in E minor won first prize in the Rodman Wanamaker Competition in 1932; Symphony No. 2 in G minor is presumed lost; Symphony No. 3 in C minor; and Symphony No. 4 in D minor. 

Fortunately, in recent years, there has been renewed interest in her work. A recording of her symphonies performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra was nominated for a Grammy in 2022. Her music has been performed by the San Francisco Symphony, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and now the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. 

“We definitely hear her heritage in the music,” Muffitt said. “Her heritage is very much at the forefront of the music, but that isn’t what it’s all about either. I thought (Symphony No. 1) was the one that would have the most immediate impact on (Chautauqua) who perhaps aren’t familiar with her works.”

The program concludes with Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. Stravinsky, born in Oranienbaum, Russia in 1882, has become an influential and well-known composer of classical music.

Muffitt said the influence of a “masterpiece” like Stravistky’s Firebird means that no matter how many times musicians perform it, they relish the experience. 

“It’s a work that we as professional musicians have performed probably countless times in our careers and it never gets old,” he said. “I’m excited to be sharing this music with Florence Price. She has had quite a renaissance and much deserved.”

Even with such differing backgrounds, pairing pieces from a white Russian man and a Black American woman works for many reasons, Muffitt said.

“They were both pioneers in their own way,” he said. “Stravinsky invented a new musical language. … Price is using a language that’s already established, but she’s coming from a completely unique perspective as an artist.”

Arden Ryan
Contributing Writer

Games are crucial to human life, whether for education, recreation or competition.

But games are not always just for fun — they can serve a deeper purpose. As Joseph Cyrulik will explain in his lecture at 10:45 a.m. today in the Amphitheater, games can be key to maintaining national security.

Cyrulik serves as deputy director of the Strategic Futures Group, an office of the National Intelligence Council, where he oversees the use of war games and simulations to aid the intelligence community. Such games are utilized in the intelligence field both to train and develop new analysts and to help think through “gnarly national security challenges,” said Jordan Steves, interim Emily and Richard Smucker Chair for Education.

With his governmental perspective, Cyrulik will be able to “come at the topic of games from an unexpected angle,” Steves said, who was “entranced” by the idea of inviting an intelligence official to share their outlook on the more critical applications of play.

“Although there is weight and substance to the practice of playing games, they can come across as superfluous,” Steves said.
Chautauquans are soon to find out “there are real and serious applications for games in some of the most high-stakes situations you can imagine.”

In his fittingly titled lecture, “Serious Games for Solving Serious Problems,” Cyrulik will explain the history and practice of how the U.S. intelligence community gamifies its work to answer some of America’s most urgent public safety and foreign policy questions.

Many games involve talking through hypothetical situations in group conversations, giving analysts the opportunity to discover what could happen given a particular scenario, and what dynamics would be at play. 

“We tend to focus on what we call ‘human-centric games,’ where it’s really the participants of the game driving the process forward,” Cyrulik said. “It’s a way of playing out a scenario we’re worried about and being able to say, OK, clearly that didn’t work. Is there another option that might be better?”

Games can be “extremely useful in trying to solve intelligence challenges,” Cyrulik said, and provide a venue for gathering information where data collection is scarce or when “the answer is inherently unknowable.”

An analyst can’t ask a spy satellite to divine the nature of the future economy, like it could do to locate a physical object in the world, Cyrulik said. Only by simulating theoretical national security and geopolitical situations, and talking through possible outcomes, might those future details come to light.

“CIA analysts who are going through our basic analytic training program participate in a number of simulations and war games, designed to simulate what they would be doing in their jobs,” Cyrulik said. Those analysts get practice dealing with high stakes, escalating situations without having to undergo them.

Such games can provide intelligence analysts with practical knowledge applicable to their field, while also providing valuable information to policymakers, government officials and military personnel. Without the practical aid of games, it becomes much harder to understand and visualize potentialities in international relations and global politics.

“Until you actually encounter the situation in real life, how do you think about tackling it?” Steves said. Games can grant that insight.

From Zumba to double-dutch, the Rev. Lakisha R. Lockhart is on a mission to show the power of play and movement in life and theology.

She sees herself not just as a professor — she’s currently teaching at Union Presbyterian Seminary — but as a “facilitator, rope jumper, game-player, sojourner, advocate, disruptor, and catalyst for critical consciousness, liberation and engagement that leads to action and change,” Lockhart said in a piece published by Presbyterian News Service. “When people embody their belief through practical application, they are more dedicated to their own formation, the formation of others, and to serve Christ and the church.”

Play, movement, aesthetics and creative arts in life and in theology will all be up for discussion as she gives her presentation at 2 p.m. today in the Hall of Philosophy, part of the Week Two Interfaith Lecture Series theme on “A Spirit of Play.”

Lockhart’s research over the years has focused on religious education; practical, liberation and Womanist theologies; ethics and society; multiple intelligences; embodied faith and pedagogies; theological aesthetics’ theopoetics; and creativity, imagination and play. Her doctoral dissertation at Boston College? Doing Double-Dutch: Womanist Modes of Play as a Pedagogical Resource for Theological Education.

She considers herself a playful Womanist scholar-activist, and at Union Presbyterian Seminary she’s an assistant professor of Christian education. In that work, she sees teaching Christian education as a way to strengthen the church; part of her students’ educational experience is actually, actively participating in their congregations and communities.

That way, educators and ministers aren’t just more committed and knowledgeable — their congregants are, too.

Ordained in the non-denominational tradition,Lockhart is executive secretaryfor the Religious Education Association, and has served as director of the STREAM Youth Theology Institute and assistant professor of practical theology at the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University. 

Lockhart earned her bachelor’s in philosophy and religion from Clafin University; a Master of Divinity with a concentration in Pastoral Care and Counseling from Wesley Theological Seminary; and a master’s degree in ethics and society from Vanderbilt University.

She’s been a Zumba instructor since 2013.

Alton Northup
Staff Writer

Kristopher Alexander might be the first speaker at Chautauqua Institution to present his lecture slides using a video game controller.

Alexander is a two-time globally ranked player and assistant professor of media production in the RTA School of Media at Toronto Metropolitan University, where he is the director of the Red Bull Gaming Hub. He gave  his lecture, “Impactful Synergy: Video Games and Togetherness,” at 10:45 a.m. Wednesday in the Amphitheater to continue the Chautauqua Lecture Series Week Two theme, “Games: A Celebration of Our Most Human Pastime.”

In 2008, Alexander had his hands full. 

He was teaching stop motion animation – the art of photographing and moving objects in small increments so that they appear to be moving independently when the frames are played back – at the National Film Board of Canada. The work was tedious; it takes 24 photos for just a single second of footage.

“Just like parenting,” he said, “animation takes a lot of patience.”

He was also teaching video game development – the art of creating a story others can interact with – at the University of Toronto, where students ranged from ages 6 to 16 years old. 

His third job, which he continues to this day, was at Toronto Metropolitan University teaching video game design – the art of curriculum development for a gaming story, such as deciding what characters can talk, how they will talk and when they will talk.

“They call me the professor of video games because I teach and reach people by talking about the artistry of the video game industry and how every single discipline, including yours, connects to the video game industry,” he said.

Alexander had planned to make a lot of connections, or impactful synergies as he called it, during his lecture. The first was between video games, personal care and love.

In 2008, Alexander walked into EB Games, a division of GameStop, to purchase a copy of the open world racing game “Burnout Paradise.”

