CLSC roundtable

Hmong embroidery, known worldwide for its beauty, carries many things: artistic pride, historic documentation, aesthetic ideals and poetic meanings. However,

Jessica Bruder wrote about the nation’s increasing amount of nomadic workers in “The End of Retirement” for Harper’s in 2014.

When Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi imagines her “anti- love” heroine’s future beyond the novel, Call Me Zebra, she sees

Andrew Krivák mastered the anatomy of a story by listening to his grandmother around the kitchen stove. That, and a

On a morning in May of 1803, Ludwig van Beethoven sat behind his piano on the stage of Augarten Theatre in Vienna and premiered his now-famous Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major, Op. 47. Reading the score over his shoulder was George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower, the up-and-coming, biracial, African-Polish prodigy. The sonata had just been finished the night before, and there was no time for a rehearsal. The violinist took a chance at improvising, mimicking a difficult piano run, and Beethoven beamed. “Once more, my dear fellow!” he jumped up and shouted, and the two played the movement again.

The summer’s theme for the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle is challenge, and for the war-torn African children of Say You’re One of Them, the season’s first selection, their greatest challenge is survival. Uwem Akpan’s short stories detail the children caught in the crossfire, both their tragedy and their strength. The author will speak at the CLSC Roundtable at 3:30 p.m. today in the Hall of Philosophy.