Chautauqua in the World, Vol. 1
Published in
5 min readFeb 5, 2021
- The film loosely based on Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder (Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, 2018; Writers’ Center faculty, 2019) will debut on Hulu on Feb. 19 and is included in The New York Times’ list of the best movies and TV shows coming to the various streaming services this month. Directed by Chloé Zhao and starring Frances McDormand, “Nomadland” the film is receiving 2021 Academy Award buzz. Bruder presented her nonfiction bestseller for the CLSC in 2018 and returned to Chautauqua the following summer as a writer-in-residence at the Chautauqua Writers’ Center. You can purchase Nomadland at the Chautauqua Bookstore.
- Several recent Chautauqua speakers are among President Joe Biden’s nominees to leadership posts within the new administration, pending Senate confirmation. William J. Burns (Chautauqua Lecture Series, 2018 and 2019) is nominated as director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Currently the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Burns joined us in 2018 to speak on on U.S. relations with Russia and again in 2019, in conversation with Chautauqua President Michael E. Hill, on themes from his book The Back Channel: A Memoir of American Diplomacy and the Case for Its Renewal. Kathleen Hicks (Chautauqua Lecture Series, 2017) is nominated as deputy secretary of defense, and would be the first woman to serve in the role if confirmed. Hicks delivered the opening lecture of our 2017 week in partnership with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where she has served as senior vice president and director of the international security program. Samantha Power (Chautauqua Lecture Series, 2020) is nominated as administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Power concluded our 2020 Summer Assembly with an address and Q-and-A from her New England home on why diplomacy matters.
- Joan Donovan (Chautauqua Lecture Series, 2020) appears on the latest episode of SETI’s “Skeptic Check” podcast to provide expert analysis in “a discussion about how these alternative realities formed, why people are drawn to them, and the benefits of a shared reality.” Donovan, an expert on internet culture and online misinformation, is the research director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. For CHQ Assembly in 2020, she presented her research on internet and media influence and effects of widespread misinformation. (Retired SETI director Jill Tarter lectured at Chautauqua in 2016.)
- “It wasn’t enough to host suppers where folks could share stories and build empathy. And neither was it enough to acknowledge inequities, or even to generate promising solutions — and in the process, raise expectations that things might change — only to let those ideas languish,” writes Lennon Flowers (Chautauqua Lecture Series, 2019) in Greater Good Magazine about the evolving mission and work of The People’s Supper. The piece documents the organization’s efforts to help leaders bridge cultural divides in nearby Erie, Pennsylvania. Flowers and her People’s Supper co-founder the Rev. Jennifer Bailey recorded an episode of “On Being” with host Krista Tippett from the Amphitheater stage in 2019, during a week on “Grace: A Celebration of Extraordinary Gifts.”
- Newly elected Chautauqua trustee and frequent lecturer Helene D. Gayle is featured in a recent “Women Rule” newsletter from Politico as “the government’s vaccine whisper.” An epidemiologist who spent a large portion of her career fighting HIV/AIDS at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Gayle is currently president and CEO of the Chicago Community Trust.
- Poet Tyehimba Jess (CLSC, 2018) has published a moving tribute to his Black male forebears in Boston Review. Jess dazzled the Amphitheater audience in 2018 with a presentation and performance of work from Olio, his 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning book of poetry and a 2018 CLSC selection. You can purchase Olio at the Chautauqua Bookstore.
- HBO is adapting The Fact of a Body: A Memoir by Alex Marzano-Leznevich (Chautauqua Prize, 2018; Writers’ Festival faculty, 2019) as a limited series directed by Jeremiah Zagar. The Fact of a Body won the 2018 Chautauqua Prize, which Marzano-Lesnevich accepted in a Hall of Philosophy ceremony on Aug. 3, 2018. They returned to Chautauqua the following summer to serve on the faculty of the pre-season Chautauqua Writers’ Festival. You can purchase The Fact of a Body at the Chautauqua Bookstore.
- Alison Moritz (Chautauqua Opera, 2013) has been appointed interim managing director of opera theater at the Johns Hopkins Peabody Institute for the 2021–22 academic year. Moritz served as opera scenes director for the Chautauqua Opera during the 2013 Summer Assembly. She stage directed a production of Proving Up & Taking Up Serpents alongside conductor Steven Osgood, general and artistic director of Chautauqua Opera, at Rice University’s Shepard School of Music in 2019.
- We were saddened to learn of the death of Chautauquan Michael Rudell, a well-known and well-regarded entertainment lawyer. Rudell was dedicated Chautauquan and, as President Michael E. Hill noted in a remembrance, “the brains” behind The Chautauqua Prize.
- Jim Tankersley (CLSC, 2021) appeared on NPR’s “Fresh Air” this week to discuss President Biden’s $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package and his plans for infrastructure work and clean energy investment. He will present his 2020 book The Riches Of This Land: The Untold True Story Of America’s Middle Class for the CLSC in August.
- Derek Thompson (Chautauqua Lecture Series, 2020) digs into what the pandemic and sudden shift to remote work will mean for “superstar” coastal cities in a new piece for The Atlantic, where he is a senior editor. The piece builds upon themes he discussed in his 2020 CHQ Assembly lecture and Q-and-A, on how COVID-19 is reshaping our world.