The game takes place in the fictional Paradise City, where players can compete in online matches, drive into oncoming traffic and burst through billboards – “all the things you’d like to do when you’re stuck in gridlock traffic, but can’t do.”

Alexander was also unsuccessfully looking for love in 2008, and when he turned to leave the store with his copy of the game, he heard the cashier calling back to him.

“Hold on a second,” the cashier said. “You just purchased ‘Burnout Paradise’?”

“You were there when I did it,” Alexander confusingly replied.

“I know that, but I’m supposed to give you this,” the cashier, responded, handing him a Gillette Pro razor. 

Without giving much thought to the cashier’s slightly offensive gift, he went home to play the new game. After loading the disc, he quickly learned the razor was not the working of a petty cashier but rather a partnership between Gillette and the game developers; billboards for the company lined the streets of Paradise City and players could even drive a Gillette-branded van.

Alexander admits the razor was the key to finding the woman of his dreams, as his future wife would notice his clean-cut look.

Gillette, he suspects, must have discovered the game had a large enough audience of people who shave that it made sense to market the brand with “Burnout Paradise.”

“They had a community-focused connection,” he said.

The next impactful synergy was video games, mayonnaise and food rescue.

“Animal Crossing” is a popular social simulation video game series developed by Nintendo. The game uses the console’s internal clock to stimulate real passage of time as players log on each day to maintain their islands and hang out with friends.

Each Sunday, players log on to purchase turnips from a character named Daisy-Mae. The turnips aren’t there to be eaten; they’re actually the game’s version of the stock market – the Sow Joan’s Stalk Market. 

The prices fluctuate during the week and because players cannot plant, eat or dispose of the turnips, they eventually rot if a sale is not made before the next Sunday. The game had a virtual food waste problem.

In 2020, Hellmann’s partnered with Nintendo for the creation of Hellmann’s Island. Players could explore the island, purchase digital merchandise and compost their spoiled turnips. For every turnip donated in the game, Hellman’s donated an actual meal to the Second Harvest Food bank. 

“Why on earth did this magnificent collaboration happen?” Alexander rhetorically asked. “Video games, mayonnaise and food rescue. The answer is, this partnership happened in 2020, and I know what I was doing in 2020, but I also know what you were doing in 2020.”

“Animal Crossing” sold 31.18 million copies in 2020 alone and with the pandemic forcing people into their homes, video gameplay was up 75%, according to Verizon. 

Hellmann’s easily reached its goal to provide 25,000 meals.

“That’s an incredible impactful synergy that extends beyond the playing,” Alexander said.

The third impactful synergy was between esports, luxury fashion and learning.

In 2022, Gucci partnered with FACEIT, an esports platform, to launch the Gucci Gaming Academy. The program provides selected esports athletes with full-time coaches, mental health support, gaming hardware and education. 

Esports is the organized, high-level competition between individual video game players or teams. In recent years, it has become a lucrative business.

Competitions for CS:GO, a combat simulator, racked up more than 2.1 million views in 2020; sponsorships totaled more than $15.6 million, Alexander said.

“Why on earth would Gucci make a school?” he asked. “It’s because they could see something.”

The final impactful synergy is a finger-licking good combination of games and fried chicken.

In 2017, KFC released its first video game, a virtual reality training module called “The Hard Way.” Modeled after an escape room, the game’s trailer features the ominous gaze of Colonel Sanders as floating arms work frantically in a dimly lit kitchen.

In 2018, the company started a video-game-themed account on social media and the release of its second game, “I Love You Colonel Sanders: A Finger-Licking Good Dating Simulator,” followed in 2019. In the dating simulator, players attempt to develop a romantic relationship with Colonel Sanders, portrayed as an attractive culinary student. 

In 2020, the company jokingly unveiled its very own KFConsole. The video game console was marketed with the tagline “Power Your Hunger” and a built-in “chicken chamber” to keep meals warm during gameplay.

Reactions to the bit were overwhelmingly positive. A prototype was even created with the help of Cooler Master, a computer supply company; Asus, an electronics manufacturer; and Seagate, a data storage company. 

Alexander approached KFC to volunteer as the first to play the console, a deal he is still working on. As Chautauquans humored his passion for the company’s foray into gaming, they could not help but ask why. 

“KFC has figured out that gamers eat,” he said.

Alexander said he wants to challenge the negative stereotypes of video games. With 3 billion players worldwide, not every game can appeal to everyone. But they can connect people in community-focused ways, such as turning digital turnips into real-world meals.

“We talk about games as a pastime,” he said. “I implore you to think about games as a present time.”

Column by Mary Lee Talbot

“Let’s do a midweek check. We are at Chautauqua on vacation and we are talking church six days in a row,” said the Rev. Zina Jacque at the 9:15 a.m. Wednesday morning service of worship in the Amphitheater. The title of the sermon was “Monopoly,” and the scripture reading was Philippians 4:4-9.

“When I was invited to preach, I was handed the week’s theme so I couldn’t cherry-pick my six best sermons, but create six new ones. I wonder if you are able to track the thread or is it invisible,” she said. The congregation applauded. 

Jacque reviewed her previous sermons for the congregation. On Sunday, in “Olly, Olly Oxen Free,” she spoke about God’s invitation for all to come in from hiding and bring their gifts. 

On Monday, in “Charades,” the life of Joseph, who never spoke in the Biblical record, illustrated how our lives and actions indicate what we believe. 

On Tuesday, in “Jenga,” Elijah demonstrated how to build up and strengthen his faith when the tower, or democracy, we have built falls. 

When she was in seminary, Jacque participated in cut-throat games of Monopoly. 

“Playing Monopoly was outlawed at seminary because of all our cussing and competition. Hope Lucky, a classmate, told us one night ‘That game is not of God,’ and she was right,” Jacque said.

The themes of acquisition, bankruptcy and economics that shape and misshape lives are central to Monopoly, Jacque said. Each playing piece represents part of a capitalist economy: the boot for the only clothing available, the battleship for militarism, the iron for low-paid work and the race car for excess. 

“There is one corner that you can’t get away from. As I was planning this sermon, I asked the Holy Spirit not to take me there but the Spirit said, ‘You can preach about what you want but this is what I am telling you to do,’ ” she said. “If you play Monopoly long enough, you will end up in jail.”

Jacque’s mother used to say, “Just keep on living.” Jacque said, “You may be high on a mountaintop but you will find yourself in a valley. Sooner or later, if you play Monopoly long enough, you will land in jail. That is true for our lives as well — we are not behind real bars in real cells, but we find ourselves behind walls, jailed by guilt and shame.”

The bars are set around hope. There is a loss of purpose, the absence of certainty, she told the congregation. The mind, soul and spirit are imprisoned by lies.

“You don’t get to pass go; you don’t get to collect $200. You are stuck in a jail without bars, your body is betrayed by disease, you find the history you believed in is not the truth. If you play or live long enough, you will find yourself in the dreaded corner. What do you do when you are incarcerated and you can’t break out because the guards of hate and vitriol are stronger?” Jacque said. 

While there is no one answer, Jacque used the life of German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer as an example of someone who did not let physical bars become mental and spiritual bars. 

She used A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a collection of meditations from his sermons, books and other writings, to illustrate her points. 

Bonhoeffer had been to Union Seminary in New York City in 1930 and returned to Germany to see the rise of Hitler, the Nazi Party, and the nationalizing of the German Protestant churches. He helped found the Confessing Church in Germany and served as head of its underground seminary.

