Members of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle Class of 2024 process Sunday evening from the Amphitheater to the Hall of Philosophy for the class Vigil Ceremony.
Following a rainy Saturday, Sunday’s warm and sunny day ended with the soft glow of candlelight, as the week’s Sacred Song Service gave way to the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle Vigil Ceremony, and a glistening start to Recognition Week.
Members of the CLSC Class of 2024 — one of the biggest classes in modern history, with 172 members — were guests of honor at Sacred Song, which was replete with readings and music evoking the class symbol of the bee, and of the class honoree Oren Lyons.
The themes continued into the evening’s Vigil Ceremony, after the class, dressed all in white per tradition, made its way along the Brick Walk to the Hall of Philosophy, where hand-held candles joined the light of the hall’s four torches.
Today, the Class of 2024 will graduate from the CLSC, with more celebrations to come. But it all started with a reflective tone Sunday, and the class Vigil Ceremony.
The ceremony began with the Pete Moss song “Asters and Goldenrod,” sung by Jennifer Dilley, and a land acknowledgement by Class of 2024 President Robin Musher, in recognition of Lyons, Onondaga Faithkeeper and the class honoree.
“We recognize the profound contributions of Indigenous peoples to the history of this region as well as the past and ongoing injustices that Indigenous peoples have faced,” she read.
Ensuing were readings from Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass — also featured during Sacred Song — from class members Coleen Hass-Smith, Danielle Nebres and Maxine Awner, John Tarrant and Kerrie Ellen Lovercheck, and a performance of an Annishinaabeg/Ojibwe water song performed by class member Alicia Williams. Another class member, Kathleen Campbell, shared a story from Taino, an Arawakan tribe in the Caribbean; the bee represents one of the most important Taino Cemi, or angel, named Corocote.
Speaking to the class choices of name, motto, symbols, flowers and honoree, Chautauqua’s senior pastor, the Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, closed the ceremony.
“We sought the communion revealed in hues of purple and gold in fields of wildflowers — an ancient knowledge of aster and goldenrod. We developed an appreciation for the fortitude and perseverance of the American Chestnut Tree and the more-than-human relationships that carry it forward into the present,” said Sutton, who will graduate today with the CLSC Class of 2024. “We found something to treasure in the sing-song buzz of the bumble bee, in the heavy burdens it carries in bundles of pollen collected at its feet. We chose to honor those who came before us — the first peoples who have lived in and known these lands since time immemorial.”
Processing from the Hall of Philosophy to a reception at the Literary Arts Center at Alumni Hall, the CLSC Class of 2024 was accompanied by the recessional: “The Flight of the Bumblebee,” performed by Wendy Marlinski.
During the Vigil Ceremony, the class also announced their Kate Kimball Gift, so named for the first executive secretary of the Alumni Association. The class gift will be the repair and renovation of the Alumni Hall porch.
Graduates of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle Class of 2023, on Aug. 2, 2023, are welcomed into the Amphitheater by members of the Alumni Association of the CLSC.
“Our group felt very committed about making our gift about repairing the Alumni Hall porch,” said Anne Mitchell, a member of the CLSC Class of 2024 and its Vigil Committee. “It’s the building for the literary arts, so we felt that the connection to it was universal.”
Since its founding in 1878, the CLSC has brought together a community of readers and learners, dedicated to expanding their horizons in literature — and this year is no different.
Mitchell said she has the CLSC to thank for expanding her reading horizons and the stories she’s exposed to, with a range of books she said that she “wouldn’t have normally read.” Today, Mitchell will be graduating alongside her husband.
“He has just recently started coming to Chautauqua, but he loved it from day one,” she said. “I think there’s people who get Chautauqua and people who don’t, and he really got it. He’s an avid reader, and even though we read very different things, it’s just really important, the ability to do this together — that full commitment.”
Recognition Day begins with the class photo and the unveiling of the class banner at 8:15 a.m. this morning on the steps of the Hall of Christ. The banner will feature elements of the class flowers and tree, as well as its colors and its class symbol.
With their banner, the CLSC Class of 2024 wanted to represent their responsibility and obligation to the land, as well as to other people, said Musher.
“We worked very cohesively when we came up with the design we wanted,” she said. “Since it is the sesquicentennial, we wanted to touch upon the roots of how the banner was created.”
Meanwhile, across the grounds, the Alumni Association of the CLSC’s Banner Parade starts on Bestor Plaza. Classes from years past will parade to the Hall of Philosophy in order of oldest to most recent — while kids from Boys’ and Girls’ Club carry each of the classes’ banners in time for the Recognition Day Ceremony at 9 a.m. in the Hall of Philosophy. The CLSC Class of 2024 will also parade into the Hall of Philosophy — from the Hall of Christ, down Haven, then through the Golden Gates and up into the Hall in the Grove.
With the Recognition Day Ceremony, the CLSC Class of 2024, named the “Sesquicentennial Stewards,” will officially graduate. As the newest members of the Alumni Association of the CLSC, they’ll then join the ranks of the Banner Parade, promenading down Cookman, along South Lake Drive, and up Bowman with their forebears, and taking seats of honor in the Amphitheater for the morning lecture.
Above the stage, and a program featuring Recognition Day speaker Sandra M. Clark for the Chautauqua Lecture Series, will be the class motto: “Reading & Responsibility.”
This week’s rainy tendencies will not put a damper on the parade — the Alumni Association has arranged for smaller, vinyl banners replicates of the originals, which can survive a downpour if necessary.
Later today, at 5 p.m. at the Athenaeum Hotel, the Alumni Association hosts the CLSC Alumni Gala. The event includes a silent auction, with items that include an original painting by Joseph Grice. The money raised will all go toward the scholarship fund for teachers and librarians from Chautauqua County to spend time on the grounds.
While tickets for the gala have already sold out, there will be a reception for the entire CLSC Class of 2024 and their guests at Alumni Hall following the morning lecture, where they will be able to mingle with CLSC alumni and the broader community alike, and receive some additional recognition from the Alumni Association.
Recognition Day is a “real spectacle,” said Pat McDonald, president of the Alumni Association of the CLSC, and something people shouldn’t miss.
“It’s really just a fun day, (and) this year with such a big class, it’ll be very exciting,” she said. “We’re carrying on something that is meaningful, perhaps today, even more than in the past, that people can have a community when they come here and belong to an organization and have a chance to gather.”
