Chautauqua in pictures

I spent a glorious week (July 26-August 2) in Chautauqua, NY at the Chautauqua Institution.

Chautauqua was started 151 years ago as a summer program that offered educational and spiritual classes for Sunday School teachers. Since its founding it has expanded exponentially. Now in the course of a nine-week summer schedule, over 100,000 people come to attend lectures, concerts, operas, ballets, and plays as well as intensives in music, dance, acting, and other arts. Each morning a lecture on the week’s theme is given in the country’s largest open-air amphitheater. There are worship services for a variety of denominations and faiths, recreational activities galore, and plenty of short to long-term classes on every subject imaginable.

Sharon G. Flake and I were invited by Kwame Alexander (who serves as Artistic Director of Literary Arts and Inaugural Writer-In-Residence) to speak and give a reading in Chautauqua’s Hall of Philosophy. We also taught classes — Sharon’s on writing young adult literature and mine on middle grade.

I was able to bring a guest along, so I asked my friend Jamie who lives in Connecticut. We hadn’t seen each other for nine years, and it was SO FUN to spend the week together.

My picture book, A Race Around the World, was part of this summer’s Young Reader’s Book List. I loved walking past this sign every day!

One really incredible aspect of Chautauqua is the CLSC — the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle. Started in 1878, four years after Chautauqua was founded, the CLSC was originally an educational program meant for people who couldn’t pursue college degrees. Over 8400 people enrolled the first year (!). Four years later, 1718 of those enrolled in the first class graduated from the program. Each year students were required to read 10-12 books that covered everything from history, religion, literature and science to social reform, art, and “rules for healthful living.”

Each early graduating class is memorialized in mosaics within the Hall of Philosophy.

Today the CLSC continues as one of the country’s oldest book clubs (!). Anyone can join and graduate (!!). In order to join, you pay a small fee and read twelve of the almost 1000 books on the list. (I’ve pored over the list and have already read thirteen, qualifying me to graduate next year.) Once you submit your list and pay your dues, you are an official part of the class. I will join online discussions with the rest of my class over the next year, and next summer I can graduate (though, sadly, I won’t be there in person).

the CLSC continues to add nine new titles to the list each year. The authors of these books come and speak each summer, one author per week. I plan to keep reading. There are badges to earn and challenges to tackle. This is all very much up my alley and reminds me of childhood read-a-thons with a dash of Girls Scouts thrown in.

It was a truly spectacular week of teaching, conversation, cultural immersion, morning runs by the lake,

classes — I learned to cut glass and made earrings!

author conversations, beautiful scenery, and catching up with my dear friend.

And making new ones! Sharon Flake is an absolute treasure.

If you don’t know Kwame Alexander, he is truly the most generous author I know. He has gone out of his way to encourage me and provide me with opportunities like this one, as he has done for many others. Kwame is a class act.

I hope this isn’t my only Chautauqua experience. This week was an absolute gift.