In June 1939, Bonhoeffer accepted another invitation to go to Union Seminary. Once there, he almost immediately regretted the decision. In a letter to American theologian Reinhold Neibuhr, Bonhoeffer wrote, “I have come to the conclusion that I made a mistake in coming to America. I must live through this difficult period in our national history with the people of Germany. I will have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people …”

Bonhoeffer was arrested in 1943 and executed in May 1944, accused of being part of the plots to kill Hitler. While in prison, he wrote reflections and letters later published as Letters and Papers from Prison. 

Jacque described several themes from Bonhoeffer’s writing. The first was perseverance, which Bonhoeffer described as remaining underneath and bearing the load; bearing but not collapsing, growing stronger in God’s peace.

The second theme was meaning. 

Jacque read: “If living on earth was good enough for Jesus … we can find meaning in our earthly daily life. Meaning is promise.” Christians, she told the congregation, are called to bear the load and find meaning in the promise.

The third theme was realm. 

“God is with us from dawn to evening,” she said. “Let God’s will be done to make us one and take us to a new realm.” She asked the congregation to say the word “realm” aloud.

Jacque said she had a conversation with a woman on the Brick Walk who doubted that she could be an ally to Black, Indigenous or LGBTQ+ people because she had not lived their lives. 

“I told her a three-fold cord is not easily broken, and she did have a role — but she had to drop her prison bars. What do we do when shame imprisons us? What imprisons you?” she asked. 

She continued, “When you hear the call of Christ, what stops you from answering? What story limits you? What keeps you from moving around the bars?”

God made us on purpose and for a purpose, she told the congregation. God gives gifts to everyone for the common good. She asked, “What is stopping you from using yours? Without what you can uniquely do, the world is lost. My grandfather used to make up sayings and when he tucked us in at night. He would ask, ‘What did you learn and who did you help?’ He wanted to instill service and curiosity in us.”

Jacque continued, “What has God given to you that no one else can do? What is stopping you? God fashioned you on purpose for a purpose.”

God’s light illuminates the darkness. “Where is your light necessary? What is keeping you from shining your light? The eye is drawn to light. You have to be light, to shine and someone will be blessed,“ she said.

Bonhoeffer focused on the realm not seen. He focused on what was good, noble and pure, as the apostle Paul wrote in Philippians.

“When you feel imprisoned, remember the good. Our Jewish brothers and sisters have a word for it, dayenu. It means ‘It would have been enough,’ ” she said. 

The song “Dayenu” is sung during Passover. There are 15 stanzas: five stanzas on leaving slavery, five stanzas on miracles, and five on being with God. As an example, one verse is: “If He had brought us out of Egypt, dayenu (it would have been enough.)” Another verse is “If He had given us Shabbat, dayenu (it would have been enough).”

Paul, in Philippians, begins Chapter 4 with “Rejoice. Again I say rejoice.” Paul told the Philippians he wanted them to find a new realm, a new way of being. He urged them to think about what was true, noble and good.

“You need to put bars around your pain,” Jacque said. “You need to go into your secret closet and sprout angel wings and fly to your new realm.” 

She explained the word “realm” as an acrostic.

R stands for rejoice, to put your hopes and dreams and trust in the Lord. E is to enter into the presence of God to know life and joy forever more. A is to allay anxiety, to remember that God loves you and chose you; not to deny the anxiety, but hold it and keep putting it away until you master it. L is to lift up prayer — not with words, but in actions — and allow God to speak to you. M is to meditate on peace, on shalom, on being enough and having enough in the presence of God. 

“Have you noticed a trend in my preaching?” Jacque asked. “Will you? Will you persevere, find meaning and move to the new realm?” She noted that Bonhoeffer, Paul, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela all wrote significant letters from physical prisons.

If you play Monopoly long enough or live long enough, you will be in jail, but your soul is meant for more, she said. “You can’t stay in jail forever. Being in jail is time used to find a way to a new realm and share the power of the new realm with those around you. You might be the one to win.”

The realm of God is coming, she assured the congregation. She quoted an old camp song, “ ‘Rise up, children, rise up and follow, to the great camp meeting in the promised land.’ You are the light. Let’s go. The prison walls need to fall.”

The Rev. John Morgan, pastor of the Williamsburg Presbyterian Church, presided. Melissa Spas, vice president for religion at Chautauqua Institution, read the scripture. For the prelude, Joshua Stafford, director of sacred music and Jared Jacobsen Chair for the Organist, played “Prelude and Fugue in G, BWV 557” attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach but possibly by T. Krebs. The Motet Choir sang “Rejoice in the Lord always,” from a 16th century anonymous source and words from Philippians 4:4-7, under the direction of Stafford. The postlude was “Canzona, BWV 588,” by Pamela Decker, played by Stafford on the Massey Memorial Organ. Support for this week’s chaplaincy and preaching is provided by the Harold F. Reed, Sr. Chaplaincy and the John William Tyrrell Endowment for Religion.

Julia Weber
Staff Writer

Chautauqua School of Dance alumni are dancing their way back to the Institution for the annual All-Star Dance Gala and will take the stage tonight at 8:15 p.m. at the Amphitheater.

Dancers who attended the Chautauqua School of Dance will flock back to the grounds to perform this evening. The performance boasts a variety of ballet pieces performed by individuals and partners, including multiple pieces originally choreographed by George Balanchine and the world premiere of a piece choreographed by Sasha Janes, artistic director of the School of Dance.

Pat Feighan, president of Chautauqua Dance Circle, said many of the returning dancers are past recipients of CDC scholarships.

“We’ve known them and watched them in their career,” she said. “The dancers that Sasha brings back are at the top of their career in some of the most prestigious ballet companies in the country.”

Dancers come to Chautauqua Institution from all parts of the country – New York, Atlanta and Seattle, to name a few. One of the challenges presented by a coming together of talented artists throughout the dance community is the lack of time to rehearse, so dancers often perform solo or partnered (pas de deux) pieces.

“Typically, they have to come prepared,” Janes said. “Often, I’ve picked stuff that’s in their repertoire already, and then it’s just a matter of getting here a couple of days before and acclimatizing.”

For the premiere of “Of The Night,” Isabella LaFreniere of New York City Ballet and James Gilmer of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will take to the stage to combine their talents.

“I wanted to put them together to create a new work so we’ll premiere that at the gala,” Janes said. “… I’m super excited about that and it’s super nice to see those two different styles come together in action and do something like that.”

Some of the dancers visiting for the gala will not only perform, but also will also join the School of Dance as visiting faculty, providing formal dance instruction as well as insight into the drive and ambition required of a professional dancer.

“For the students to see the work ethic and what it actually takes to be the top is super-valuable, and we can keep saying that and we can keep saying that, … but until they see people that have already arrived, but are still trying to get better and better and still trying to perfect their craft, I think that’s where it becomes really invaluable,” Janes said.

To complement the gala, the CDC will host a fundraiser soiree to celebrate the All-Star dancers and honor Patricia McBride, former distinguished prima ballerina with the New York City Ballet and director of ballet studies and principal repetiteur at Chautauqua Institution.

The gala raises money for things like program scholarships, pointe shoes and other necessary materials for dancers.

“We know that there are many more students out there who would benefit from scholarships so we are having this scholarship soiree – first time ever – and it will help the students for next year and the year after, and the really exciting part about it is that it is also an opportunity to honor Patricia McBride,” said Feighan.

