The Chautauquan Daily

Poet-in-residence Aimee Nezhukumatathil has a deep affinity with the late marine biologist Rachel Carson, who once wrote “the more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.”

Geffrey Kelly has made studying the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer a second career. He has written four books about the German pastor and activist, teaches about him at La Salle University and was a board member of the International Dietrich Bonhoeffer Society for 26 years. He received an honorary doctorate for his research on Bonhoeffer and has edited translations of Bonhoeffer’s writings. Bonhoeffer broke a lot of the rules of his time and taught that faith should be external and active, Kelly said. To Bonhoeffer, pursuit of justice and faith were inextricably linked. These teachings resonated with Kelly during an unexpected time in his life when his faith most needed it.

The War on Terror has been the longest waged in American history. And while it may seem that victories against al-Qaida are few and far between, former CIA officer Bruce Riedel has some suggestions for long-term solutions that he will share at his lecture at 10:45 a.m. today in the Amphitheater.

It’s thousands of years ago. Humankind is undeveloped, living practically naked in caves. Wealth is not measured in gold, but rather in nuts and berries — the only things that will keep your family alive. A neighboring cave houses another human, but you notice this human has better nuts and berries than you do.

Down at the edge of the Institution’s grounds, in the shadow of the grand Athenaeum Hotel, canopied by a few tall trees, sits a quaint little house — Chautauqua Sports Club. Green shuffleboard courts lie to the left. A few picnic tables with chess and checkerboards on top decorate the front lawn. The lake rests behind the house, with paddleboats, canoes and kayaks bobbing in the water near the dock.

Decommissioned nuclear reactors and flying chairs are not typically the first things that come to mind in a production of Chekhov’s “Three Sisters,” but this is what awaits those who attend today’s Bratton Behind the Scenes. The event, which will focus on Chautauqua Theater Company’s current production of “Three Sisters,” begins at 2:15 p.m. at Bratton Theater. The program will last approximately 45 minutes.

Writers at Chautauqua will have a chance to take out their novel or screenplay and confer with a literary agent this week at the Writers’ Center. Ken Sherman will hold workshops from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. today and Wednesday at the Alumni Hall ballroom.

The Chautauqua Quartet performs one concert a year. At 4 p.m. today in Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, four members of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra will play a program of contrasting works from Mozart and Jean Sibelius.

July 5’s premiere performance of the Music School Festival Orchestra introduced an energetic and versatile group of young musicians ready to take on the challenges of not only difficult but very diverse repertoire. Tonight’s concert will once again display the astounding amount of progress the MSFO has made since its first concert, but it also will have some debuts of its own.

When Peter Earnest first accepted a position with the United States Central Intelligence Agency, he, like the majority of the population at that time, knew very little about what the organization even was. Now, after 35 years of service with the CIA, Earnest has made it his mission as the founding executive director of the International Spy Museum to educate the public about the role of intelligence and the ways it is gathered.

Gary Dorrien will take the Interfaith Lecture Series audience on a century-long journey this week. He will begin with the life of Reverdy Ransom as a civil rights activist in the early 1900s and will end with Benjamin E. Mays’ work with Martin Luther King Jr., stopping on the way to discuss social and religious turning points that led to the concept of the Black Social Gospel.

Following last season’s grand Norma, the Chautauqua Opera Company achieved even finer results Saturday evening with a fine but under-appreciated Giuseppe Verdi work that represents a midpoint between the bel canto style of Norma and the full-out “music drama” Verdi and Wagner were to develop later in the 19th century: 1849’s Luisa Miller. While, it’s never been a crowd-pleaser like Rigoletto or La traviata, it’s a passionate story — full of melodrama, but also full of feeling — and the music is wonderful, culminating in a third act that ranks among the great single acts in Verdi’s huge output.

“Perhaps Chaplain Black’s spirit could best be described by the words that he gave to the president of Oakwood College … he said then, ‘For most of my life, I sought a relationship with God,’” Jane Campbell said in her introduction of U.S. Senate Chaplain Barry Black, the 2 p.m. Friday Interfaith Lecture speaker. Campbell is the former mayor of Cleveland and was a member of the Ohio House of Representatives. She currently serves as the chief of staff to Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.). Campbell is also one of the parishioners at Black’s Wednesday noon Bible study for heads of staff in Washington, D.C.

This week, the Writers’ Center will launch a new batch of poets and help prose writers fine-tune their voices. To kick off their week-long stay at Chautauqua, poet-in-residence Aimee Nezhukumatathil and writer-in-residence Ron MacLean will both read selections from their work at 3:30 p.m. Sunday on the front porch of Alumni Hall.

The Sacred Song service will take on a somber tone this Sunday as the choir and congregation sing in honor of lost loved ones. At 8 p.m. Sunday in the Amphitheater, Chautauquans can memorialize their lost friends and family by singing and signing books during the “In Remembrance” service.

The term “Western Reserve” refers to a patch of land in northeast Ohio previously owned by the state of Connecticut in the 18th century. Members of the Brass Band of the Western Reserve picked that name over, say, “Brass Band of Akron,” to highlight the group’s diverse geographical makeup. “It just seemed like a good name,” said band director Keith M. Wilkinson. “We didn’t want to pinpoint the name to any particular city, because that’s not the band.”