CHAUTAUQUA, N.Y. — Chautauqua Institution is proud to announce the program lineup for Week Six of its 2021 season. The week, which begins July 31 and concludes Aug. 7, features performances, lectures and classes both in-person on the grounds and livestreamed through CHQ Assembly. Week Six includes renowned guests such as Wild author Cheryl Strayed, Billboard Country Albums Top 10 artist Margo Price, Americana Emerging Act of the Year nominee Allison Russell, winner of the Song of the Year at the 2019 Folk Alliance International Awards Amythyst Kiah, and faculty member of The Living School Brian D. McLaren.

Chautauqua Institution’s nine-week season features weekday lectures focusing on weekly cultural themes. Week Six examines “Building a Culture of Empathy,” in which speakers in the 10:30 a.m. Chautauqua Lecture Series program discuss the importance of empathy as a critical part of our world, what it looks like in action, and how we can normalize it to help us connect and survive tragic times. The 1 p.m. Interfaith Lecture Series examines the same theme by considering empathy as an impulse manifested in all the world’s religions which arises out of a willingness to care and understand and will incorporate speakers who live though empathy. 

The Rt. Rev. Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows, bishop of Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis, will serve as the guest chaplain for the week. The first black woman to lead an Episcopal diocese, she also served congregations in Dioceses of Central New York, Newark, and California. 

AMPHITHEATER LECTURES 

MONDAY

Chautauqua Lecture Series: Cheryl Strayed is the author of the No. 1 New York Times bestselling memoir Wild and the host of the New York Times podcast “Sugar Calling.” At Chautauqua, she will explore. how radical empathy has informed her life and her work, and what applications such radical empathy has in daily life.

Interfaith Lecture Series: Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, public theologian, faculty member of The Living School and co-leader of the Common Good Messaging Team, which is part of Vote Common Good. He is also an Auburn Senior Fellow, a leader in the Convergence Network, and a passionate advocate for “a new kind of Christianity” that is just, generous and working with people of all faiths for the common good.

TUESDAY

Chautauqua Lecture Series: Frans de Waal is C. H. Candler Professor in the Psychology Department of Emory University and a biologist and primatologist known for his work on the behavior and social intelligence of primates. His career, particularly his 2009 book, The Age of Empathy: Nature’s Lessons for a Kinder Society, will frame his Chautauqua Lecture Series presentation on the biology and evolution of empathy.

Interfaith Lecture Series: Edgar Rodriguez serves concurrently as chief of the Moville Police Department and lead pastor of New Hope Evangelical church in Moville, Iowa. He served four active years in the Marine Corps and has been awarded the State of Iowa Governor’s Award for his work with the Community Basket Mobile Food Pantry and the Phil & Keturah Pennington Award.

WEDNESDAY

Chautauqua Lecture Series: Jackie Acho founded The Acho Group, a strategy and leadership consulting firm and has worked for technology, industrial, academic, nonprofit and economic development clients on a variety of issues. Her current work includes empathy-centered cultural transformation with the Cleveland Police, which will be the focus of her presentation as part of the Chautauqua Lecture Series.

THURSDAY

Chautauqua Lecture Series: Courtney Cogburn is co-director of the Columbia School of Social Work’s Justice, Equity, Technology Lab, and is on the faculty of the Columbia Population Research Center. She is also the lead creator of “1000 Cut Journey,” an immersive virtual reality experience simulating the experience of Blacks facing racism, discrimination and systemic brutality. At Chautauqua, Cogburn will discuss the project, what she’s learned since it debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2018, and the potential of technology like VR to foster empathy.

Interfaith Lecture Series: Jose Arellano and Steve Avalos are member of Homeboy Industries’ Management Team as co-directors of Case Management and Navigation, where they strives to cultivate a culture of community and kinship within the organization. 

ARTS PROGRAMMING 

Aside from the daily lectures, Week Six features a variety of afternoon and evening arts and entertainment programs live at the Amphitheater or the Performance Pavilion on Pratt, with some offerings available via livestream and on-demand through the CHQ Assembly platform. 

4 p.m. Saturday, July 31, Performance Pavilion on Pratt: Half scripted, half improvisation and playing like a Shakespeare improv with modern day language, Chautauqua Theater Company’s Commedia will delight with familiar yet ridiculous storylines and references ripped from today’s headlines. The production will see addition stagings at the same time on Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday.

8:15 p.m. Saturday, July 31, Amphitheater: Conducted by Rossen Milanov and with Joshua Stafford on the Massey Memorial Organ, the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra will perform an evening of works by Guilmant and Dvořák.

2:30 p.m. Sunday, August 1, Amphitheater: Conducted by Rossen Milanov, the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra presents an afternoon of works by Montgomery and Beethoven.

8:15 p.m. Monday, August 2, Amphitheater: The Tennessee-bred singer-songwriter Amythyst Kiah returns to Chautauqua with, among other songs, her standout, Grammy-nominated song “Black Myself.”

4 p.m. Tuesday, August 3, Performance Pavilion on Pratt: Led by stage director Chauncey Packer, conductor Steven Osgood, and composer team of Frances Pollock, Sage Bond and Jasmine Barnes, the Chautauqua Opera Company’s Young Artists present As the Così Crumbles: A Company-Developed Piece,a reimagining of beloved arias and ensembles from opera’s greatest hits. 