To both Janes and Feighan, this is immeasurably important to meet students’ needs and let dancers focus not only perfecting, but excelling at their craft.

Janes said he hopes that attendees will be immersed in the performances and touched by the passion for dance that the alumni share.

“I think they’ll be moved,” he said.

Religious education typically relies on the grammar of traditional schooling; Rabbi Michael Shire thinks it’s time for a paradigm shift — one of meaning-making; embedded, spiritualized ritual practice; and sensing beyond self toward community and commandment.

“What is more is that this combination of inner, personal meaning-making and outer expression of practice and values has to be formed individually but fostered and sustained communally for Jewish education to be deemed successful,” Shire wrote for the Jewish Theological Seminary.

Enter Torah Godly Play, a pedagogy Shire founded, drawing on a methodology established by Christian theologian Jerome Berryman. Shire will discuss how Torah Godly Play utilizes storytelling to shape religious education for Jewish children at 2 p.m. today in the Hall of Philosophy, part of the Week Two Interfaith Lecture Series theme “A Spirit of Play.”

Widely published in the fields of Jewish education and spiritual education, Shire has published four books of creative liturgy with medieval illuminations in association with the British and Bodleian Libraries (he grew up in Birmingham and attended University College, London). While earning his master’s and doctorate in Jewish Education at Hebrew Union College in New York and in Los Angeles, his research focused on a curriculum orientation for spiritual enhancement in Jewish educational settings. 

Years of study, research and practice led to Torah Godly Play — an approach that centers stories of faith; not to tell them, but to know them.

When he encountered Berryman’s Godly Play, Shire realized that it’s “not like anything else that we have witnessed in Jewish education, and in some ways it is countercultural to the norms in our community of ‘struggling’ with or deconstructing the text,” Shire wrote.

Rather, it might be considered a more personal encounter.

“Research into children’s spirituality tells us that religious language is a key to either enhancing or suppressing innate spirituality,” Shire wrote for Jewish Theological Seminary. “Our religious language for God and prayer derives from our adult theologies, but we superimpose it upon children before they are ready to comprehend and own it.”

Take the story of Abram’s call, Shire wrote, and consider the wonder a child must experience: How does this story become true for that child? 

“Torah Godly Play focuses on the wondering language of the child, and the adults take their cue from that language both in their storytelling and in the children’s subsequent ‘work’ of exploration and expression,” Shire wrote. “As such, Torah Godly Play is not merely an educational method but also a means by which to enact the theology and liturgy of Jewish language. The time spent together in Torah Godly Play is a liturgical experience as much as it is a telling of a story.”

Sarah Russo
Staff Writer

From Super Mario 64 and Minecraft to Space Invaders and Tetris, there is a video game of just about everything designed for everyone. 

Kris Alexander, also known as the “professor of video games,” has spent his professional life researching, developing and playing video games. 

An assistant professor of media production in the RTA School of Media at Toronto Metropolitan University and director of the Red Bull Gaming Hub, a research lab based at the school, Alexander is a perfect match for this week’s lecture series theme of  “Games: A Celebration of Our Most Human Pastime.” Alexander will begin his presentation at 10:45 a.m. this morning in the Amphitheater. 

Alexander was a senior in college when he discovered the power of video games. He was in a typical, lecture-style class where the professor would read word-for-word from the slideshow for the three-hour lecture. 

After some experimenting, Alexander found his Gameboy was the winning tool in his education. 

Soon Alexander decided to become a professor himself – of video game design. He said the crossover between video games and everyday jobs was more wide-ranging than he expected. 

“Most people, they’re only thinking about this one here, gameplay,” Alexander said. “But if you look, there’s audio artists; there’s composers, quality assurance, community manager, (and) designers.” 

Now, Alexander said he is working to integrate video games into the classroom to “level up” education.

While Alexander learns the best through an auditory style, there are two other main learning styles: video or text. Some studies have shown that when two elements combine, learning gains are higher. When they fail to work together, though, they can cause cognitive overload. For Alexander, when the auditory elements of his professor’s speaking matched the excessive text on the slides, his brain was overloaded. 

“Teachers who use technology in the classroom need to ensure each channel is complementary,” Alexander said. “Otherwise, students are going to have difficulty transferring information from working memory to long-term memory.” 

Video games, however, have a complex blend of all three styles, including a fourth element: interactivity. 

Those same elements, Alexander said, should be used in traditional education to cater to different learning styles and engage students, no matter their location across the world, or whether they are learning in-person or online. 

“Video games actually cater to the way that we learn so we can take information” Alexander said. “Audio, text and video games mix these three, plus interactivity, in a way that enraptures people for hours. Why can’t we strive for classroom instruction to be like that?”

For many, video games are a source of fun and enjoyment, but they don’t recognize their educational elements. Alexander said educators should consider their implementation in the classroom.

“There is no video game that doesn’t teach you, not a single one. How do you move? How do you pick up, how do you grab, how long do you wait? And it never hits you over the head with, ‘I’m teaching you something,’ ” Alexander said. “These clear objectives … (are) sorely lacking in academia right now. Video games provide that. So it’s not the playing of video games, it’s everything that surrounds the playing of video games.”

Alexander said that doesn’t need to be complex as actually having teachers building and designing games. 

“The thing that (students) love to do in their game can translate to something that they do outside of playing,” he  said. “That’s what I say to teachers, ‘I’m not asking you all to learn (video-game creation software) Unreal Engine.’ I’m saying to recognize that it’s useful to learn game engines and processes and let me teach (students and teachers).” 

Since video games and those who play them are everywhere, Alexander says the benefit and educational gain from integrating video games into the classroom is obvious.  

“You have a statistical advantage to connect with the students because overwhelmingly, there are 3 billion video game players on this planet,” Alexander said. “You talk about the thing that somebody loves, it’s over. You talk about something that they’re good at plus something that they love, that’s it.” 

In his presentation this morning, Alexander will discuss impactful synergy along with video games in education — and explain why there is a connection between mayonnaise and Nintendo.

“This is the idea that games bring us together to provide unique, meaningful and — most importantly — community-focused experiences,” Alexander said. “The goal there is to sort of demystify some of these ideas of what’s happening with video games that people are unaware of.”

The idea of studying video games may seem useless or unimportant, but Alexander argues there isn’t a single discipline that doesn’t connect in some way with elements of video games. When he faces criticism, confusion or plain argument, he always resorts to what he talks about best. 

“I simply talk about games … and you’ll find people that are saying things like, ‘What about problems of women in games and women playing video games?’ ” Alexander said. “My answer always is education. Most times when people come in strong, I can tell immediately that they don’t research this medium in the way that I do.” 

About 50% of men and 50% of women play video games in Canada, Alexander said, but people fail to ask which games are women choosing to play. 

If the statistic shows a 50-50 split, but women aren’t playing in the top e-sport titles, then they must be playing other games. The top three genres of game chosen by women globally are “match three games” such as “Candy Crush” or “Family Farm;” simulation games such as “Animal Crossing”; and casual puzzle games like “Her Story,” according to a 2019 study by Quantic Foundry. 

“Most of the people that are saying there are problems with women in gaming fail to look at the bottom five genres chosen by women, which are sport games, tactical shooters, racing games, and first-person shooters,” Alexander said. “What they’re actually saying is they want to force women into genres that they generally choose. They’re not actually for women in video games, because if they were, they would be making spaces for the games that women actually choose to play.” 

Currently, Alexander is working on developing two video games, both with the purpose to educate while being enjoyable. 

“ ‘Bread Type’ is a typing game for my kids that teaches you how to type in a window of 60 seconds for you to perfectly toast bread,” he said. “And the second one is a game called ‘Bearable,’ which is a game about family, life and happiness — in that order.” 

After today’s lecture, Alexander is already scheduled for another in New York; there, he plans to discuss real-life work from his students. Each game tackles major issues like immigration, minority groups, indigenous communities, and even celiac disease.  

“These aren’t games that the news is talking about,” he said. “But it’s exactly my perspective on this industry, and that’s what I’m teaching these students who are coming up with these games, who have never built games like this before taking my classes.” 

Alton Northup
Staff Writer

As Scott Simon walked onto the Amphitheater stage to a live rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” on the Massey Memorial Organ, one might have suspected they were at the Chicago native’s beloved Wrigley Field, and not Chautauqua Institution.

Simon, the host of “Weekend Edition Saturday,” continued the Chautauqua Lecture Series Week Two theme, “Games: A Celebration of Our Most Human Pastimes,” with a lecture of the same title at 10:45 a.m. Tuesday – the Fourth of July – in the Amp.

Simon joked that despite his longtime affiliation with NPR, which he suspects may provide more coverage to the Iditarod than the Super Bowl, he still pays attention to mainstream sports; he has written several books on the subject, including My Cubs: A Love Story. Whether he is covering a story in his Midwest hometown or a war zone in the Middle East, sports seem to follow him everywhere.

He recalled sitting in a soccer stadium in Kabul, Afghanistan; a stadium that, during Taliban rule, held executions every Friday. 

“This place of joy and celebration and frustration … became a killing field,” Simon said.

On the day he happened to be sitting in that stadium, the celebrations had returned. The aptly named Kabul United were hosting British paratroopers in a friendly match as the Taliban withdrew from the country.

At one point in the game, a British trooper removed her beret to wave to the crowd. The crowd went wild, Simon said, at the sight of the woman’s hair.

“I still get emotional when I think about it,” he said. “For the rest of the game, there were Afghan women all over the stadium who would stand up one by one and take off their burqas.” 

Kabul would go on to make the first goal of the match and, despite losing 3-1, the score did not matter. The fans were not cheering for a win, Simon said, but for their liberation. 

“The first goal reminded many in the crowd that amazing things are possible,” he said.

When Simon returned to file a story about his experience, it never aired – the assassination of Abdul Rahman, then-interim minister for air transport and tourism, crowded the news cycle. But there is not a week that goes by when he does not think of it.

“The story that seems so urgent and critical today may evaporate into what our friend Salman Rushdie so aptly called ‘the annihilating whirlpool of history,’ ” Simon said. “The story that goes unnoticed today may become the inspiration for a work of art, a family story, an investigation into life that endures and inspires and instructs.”

Those unnoticed stories are common in sports: Buffalonians who believe embracing the snow makes them the Bills’ defensive line, Clevelanders who found the key to a championship in their own backyard with LeBron James, women emboldened by the victories of Billie Jean King, or the Kansas City Monarchs’ achievement in the face of segregation.

While covering the Siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War, it was the Chicago Bulls’ Dream Team that inspired Sarajevans. 

Simon described the scene he faced, riding through the city in a French personnel carrier, bullets stinging its sides as it went. When soldiers patted him down at a sandbag-covered checkpoint, he heard a small voice ask him where he was from. Simon answered.

“I love Chicago,” the teenager replied. “Michael Jordan. Chicago Bulls.”

It was an indication to Simon that the meaning of his city was not only changing, but separating from its geographic boundaries. The Bulls, with a team consisting of athletes from rural and suburban United States, Canada, Croatia and Lebanon, were now a symbol of diversity.

“This was a team that reflected the world and a city that reflected the world,” he said. “And I think it said to Sarajevans, ‘Look what a free and diverse group of people can do if you give them the chance.’ ”

Simon sees those same ideals in the French national soccer team. He recalled a trip with his wife, a French expat, to the country’s embassy in D.C. The pair watched the team play in the World Cup, and he recognized that players such as Théo Hernandez, Ibrahima Konaté, Youssouf Fofana and Kylian Mbappé are redefining what it means to be French at a critical point in the nation’s history.

“Names from all over the world, but born in France, (are) in the visible reflection of France’s moral character and citizenry,” he said.

As those gathered sang “La Marseillaise” in unison before the game, “I felt we became La République,” Simon said.

His affinity for sports, especially baseball, started as a child through his familial ties. Jack Brickhouse, the play-by-play announcer for the Chicago Cubs, was his godfather; Charlie Grimm, the manager for the 1945 World Series Chicago Cubs team, was his uncle.

With a family like this, Simon said, Wrigley Field game nights can be very boring for his children as he recalls his own memories. But it also instilled in him a reverence for the Cubs’ legacy.

When it looked as though the team could be in the running for its first World Series championship in 108 years, Simon had to be there for the chase – including tossing the first pitch at the July 31, 2016, game between the Cubs and the Seattle Mariners.

By the third inning, the Cubs were down 0-6. Seven pitchers were cycled in and Simon began to worry the team might be desperate enough to call him in as the eighth. The team, however, managed to make a comeback, and with just one strike left in the 12th inning they needed a miracle. 

That is when pitcher Jon Lester, who by chance was wearing the same number on his jersey as Simon, came off the bench. Lester stepped up to the plate with a .102 batting average and laid a bunt down to cap a wild comeback for the Cubs. 

As fans chanted “Go Cubs, Go!” and the Cubs Win flag unfurled, Simon could only think to himself, “that is so Cubs-like.”

The team would go on to have a 13-game win streak, culminating in a 2016 World Series win against Cleveland.

Simon said he knows sports can be trivial, but pivoted back to his earlier point about their ability to inspire people, movements and even countries.

When Jackie Robinson debuted in 1947 as the first black player in Major League Baseball, the United States was fresh from defeating a racist dictatorship with a segregated army of its own. And while more Black players would join the league months later, Robinson had to enter Ebbets Field alone.

“(Branch Rickey, the Brooklyn Dodgers general manager,) knew that the drama of a lone man staring down bigots, walking tall and determined in the face of hatred, would not only break barriers in baseball but give human form to bravery,” Simon said.

Despite his belief in the power of sports to inspire, Simon argued there are three major problems currently threatening that power.

Athletes playing full-contact sports, he said, are increasingly at risk of deteriorating health. Football helmets are now head-ramming weapons and knockouts in boxing can turn a once-bouncing Muhammad Ali into a shell of his former self.

As we study the effects of concussions and other injuries, “we now know and we can follow the damage these sports can inflict on participants, and, of course, families,” Simon said.

He questioned how attractive sports would be if what he called “the wreckage” was limited. One thing that does seem to be increasing viewership, however, is legal sports gambling. 

Simon said some argue that opening up salary caps would remove motives for throwing games or that it would be beneath players to jeopardize their careers; his rebuttal is that the most infamous scandals in sports betting involved shaving points.

“I invite you to review history, and not just sports history but finance, politics, industry, monarchy – and you tell me that you’re satisfied (that) people with wealth and means have no motive to steal.”

His final concern is what he called “sports washing” – authoritarian governments using sports to clean up their image.

“It’s using sports to make an oppressive, totalitarian regime seem as if they believe in rules, fair play and the freedom to participate,” Simon said.