6:45 p.m. Tuesday, August 3, Amphitheater: Chautauqua celebrates its 147^th birthday with the traditional Old First Night ceremony and celebration.

7:30 p.m. Tuesday, August 3, Amphitheater: An over-the-top German physicist with a passion for science Doktor Kaboom’s explosive character-driven comedy and improvisational skill will entertain audiences of every age.

8:15 p.m. Wednesday, August 4, Amphitheater: Margo Price burst onto the international scene with the 2016 release of her first solo album, Midwest Farmer’s Daughter, which debuted in the Top 10 on Billboard’s Country Albums chart. At Chautauqua, she’ll be joined by Allison Russell, Nashville based, Montreal born Scottish-Grenadian-Canadian writer, musician, composer and producer who recently released her solo debut solo album, Outside Child.

8:15 p.m. Thursday, August 5, Amphitheater: Conductor Rossen Milanov and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra present an evening of works by Pollock and Mozart, as well as Stravinsky’s The Firebird Suite.

4 p.m. Friday, August 6, Performance Pavilion on Pratt: An opera by Derrick Wang, directed by Cara Consilvio and conducted by Steven Osgood, Chautauqua Opera Company’s Scalia/Ginsburg is a one-act comedy about the unlikely friendship between U.S. Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia.

8:15 p.m. Friday, August 6, Amphitheater: One Night of Queen performed by Gary Mullen & The Works is a live concert of mega-hits such as “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “We are the Champions,” and “Killer Queen.”

ADDITIONAL LECTURES/CONVERSATIONS ON CHQ ASSEMBLY 

Chautauqua proudly continues some cherished programming online in lieu of additional in-person programming during the 2021 Summer Assembly. 

3:30 p.m. Sunday, August 1: The Chautauqua Writers’ Center presents a free Sunday reading George Bilgere and Susannah Felts. 

1 p.m. Thursday, August 5: Author Eula Biss, recipient of the 2021 Chautauqua Prize for her book Having and Being Had, will give a public reading. 

On demand: The Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle presents Steph Cha’s Your House Will Pay, a powerful and taut novel about racial tensions in Los Angeles that follows one Korean-American family and one African-American family. 

10 a.m. Friday, August 6: Chautauqua Cinema presents “Climate Emergency: Feedback Loops,” a series of five short films featuring 12 world-renowned climate scientists for the third Meet the Filmmaker event of 2021.

1 p.m. Friday, August 6: Wes Moore, social entrepreneur and former CEO of Robin Hood Foundation, presents as part of the 2021 African American Heritage House Lecture Series.

2:30 p.m. Friday, August 6: For the 12th Annual Buffalo Day at Chautauqua, Fr. Jud Weiksnar, Rev. Tom Yorty, Dennis Galucki, and Maureen Rovegno will discuss “Building a Culture of Empathy: From Franciscan Spirituality to Schweitzer”s ‘Reverence for Life’ Ethic.  

MORE OPPORTUNITIES FOR ENGAGEMENT

Current Chautauqua Visual Arts Gallery Exhibitions include “Materials Redefined,” “Tenacity,” “Improvising: New Photographs by Julie Blackmon,” “Pour Spill Drip Stain,” “CVA School of Art Participants Exhibition” and “Resilience: Open CVA Members Exhibition.”

The Old First Night Run/Walk, an annual chip-timed 2.75 mile run or walk event following the perimeter of the grounds and, this year, will include improved social distance measures, reduced touchpoints and new race management protocols. It will take place at 8 a.m. Saturday, July 31. 

Chautauqua Cinema Under the Stars, a new initiative in 2021, presents “The Sandlot” on Sharpe Field at dusk on Saturday, July 31.

The Sports Club will host a Beach-to-Beach Color Sprint at 4:30 p.m on Thursday, Aug. 5.

Chautauqua’s Mystic Heart Meditation Program offers community members daily meditation sessions at 7:30 a.m. throughout the week.

TICKET INFORMATION

Tickets are available for purchase at tickets.chq.org and at the Main Gate Welcome Center Ticket Office on the day of your visit. Morning Program Tickets are $30; Afternoon Program Tickets are $15. The fee for Evening Program tickets varies based on the evening entertainment. For tickets and information, visit tickets.chq.org or call 716-357-6250. Program Tickets permit access to the Chautauqua Institution grounds four hours prior to the scheduled start time of an event. Patrons are invited to arrive early and explore the grounds and other amenities, including free access to world-class art galleries, plus shops and restaurants. Admission to Chautauqua is always free on Sundays.  

ABOUT CHAUTAUQUA INSTITUTION

Chautauqua Institution is a community on the shores of Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York state that comes alive each summer with a unique mix of fine and performing arts, lectures, interfaith worship and programs, and recreational activities. As a community, we celebrate, encourage, and study the arts and treat them as integral to all of learning, and we convene the critical conversations of the day to advance understanding through civil dialogue. CHQ Assembly is the online expression of Chautauqua Institution’s mission.

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