It has come to the point, he said, where one has to rhetorically ask if the Sochi Olympics stopped Russia’s annexation of Crimea and expanded invasion of Ukraine, if the Beijing Olympics freed the Uighurs and if the World Cup saved the lives of migrant workers in Qatar. 

“There has been a depressing tendency to locate major sporting events in authoritarian regimes,” he said.

Does that mean sports fans have to do the moral calculations that executives and owners refuse to do? He said fans like him may have to question their own responsibility, and that athletes can no longer avoid the issue.

“Sports can be something different; it can be a source of unity in a divided world,” he said. “When we cheer for a team we love despite setbacks, … we cheer in a chorus of voices that can unite us in a song of celebration.”

Sara Toth
Editor

Why, Tara VanDerveer wondered Monday afternoon, would a basketball coach deliver the opening talk of a week for the Interfaith Lecture Series?

Part of being a basketball coach is praying a lot, she admitted. But there was a broader reason.

“ ‘The Spirit of Play’ describes me,” VanDerveer said as she opened her lecture Monday afternoon in the Hall of Philosophy. “I love to play sports and games, and my career is coaching the game of basketball. My story is a love story.”

VanDerveer is the Setsuko Ishiyama Director of Women’s Basketball at Stanford University, where she’s been the head women’s basketball coach since 1985. An inductee of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, VanDerveer is the winningest coach in the history of women’s college basketball and the winningest active coach in men’s and women’s Division 1 basketball.

It’s a long list of bona fides that includes five-time national coach of the year, 17-time Pac-12 Coach of the Year, 14 NCAA Final Four appearances, 25 Pac-12 regular-season titles, 15 Pac-12 Tournament crowns and 34 trips to the NCAA Tournament. 

But before the accolades and titles, VanDerveer was a Chautauquan, and it was here, in her youth, that she developed that love for, and  spirit of, play.

Football, baseball, tennis, ping-pong — all were for the taking as a kid growing up outside of Schenectady, New York. Her childhood wasn’t just one of sports, but games, Scrabble and Bridge every Friday.

“My parents set the tone,” VanDerveer said. “… The favorite thing, for my dad, was going to the lake. The last day of school, he’d have the car parked facing out. You could come home, change your clothes, use the bathroom, and get in the car. We would eat on the way to the lake. In 1962, this was the first time our car took us to Chautauqua.”

The first thing her parents did at Chautauqua? Sign VanDerveer up for Boys’ and Girls’ Club. She made lasting memories; more importantly, she made lasting friends — Chautauquans she called by name from the podium, remembering the hours of canoing, sailing, playing capture-the-flag.

Bridging the Week One themes dedicated to friendship, to the Week Two themes on games and play, VanDerveer said that “sports is such a connector. You love to play with the people that you’re close to. And so teams that are really bonded, play better.”

VanDerveer would know, and over the course of her lecture she took her fellow Chautauquans on a journey through the moments in her professional career — from the 37 words of Title IX that “changed the trajectory of (her) life” to her gold medal turn as coach of USA Basketball at the 1996 Olympic Games — and what those moments (and Chautauqua) have taught her.

“Do you know what the number one thing is on recruit lists? If they’re looking at Stanford and they’re looking at other schools, what is the number one thing that they want?” VanDerveer prompted the audience. “Take a guess at what they will say is number one. Winning? No. Volunteering? No. Friends. They want relationships.”

In an age of rampant technological growth and the rise of social media, people want friends; sports and games are “a big part of helping develop that teamwork, learning to trust  in more than ourselves, (in something) bigger than ourselves.”

The first year VanDerveer came to Chautauqua — 1962 — happened to be the first year that she played basketball in gym class at her school. She was hooked. But a girls’ basketball team didn’t exist. She had to play alone.

“I’d imagine I was taking the winning shot or winning free throw. … It was pure fiction because that was not happening,” she said. “My parents would call me into the house and say ‘Tara, basketball is never going to take you anywhere. Do your algebra homework.’ (But) I knew algebra wasn’t taking me anywhere (either).”

VanDerveer, itching to get near the court in any way possible, became the team mascot instead. She was fired in two weeks; she wouldn’t stop taking the bear head off her mascot costume.

She became a “sponge,” she said, soaking up all she could from watching the boys’ practice, and in 1972 with the passage of Title IX, she finally had a team to join. 

Summer basketball camps and coaching clinics prepped VanDerveer for her career. Over the years, she’s seen what hard work and deep relationships can do for a team.

“The teams that I coach that demonstrate great spirit of the game have certain characteristics,” VanDerveer said. “I think they’re hardworking. They’re dedicated. They’re disciplined. They’re unselfish. They’re team-first players. They’re resilient. Their losses build resolve and determination. They show gratitude. They have fun. And they have a sisterhood.”

Column by Mary Lee Talbot

When The Rev. Zina Jacque first preached at Chautauqua, each sermon featured a different prop. At the 9:15 a.m. Tuesday morning worship service in the Amphitheater, she brought the game Jenga, developed by Leslie Scott in the 1980s.

The title of her sermon was “Jenga,” and the scripture reading was 1 Kings 19:1-18, Elijah’s encounter with God.

Elijah was a prophet of Israel and “he stood above all except maybe Moses,” Jacque said. “At the Transfiguration of Jesus, Moses and Elijah were there, the law and the prophets.”

Elijah was in trouble; he was by himself. He had been in a contest with the prophets of Baal, supported by Queen Jezebel. When they failed to call down fire from Baal to burn a sacrifice, Elijah called upon the God of Israel who sent down the fire.

“He had bested the prophets of Baal and Jezebel was pissed off,” Jacque said. “She sent a message to Elijah: ‘So may the gods to me and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.’ ” Elijah decided to run away.

When playing Jenga, participants build a tower of wooden blocks, then take turns pulling or pushing out the individual blocks. The point is to remove a block without the tower falling and then placing the block on top of the tower. Gradually, the tower becomes more and more unstable until it falls.

Jacque moved a Jenga tower to the pulpit and began to pull or push out blocks.

“Elijah decided to run and, like Jenga, his courage was pushed out and replaced by fear; his confidence was replaced by anxiety; his optimism was pushed out and so was his self confidence,” she said.

She continued, “The blocks he laid on top were fragility and depression, and when he asked for help, the tower fell. Elijah was devastated; he knew how to play on the right side of the God of history. He had stood firm and had done what he was called to do. He had built a tower on the good and the right, but it still fell.”

She asked the congregation, “What do you do when your dreams crash down?” Elijah wanted to finish his life. He did not know what to do, so he ran away and sat under a broom tree.

Sitting under a broom tree is a sign of trouble, Jacque said. Hagar sat under a broom tree as she watched Ishmael struggle; Job and his friends sat under broom trees as they discussed Job’s troubles. It is a sign that things are not good.

From under the broom tree, Elijah was called to Mt. Horeb, also known as Mt. Sinai. God said to Elijah, “Rest, nap, get some nourishment for the journey. Then come and see me at Horeb.”

After the theophany of wind, fire and earthquake, God came to Elijah in the silence. 

God told Elijah to be quiet and go inside himself. Jacque said, “God told Elijah to ‘check out your why. What are you doing here? Remember my promises and you will know your why. I have plans to make you prosper. Are you working for a portion of the greater design or only for what you can see?’”

When Elijah was ready, God told him to go back to Israel the same way he had come and learn the lessons of going over the land Elijah had already come through. God told him to find some friends and to build the next generation of prophets in Elisha.

“Elijah was able to rest, to rise up in his own strength. But he is not the only one who had a tower fall,” Jacque said. “I would like to celebrate the 247 years of America, but my heart is heavy. I am a proud American and I would live nowhere else by choice. When I think about our ideals and aspirations, I see how far we have fallen.”

She quoted the preamble of the Declaration of Independence. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men — we have a problem right there — are created equal. We are only strong when we bring together our diversity. At the base of the Statue of Liberty are the words ‘Send me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.’ ‘The New Colossus’ says send them home to me.”

In the Gospels, to sin is to miss the mark. Jacque said, “When I think about our unwillingness to tell the truth about our history — that we stole the land from people living here, that we enslaved others, we don’t honor women and LGBTQ+ people, when we think an individual is worth more than the sum, that voting laws in 13 states are more restrictive than in 2020, that we are fearfully banning books, that we have called lies truth — our national tower has been knocked down.”

She continued, “We have pushed out inclusion, truth, and the orderly change of power. We have pushed out those planks and the tower has fallen.”

Individuals can feel overwhelmed by all there is to do in this nation. What can an individual do?

“Elijah was an individual. If we are going to work to re-establish democracy, to make us whole again, we need community, but each individual needs to do their part and each pick up some pieces,” she told the congregation.

The first step must be to rest and nourish ourselves. “We can’t work out of emptiness, we have to be rested and nourished. Get away from the craziness of Fox News and CNN, put down the newspaper; eat what is good, go to Horeb where you might find God,” Jacque said. 

Out of the quiet, God spoke to Elijah. To know what God has to say, you need to be quiet, she told the congregation.

The next step is to go back and find your friends. “This is not the worst moment in our history. We are resilient,” she said. “Like the spiral theory, we go round and round but we also are moving up. We have to pick up the pieces and God will be able to build again.”

The third step is to pour our wisdom into the next generation. “We are all going to die. Who will know the legacy, the stories?” she asked the congregation. “What God said to Elijah is real for us.”

God, she said, is speaking through Jenga, from the Swahili word “kujenga,” meaning to build up. 

The nation needs to build stronger, higher and better, Jacque said. “Are you an Elijah before or after he talked with God? God can build better with us. Will we have another opportunity to get it right? Will you come and play Jenga with me?”

The Rev. John Morgan, pastor of the Williamsburg Presbyterian Church, presided. Isabel Packevicz, the student minister in the Department of Religion for the 2023 season, read the scripture. The prelude was “Adoration,” by Florence Price, played by Joshua Stafford, director of sacred music and Jared Jacobsen Chair for the Organist. For the anthem, the Motet Choir, under the direction of Stafford and accompanied by Nicholas Stigall, organ scholar, sang “Unless the Lord build the house,” by Alfred V. Fedak with words from Psalm 127, Psalm 118 and Matthew 21. The postlude was “Toccata,” from Suite for Organ by Florence Price, played by Stafford. Support for this week’s chaplaincy and preaching is provided by the Harold F. Reed, Sr. Chaplaincy and the John William Tyrrell Endowment for Religion.

Sarah Russo
Staff Writer

At Chautauqua Institution, music has become the backbone for celebrations. Whether it’s the start of a season or a national holiday, the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra is there to bring joy. And today, for the Fourth of July, is no different. 

The CSO will perform its annual “Independence Day Celebration” at 8 p.m. tonight in the Amphitheater. For Stuart Chafetz, principal pops conductor for the CSO and conductor of the Independence Day concert for more than 20 years, music may be the best way to celebrate.

“We have a lot of things to be thankful for,” he said. “Mostly the fact that we have the opportunity to be in this magical place every summer or for the first time. And it’s always interesting to introduce this concert to people who this is their first time and sort of getting a taste and a sense of what Chautauqua is all about.”

Tonight’s performance will include a wide range of fan favorites like John Philip Sousa’s “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” John Williams’ “Born On the Fourth July” and Samuel A. Ward’s “America the Beautiful.” In true “pops” fashion, the bill will also include a tribute to the late Tina Turner and hits by Aretha Franklin.

“As always, [the program] is geared for the entire family so that we can spend it with our loved ones and good friends and relatives,” Chafetz said.

Actress, writer and singer Tamika Lawrence, who will be featured during tonight’s performance, is “fantastic” and “blew (him) away,” when Chafetz worked with her in the past on a Aretha Franklin tribute show.

A two-time Grammy-winner Lawrence has performed in “Rent: Live” in 2019, “Caroline, or Change” in 2021 and “Better Nate Than Ever” last year among other credits.

“I’m just so excited to share Tamika with the Institution and with our audience because she’s just such a powerhouse, and her voice is so exciting,” Chafetz said.

Chafetz said audiences should expect to enjoy every second of the program.

“There’s a lot of really great music packed into 90 minutes,” he said.

Chafetz also shared how important this performance is on a personal level as someone who was first involved in the CSO playing timpani for more than 25 years. 

“I think this concert sort of culminates so many positive elements of Chautauqua and just the feeling of togetherness on such an important holiday…” Chafetz said. “Chautauqua Symphony is such an institution within the institution… I feel really fortunate to be at the helm for this one. This is the concert that I look forward to most during the year of anything that I do, because Chautauqua has the best audience. Chautauquans sing, they dance. They really get into it. And to me, that’s a reflection of the spirit here.”

Mariia Novoselia
Staff Writer

When journalist and NPR host Scott Simon was young, his dad would take him to the park and hit ground balls to him. 

There, he would tell Simon stories about baseball and famous players, referring to them by their first name, as he said “you do when you are a real fan.”

His godfather Jack Brickhouse, who Simon refers to as his Uncle Jack, was a Chicago Cubs play-by-play announcer for many years. What’s more, Simon’s aunt married Charlie Grimm, who was a first baseman for the Cubs.

“I can’t remember (sports) not ever being a part of my life,” Simon said.

For his first visit to Chautauqua at 10:45 a.m. today in the Amphitheater, Simon will discuss how sports help people bond, the impact of sports on the history of the United States, and his concerns about the current state of the sports industry.

Simon sees a thread tying together the Week One theme “On Friendship” and Week Two’s “Games: A Celebration of Our Most Human Pastime.”

“At a time when we are looking for (connections), sports and enthusiasm for sports can provide a bond for people of different backgrounds, even different societies,” he said.

Simon warned he has a bias towards two of his hometown teams: the Chicago Bulls and Chicago Cubs.

Over several decades, Simon has covered natural disasters, political campaigns and 10 wars for NPR. His favorite assignments, however, were his reporting about Sarajevo, which he called “instructive, important, enlightening and moving.”

The siege took place in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian War. It lasted for almost four years, from April 1992 to February 1996. 

Simon said at that time, it was common to see Chicago Bulls-branded items “all over the streets of Sarajevo.” People there loved the team. 

“Bosnia is very much a basketball enthusiastic society, but the Bulls, particularly during the war, represented … not just a successful basketball franchise, but also an example of how people from different backgrounds can work together and achieve something great,” Simon said. 

Even though he had already lived in Washington, D.C., for a few years by then, Simon said he would tell people in Sarajevo that he was from Chicago, and in response, he would often be met with praise for the Windy City: “Oh Chicago, I love Chicago.”

In another example of the bonds that sports create, Simon recalled working at a home for mentally disabled people. 

Baseball brought them together.

Rather than talk about food or medication, Simon could connect with them over daytime broadcasts.

It was “great fun to sit among them and talk about what was going on in the (Cubs) games,” he said.

Even for Chautauquans who might be skeptical of the value of sports, Simon said he hopes his visit to the Amp will teach them something beyond any game on a field.

“It’s an important experience for us as citizens,” he said.

While Scott Simon takes the Amphitheater stage this morning to talk about touchstone moments in American sports history, this afternoon, Rex Lyons will examine the same — but through a lens accounting for the original American sports and athletes. 

At 2 p.m. today in the Hall of Philosophy, Lyons will continue the Interfaith Lecture Series Week Two theme of “A Spirit of Play” with a discussion of the Creator’s Game: Lacrosse.

Lyons is a former coach and world class lacrosse player who played on the original Iroquois Nationals (now the Haudenosaunee Nationals) team formed in 1983. He’s played professional lacrosse in the MILL with the Rochester Knighthawks and the Onondaga Athletic Club Senior B team for 19 seasons. He’s a lifelong advocate of growing the game throughout the world.

In an interview with Pete Gallivan of Buffalo’s WGRZ last week in advance of the The Haudenosaunee Nationals’ semifinal game in the World Lacrosse Championship, Lyons shared his bigger hopes for the team: that 2028 sees the return of lacrosse to the Olympics in 2028, and for the Haudenosaunee to be there.

“It’s been a culmination of 40 years that we’ve been working on it, and we’re getting stronger,” he said. “The program is getting stronger. The athletes are getting stronger. It’s just getting better as we’re moving in the right direction.”

As the Creator’s Game, lacrosse is considered a gift to the Haudenosaunee; this is best reflected in the lacrosse stick itself. 

Hickory wood is the gift of the land; the leather is from the animal world. The weave represents family, while the ball represents medicine.

“When you’re dealing with Indigenous nations, everything is tethered to the natural world in some way, shape or form,” Lyons told Gallivan.

Lyons,  born and raised on the Onondaga Nation, capital of Six Nations Haudenosaunee Confederacy, is a  member of the Eel Clan. He currently sits on the Haudenosaunee Nationals Board of Directors and served as key spokesperson and representative for the World Indoor Lacrosse Championships, hosted by the Haudenosaunee Confederacy on the Onondaga Nation in 2015.

A business consultant and retired Tradesmen of 30 years with Local #677, Lyons is also an accomplished musician, vocalist, and guitarist who founded the award-winning Fabulous Ripcords out of Syracuse, New York, and is president of the New York State Blues Festival, one of the last free existing music festivals in the country. 

Most recently, Lyons co-created a 501(c)(3) for the Haudenosaunee Nationals Lacrosse Organization as president of the Haudenosaunee Nationals Development Group — the nonprofit was created as the fiscal operating arm of the Haudenosaunee Nationals Lacrosse Board of Directors.

Kaitlyn Finchler
Staff Writer

Philip Gerard was an open spirit who fully understood what it meant to be a Chautauquan. 

“He really did embrace the idea of the four pillars,” said his wife Jill Gerard. “He is a very talented musician, he did sketching and painting and (was) a really fine writer and teacher.”

To commemorate, cherish and celebrate Philip, 67, who died on Nov. 7, 2022, Chautauqua Literary Arts held a memorial for him Friday in the Hall of Philosophy.

Philip had long-lasting contributions to both the Writers’ Center and the Chautauqua literary journal. He also planned, established and created the MFA program at University of North Carolina, Wilmington, where he was a professor.

Born in Wilmington, Delaware, on April 7, 1955, he is survived by Jill, his children Ashley and Patrick Leahman, and his Aussie, Daisy.

“Today we remember Philip Gerard’s work both here in the Institution, but also as a human being,” Sony Ton-Aime, the Michael I. Rudell Director of Literary Arts, told those gathered. “Thank you to his family, for allowing him to spend his time here to meet with each one of you and witness his quest, his intellect and his humanity.”

Calling itself the “portable Chautauqua season between covers,” Chautauqua, the literary journal, features sections loosely reflecting each of the nine summer weeks with graduate and undergraduate students in the Department of Creative Writing at UNCW working as members of the editorial team.

Always readily making sure the journal “stood on a firm footing,” Jill said she handled administrative tasks while Philip was the “people person.”

During summers on the grounds, Philip always took opportunities for lifelong learning.

“Philip was the better Chautauquan because he never missed a lecture,” Jill said. “I would say, ‘OK, maybe I’ll meet you. I’m going to grab coffee.’ And I would always be somewhere else outside or getting the recap from him.”

Philip was always the person to take care of others before himself, Jill said. Once, he even stayed to teach at the Writers’ Center after hearing news of his father’s admittance to hospice care.

“He felt obligated to make sure the students were taken care of and that’s who he was,” Jill said. “He was just a really kind and good-hearted person who’s always trying to lift the other people up.”

During the memorial, Joe Mackall, a friend of both Philip and Jill for over 20 years, said he and Philip would compare notes on teaching in the Writers’ Center.

“Every student I’ve ever talked to, students who had us both, tell me to my face (that) Philip’s a much better teacher,” Joe said. “There’s nothing I can say except, ‘I know.’ ”

Philip had a deep love for his family and people noticed. Joe said Philip’s presence was a force that was felt in the room when he entered, even though he was also a keen observer.

“After (going on an) adventure, I love going somewhere quiet and just listening to the world,” Philip said once to Joe.

Diane Hume George, who previously served as a co-director of the pre-season Chautauqua Writers’  Festival, recalled interrupting Philip and Jill’s wedding preparations about 15 years ago to ask them if they would co-edit the literary journal. 

“Now, it would have been decent to let them go get married, go on their honeymoon and come back,” Diane said. “But the board was in a hurry to know whether this was going to work or not, and Philip and Jill collectively said, ‘Yes.’ ”

For years after, Philip would remind Diane of the timing of her request, leaning over to her and rasping a la Marlon Brando in “The Godfather” to say: “You come to me on the day of my wedding and you asked me to edit a journal.”

Philip had an optimistic outlook on life, but didn’t shy away from addressing tough topics in his writing such as war, loss, violence and racism.

“(Philip) was unafraid to confront the forces of true evil inside the covers of several of his books,” Diane said. “But he remained at heart, an inveterate optimist. I don’t know how he did that.”

Rather than address those gathered, Diane spoke directly to Philip at the memorial.

“You, Philip, are still here — whatever that means,” Diane said. Because of his work as a mentor, his legacy lives on, “replaying in the lives of hundreds of fellow writers, maybe thousands.”

Georgia Court, a friend and longtime fixture in the literary arts community, dedicated a poem to Philip. He and Jill were the first guests she hosted for the literary arts.

“I always remember that (first) dinner and how lovely Jill was, always bubbly and vivacious and charming,” Georgia said. “And how wonderful and kind Philip was. I have enjoyed knowing them (so much) over the years.”

Friend and coworker Leslie Rubinkowski said Philip had a “gift for building gorgeous stories.”

Whether discussing deep fears and safe truths, joking over a beer, or helping students who may have struggled with a project, she said Philip was “every kind of friend.”

“He is such a good teacher,” Leslie said. “Part of my life’s work now feels like I’m telling the story of my friend about the large moments and the small to anyone who wants to feel.”

Knowing that he is gone, but never forgotten, Jill said she’s still learning how to move forward.

“It’s very strange to be here without him,” she said earlier in the day before the memorial. “I don’t know how to keep doing all the things that we did without him, but I will.”